ABOUT US: Publications - Reports: 2000
South Dakota State Library
Annual Report 2000
The State Library is the state's information center facilitating the cost effective collection and efficient delivery of needed information (in usable format) to state government, the state's citizens directly or through local public libraries, schools or other educational institutions. (Mission Statement)Steps Toward Our Electronic Future
Fast, efficient delivery of information took a great leap forward this year.
The Governor and the Secretary of the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs recognized and responded to the need for quality content to be provided to students across the state, extending the quality of the Wiring the Schools project. After product trials which provided input from teachers, students and librarians across the state, and extensive analysis of both products and responses, it was decided to contract with Bell and Howell for five ProQuest databases: KidQuest, JuniorQuest, Platinum, Discovery and the Research Library. These five databases provide access to over 2000 full text journals. They are designed to assist students in learning how to effectively use online databases. Young students begin with a children's interface of pictures and categories and each database or collection progressively adds more complex search techniques and database selection possibilities. Implementation of this program began in July 2000 and is currently underway. Library registration forms are available at the State Library website.
The South Dakota State Library is participating with MINITEX in the purchase of access to netLibrary electronic books (ebooks). 1,500+ electronic books from 230 trade / university publishers and 2,500+ public domain books have been purchased for use by the consortium. This service provides the full text of these titles for electronic "check out" and use. This is the next wave of change for publishing (and libraries) and we are happy to introduce South Dakota libraries to its possibilities. Libraries wishing to register to participate may do so by filling in the appropriate registration forms available through the State Library website.
Both of these services, ProQuest and netLibrary are made available to all South Dakota citizens by the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs and the State Library. There is no additional charge to the consumer, school, or library for access to them.
Vital Statistics for FY2000
- 174,370 titles in our collection.
- Responded to over 108,000 information requests
- Circulated over 108,000 items
- Mediated over 113,000 interlibrary loan requests made by South Dakota libraries
See the Newly Remodeled State Library!
The patron services area of the State Library was remodeled this year. The walls were painted to remove the bright blues/greens/and oranges leftover from the '70s. The public access terminals have been placed in a horseshoe for better monitoring. All staff areas have been redesigned using modular furniture. This gives the area a more open and clean look. Microform cabinets were moved from the environmentally undesirable location on the second floor to the first floor. They are also now more accessible for patron and staff use. A few clean up projects remain to be completed this fall. In the final phase, the State Library and Arts Council will coordinate with the South Dakota Art Museum to create a small gallery on the second floor to highlight South Dakota artists.
Decommissioning of the State Film/Video Library
HistoryIn the late 70's the process of merging other state agency film collections with the State Library's was started. First the Public Safety collection was merged and then soon after the Dept. of Health collection was merged. This was followed by other smaller collections up to the mid-1990s. Merging the collections reduced the number of staff required statewide to manage the collections and provided one central location for borrowing.
The South Dakota State Library started the Film Library in the mid-1960s to meet the need of providing access to instructional and public performance films and multimedia kits to school, public libraries and the general public. The State Library established a policy of including only items that had public performance rights in order to assure that schools and public libraries were always in compliance with the copyright law.
During the 1980's the Film Library started to add videotapes to their collection and launched the Video Circuits. Video Circuits were rotating packets of videos (primarily older feature films with home use only rights and some popular nonfiction titles) that were intended for public library patrons to check out and view at home.
During the early 1990's the name of this service was changed to South Dakota Film and Video Library when the number of videos in the collection surpassed the number of 16mm films. By the mid-1990s circulation of this collection was approximately 35,000 to 40,000 per year plus an additional 60,000-80,000 video circuit circulations.
The Situation in 1999
In 1999, there were approximately 13,000 items in the Film and Video Library collection. However, no collection development purchases had been made for over four years. The collection was beginning to age.
Patrons had poor or no access to the titles available in the collection. The most complete access was through a catalog published in 1992 with supplements that updated the collection through 1996. Less than 20% of the Film and Video Library was cataloged on SDLN. This 20% was the most available portion of the collection.
Based on circulation statistics, the use of the video collection had fallen off significantly by 1999 and was continuing to decline. The drastic reduction in usage plummeted from 35,000-40,000 uses per year to 2000 to 3000.
Film/Video Collection Circulation | |
Month |
Number Circulated |
| August 1999 | 128 |
| September 1999 | 100 |
| October 1999 | 237 |
| November 1999 | 257 |
| December 1999 | 218 |
| January 2000 | 197 |
| Total | 1137 |
From the reduced circulation, it appeared the service was less and less important to our constituents. One may speculate that there were several reasons for this. School and local libraries now have video collections available to their patrons which are more convenient to them than using the State Library. The cost to rent videos from the State Library was prohibitive either in actual cost or paperwork. Our collection had become outdated. Curricular needs had changed.
Regardless of the reasons, it became clear that the continued maintenance of the collection and assignment of space was becoming difficult to justify. Therefore, the decision was made to decommission the collection. Videos belonging to other state agencies were disposed of according to agency directions. Videos on South Dakota history and Native American culture were retained by the State Library, to be integrated in the general collection. All remaining videos/films were offered to school, public and academic libraries across the state for adoption. Any library accepting part of the collection agreed to maintain the items, service and care for them. Each library also agreed to Interlibrary Loan films/videos for cost of shipping and handling. A total of 29 libraries participated in the program.
The decommissioning process was concluded in June, 2000.
Braille & Talking Book Program
Special Report On Use Of Prison Facilities And Inmate Labor
Equipment Repair
Visually-impaired patrons who use recorded books under the NLS federal program are provided with special cassette playback equipment. The playback equipment and all repair parts are provided to the program through the federal government. The South Dakota program accepts responsibility for the maintenance and repair of the playback equipment. In the past, this service was provided by a national organization called Telephone Pioneers. Telephone Pioneers were Bell Telephone engineers and technicians with over twenty years of employment. They volunteered their time to repair the equipment for Braille & Talking Book library programs. In some states these volunteers are still used. In the past few years, most of the Telephone Pioneers that lived in South Dakota have either moved to warmer climates or passed away. This left the library with a need for individuals to repair our equipment.
The South Dakota State Library, Braille & Talking Book Program proposed that an equipment repair center be developed at the South Dakota Woman's Prison in Pierre. The State Library would provide all needed equipment, supplies, and training for an equipment repair facility if the prison would provide workspace and inmate labor at minimal cost. The proposal was accepted and in March of 1999 the training of inmates and repair of playback equipment began. Since that time the repair facility has repaired our backlog of 1,962 cassette players. All playback equipment returned by our patrons is routed through the repair center for cleaning and preventive maintenance. The quality of the repaired equipment has been excellent.
The South Dakota Braille & Talking Book Program has now approached other state talking book programs with a backlog of equipment needing repair about using the repair facility at the South Dakota Women's Prison. The repair facility is now repairing playback equipment for the Talking Book programs of other states and has received inquiries from many others.
Additional Vital Statistics for the Braille and Talking Book Program
- Collection Titles: 33,078
- Copies: 167,168
- Registered Borrowers: 3,681
- Circulation: 93,060
- Circulation per patron: 25.3
Braille Production
In addition to this use of prison facilities and inmates, there is also a Braille production facility at the South Dakota State Prison in Sioux Falls and both a Braille production facility and cassette book recording studios located at the Federal Prison Camp in Yankton. Braille textbooks are transcribed into Braille for students, many of whom have been mainstreamed. Projects are divided between the two Braille units. Book recordings include both textbooks and special requests for materials not available through the federal program. Often these are regional publications and local authors. This year, 243 textbooks were produced for South Dakota students.
Radio Talking Book
Radio Talking Book is a program that provides access to parts of four South Dakota newspapers. As South Dakota News Telephone Reader expands to include other daily newspapers the radio program will provide access to smaller newspapers. This program is a cooperative program between the SD Braille & Talking Book Program, Services to the Blind & Visually Impaired, and SD Public Radio. It provides twenty-four hour / seven days a week radio network for blind individuals. The network broadcasts readings from books/magazines, interviews with government and business leaders on issues of interest to blind persons, and newspapers.
For a number of years the South Dakota Braille & Talking Book Program has been providing newspaper programs for South Dakota listeners. Monday through Friday at 11:00 a.m. you can listen to articles from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, at 11:30 a.m. you can listen to the Rapid City Journal. On July 11th two additional South Dakota newspapers were added. At that time the Federal Prison Camp (FPC) at Yankton, South Dakota became part of the South Dakota Radio Talking Book network. At 1:00 p.m. you can listen to the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan, and at 1:30 p.m. you can listen to the Aberdeen American News. These two newspapers are being broadcast from studios located at the Federal Prison Camp and the readers for the newspapers are FPC inmates.
South Dakota News Telephone Reader
This new and exciting program for blind citizens of South Dakota is a cooperative effort between the Department of Human Services/Division of Service to the Blind & Visually Impaired, the Division of Rehabilitation Services, Black Hills Services Co-op / DakotaLink, DECA/State Library Braille & Talking Book Program and Black Hills Corporation.
South Dakota News Telephone Reader will allow blind individuals to access South Dakota newspapers via toll-free telephone access. This program will take text files of newspapers and convert them to excellent quality synthetic speech. The computer for this service is located at Black Hills Corporation. BHC is also providing the staff required to run the software conversion program that will provide access to the newspapers early each morning. Once converted, qualified individuals are able to listen to all or specific parts of a daily newspaper using the telephone. The initial newspaper that will be accessible is the Rapid City Journal. Over a period of time additional daily South Dakota newspapers will be added to the service. The service will be available at no cost to blind individuals.
Reading Programs
The tenth annual Governor's Summer Reading Program for children who cannot read standard print was held. 67 participants made the "Cosmic Connection" to a brighter future this year. The six top readers were honored at the South Dakota State Fair with plaques presented by Governor Bill Janklow. Winners were Analis Dannen, age 9, Callie Palmquist, age 8, Nicholas Pavel, age 10, Patrick Rieck, age 10, Derrick Nelson, age 13, and Nicholas Fahlberg, age 13.
The State Library is happy to again underwrite the Summer Regional Reading Program. This involves the annual membership fee and one copy of the summer Reading Program manual for every library that did a summer reading program last year. Unfortunately, the manuals will not be available at the conference this year. They will be distributed when they become available.
The State Library continues to coordinate the "Mother Goose Asks 'Why'?" program in South Dakota. Dorothy Liegl is the contact for this program which teaches parents how to work with their children on science inquiry skills, such as estimating, predicting measuring observation, and so on. Nine trainers attended a February training session in Chamberlain to expand the number of team leaders available to South Dakota.
Job Opportunities
The State Library currently has two positions open. We are looking for a Reference/Documents Librarian and a Children's Services Development Librarian.
South Dakota Library Network (SDLN)
South Dakota State Library Board, the Board of Regents and the Department of Education and Cultural Affairs executed a refreshed Memorandum of Understanding. The revised memorandum updated the clauses to reflect current practices. In the future, the memorandum will be reviewed every five years to insure that it continues to reflect the intent of all parties. At the same time, the Executive Committee revised the Memorandum of Agreement that each member library signs when contracting for services with SDLN. A new agreement was drawn up for each member and distributed for execution. The Agreements will also be reviewed every five years.
Training and Development Opportunities
As part of its mission to promote development of library services throughout the state, the State Library continued to offer a variety of learning opportunities. One of the highlights this year was a workshop for library trustees, held in May in Rapid City, Pierre and Sioux Falls. Consultant, Pat Wagner of Pattern Research Associates, Denver, conducted the full day workshops to capacity audiences. Video conferences were available on Libraries, Copyright and the Internet, Building the Earth's Largest Library, and the Soaring to Excellence 2000 series. This year, 700 people participated in sponsored workshops and training opportunities.
In addition, the State Library staffed information booths at several conferences including Future Fair, the State Fair, and the TIE Conference. Through these exhibits, citizens, policy makers and administrators as well as teachers and librarians are exposed to SDLN and State Library services.
Summer Training Institute
The State Library sponsored the Annual Training Institute for Public Librarians in June. 28 participants intensively studied young adult services and literature, reference, and library management. There were three graduating seniors in the class of 2000, Lorraine Nordman, Bonitta Johnston, Wilma Witt . Each received their Certificate of Public Library Management. In June 2001 the institute will focus on children's literature and programming.
Cooperative Programming
The State Library continued to work with other State Agencies on projects of mutual interest. Some highlights include:
- With the Arts Council, we cosponsored the Dakota Visions/Writers Read series. Authors Kent Meyers, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, and Allison Hedge Coke were featured authors this year. The Solo Artists in Libraries (SAILS) program awarded eight grants to libraries serving communities of less than 5000 in population.
- The State Library and libraries around the state were encouraged to support the Governor's Bright Start initiative. The initiative included development of a package to be sent to every newborn in South Dakota during the year 2000. Its purpose is to encourage the healthy development of the state's infants in both mind and body. A library coupon, redeemable for baby's first library card was developed for the baby packet. Also, library web sites which include information on library programming for pre-K children are connected to the Bright Start web page. The State Library also negotiated the terms of purchase for 10,000-11,000 copies of the board book, Goodnight, Moon. This book was selected as part of the packet of information being provided to all parents of newborns. The State Library encourages all libraries to support the spirit and goals of this program.
- Development, maintenance, and distribution of Head Start collections.
The FY 2000 LSTA grant program funded 13 library projects representing $111,271. Many of the grants were for purchase of hardware, others included retro-conversion of records and adaptive technology for the visually impaired.
The State Grant Directory was completed and will be continuously updated as staff time allows. The directory is published as a web publication and will not be published in a print edition.
Current Library Issues
Filtering continues to be a big topic in Washington DC at this time, especially filtering for children. No politician wants to look like they are not protecting children, so they are treading softly. Our best hope is that they do nothing until after elections but advocates are pushing hard. Additional pressure has come to bear on libraries as Dr. Laura Schlessinger continues to target libraries as unsafe institutions. The American Library Association has published talking points to assist librarians as they respond to these attacks.
Well-drafted Internet Use Policies based on community needs and decisions and quality internet training programs are still the best protection for our children.
Censorship
Two censorship issues emerged in schools this spring. One was a question raised in a school/community combined library. In that case, the book in question (Butcher Boy) is being handled through the library's established procedures for challenging a book. In the second instance, parents complained about one book in the Accelerated Reading Program within the school district. This complaint led to the removal of almost 100 titles from the school library. No formal review procedures were established or followed. No attempt to justify and retain any of the titles was made. In this instance, the school employs a library aide with no library training in place of a certified school librarian. No formal policies for challenged materials or for materials selection exist within this school district. Books targeted included: biographies of black women, books about Native Americans, social issues books (special challenges facing today's youth), almost the entire Fear Street series which is heavily read by middle school students nationwide, books with questionable cover art, and containing questionable words. Many of the books removed appear on nationally recommended reading lists, are national award winners and recognized for excellence.
These incidents remind us that we all must be prepared for these challenges. With the increasing visibility of libraries and the negative attacks being waged in the national media, none of us are immune. Actions you can take before a problem develops include reviewing talking points, having well written collection development policies, procedures for challenging books and strong Internet policies. All accomplish the goals of both libraries and communities as we seek to insure open access to information and material that enriches our learning and our lives.
Reports and surveys
Please don't forget to file Annual Reports. A new way to submit public library annual reports is coming! The State Library has purchased a statistical program from libraryplace.com, known as Bibliostat Collect, to facilitate the collection of this data. Its companion product, Bibliostat Connect, will allow public libraries to compare their data to other South Dakota libraries and libraries around the country.
Suzanne M. Miller, South Dakota State Libraria