Resource Sharing

Over the past few months, the Division has shared two updates related to the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding and the budget for Wisconsin’s 2018 LSTA program. To recap, this spring the President’s proposed federal budget called for elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the “Grants to States” program. With these uncertainties in mind, the Wisconsin LSTA Advisory Committee approved to an amended budget for the LSTA program in Wisconsin for 2017 and beyond. This budget took a conservative approach and emphasized using federal dollars to support projects with statewide impact.

As the federal budget process continues to unfold, the Division reiterates the following:

• Federal funds for public libraries, such as LSTA, will continue to be put toward resources with statewide impact. State aid for Wisconsin public libraries will be directed toward regional library services. Local aid for public libraries will always remain on a local and county level.
• Due to the uncertainty of continued federal support, the projected budget for the 2018 LSTA program will continue to focus on statewide projects and initiatives.If additional funds are available, the Division will not reconsider funding projects submitted in 2017 as competitive grants. Rather, additional funds would be applied to existing statewide projects and resources. For example, the budget for the Coding Initiative was greatly reduced in anticipation of a major funding cut; with additional funds, this project could rely on the original budgeted amount. For another example, the Public Library System Redesign (PLSR) project might employ additional funds to support pilot projects that test efficiency and collaboration models.
• Wherever possible, the Division intends to leverage state funding for projects. For example, flexibility for using additional Wisconsin Information System for Education (WISE) appropriations for library projects may become reality with an approved state budget. This would allow us to fund such things as interoperable software systems (e.g., the Interlibrary Loan platform) and training and guidance for librarians around data use. It may align with PLSR ideas that have been identified as possible recommendations.

Moving forward, the Division will rely on the LSTA Advisory Committee, the LSTA Five-Year Plan for Wisconsin 2018-2022, and the LSTA Five-Year Evaluation for Wisconsin 2013-2017 to guide decisions about LSTA funding in Wisconsin.

Written by:
Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, Public Library Development Team

The BadgerLink team recently updated our proxy recommendations in the BadgerLink Set-Up Guide. We were able to determine that, when set up correctly, a proxy both works with and overrides our own authentication. This is good news, as it ensures that usage is attributed to your institution’s account for the purpose of collecting accurate statistics, and also ensures that your users don’t need to both log in to your institution’s platform and the BadgerLink authentication. Special thanks to Katherine Fish of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Sue Crouch and the IT department at Southwest Wisconsin Technical College for giving us an inside look at their proxy configurations.

The BadgerLink team recommends sharing the IP address of your proxy server via the Contact Us form, and using the authenticated URLs listed in Column E on the BadgerLink Resource URLs Google Sheet to build your proxy URLs.

Please contact us with any questions, and check out the BadgerLink Set-Up Guide for more information on integrating BadgerLink with your technology to provide better access, whether you’re at a K12 school, public library or library system, academic or technical college library, health science library, or other organization.

Written by: Elizabeth Neuman, Resources for Libraries & Lifelong Learning

Guest Post by Margaret Chambers, Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

Join your resource sharing colleagues in Oak Brook, IL on June 8-9 for the 4th Annual Great Lakes Resource Sharing Conference on June 8-9, 2017. Register by May 26 to take advantage of the early registration fee of $95.

This conference is designed to support resource sharing efforts in public and academic libraries throughout the region and offers a cost-effective way to gather ideas for collaboration, marketing, streamlining workflows, and staying on top of changes in resource sharing.

Sessions will include:

· Cross-Training Established Staff in Interlibrary Loan Procedures

· Enriching Your Wealth of Resource by Marketing ILL

· Talk Amongst Yourselves: Improving System-to-System Communication to Speed Request Processing

· People Can Make the Difference: Staff Roles in Resource Marketing and Education

· Trying to Jump-Start Collaborative Collection Development: Finding Simple Methods for Effective Cooperation

Corey Seeman, Director of Kresge Library Services (Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and manager of A Library Writer’s Blog, will deliver the keynote address: History Has Its Eyes on You: Lighthouses and Libraries Weathering Storms of Change.

To register, or for more information, visit the conference website.


Written by:
Margaret Chambers
Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois