Dear Friends: I have highlighted some of the items that I feel should be read and digested thoroughly. Mr. Wilkins has provided us with very valuable information. Pam >From Barratt Wilkins, retired State Librarian: Regarding the Sunshine Law: Every meeting among employees in a government agency is not a public meeting. If it was, every discussion between employees in an agency regardless of consequence would have to be advertised in the FAW. Obviously no governmental agency including a library could continue to operate. I chose not to be a "shill" for something I did not believe in and retired as soon as I could. I believe the discussions with Nova are not exempt and a Public Records Request should be pursued for all proposals (including drafts), e-mails, and any other documents which may be in the possession of the Department of State (including the State Librarian) and the Governor regarding the transfer of State Library collections to any other library in the State and, in particular, Nova Southeastern University. Is the R.A. Gray Building is running out of shelf space. The answer is NO. $10 million giveaway of SLF General Collection?? There has been much discussion about the State Library's General Collection, the nature of it, and what it contains. The Florida Collection is a SEPARATE issue. As of January 6, 2003, my last day in office, the "General Collection" contained the following resources: 326,670 bound books 6,200 bound periodicals 207,436 federal documents 326,059 microfiche 4,896 films 9,703 videos with public performance rights 474 interactive CD roms - training materials As of June 2002, the value of the collection based on purchase price was approximately $10,000,000!!! In 1964, the Florida Library and Historical Commission adopted a book selection policy that was reflective of the role of the State Library at that time. The general collection was to serve as a back-up for local library service, by purchasing "books which cannot be purchased or are unlikely to be purchased by local libraries. Included in this category are books of high cost and books unlikely to be frequently needed in most libraries." Even at that early time, best sellers, fiction, and children's books were not purchased unless the item had a Florida connection- author or place. Special emphasis was given to purchasing books for state government agencies pertaining to their work. In 1974, the State Library commissioned Phyllis Dalton, of the California State Library and a national authority on state library work, to design a state government information service for the State Library and suggested areas of concentration for the collection. Beginning in the 1980s a draft of a new selection policy was developed and it is under that draft and the subsequently approved policy that the Division purchased materials for the next 20 years. For the last two decades the State Library has purchased books and other materials for the General Collection that are 1) of interest to state government and 2) library and information studies. Advanced study collection emphases are bibliography, library and information services, encyclopedic works, serial indexes, social sciences, political science, public administration, and management. Materials were purchased in the fields of interest of state government agencies and the state legislature. For State Library reference librarians and those assigned to work as state government liaison librarians, the entire General Collection is used as a REFERENCE collection. Unlike most special collections and reference collections, the State Library's General Collection also circulated. What a wonderful service to the residents of Florida needing the information!!! Through the State Library's encouragement both financial and otherwise, local public libraries joined SOLINET either directly or through group access programs. The State Library shifted from being a library of FIRST resort to a library of LAST resort where the hardest and most difficult of information requests were sent. The State Library continues to be a library of first resort for those libraries which must rely on paper information or interlibrary loan requests and a last resort for electronic interlibrary loans. The statistics cited are consistent for a special government research library of last resort If circulation and interlibrary loan statistics are one of the major determinants, let's reevaluate the Florida State University Law Library and the Library of Congress for their worth. Librarians and others need to stop looking at the general collection as a PUBLIC Library collection and see it for what the collection is --a SPECIAL government research and reference collection. Remember when circulation, interlibrary loan and other use statistics are compared with the nation's other State Libraries, Florida ranks very favorably: 10th in circulation 10th in interlibrary loan sent 1st in interlibrary loans received on behalf of users 2nd in reference questions handled 6th in public service hours The State Library unlike most state libraries is open to the public without referral from another library! People ought to be very concerned with proposed transfer of a $10 million collection to a private university library which is a joint operation with the Broward County LIbrary. No private university library can have the same statewide perspective in library collection management and services as the State Library. The collection will be a resource for SE Florida despite all of the protestations and assurances to the contrary. I would be interested in what funds are proposed to be used to move the collection from Tallahassee to Ft. Lauderdale? What funds are proposed to keep it current? Who is proposed to provide service from it with a statewide perspective? How is it proposed that state government employees will have continued access to it. Are federal LSTA funds to be used? A collection in constant development and refinement for almost eighty years should not be transfered by the state with such enthusiasm and disregard for the collection's history, purpose, and the people the collection is designed to serve! What a testament for those involved to carry for the rest of their lives! Barratt Pam Cooper FGS/FSGS 2003 Conference Co-Chair < http://www.fgs.org > President, Florida State Genealogical Society < http://www.rootsweb com/~flsgs/ > Chair, Librarians Serving Genealogists < http://www.cas.usf edu/lis/genealib/ > P. O. Box 7066 Vero Beach, FL 32961-7066