Yearly Review June 2003-2004

The purpose of the El Paso Area Libraries Consortium is to strengthen delivery of and resources for information and research through the development of cooperative programs and services in the El Paso region. This overall goal has been the impetus for EPAL’s activities since its beginning. 

With this goal in mind, the following is a review of EPAL’s activities for the 2003-2004 year.

EPAL Strategic Plan for 2003-2005 

The El Paso Area Libraries Consortium began a new year in September 2003 with the goal to develop a new strategic plan that included consortium member’s needs, community input, and sustainability issues. The previous plan, developed a year after the consortium began four years ago, has been implemented and a new plan will provide EPAL a “roadmap” for its activities for the next three years. 

A planning session was held on September 26th at the Ysleta ISD Administration Building. Community members from Congressman Reyes’ office, El Paso Times, Agency for the Aging, People Skills, Inc., area libraries, and other agencies were in attendance to assist with the effort. The targeted areas for the plan were technology, local content for the web page (www.your-epal.org) and the union catalog, public relations, community training, and sustainability. Peggy Rudd, Texas State Library and Archives Commission librarian, and Carol Brey-Casiano, President of American Libraries Association and Director of the El Paso Public Library for the City of El Paso, were keynote speakers. They provided a vision for libraries of today. Both speakers applauded EPAL’s past activities and programs and endorsed EPAL to play a bigger role in the State of Texas and the nation in helping libraries reach beyond their traditional role.  

A strategic plan was reviewed by the EPAL members and modified after the planning session. Members also provided a list of technology needs to add to the plan. The Trans- Pecos Library System, which includes the smaller rural areas in West Texas such as Marfa, Sierra Blanca, Van Horn, Fabens, and Tornillo, also participated in providing input for the plan and submitted a needs assessment. Technical connectivity and patron access (computers) is a key need for the consortium members and their patrons. 

A copy of the strategic plan and a list of the community members who assisted in the planning process are included in the attachments.  

Computer Networking Grant and Community Computer Training 

EPAL’s goal to reach the community for information and resource sharing has been a priority with the regions low economic and educational demographics. With this goal in mind, EPAL has, since its beginning, reached out to the community through computer training classes to promote literacy, computer information resource learning, and promote a better quality of life.  

EPAL hosted Community Computer Training Classes at the El Paso Public Library branches and at the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso (HACEP). These computer training labs were established two years ago with the funds through YISD to EPAL from a Telecommunications Infrastructure Funds Grant from the State of Texas. There are six sites at the EP Public Library and six at the HACEP sites. Training has been ongoing with over 1000 community members having been trained. They are taught basic computer skills, internet communication skills, and are taken to the EPAL website for their understanding of how to access these resources.  The GCF Global Learning site, which can be found at www.gcflearnfree.org, provides free computer courses to its members. The trainers for the community computer classes used the curriculum created by the GCF site. EPAL became a GCF partner due to this effort. EPAL is at the top of the partners list and ranked #1 in referring the most students to the site for continued learning. This means that the class participants returned to this site to further their training after the classes. 

The result of these classes has been very positive in that many have upgraded their skills and have obtained jobs due to these newly acquired skills. Senior citizens have also entered into the computer information age. Chelsea Apartments for seniors hosts a computer lab and there have been many seniors taking the classes at the other sites. Some are using email for the first time and are excited about communicating with family members via email, obtaining information about benefits for governmental and the ability to obtain health related information. They are mentoring each other to help those who wish to learn more.  

People Skills, Inc., a non-profit that trains displaced workers, parents, etc., has successfully managed the training sessions for EPAL. They have worked with the mentor trainers, class participants, hosts at each site, and data collection information. It is through this positive relationship with this EPAL partner that the classes have been so successful. 

Associate Memberships for EPAL Partners 

There are other non-library agencies that are interested in working with EPAL as ongoing partners for resource sharing, grants and community training initiatives. EPAL, after much research, voted to set a fee of $75 for each non-library agency. These partners will not vote on EPAL issues, but will be included in grants, where appropriate. Their websites will be linked to the EPAL webpage. Their website will be introduced to the participants of the participants at the computer training classes. It is EPAL’s desire to continue to develop the curriculum for the computer classes to provide Internet access to information about e-government, health, social services, cultural and historical information. 

El Paso Public Library Needs 

Carol Brey-Casiano presented the EP Public Library needs to the EPAL Board. At present, there are no monies budgeted in the city budget for resources and new materials for the coming year. The EPAL president, director, and Mrs. Brey-Casiano voted to support the effort by meeting with the Mayor of EP to discuss this issue and advocate placing funds in the yearly City budget.  

501(c)3 Consideration 

EPAL discussed the possibility of becoming a recognized non-profit agency so it could apply for grants that allow only this type of organizational structure to apply. Each EPAL member researched the possibility and its advantages with their own organization. Sammy Johnson, CPA, gave a presentation on acquiring this status and the considerations for becoming a recognized non-profit. It was EPAL’s intent to explore all of the legal issues prior to deciding whether this status would be an advantage for EPAL. At present, YISD is the fiscal agent for the consortium. Fiscal accountability and reporting is done through the District’s finance department. If EPAL became a non-profit structure, taxes and other fiscal reporting would be EPAL’s responsibility. This would require the hiring of an attorney, accountant, full time director and secretary to carry out all of the duties that YISD fulfills for EPAL at present. It was decided to remain with the present structure to maximize EPAL funds. If EPAL finds a grant source that requires a 501(c) 3 to apply, People Skills, Inc., an EPAL partner and a 501(c)3, will do so with EPAL. 

Grants 

EPAL has submitted grants to the following sources for funding of its goals. Both grants will be awarded in the fall of 2004. 

1. Institute of Museums and Libraries for the Library-Museum Leadership Grant with partners the El Paso County Historical Society and the Friends of the Railroad Museum. This grant is for $223,388.   

2. EPAL also submitted a nomination to the Institute of Museums and Libraries for the award for the National Library Service Award. This grant will award $10,000 to the winner for continued service to their community.

At present, the Director, and the EPAL partner, People Skills, Inc., is working on a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This granting source supports entities that help people help themselves. EPAL feels it has an excellent opportunity to expand its computer classes to other sites, replace some outdated equipment for each EPAL member, and offer more community training classes. The Kellogg goal is:  To increase the effectiveness of the Kellogg Foundation’s work, it seeks to learn from the knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned by all of its projects as they apply to: Leadership, Information and Communication Technology, Capitalizing on Diversity, and Social and Economic Community Development. 

Union Catalog 

EPAL has had as one of its goals since its beginning to have a webpage where patrons nationwide can find information via the Internet from any one of the EPAL Library members collections. It has been necessary to get all libraries electronically configured so that they can be part of this service. This means that prior to creating one catalog, some EPAL members have had to reconfigure their materials so a barcode system and their collections entered into a master database for their organization. There is a common technical language that allows all library holdings to be read electronically and this has been EPAL’s effort since its beginning. 

In order to reach the larger goal of one catalog, it requires the purchase of software that will allow for the search of all databases in EPAL libraries. Members have explored several options to this point. The software will be a major purchase for EPAL so external funding is being sought. EPAL is also working with the Texas State Library librarian, Peggy Rudd, to see if it can link to the state library catalog to assist with this effort.