The three task forces (Services, Structure, and Funding) presented their final reports to the ILA Executive Board at the Thursday, 29 July board meeting in East Peoria.  The task forces made recommendations to define, continue, and/or revamp statewide and regional support for cooperative services especially in the areas of Delivery, Shared Catalogs, and Group Purchasing, as well as at least some level of coordination and support for Advocacy and Marketing, Professional Development, and Serving the Unserved. 

Steering Committee Co-chairs Donna Dziedzic and Dee Brennan met with ILA President Gail Bush, project consultant Chris Watkins, and I yesterday (Monday, 2 August), to begin drafting a plan based on the recommendations that will be presented to the ILA Executive Committee on Friday, 27 August.  Based on the ILA Executive Committee’s reactions, the results will be compiled into a presentation for the ILA Membership Meeting, Wednesday, 29 September at the 2010 ILA Annual Conference and form the basis for discussions with state agencies, legislators, and other elected officials later in the year.

Updates will continue to be provided in the ILA E-Newsletter and on the ILA Web site on this work as more progress is made in developing a plan.

The standards are the basis on which the systems receive funding. Take a few moments to read the Resource Sharing Standards and Professional Development and Consulting Standards, give serious thought to the implications for the services your library provides, and add your comments to WebJunction Illinois (WJIL) for the committee to consider. If you do not have an account on WJIL, you will need to create one.

To make commenting easier, NSLS has created a step-by-step tutorial for their members. Please feel free to use it. The committee will review comments at the June 23 meeting.

Information on how to post comments about the standards, including how to comment anonymously, is provided at the top of the page. Scroll down to the standard, then click on the link to read it. Please contact Kathleen Bloomberg at kbloomberg@ilsos.net if you have questions.

You can join the discussion in two ways:

• Click on the Discussion tab on the WJIL Library Systems page and post your comments and/or discussion. NOTE: You must be signed into WJIL to post in this way. Your user name will appear with your post.
• You may also Comment anonymously if you choose. NOTE: You may fill in “Anonymous” in the required name field. Comments are moderated and will appear as soon as they are approved.