Hawaii Forward: fr Kelly King

[Pat Wallace <DENWALL@AOL.COM>]

Forward to all: (emphasis added)
Ms. Kelly King is chair of the Hawaii State Board of Education Committee on
Public Libraries.  On Mon Nov 18
Ms King explained: The schools and the public library
system are both under the BOARD of Education, NOT the Dept. of Education. The
DOE runs the schools (including the schools
libraries) and the Hawaii State Public Library System runs the
public libraries. The Hawaii State Board of Education is the
policymaker for both entities and also does the hiring of the State
Superintendent of Schools and the State Librarian. Each entity has its own
budget, approved by the BOE and allocated
by the State Legislature.

Date:  Tue, Nov 26, 1996
Subj:  Re: Hawaii: Contacts
From: keking@MAKANI.K12.HI.US (Kelly King)
To: RPE-L@uhccvm.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Multiple recipients of list RPE-L)

Your statement that the Hawaii BOE is doing nothing about the complaints
regarding the outsourcing contract is erroneous.  We have had two committee
meetings thus far wherein we reviewed and questioned the performance targets
of the contract.  These have been public meetings, attended by branch
librarians and library users who were given the opportunity to voice their
complaints. Since the library administration was also present, Board members
made some requests and recommendations based on those complaints. For
example, we are anxious to see the selection list go on-line so that all
branches throughout the state can scan and make suggestions before the order
is made.

One of the complaints from the loudest opponent of this contract was that
neither Bart Kane nor the BOE had communicated with the local university's
library admin. (who had been through a contract with B&T) before approving
this state contract. I did talk to John Haake of the UH system lastmonth....
He confirmed that they terminated a B&T contract after a year because it
failed to meet the performance targets. He also stated that he believes they
may be better suited to the public library system that a reference-based
system such as the university's. Mr. Haake cautioned that we have only had
since July with the HSPLS contract, and that we need to give the
administration and B&T time to work the bugs out. He felt that a year was
fair to judge the viability of this working relationship.

The above is one of the reasons the library committee has been studying the
details of the performance targets. The impetus for doing so came from the
committee's concerns for the welfare of our public library system and the
desire to actively address the many complaints.

Your statement that the BOE acts only on the whim of our state librarian is
not only offensive but inaccurate as well!

Kelly King
Hawaii State BOE Committee on Public Libraries
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