Dr. Gary Hartzell, from UNO, will present an afternoon workshop for those attending legislative day. Rod discussed the new process for state aid to public libraries and certification. State aid payments are now automatically issued. Payments are issued to accredited public libraries based on the information supplied in their annual library statistical reports. Once the requirements have been verified, libraries are sent a letter notifying them that the payment will be issued.
Notification also indicates the amount of the payment to be made.
Public librarian certification program procedures have also been changed so that when a person is due for re-certification and has met all the requirements a new certificate will be issued automatically. There is no longer a fee and no application is needed. The current contract with the regional library systems specifies that regional interlibrary loan support services will be reviewed within the period of the contract. There have been several meetings with regional library system administrators to discuss these arrangements and future alternatives dating back to July 2000. There is no longer a common approach to interlibrary loan services among the regions.