Happy New Year!

I wonder if all of you are having as difficult time believing it is 2015 as I am? Someone told me the other day that we are now just as close to 2030 as we are to 2000…

We have been busy here at the State Library, which I would like to use as my excuse for not posting since October 2014 but I can’t. The new Legislature will be sworn in next week which will kick off the 2015 Legislative Session. They will spend the rest of January in organizational meetings and trainings and the Session will officially begin on February 2nd.

This will be my second legislative session as state librarian and I have learned lots since 2013 (and since 2012 when I became state librarian, can you believe it has been three years). We are also going into the legislative session with  a more robust Governor’s Recommended Budget than we did in 2013. The State Library budget includes an increase in funding for Ready to Read grants and increased general fund that will allow us to stop paying for one of our Talking Book and Braille Library staff members from our donation fund. Then we can use our generous donations from Talking Book users and others to enhance the program for our patrons.

HB 2479 has been filed in the House of Representatives. This is the bill that will make changes to the Ready to Read grant program. Most of you know that Katie has been working with the library community for the last year to develop legislation that will update and expand the grant program. We will certainly keep you posted as this bill moves through the process.

I spent some time with my sister-in-law over the holidays. She and I have very similar interests in books and when we get together there is lots of trading of titles. She recommended City of Thieves by David Benioff and I read it last weekend. An amazing coming-of-age, historical novel about the Siege of Leningrad during World War II. I would recommend it ( it does have graphic descriptions of the horrors of the Siege).

The best of everything to all of you in 2015.