Letters to Legislators
Ted
legislators, I wrote letters to the 14 members of the legislature who
represent the Northern Panhandle. Each letter was personal -- tailor-
made for the individual recipients. For example, Sen. Jeff Kessler
and Del. Mike Ferro are West Liberty grads, so there was
some"Hilltopper flavor" in their letters. I don't really know Sen.
Bowman and Del. Romine, so their letters were rather "dry." I had a
lot of "fun" with those that I know very well, such as Sen. Jack Yost
and Dels. Orphy Klempa and Scott Varner.
The more formal message included this information:
West Liberty University is the four-year institution of
higher education serving your district. The majority of our students
are from the northern area of the state.
The Paul N. Elbin Library is the intellectual center of
our university. With continued funding to the West Virginia Library
Commission, you will be providing electronic resources for our
students – databases that we could not afford to purchase on our own.
This collection of databases -- the West Virginia Info Depot -- is
essential for our students. With your support, the West Virginia
Library Commission will continue to offer these resources to West
Liberty's library and ALL other libraries in West Virginia
Not only do we serve our student body, but we also
provide assistance and materials to the general public. Of course,
if you ever need information or research, we encourage you to contact
us.
*****
The previous year's communications included a letter which received a
lot of responses, but I would never do it again. It was time-
consuming. The letter was based on statistics -- not my area -- and
the statistics were "fudged," which is the natural tendency for
statistics.
I took the EBSCO usage reports for several months [excluding the
summer months and December]. I used the figures for all Northern
Panhandle public schools, public libraries, and the higher education
institutions [Bethany College, West Liberty University ,West Virginia
Northern Community College, and Wheeling Jesuit University].
Totalling the usages for the various libraries and then dividing by
the number of months used, I came up with the average monthly results
for each county or each region served by the legislators.
When a legislator is informed there were 10 database searches PER
MONTH for EACH resident of a particular county, the picture becomes
very clear.
It certainly was not a scientific approach, but it got some attention.
Ted Nesbitt
West Liberty University