Building Community Support

Advanced Trustee Education Sessions: Building Community Support for Your Library
Advanced sessions are designed to focus on issues benefiting and affecting libraries in our system.

Twice a year, in the Spring and Fall, MHLS offers member library trustees a chance to learn more about what it means to serve on a public library board of trustees. Feedback has indicated that after participating in the MHLS Trustee Education Series trustees have felt more confident in their role as a trustee, better able to understand the issues brought before them at meetings and more knowledgeable about where to go for help in the future. (Don't forget the added incentive of a $50.00 to libraries if at least one of their trustees attends a MHLS Essential or Advanced Trustee Education Session in 2006! The System will mail checks based on attendance.)

· Wednesday, May 10th, MHLS Auditorium, 6:00-8:00pm
· Saturday, May 20th, Hudson Area Association Library, 10:00am-12:00pm

You may register one of 2 ways for Trustee Education:
1. http://midhudson.org, then click on Calendar
2. call 845.471.6060 x46

MHLS Announcements
Three more libraries have signed on as participating libraries in the Book Club in a Bag Program, bringing the total of participating libraries up to 21!
· Beekman Library:
  · In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
· Julia L. Butterfield Memorial Library (Cold Spring)
  · The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean
  · The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
· Dover Plains Library
  · The Ladies of Garrison Gardens, Louise Shaffer
To see the full list of available titles see the 3rd page of this week's Bulletin or visit the Book Club in a Bag Program page at http://midhudson.org/program/BCB/BCB_titles.htm

MHLS Libraries
MHLS welcomes two new member library directors:
· Margaret (Greta) Boeringer, Hudson Area Association Library
· Faith Johnson, Town of Ulster Library

Reference & Collection Development
The Credibility Commons - exploring trust on the Internet: "The Credibility Commons is an experimental environment enabling individuals the opportunity to try out different approaches to improving access to credible information on the World Wide Web. Tools will be provided to researchers as well as the public, allowing them to try out search strategies, collections and other approaches to improving access. The Commons can be viewed as a collaborative space in which to share ideas, data sets, results and innovations. This project is sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation." http://credibilitycommons.org/

Reference Books Available through HomeACCESS: All MHLS libraries have access to nineteen full text eBook titles in HomeACCESS through the Gale Virtual Reference Library. The titles are now noted on the HomeACCESS page: http://gateway2k.midhudson.org:2048/login to make them easy to find. No specialized reader or hardware is required to view these eBooks - just a standard Web browser and Adobe Acrobat. A guided tour of the Gale Virtual Reference Library is available at http://www.gale.com/gvrl/tour.htm. A complete listing of the eBooks included in HomeACCESS follows:

BIOGRAPHY
-Encyclopedia of World Biography Vol. 24, 2nd ed., 2005
-Encyclopedia of World Biography 2nd ed., 23v, 1998
BUSINESS
-Business Plans Handbook Vol. 5, 1998
-Business Plans Handbook Vol. 6, 1999
-Business Plans Handbook Vol. 7, 2000
-Business Plans Handbook Vol. 8, 2001
-Business Plans Handbook Vol. 9, 2002
-Business Plans Handbook Vol. 10, 2004
-Encyclopedia of Small Business 2nd ed., 2v, 2002
-Gale Encyclopedia of E-Commerce 2v, 2002
HISTORY
-American Civil War Reference Library 5v, 2000
-American Revolution Reference Library 5v, 2000
-Americans at War 4v, 2005
-Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa 2nd ed., 4v, 2004
-Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World 6v, 2004
-Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and
Footwear through the Ages 5v, 2004
-History Behind the Headlines: The Origins of Conflicts Worldwide 6v, 2001
-Major Acts of Congress 3v, 2004
MEDICINE
-Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine 2nd ed., 4v, 2005
-Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer 2v, 2002
-Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders 2v, 2002
-Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine 2nd ed., 5v, 2002
-Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health 5v, 2002
NATION AND WORLD
-Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations 11th ed., 6v, 2004
SCIENCE
-U*X*L Encyclopedia of Science 2nd ed., 10v, 2002

Youth Services
Teen Tech Week is a brand new YALSA celebration aimed at getting teens to use their libraries for the different technologies that are offered there, and to help teens recognize that librarians are qualified, trusted professionals in the field of information technology. Teen Tech Week will debut in March 2007, in conjunction with YALSA's 50th anniversary, but it needs a logo! YALSA is currently having a contest for teens to determine the logo. For complete information, including contest guidelines and an entry form, please go to http://www.ala.org/yalsa. The deadline to enter is May 31st.

New Teen Programming Idea Available: Murder in the Library [This is NOT a plan for eliminating pesky teens from your library but a great new program idea from Tiffany Lydecker at the Saugerties Library!] It's a program with teens that is lots of fun and also gets them using their library skills as well. Go to the EZ Library Program Database, available through the MHLS web site at http://midhudson.org, then click on Programming, or get there directly at http://midhudson.org/resources/ezprogram.htm, type murder library in the Search box and find it in the list of programs. Thanks to Tiffany for submitting this great idea and sharing the whole script with us. You may want to customize it, as she did, with local materials. We've sent Tiffany a free teen book as a reward for sharing this program [hint, hint!].

Administration & Management
"22% of current library patrons are 55+. The number of people over 65 will double in the next 25 years."
   -Source: http://www.lifelonglibraries.org/
The site quoted above is a feature of the Americans for Libraries Council's national Lifelong Access Libraries Initiative, positioning libraries to meet baby boomers and other active adults with up-to-the-minute resources, referrals, meaningful life options, and more. Among the features of the site:
· An Innovations Inventory, capturing emerging practices in library programs and services for active older adults;
· Links, resources, and training agendas to help libraries and other community-responsive institutions update services for the millions of baby boomers right now considering new options for creative work and meaningful retirement;
· Reports such as "Designs for Change: Libraries and Productive Aging," capturing insights from last fall's ALC/IMLS Library Leaders Forum, including a call to action for libraries to lead the way to new approaches to aging.

Job Openings
The Sarah Hull Hallock Free Library in Milton, NY (Ulster County) is seeking a part-time circulation/youth services assistant. Candidates must be available to work evening and weekend shifts. Please send resume and three references to Sarah Hull Hallock Free Library, P.O. Box 802, Milton, NY 12547 or e-mail mltsearch@gmail.com

Biography project: Vedder Research Library is seeking a capable author to write a biography of a Greene County educator and philanthropist... selected writer/author will have eighteen months to research and write one hundred plus page book. If interested, e-mail your qualifications to vedderlibrary@yahoo.com by May 5th. Sorry, no other additional information is available at this time. Steve Pec, Librarian, Vedder Research Library, http://rapidintellect.com/vrlmain.htm.

MHLS recommends that the minimum starting salary of a full or part-time librarian with an MLS degree be at least equal to that of a teacher with a master's degree in the same community.

The MHLS Bulletin welcomes submissions from member libraries at bulletin@midhudson.org. The MHLS Bulletin is available on line at http://midhudson.org/bulletins/main.htm.