Roles & Responsibilities

Trustee Roles & Responsibilities is the topic of the latest issue of the MHLS quarterly newsletter for member library trustees – Across the Board.
This issue provides a summary of trustee duties in one spot with answers to frequently asked questions like:
· Which roles are tied to NYS Minimum Standards for public libraries?
· How does a long-range plan impact the other duties?
· What is the director’s role in policy development?
· What is the role of the board president? How about the treasurer?
· Why is it a trustee role to get the word out into the community about the library?

Access this issue and all past issues online at http://midhudson.org then Trustee Resources then Across the Board Archives or get there directly at http://midhudson.org/trustee/system/atb.php

Fall dates for the Essential Trustee Duties & Responsibilities Workshop have been set! If you are looking for essential, baseline information to increase your effectiveness as a library trustee you will benefit from attending.

Presented by Josh Cohen, MHLS Executive Director, Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, MHLS Coordinator of Member Information & Merribeth Advocate, MHLS Outreach & Education Coordinator these sessions are especially for new board members, but open to all.

Register online: http://calendar.midhudson.org/
Thursday, September 4th from 6:00 – 8:00pm
@Patterson Library (1167 Route 311, Patterson)

Saturday, September 6th from 10:00am – 12:00pm @Kingston Library (55 Franklin Street, Kingston)

Wednesday, September 10th from 6:00 – 8:00pm
@MHLS Auditorium (105 Market Street, Poughkeepsie)

MHLS Announcements
The MHLS Board of Trustees met on Wednesday, July 9, in the MHLS Auditorium and:
· Thanked Jennifer Lange for her service and contributions to the Board;
· Received and approved the 2007 Audit Report;
· Discussed options for remedying future budget shortfalls;
· Viewed an online presentation of the Health Information Project.
The next meeting of the Board is Wednesday, September 17, at 10:00am in the MHLS Auditorium.

MHLS Libraries
In the latest issue of the LaGrange Association Library e-newsletter they included a coupon to “Print 5 Pages - FREE”:

Marketing, Advocacy & Funding
What’s Your Best Angle? Trying to think of the best way to promote a program, service, or new material? Try appealing to a need or desire of your target audience to pique their interest and to harness their motivation. Find ideas for appealing to needs that will attract your audience in the Tools section of the Building Your Base toolkit: http://midhudson.org/byb/ then “Identify Needs.”

The Experience Economy: During an ALA Conference session entitled “People Spaces in Libraries: the community off-line experience” presenters discussed how libraries must “orchestrate memorable experiences” in order to remain relevant to their communities. In the book The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore, the authors write that businesses must orchestrate memorable events for their customers and that memory itself becomes the product - the "experience.”
“Those businesses that relegate themselves to the diminishing world of goods and services will be rendered irrelevant. To avoid this fate, you must learn to stage a rich, compelling experience.”
- Is your library providing “rich, compelling experiences”? If not, how can you start?
- How do you engage with your community? How can they engage with you?
- If you asked a patron today what their “experience” at the library is like what would they say? What do you want them to say? How can you move towards the ideal?

Advertise Wi-Fi @your library: "Often, libraries may provide the only wireless access [to the Internet] in town. If you provide Wi-Fi, you can list your library in one or more Wi-Fi directories. This makes people aware of a very valuable service you provide that may be somewhat hidden. Additionally, these directories are handy for you and your patrons when trying to find Wi-Fi access. Here is a list of a few sites you can list in for free.
· WiFiFreeSpot: http://wififreespot.com/
· WiFiHotSpotList: http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/
· WiFi411: http://www.wifi411.com/
· Wi-Fi Zone: http://wi-fi.jiwire.com/
Tip found on the MaintainIT Project web site, supplied by Maggie Meredith, from the Montana State Library

Programming
Book Club Survey Preliminary Results
[from ReadersAdvisory.org]:
Top 5 Favorite Titles for Book Clubs:
· Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini*
· Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen*
· Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
· The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
· Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Lisa See*
[*available through the MHLS Book Club in a Bag Program]
Top 5 Least Favorite:
· Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
· Running with Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
· 100 Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
· Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
· Memory Keepers Daughter, Kim Edwards

Youth Services
Save the Date! MHLS Youth Services Department Open House, Thursday, September 11th from 10:00am - noon. You will get a virtual tour of the YS website and a “real” tour of our Department with hands-on opportunity to browse through all the resources available to you in support of library service to young people. If you are new in the position of children's/teen librarian or just want to refresh your memory, register today at http://calendar.midhudson.org/

Administration & Management
IRS Releases New Form 990: On December 20, 2007, the IRS released the revised Form 990. The form has more “opportunities” for the organization to explain its activities and makes major changes to the summary page, governance section and schedules. These requirements will be used for the 2008 tax year (returns filed in 2009). There will be a graduated transition period for smaller organizations with gross receipts under $1 million or total assets under $2.5 million, scaling down over 3 years to a threshold of $200,000 in receipts and $500,000 in total assets.

To 990-EZ or Not To 990-EZ? Here is a chart from the National Council of Nonprofit Associations to help you determine whether your library or Friends Group may file the Form 990-EZ instead of the 990 in the coming years:
May file 990-EZ for:
2008 Form (generally filed in 2009) If gross receipts are:< $1,000,000 And if assets are:< $2,500,000
2009 Form (generally filed in 2010) If gross receipts are:< $500,000 And if assets are:< $1,250,000
2010 and later Forms If gross receipts are:< $200,000 And if assets are:< $500,000

For more info on NYS and federal tax exemption: http://midhudson.org/funding/fundraising/501c3.htm

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is kicking off its new privacy initiative, "Privacy for All: Rallying Americans to Defend Our Freedoms." The initiative is intended to inspire library patrons to stand with librarians as they fight to usher in privacy standards in the digital age. Help them get this project off the ground by taking the Privacy Revolution survey at http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/ifissues/privacyrevolution.cfm

Member Libraries are welcome to submit items of interest and job openings to the MHLS Bulletin: bulletin@midhudson.org. The MHLS Bulletin is available on line at http://midhudson.org/bulletins/main.htm.