Role of the Board President

The 2009 MHLS Board Leadership Forum will be held on Saturday, April 25th from 10:00am - 12:00pm in the MHLS Auditorium. This year's topic:
The Role of the Board President.

Dennis Barnett, President of Propinquity Associates Business and Management Consulting, Adjunct Professor at Marist College and Past Board President of the Ramapo Catskill Library System, will speak for the first hour on best practices for strong and effective Board Presidents including:
· The President / Director relationship
· Role of the President in running successful meetings
· How the President can encourage board members to function as a productive group, and how to overcome dysfunction
During the second hour we will be joined by a panel of Library Board Presidents and Directors who will share their experiences on how Board Presidents can increase the success and effectiveness of the library board.

Who should attend? We particularly encourage member library Presidents and Vice Presidents to attend with their Library Director, but all Board members and others involved with the board are welcome. Whether you are a small or large library, this workshop will benefit you.

Registration is required. Register online at http://calendar.midhudson.org or by calling 845.471.6060 x246

MHLS Announcements
As the Bulletin goes to press this week we are still awaiting the fate of library funding in the NYS budget announced over the weekend. We know that Education funding has been held even to last year, let's hope libraries fare as well! Stay tuned!

MHLS Libraries
The Red Hook Public Library used their great Route 9 location to advertise the need for library supporters to speak up in March!

Record Number of Member Library Friends Groups Support the Bus to Lobby Day: A BIG thank you to the 10 Friends Groups who invested their hard-earned Friends dollars in recent efforts to reach out to legislators to let them know how important libraries are in these tough economic times.
· Friends of the Town of Esopus Library
· Friends of the Greenville Library
· Friends of the Kingston Library
· Friends of the Mahopac Library
· Friends of the Pine Plains Free Library
· Friends of the Plattekill Library
· Friends of the Red Hook Public Library
· Friends of the Starr Library
· Friends of the Grinnell Library Association
· Friends of the Library of Woodstock

Four Dutchess County libraries (East Fishkill, Millerton, Poughkeepsie & Tivoli) have made a critical partnership with the Cornell Cooperative Extension this spring to bring the "The Family Survival Series" to their communities. The series includes economy-related classes on how to make ends meet, how to eat healthfully on any budget, debt and stress management.

Resource Sharing & Millennium
How Overdue Notices and Bills Work: 14 days after an item is due, Millennium generates an overdue notice, to be printed by the owning library, regardless of where the item was checked out. Once the library prints the notice and agrees to the pop-up message asking if printing was successful, the item record field #ovdnotice is changed to the number 1 and the date is added to the odue date. The system then waits another 14 days before generating a bill for the replacement cost, if the item has not yet been returned. At that point the patron's record reflects the replacement cost in the fines section and the item record #ovdnotice field changes to a 2 and the odue date is updated. Notifying your patrons in a consistent and reliable fashion is important. Since your patrons check out items owned by other libraries it is very likely that they will get notices from other libraries. All libraries, even those who don't charge late fees, should be notifying patrons.

Marketing, Advocacy & Funding
The Desmond-Fish Library in Garrison launched a snazzy new web site in March [http://dfl.highlands.com/] with a top-notch feature to help demonstrate their role as a community partner. They have harnessed the power of Google Calendar to list not only library events but the events of seven other cultural and educational organizations as well.

Supporting Learners in Public Libraries: A new issues brief from the American Library Association (ALA) reveals that the vast majority of public libraries report that providing education resources and databases for K-12 students is the internet-based service most critical to the role of the library. In the third of a series of reports related to technology access in U.S. public libraries, the ALA Office for Research and Statistics is highlighting how public library technology supports the educational and learning needs of every person in the community. The report is available at http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/ors/plftas/Issues_Briefs.cfm

Professional Development
Games in Libraries: A Playful Introduction
Using Gaming Programs to Attract and Engage Users of All Ages: Monday, April 20, 2009 from
10:00am - 3:00pm at the Saratoga Springs Public Library. Join Dr. Scott Nicholson, Associate Professor at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, in this day-long workshop about Gaming in Libraries. During this workshop, participants will learn:
· How libraries across the country are introducing gaming and policies that govern gaming
· What board, card, and video games might be appropriate for using in their library
· Ways to assess gaming programs
· How different types of games are played through hands-on activities
Scott Nicholson is the Chief Scientist of the Library Game Lab of Syracuse and has been engaged with gaming for over 30 years. This full-day workshop is $85 for NYLA members and $120 for non-members. For more information and to register: http://www.nyla.org/content/user_1/I09_Games-Saratoga.pdf

Youth Services
To encourage interest in the history and culture of New York State (and to tie into the Quadricentennial celebrations), the New York State Library has added "Be Creative: Explore New York" as a slogan along with the 2009 slogans of "Be Creative @ your library" and "Express Yourself @ your library." The New York State Library has created a program manual for libraries to use throughout the summer as well as a New York State history and culture reading list as resources for libraries to incorporate New York State history-related activities and reading material into the 2009 Statewide Summer Reading Program. Both the manual and the reading list are on the MHLS Summer Reading website at http://midhudson.org/program/SRP/main.htm. Please note: If you use the theme, "Be Creative: Explore New York" (Columbia Co. & others) your library will be considered for the MHLS summer reading mini-grants.

Administration & Management
Registration is now open for the 2009-2010 Public Library Construction Grant Program Workshop:
Wednesday, April 22, 9:30am - 1:00pm at the Ramapo-Catskill Library System in Middletown, NY. Register online using the RCLS Calendar: http://calendar.rcls.org/ by Wednesday, April 15th. There is no charge for this workshop.

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.