The Directors Association met on Friday September 10th and approved an amendment to the Resource Sharing Standards related to indicating damage to an item. Section 9 of the Resource Sharing Standards is now named “Indicating damage to an item”. A new subsection B has been added to indicate that post-it notes, and other physical notes should not be included within or on the item. Instead, staff should follow the policy defined in new subsection C, and enter a message into the item record. This policy is the first entry in new policy in managing damage recognized within the circulation process, the committee will follow up in future meeting (s) to create policy for items that are damaged beyond an acceptable level for circulation. All staff particularly administrators and those staff who work in circulation should be familiar with the current Resource Sharing Standards. The Resource Sharing Standards are posted on the Knowledge Base website at https://kb.midhudson.org/resource-sharing-standards/.

New York Heritage has officially launched their new website! Their improvements include:

• Making navigation smoother through faster reloads
• Browse collections by Topics and Type 
• Organizations’ landing pages now include location maps
• Collection pages now have image captions and links to similar collections

Let New York Heritage know what you think of their new design by filling out the User Experience Survey.

Next up in the MHLS Trustee Education Series – Legal Issues: NYS Minimum Standards.

Legal Issues: NYS Minimum Standards | Tuesday, October 12th | 10:00-11:30 am| Register
There are a number of laws and regulations that directly and indirectly apply to and impact libraries in New York State. This program provides a primer on what trustees need to know about how libraries are governed in NYS including an overview of minimum standards for public and association libraries. All MHLS member libraries are required to meet these standards, which include requirements for library planning, staff training, library services, and community engagement.

Learning Objectives:

• Library stakeholders will understand the minimum standards applicable to their library.
• Library stakeholders will be aware of ways to meet the minimum standards.
• Library stakeholders will be aware of resources to support them if they are not currently meeting standards.

Please join us for our 62nd Mid-Hudson Library System Annual Membership Meeting on Friday, October 22nd. This event is online and free to attend!

During the business meeting we will report to the membership on the health of the organization, conduct board elections, vote on the MHLS bylaws amendment, and hear from MHLS’ Executive Director, Rebekkah Smith Aldrich. Following the business meeting Patty Wong, President of the American Library Association (ALA) will be our keynote speaker.

• 10:00 am | Business Meeting | Register
• 11:00 am | Keynote Speaker | Register

Please note there is a separate registration form for the Business Meeting and our Keynote Speaker. If you would like to attend both events, please make sure to register through both forms. Thank you!

Patricia (Patty) Wong is the first Asian American to serve as president of the American Library Association (ALA). Her term began July 2021 and closes at the adjournment of the 2022 Annual Conference in Washington D.C.