Don’t have a Friends Group but wish you did? We have partnered with the Ramapo Catskill Library System for a shared workshop that will be held on Wednesday, May 25th from 5:00-7:00pm at the Newburgh Free Library entitled: Getting It Started: Creating and Sustaining a Friends Group for Your Library. There is no charge for MHLS directors, staff or trustees to attend. Please visit http://calendar.midhudson.org for registration information.
Blog Archives
MHLS Board Vacancy: The recent resignation of MHLS Board member, Dean Lavin, from Round Top, New York, has created a vacancy from Greene County. Notices have been sent to the Board Presidents and Directors of member libraries in Greene County requesting that they contact Sue Ray, Director of the Catskill Public Library and Chair of the Greene County Directors Association, at 518.943.4230 or director@catskillpubliclibrary.org with recommendations to fill this position. The Board’s primary objective is to foster and improve library services as specified in the MHLS Plan of Service.
MHLS is proud to partner with Riverkeeper to get the word out about the Riverkeeper Sweep, Riverkeeper’s 5th Annual day of service for the Hudson River taking place on May 7th!
We are inviting all member libraries to join us in helping Riverkeeper recruit volunteers throughout the Hudson Valley for 100+ stewardship projects – cleanups and plantings – from NYS to Albany that will be carried out on May 7th. This is a family-friendly volunteer opportunity that can bring your community together around something we all care about!
How you can help:
We all have an awesome opportunity to bring some attention to the importance of libraries this week through your library’s website, Facebook page and Twitter feed! Let’s make libraries “go viral” this week!
The American Library Association has provided just about everything you would need to get the word out about why “Libraries Transform”!
- Deck out your Facebook page with a NLW Facebook cover art
- Add a Twibbon to your personal Facebook image
- Post a clever message using the word bubble template like MHLS Marketing & Program Assistant, Kerstin Cruger did here:
Your choice of colored bubble here:
Blue Speech Bubble Blue: 8.5 x 11 (PDF)
Blue Speech Bubble 11 x 17 (PDF)
Green Speech Bubble 8.5 x 11 (PDF)
Green Speech Bubble 11 x 17 (PDF)
Red Speech Bubble 11 x 17 (PDF)
- Take the Libraries Transform Video Challenge: Help showcase what’s happening at libraries around the country by submitting a 1-2 minute video showing what transformation looks like in your library.
- Use one of the most “Liked” graphics on Facebook to increase engagement with your Facebook posse!
CORRECTED ANNOUNCEMENT: The implementation of Courtesy Notices, as reported in this Bulletin on March 29, has been delayed. Following the last III Sierra software upgrade, MHLS found that Courtesy Notices are not respecting patron notice preferences. The MHLS Resource Sharing Advisory Committee will review the Courtesy Notices function.
The application process for the 2016 “Leading to the Future” ALA Leadership Institute (August 8-11, Eaglewood Resort, Itasca, Illinois) is now open, with applications accepted through April 15, 2016. This four-day immersive leadership development program for up to 40 mid-career librarians helps future library leaders develop and practice their leadership skills in areas critical to the future of the libraries they lead.
It’s a fact. Your library changes the lives of people in your community, school and campus every day. The American Library Association (ALA), in honor of its new public awareness campaign, Libraries Transform, wants you to share your stories of how libraries do just that.
Libraries can participate in two ways. First, libraries and librarians are asked to submit 1-2 minute videos discussing how their library transforms their community, campus or school. Submissions will be used by ALA to develop a promotional video or a series of promotional videos. For more information, check out ALA’s informational video, or visit ala.org/nlw.
A second promotion asks library users to share how their library transforms their life. Using the model of the Libraries Transform campaign’s Because… statements, library lovers are asked to create their own Because… statements on social media using the hashtag, #LibrariesTransform. One randomly selected winner will receive a $100 gift card and a copy of “Secret Coders,” by Mike Holmes and Gene Luen Yang, the Honorary Chair National Library Week 2016.
For more information on how you can get involved
A new patron-friendly feature was introduced on April 1 – Courtesy Notices! These notices are emails sent to library patrons alerting them to upcoming due dates on items they currently have checked out. This feature is helpful to patrons and can increase circulation figures through patron renewal of items they would like to keep a bit longer.
This new feature, approved by the MHLS Directors Association, was recommended by the MHLS Resource Sharing Advisory Council. Notices will be sent out daily, system-wide, to patrons who have items due in three days.
Gearing Up for Earth Day 2016: In the spotlight from the New York Library Association’s Sustainability Initiative (NYLA-SI): “Libraries have long been in the reduce-reuse-recycle business. Way before the first Earth Day celebration kicked off 46 years ago, we’d been resource-sharing and reducing consumption for generations. Earth Day is Friday, April 22nd. Don’t miss this opportunity to show your community how the library honors and sustains our most precious resource, our planet. Here are 5 things you and your library can do to celebrate Earth Day this and every year!
1. Partner with your local community supported agriculture (CSA) and be a food pickup location, like the Valley Cottage Library (NY)
2. Engage your community to participate in a regional litter cleanup of parks and roads, like the Mundy Branch of the Onondaga County Public Library in Syracuse, NY
3. Craft using recycled and found materials, like the Daniel McHugh Library in Piermont, NY.
4. Work with your administration and board to sign a resolution like the Climate Smart Community Library Pledge like the Kingston Library, Kingston, NY
5. Help the Earth Day Network reach their goal of 3 Billion Acts of Green by reducing e-waste, beginning a composting project or ending use of disposable plastic in your library
The NYLA-SI Sustainability Spotlight provides weekly news items related to how New York’s libraries are and can be more environmentally sustainable, economically feasible and socially just.
The New York Library Community is stepping up efforts to support the DeWitt Community Library as it battles in court over a library’s right to go to the voters.
The DeWitt Community Library, is chartered as a free association library, and is located in the Town of DeWitt in Onondaga County. Like many free association libraries, DeWitt Community Library uses the provisions of Education Law 259 to place their budget levy before the local voters on the school district budget ballot.
In 2012, a local individual brought suit to challenge the statutory authority granted to DeWitt Community Library, and all free association libraries, to use the mechanisms found in Education Law 259 in placing a budget proposition on a school district ballot. This despite previous determinations by the State Comptroller, NYS Commissioner of Education, and the NYS Supreme Court that Section 259 does confer this right. In June 2015, the Commissioner affirmed this right exists. However, the petitioner in this suit raised novel issues of Constitutional Law, and that part of the suit is now before the NYS Supreme Court. If the court finds in favor of the petitioner on these constitutional issues, it would throw the primary funding mechanism for dozens of free association libraries across the state into disarray.
Because of the potentially destructive statewide impact an adverse finding in this case would have, the New York Library Association has agreed to provide assistance from the NYLA Legal Defense Fund to help defray legal costs. The DeWitt Community Library has already expended $35K defending this matter, and the potential further costs of this litigation are significant – particularly if the court finds merit in these novel constitutional issues, and the library is forced to litigate through the appeals process.
Debby Emerson, President of the New York Library Association, commented “NYLA is pleased to be able to step in and provide assistance to help defer the legal expenses for the DeWitt Community Library against this baseless litigation.”
In order to aid in this defense, you are invited to donate to the NYLA Legal Defense Fund.
