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The MHLS Board of Trustees met on Wednesday, September 16, in the Community Room of the Town of Esopus Library and:
• completed their first review of the Moving Forward assessment report of Coordinated Outreach Service;
• reviewed the Proposed MHLS Planning Process for the Library System Five-Year Plan of Service 2016-2021;
• reviewed the initial letter from attorney, Ellen M. Bach, in response to correspondence received by MHLS from the Town of Union Vale’s attorneys, regarding the implementation of the loan restriction of non-print materials to Union Vale residents;
• agreed to review at the October 16 Board meeting a proposed second letter from attorney, Ellen M. Bach, in response to correspondence received by MHLS from the Town of Union Vale’s attorneys, regarding the implementation of the loan restriction of non-print materials to Union Vale residents;
• presented the proposed MHLS Board’s 2016 Slate of Officers, for approval at the December meeting;
• reviewed and approved the System’s 2015 adjusted mid-year budget;
• approved the MHLS Capital Fund Policy;
• authenticated the System’s Construction Grant Project Application for 2015-2016;
• approved recommendations for 2015-2016 member library Construction Grant awards;
• accepted the resignation of Ulster County Board representative, David Rolfe;
• approved the following dates for its 2016 meetings: Saturday, January 23, (snow date, Tuesday, January 26) ; Saturday, March 19, (snow date, Tuesday, March 22); Wednesday, May 11; Wednesday, July 13; Wednesday, September 14; Friday, October 14; Saturday, December 10 (snow date, Tuesday, December 13). The Annual Membership Meeting is tentatively scheduled for Friday, October 14;
• approved the System’s Family Literacy and Adult Literacy final grant reports;
• approved a Resolution for MHLS to participate in an RFP with the Mid Hudson Joint Management Team (MHJMT) to solicit bids for bandwidth connectivity to the Internet for MHLS and MHLS member libraries;
• went into Executive Session for the purpose of a personnel matter regarding a particular person’s employment;
• were presented a report on Ulster County libraries by Julie Dempsey, Director of the Highland Public Library, and 2015 Chair of the Ulster County Directors Association.

The election of MHLS trustees will be an item of business at the MHLS Annual Membership Meeting (You’re invited! Friday, October 16th at The Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel).

MHLS is governed by a fifteen-member board, three trustees from each of the five counties served.

Procedures for Election of Trustees:
Article II. Nominations:

Section 2.01 -The county library association of each county for which a trustee is to be elected shall meet for the purpose of selecting a candidate from their county to nominate at the MHLS Annual Membership Meeting. The chair of the county library association shall submit to the MHLS Executive Director the name of the county library association’s nominee no later than two months prior to the Annual Membership Meeting.

Section 4.03 – Each member library is a voting unit having one vote.

Three seats, one seat in three of our five counties (Columbia, Dutchess and Greene), will be vacant and new representatives need to be elected for a five-year term (2016-2020):

The Columbia County Library Association has nominated Sharon Davis for a five-year term. Ms. Davis’ extensive service to libraries started in the mid 1980’s when she began her career as a Library Media Specialist at the Taconic Hills Central Schools and subsequently held similar positions at the Germantown and Goshen Central School Districts. Ms. Davis has also served as a Children’s Summer Program Coordinator for both the Cornwall Public Library and Guilderland Public Library.

The Dutchess County Library Association has nominated Barry Ramage for a five-year term. Mr. Ramage was appointed to the Red Hook Public Library Board of Trustees in 2005, and has served as Board President for the last eight (8) years. Under his leadership the library has successfully passed two chapter 414 budget referendums, and two chapter 259 budget referendums. In addition, Mr. Ramage worked to facilitate the Red Hook Public Library’s expansion project. He is currently a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor/Financial Advisor for UBS Financial Services in Albany, New York.

The Greene County Library Association has nominated Debra Klein for a five-year term. Debra has extensive knowledge of cataloging, graphic design as well as management skills and has worked since 2007 as Assistant Visual Curator, at the Visual Resources Center of Bard College, and, as a Cataloging, Student Assistant, at the Imaging Center at Smith College. Library affiliations include volunteer work for libraries in Sarasota, Florida, Arlington, Massachusetts, and Dutchess County (Red Hook Public Library).

The 11th Annual Battle of the Books will take place Saturday, September 12th at George Fischer Middle School in Carmel, NY. Opening ceremony is at 9:30 am. To learn more about the program or get directions to the event visit http://mhbattleofbooks.org/

Libraries Build Sustainable Communities will be the theme of the 56th Annual Membership Meeting of the Mid-Hudson Library System and you are cordially invited to join us!

The event will be held on Friday, October 16th, 2015 at The Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel (40 Civic Center Plaza, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601). Registration is required (http://bit.ly/1i4qr58).

Sustainability speaks to our capacity to endure. We are part of our community’s “ecosystem” and must be attuned to sustainability beyond our own operations. Libraries speak to the triple bottom line of sustainability: we impact our local and global environment, contribute to a healthy economy and are a core community institution devoted to social equity. Sustainable libraries are only possible when our communities are also sustainable. Our role as a community partner should encompass a focus on the sustainability of our communities, as well as ourselves to ensure a bright future for us all.

Agenda:

8:30am Registration & Coffee

9:00am Hot Breakfast Buffet

9:45am Annual Meeting

10:45am Keynote Speaker

Our sustainability focus this year is brought to life through our keynote speaker, Paul Gallay the Hudson Riverkeeper and president of the Riverkeeper organization.

His talk is entitled “Do Try This At Home: Citizen Action for Cleaner Water and Sustainability.”

The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), announces the release of the new Babies Need Words Every Day materials: http://www.ala.org/alsc/babiesneedwords

MHLS is pleased to announce a timely workshop focused on how to use programming at your library to “empower, engage and excite” your community! Are you excited about the potential of programming to further the mission of public libraries to facilitate knowledge creation? Interested to learn more about how to create more community connections through programming? Programming, for all ages, is a significant portion of our current business and an exciting growth area for libraries. What does the future hold? Who is innovating in this area with great results? Here is your chance to hear from five experts on the topic!

The Future of Programming workshop will feature nationally recognized speakers as well as a panel of MHLS member library directors who are making exciting things happen in their community through programming.

When & Where: Thursday, September 24th from 10:00am – 1:00pm at the MHLS Auditorium
(105 Market Street, Poughkeepsie, NY)

Who:
Janie Hermann, Public Programming Librarian, Princeton Public Library (NJ), is driven by both passion and boundless dedication to ensure that the public programs offered at the library not only meet but exceed the expectations of the Princeton Community. Each year she oversees about 1,600 public programs put together by the amazing team she considers privileged to work with. Her work at the library allows her to interact with a wide variety of local groups and organizations and she truly loves the connections she is able to make each day as a result. Janie is nationally recognized for her leadership in the area of programming: PPL is well known for their Environmental Film Fest, TEDxTalks, technology training, a hack-a-thon and the phenomenal “How-To Fest” earlier this year. Janie was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2007

Erinn Batykefer, Programs Coordinator, New Canaan Library (CT) & Co-founder of The Library as Incubator Project (LaIP). The mission of the Library as Incubator Project is to promote and facilitate creative collaboration between libraries and artists of all types, and to advocate for libraries as incubators of the arts. The Project highlights the ways that libraries and artists can work together, and works to strengthen these partnerships. At a time in which both libraries and arts organizations are often having to do more with less, it makes sense for these two parts of our culture to support each other. The Library as Incubator Project calls attention to one of the many reasons libraries are important to our communities and our culture, and provides a dynamic online forum for sharing ideas. Erinn is particularly interested in social media, community programming and engagement, and library artist residencies and makerspaces. Erinn was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2014

MHLS Member Library Director Panel:
Erica Freudenberger, Director Red Hook Public Library
Patti Haar, Director, Patterson Library
Sue Ray, Director, Catskill Public Library

Seating will be limited so register today for The Future of Programming workshop!

MHLS would like to thank all of the library advocates who spoke up over the past week to the Governor to attempt to preserve local voter’s rights to decide the fate of their local libraries. Unfortunately the Governor has vetoed both pieces of special district legislation that were passed by the legislature this legislative season, which includes the Starr Library of Rhinebeck’s legislation.

We applaud the board of the Starr Library and library director, Steve Cook, for doing the right thing in pursuing this legislation. Pursuit of the library district model is the #1 recommendation for the future of public libraries from the Regents Advisory Committee on Libraries.

What’s next? Time will tell. Library advocates from around the state will soon turn to the work that needs to be done to find new paths forward. Stay tuned! And again, thank you for your efforts to speak up on this important issue.

Will you stand up for what is right? THE TIME IS NOW! Please use the NYLA Online Advocacy Center to easily speak up for the preservation of the special district public library model in New York, your voice matters. As of August 6, 2015 we have less than a week to stand up for the

The MHLS Board of Trustees has accepted the official claims of serious inequities and hardships from the public library boards of the Beekman Library, the LaGrange Library, and the Millbrook Library. The claims were based on the Town of Union Vale, a town with no library, providing less than median or average funding for public library services, and Town residents use of neighboring libraries representing 5% or more of the libraries’ total circulation of materials. The Town of Union Vale has no chartered public library.

Based upon the MHLS Board of Trustees acceptance of the official claims, MHLS and its 66 member libraries have implemented a restriction, as authorized in the state approved MHLS Direct Access Plan, on loaning non-print library materials to the residents of the Town of Union Vale.

The restriction went into effect on August 3, 2015.