Fall 2004
President's Column:
Are Libraries A National Issue?
By Dr. Norman J. Jacknis, NYSALB President
Once every four years, our nation goes through what is supposed to be a thorough examination of national leadership, policies and issues. So far, we've had many debates between candidates, appearances by all sorts of national officials on the many (too many?) network and cable news shows, statements on a plethora of issues on the presidential candidates' websites, weblogs by amateurs and professionals, etc. While many of us question the depth and value of some of these, there is no doubt that they represent a wide range of subjects of public concern.
So, as a person deeply interested in libraries, I figured I could quickly assess what the nature of the national library debate might be. I figured wrong. Let me briefly describe my saga.
Like any voter seeking to find out where the candidates stood on an issue, I started first with their websites. I went to President Bush's website (http://www.georgebush.com). I couldn't find any statements about library issues in the various sections devoted to issues, so I used their convenient search engine and put in the word “libraries.” Not surprisingly, what I found was that Mrs. Laura Bush (a former school librarian) has a strong commitment to libraries. Alas, her husband, the President, has nothing to say on the subject -- aside from one aspect, which I'll get to soon.
Then I went to John Kerry's website (http://www.johnkerry.com) and repeated the same exercise -- a review of policy positions (there were none) and use of the search engine. I found out he appeared at the Harry Truman Presidential Library to discuss national security, at the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library to discuss job creation and even planned a stop at the West Palm Beach Public Library. Clearly, Senator Kerry finds libraries -- especially in swing states -- to be a great place to meet the public. Alas, he's not talking about libraries.
The exception is that both candidates had a few words to say about the Patriot Act. Kerry included library with other kinds of records in his opposition to aspects of the Patriot Act. Bush argued that this threat to privacy was exaggerated and Kerry was “playing politics” with it. That's it, the sole issue raised by the candidates that comes close to affecting libraries.
At this point, I decided to expand my search and tried various phrases in Google to find out if anyone had something to say about national library issues. I found a bit more discussion of the Patriot Act. I found out that libraries were frequently the location for voting and for discussion about the national election.
I found several libraries that had pulled together resource materials and excellent websites about the national election. These included expositions on a variety of issues -- except, of course, issues directly concerning libraries.
In mild desperation, I went to the website of the American Library Association. I thought that ALA had to be the one place where national library issues would be presented. Fortunately, I wasn't disappointed. In the Issues and Advocacy Section of their website and in various other subsidiary web pages, there was information about the Patriot Act (of course), funding (yeah!), Federal Library Programs (another yeah!), among a few other library-related subjects.
I thought this was absolutely perfect, until I realized that this was not on the home page of ALA. The nation's premier national library organization had nothing on its home page that said in big letters: here are the national issues facing libraries in this once-in-every-four-year national election cycle. (This may change by the time you read this as I've suggested this to them.)
I realize that there are many critical issues in our national life and that libraries are, after all, primarily a state and local issue. But there are national library issues. And libraries should appear somewhere in that great checklist of issues that candidates address.
If libraries have some presence in the national debate that helps raise the profile of libraries and their general importance among all political leaders, even those at the state and local level. If libraries are absent from the national election, we, as library leaders, bear some responsibility for this absence. There is only a short time left before the election, so let's at least start getting out the word.
If I've overlooked anything on the web or at other locations or if you want to contribute to this conversation, please let us know through NYSALB's email discussion group at nysalb@www.watpa.org. (To join, send an email to join-nysalb@www.watpa.org.) Thank you.
Notes From The Editor's Desk
By Sam Patton, Editor, NYSALB Director
This time, I'm not writing on just one topic, but will share a collection of notes and items that have come to my attention since the last issue.
First is the change in color. At our last meeting the Board chose a new design and letterhead for NYSALB. So I am having the color used in TRUSTEE changed to match. There is no political significance to the color, but we feel it will be easier to notice.
And as mentioned last time, we have a new mailing address, and a new Association Manager. Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed one or more errors and typos in the issue. One was in the mailing address of our office. Not just once, but twice, I had only a four digit P.O. Box number. The correct P.O. Box number is 11048.
Because I have been getting so much `spam' in my e-mail, I have a new address where the provider has a very good filter: s.patton@acm.org will reach me with your ideas, comments and reaction to TRUSTEE.
There are still two New Century Library Leadership meetings set for this year. One is November 10, from 9 AM to 12:30 PM at Clarkson University in Canton. The second is November 29 from 9 AM to 12:30 PM at the New York Public Library, 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in New York. You can call Jean Hargrave at 518-486-4869, or e-mail to jhargrav@mail.nysed.gov for more information. The article on NYSALB co-sponsoring a meeting at Clarkson has more details.
Don't forget to mark your 2005 calendars for the NYSALB Trustee Institute next spring. Look in the separate story for more details. We hope to see many of you in Syracuse.
Both Senator Farley and Assemblywoman Galef should have their regular column in the next issue.
Two July editorials in the New York Times may have caught your attention. I know they did mine, when Norm Jacknis, our Board President, sent me the references. Andrew Solomon, the author of “The Noonday Demon: an Atlas of Depression,” wrote a column titled, “The Closing of the American Book,” and Charles McGrath, former editor of the Book Review, wrote a piece titled, “What Johnny Won't Read.”
Mr. Solomon's article is on line at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/10/opinion/10SOLO.html and Mr. McGrath's article is available at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/weekinreview/11mcgr.html for those readers who have a subscription and register at the NY Times web site. Or your library may have access to the back issues of the NY Times.
Both articles used as a starting point a survey released by the National Endowment for the Arts that shows that reading has gone down over the last 20 years for every group identified, young or old, poor or wealthy, educated or not, and of all racial backgrounds. The study also finds that those who read for pleasure are much more likely to visit museums, attend musical performances, perform volunteer and charity work and attend sporting events.
Mr. Solomon goes on to say, “Reading is not an active expression like writing, but it is not a passive experience either. It requires effort, concentration and attention.” He then says, “The electronic media, on the other hand, tend to be torpid.” He further writes, “Despite the existence of good television... Most people use television as a means of turning their minds off, not on.” He concludes that there exists a “national crisis in health,” noting that, “There is some persuasive evidence that escalating levels of Alzheimer's disease reflect a lack of active engagement of adult minds.”
He says that books are one of the most powerful weapons in a war of ideas: “If you read nothing, then your mind withers, and your ideals lose their vitality and power,” and ties this in to a crisis in politics.
He concludes by saying, “Reading is harder than watching television, or playing video games,” and, “We must weave reading back into the very fabric of the culture, and make it a mainstay of community.”
This is indeed both a sobering look at one view of our contemporary culture, and an eloquent plea for something that libraries provide -- both a source for books and an atmosphere that makes reading most pleasurable.
Mr. McGrath takes a different view. He says we should not be surprised that reading correlated so strongly with income and education. He agrees with the larger point made by the report, that reading is down. But he notes that the report, “...doesn't consider magazines, it doesn't consider newspapers and it doesn't consider the Internet, except that it steals time people used to spend with books.”
He writes, “The survey operates on the unspoken premise that books are our culture's premier system of information storage, and the preferred medium for imaginative storytelling. No one would want to challenge that, but a nagging, heretical question nevertheless suggests itself. If people suddenly stopped going to the movies, for example, would we conclude that there must be something wrong with the moviegoing public or might we wonder whether movies themselves had declined?”
And I have to add that most people who "surf the Internet" are probably looking for information, and most of it still comes in written, if not printed, form. In fact, how many of you who do use the Internet resort to printing out the information you find, on the grounds that it is still easier to arrange real pieces of paper, and to make notes on paper rather than putting post-it notes on your screen?
Mr. McGrath concludes by asking, “Would people read more books, in other words, if there were more good books, or, rather, if all the good books weren't quite so hard to find among the many bad ones?”
Either way, the articles were very interesting, and I recommend that you try to read them in entirety, rather than just my summary.
Whom To Hire Or To Keep?
By Dr. William Taber, NYSALB Director
The key personnel issue of the library board of a small library is the selection of the library director. Frequently, the director is the only staff member of the small library. In larger libraries, of course, the director has personnel responsibilities of his/her own in dealing with subordinate staff. The hiring of a director is especially crucial because it will determine the whole operation of the library and of its interaction with the public that it must serve.
For quite a number of years, I was chairman of a large academic department within the City University of New York. At its largest, the department had 54 highly educated faculty members, approximately ½ full-timers and ½ adjuncts. One of the most difficult aspects of the job was that of making decisions concerning whom to hire, whom to keep, and whom to promote (and navigating such decisions through the bureaucracy). Given the size of the department, these issues were a constant challenge and now, in my retirement, a lasting memory.
Whether you are a chairman, director, or trustee, you are, in effect, an employer. In looking back at my own experience, I continue to feel that the personnel matters were the most demanding and the most dangerous decisions that came with the job. By most dangerous, I mean that they had the greatest likelihood of being bad decisions, of being mistakes. They are also the ones that I most appreciate and most regret, depending upon how their consequences worked out as time passed.
There is a lot of luck involved in hiring; for you (the employer) are doing no more than guessing how the individual will turn out, and you are doing that on the basis of very partial and incomplete information (vitae, recommendations, personal interviews, and, sometimes, rumors both good and bad). If anything rings wrong at any time, if anything makes a thought cross your mind that you should be careful with this person, I've learned that you should believe in this thought as a real warning sign. Long shots can be successful, and they are well worth taking under some circumstances, but we must take them deliberately, never simply by suppression of our doubts.
In making decisions about keeping/firing (or promoting/demoting) those whom you already have on the staff, you are on firmer ground. You have experience with the individual's record. Even so, the decision is a complex set of balances among your knowledge of the person's past performance, your hope (justified or only fanciful, depending upon your own intellectual rigor) concerning the person's future performance, and your worries about the uncertainties of hiring a replacement. You must be equally sensitive to those warning bells in the back of your mind, but you at least have more information with which to work.
For this reason, I am in favor of probation periods for new hires.
A key ingredient of the decision concerning keeping a director about whom there are problems is not to give in to the false hope of future improvement. This is certainly true in the case of any person who has shown any dishonesty, any lying, any intentional misdirection, or any attitude toward the job that seems to treat it as a means to promote a personal agenda. The latter is revealed by various behaviors: hostilities at persons and things that seem out of place, manipulations of ideas and facts that don't fit the circumstances, resistance to even consider others' perspectives, actions that create bad consequences for the library but which do not seem to bother nor to deter the person, who well may deny the obvious facts. These signs are especially dangerous in the cases of faculty, directors, presidents, or anyone else whose job can influence and direct the lives of others.
I have seen all of these at one time or another. They are all components of a fundamental incompetence for any position of real responsibility. My experience is that (with adults) these are irredeemable defects: they don't change within the time frame of normal employment, and they are not counterbalanced adequately by charm, intelligence, and knowledge that occasionally may disguise them for a while.
Simple ignorance, on the other hand, is often acceptable in a new hire if the person shows both willingness and aptitude to learn. Ignorance is curable, but the individual must also have the attitude that the learning process will be forever -- not just for a few months or a year after which he may “coast” mentally until retirement.
During probation or first term, you have the opportunity to correct their normal ignorance about a new job, to verify their competence, and to observe those important aspects of honesty, emotional stability, and hidden agendas that are so important over the long run.
However, you must also avoid the major pitfalls of probation periods.
We all get used to people over time. We can even get to like the rogues somewhat although they may have revealed those basic faults of character that I've mentioned. We ourselves can deny the facts (“He/she probably just had a bad day, ...or week, ...or month, ...or year.”). We can vainly hope (“It's bound to get better.”). We can fear that no better replacement can ever be found (“Oh, God, I don't want to go through that rehiring process again!”). We can blind ourselves to the consequences of his behavior (“Although the library has suddenly lost ALL community support for the first time in its history, who of us can prove that the director really is at fault?”).
Probation periods are especially dangerous if they have been used to gloss over a sloppy hiring procedure that relies upon the probation period or first term to catch any deficiencies (“Let's get this horror over with and hire the guy; otherwise we'll be at this forever. If he doesn't work out, we can always fire him after the probation period.”). Any laziness or weariness that so foreshortens the hiring process can also infect the probation process; so that we end up living with the original mistake uncorrected.
Probation periods are the Plan B of personnel actions. Someone once said that the secret to successful living is to be always flexible enough to move to Plan B whenever Plan A doesn't work. For us, Plan A is a painstakingly careful initial search for a director. We must try to do it right the first time, fearful of sloppiness and undeterred by weariness or impatience. However, if we have made a mistake, it is absolutely necessary that we pursue Plan B immediately as a corrective -- to honestly recognize the mistake for what it is and to replace that person as soon as possible; for the destructive repercussions of personnel mistakes never cease to multiply.
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NYSALB's Trustee Institute
Spring 2005
By Martina Thompson, NYSALB First Vice President
NYSALB's Ninth Annual Trustee Institute will be held at the Holiday Inn Syracuse/Liverpool, New York on Friday evening, April 29 and Saturday, April 30, 2005. The hotel is conveniently located opposite Thruway exit 37 and provides complimentary shuttle service to and from the airport.
The Friday evening program will still include the very popular opportunity to share your success stories, along with an update about the Patriot Act. The Saturday programs are designed to provide basic guidelines for new trustees, tips for communicating with politicians, information about special district libraries, alternate funding sources for libraries and much more.
Specific details and registration information will be available in February 2005. Brochures will be mailed to all New York libraries and library systems. Trustees and directors are encouraged to attend.
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Library Friends Are Valuable
By John Hoctor, Middle Country Public Library
“Will it go `round in circles? Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?” Yes, it's been proven that the economy is cicular and will indeed go `round in circles and yes, it occasionally does fly much higher than expected. What does that have to do with starting a friends group at a local library? Well, when money gets tight and the budget squeeze gets tighter you'd better have some friends around to help you get through.
Historically, my local library, the Middle Country Public Library, has been generously funded by the people of our community. Year in and year out, decade upon decade the people of the community, a community which encompasses Centereach, Selden, and parts of Lake Grove, Port Jefferson Station and Coram, have stepped up to the ballot box and said yes to the library budgets, the library expansions and the library improvements. These citizens make it easy to become inured to the situation and expect a positive vote each and every time. It is indeed, a rare occasion when support falls off.
However, money can get tight quickly and by the looks of the current economic situation and the scandals which are plaguing some of the local school districts, the time may be ripe for another tax cutting frenzy. This is when a Friends group can come in mighty handy. A friends group can of course do the usual things: fund raising for special projects, book discussion groups, trips to historical sites are all great fun, but friends can do more. They can be ambassadors in the community, reaching out and speaking out on behalf of the library and its programs. They can be walking advertisements for the services available and they can seek out the newcomers with information about citizenship, literacy and community.
The Middle Country Friends do all these things and more, such as calling people who would like to vote on the budget and board of trustees, making sure that they are aware of the upcoming elections. When the drum-beat is heard for the negatives to arrive at the polling places the clarion call can go out from a strong pro-active friends group to support the library.
At Middle Country we stress that a Friend of the Library is just that -- a friend, and should be there through the good times and the bad, the fat and the lean. A friend is someone who is there to congratulate you when you're right and admonish you when you're wrong, but that doesn't include criticizing you to your other friends and neighbors. A true friend supports you.
As I tell the friends at Middle Country Public Library, if you have an issue with the library the forum for that is the monthly meeting of the Board of Trustees and the public input time is the right time. Go there. They will be happy to hear your input and will give you a warm welcome.
Remember, a strong Friends group is an important and potent part of the library family; make sure you tap into this resource and use it. A lot of friends are like wall flowers, just waiting to be asked to dance, and some of them can really get it on.
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The Library Circuit
By Samuel Patton, NYSALB Director and TRUSTEE Editor
In the last issue, I wrote about a vintage bookmobile in Washington State. In response, I heard from Michael C. Mahaney, Director of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, about their Mobile Library service. They use modern technology and four vehicles: two tractor-trailers, a van-sized truck and a bus-sized truck.
The B&ECPL started their mobile service in 1947 with tractor-trailers housing up to 3,500 volumes, and with room for up to 35 people at a time. The original reason was to serve geographically isolated communities where no regular libraries existed. In the 1960's and 70's, services were expanded. Schools and senior complexes were added to the routes, even if they were near an existing library.
In 1972, a bus-sized vehicle called the “RAM Van” (Readily Accessible Materials Van) was added. This primarily serves youth within the City of Buffalo, making about nine stops per day, and reaches between 675 and 855 children per week. Another vehicle known as the “Lookie Bookie” offers materials to nursing homes, senior residences and other locations. It provides both walk on and cart delivery service. All the vehicles use stand-alone laptop computers to record circulation, and data is transferred to the main system upon return to the Central Library. This arrangement does not permit access to patron records while on the road.
The B&ECPL serves an area of about one thousand square miles, with overlapping political jurisdictions, and they have a complex governance structure, involving 23 independent Boards of Trustees.
The B&ECPL was selected to participate in the first class of the Urban Libraries Council's Executive Leadership Institute. This $1.2 million public library program is designed to build library leadership capacity in today's challenging and changing times. The B&ECPL team concentrated on the library's mobile operation. They researched trends in outreach and mobile library services across the country.
In an area this large, growth in demand for services exceeds the growth in resources. This creates a severe funding problem, with which all of us can sympathize. We wish them success in their planning and financing.
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NYSALB Co-Sponsors North Country
Meeting Of Library Supporters
NYSALB, the Northern New York Library Network, the Library Systems of Northern New York, the New York Library Association (NYLA), the New York State Library, and Clarkson University, were among the cosponsors of an event that brought together more than 100 supporters of better library services for New Yorkers.
The meeting helped bring together library supporters in the North Country and Commissioner of Education Richard P. Mills at Clarkson University in Potsdam on September 16. NYSALB members were among the many trustees, Friends, library professionals, and other library supporters to meet with the Commissioner to talk about how to ensure that New York's libraries thrive in the 21st century.
Commissioner Mills spoke and shared his commitment to better support for New York's libraries and the New Century Libraries through the proposal for $105 million in additional state support for libraries in New York State. He described the local library as “the college everyone goes to.” Mills lauded the importance of libraries to education, the economy, and communities. He outlined his vision for adequately funded libraries for all New Yorkers and urged meeting participants to work with their communities, leaders, and one another to help realize that vision.
Among the speakers, Assemblyman Darrel Aubertine of the 118th District praised the computer lab at Flower Memorial Library in Watertown as an example of library service that matters. He commented that “we are on the precipice of the new century. After generations of developing the system of libraries we have, it doesn't make sense to cut it now.”
Other speakers included Potsdam Mayor Ruth Garner, and Regent James Dawson who reinforced the Regents commitment to libraries as one of the most important things they can advocate for and urged participants to let their state and local leaders know of their commitment to adequate funding for NOVEL, public library construction, and other library needs.
Sara Kelly Johns of the New York Library Association, Dr. Linda Gush, Superintendent of the St. Lawrence Lewis BOCES, and State Librarian Janet M. Welch were also among those who addressed participants.
New York State Librarian Janet M. Welch said, “The participants responded enthusiastically to the inspired and insightful comments of Commissioner Mills, Assemblyman Aubertine, Regent Dawson, and the meeting's other speakers. This was a very highly motivated group of participants. They are committed to ensuring that New Yorkers have the libraries they need to achieve at school, grow successful small businesses, find jobs, and compete in the information age.”
You may refer to the New York Library Association and the NYSALB web sites for more information on library funding and advocacy materials.
Two more New Century Libraries leadership meetings are planned:
- November 10, 2004, 9 AM - 12:30 PM at the Bath Country Club, Bath, NY, hosted by the Southern Tier Public Library System
- November 29, 2004, 9 AM - 12:30 PM at The New York Public Library, 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, NYC, hosted by the Metropolitan NY Library Council (METRO).
Details will be provided as the meeting dates approach. For more information contact: Jean Hargrave at the New York State Library at 518/486-4869 or jhargrav@mail.nysed.gov.
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New York State Library
Open to Borrowers
State Library Says: We Want to Card You!
The New York State Library in Albany wants every New York resident 18 years and older to have a New York State Library card. Announced by Education Commissioner Richard Mills in a July press release, the resident borrowing program will allow cardholders onsite direct borrowing privileges to the library's substantial research collection and direct remote access to NOVEL online databases, New York's first statewide virtual library.
"Many more New Yorkers now have access to the Library's collections and NOVEL," said Janet Welch, Assistant Commissioner for Libraries and State Librarian. "Information is vital to all New Yorkers in every community, regardless of geographic, economic, or physical barriers."
Especially strong in the social sciences, education, law, and New York State history and culture, the New York State Library is the largest State Library in the Nation, and the only State Library that is a member of the prestigious Association of Research Libraries.
The extended borrowing and online access to NOVEL are part of a 6-month pilot project. A borrower's card will enable the holder to borrow materials directly from the State Library and to access NOVEL via the State Library's web site from home, office, or school. New Yorkers can apply for a borrower's card when they visit the New York State Library or by mail or email. Borrowing from the New York State Library was previously restricted to state officials and employees, Legislators, members of the New York State bar, New York State licensed physicians, and local government historians.
"The State Library and NOVEL offer a powerhouse of information that will now be available to all New Yorkers," said Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Education Carole Huxley. "This is another step towards implementing the recommendations of the Regents Commission on Library Services to meet the information needs of New Yorkers."
More information on the pilot borrowing project can be found on the State Library's website at http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/library/ann/newborr.htm , by e-mailing circ@mail.nysed.gov or by calling (518) 473-7895.
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Marilyn Douglas To Retire
From New York State Library
After 30 years at the New York State Library, Marilyn Douglas will retire from state service effective October 21, 2004.
Ms. Douglas, a library technology expert and library development specialist, has been involved in statewide technology and telecommunications planning and networking activities since she first joined the State Library's Division of Library Development in 1994. Most recently, Ms. Douglas led statewide planning efforts for the multi-faceted New York Online Virtual Electronic Library (NOVEL). Ms. Douglas worked closely with a 30 member statewide NOVEL Steering Committee composed of library, education, and government technology leaders in developing and promoting the NOVEL pilot. She also participated in the expansion of ongoing statewide commercial database licensing and contractual initiatives on behalf of the State's 7,000 libraries, saving local libraries more than $75 million a year.
As a library technology expert, Ms. Douglas has also represented the New York State Education Department and the State Library in other matters related to technology and telecommunications planning for library services at the state and national levels. She led the State Library's successful efforts to secure private funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. New York got more than $17 million in computer hardware, software and training grants in support of public access computing at some 1,080 public libraries and neighborhood branches. In addition to her work with statewide library technology planning, Ms. Douglas also served on the State Library's web team and oversaw the creation and expansion of Library Development's popular website.
Ms. Douglas earned her MSLS at Syracuse University and her BA at the College of St. Rose. Marilyn plans to keep up with the many friends she has made during her library career, continue her involvement with the New Netherland Institute and generally enjoy life!
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NYLA Summer Message
By Art Friedman, 2004 NYLA President
It's the end of the summer season, and time for NYLA committee members and the Headquarters staff to resume important work for the fall.
Many of us have also been following the actions of the NY State Legislature and the Governor as they try to find a solution to meet the judge's decision in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case. While it appears that these political leaders will not meet the deadline imposed by the Court, NYLA has not rested its efforts to make sure that the value of libraries in the student achievement process is not forgotten. Meetings with, and letters to legislators and the governor (as well as to editorial writers) continue to stress the need to include school library funding in the equation for school equity. Check NYLA's homepage for a copy of the most recent press release issued on this topic. NYLA believes that the employment of school librarians, designated funds for library book purchases, as well as support for school library systems will help to achieve our goal of successful learners.
Planning programs to meet the professional development needs of our colleagues is an ongoing function of NYLA's Continuing Education Committee. A series of institutes and programs is being developed for the “back to school” period. Take a look at the program on “Managing Yourself and Your Employees in a Changing Environment” scheduled for early September. Additional programs are in the offering on "Ethics in Education" and "Information Ethics in Libraries." Program and registration information is on NYLA's website. Perhaps you have a program idea that could be the basis for a continuing education series. Speak with Meg Van Patten, Chair of the Continuing Education Committee, or send your idea to Kat McGrath at Headquarters. You may even want to serve as a member of this important NYLA committee. Just let us know.
Library trustees serve a very valuable and essential role in the operations of our libraries. Creating policies, developing the budget, and advocating for library support are just some of their responsibilities. NYLA has created an excellent training program that we hope libraries will find useful in evaluating, educating, and developing effective board members. Contact NYLA Headquarters to learn how your library can employ “Smart Boards” in your organizational setting.
I hope that you are already making plans to attend NYLA's Annual Conference, which this year will be held in Rochester, NY. The Conference will begin on October 20th and end on the 23rd. All of NYLA's organizational elements have been working hard all year to create a wide range of activities to meet your needs.
“MemberClicks” is an excellent means of keeping in touch with your colleagues who are NYLA members. Please feel welcome to send your thoughts and ideas to me and other NYLA leaders through this messaging tool.
Best wishes, Art Friedman
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NYSALB Activities at NYLA Conference
NYSALB regularly sponsors programs of specific interest to trustees at the Annual Conferenc of the New York Library Association. This year the meeting will be held from October 20-23, 2004 in Rochester, New York.
At this conference NYSALB is co-sponsoring two programs with PLS. The first, “Lobby Locally @ your library,” scheduled for 8:30 AM, Saturday October 23, will provide an opportunity to discuss forming partnerships with local officials and community groups. A second program, scheduled for 10:30 AM, Saturday October 23, “Serving Users with Invisible Disabilities” will address how library staff can recognize a customer with an “invisible” disability and what the appropriate service response should be. Trustees play an important role in establishing policies which guide staff responses.
NYSALB is also sponsoring “Beyond E-Books: Technology for Trustees,” scheduled for 10:30AM on Saturday October 23. An overview of newer technologies will be the starting point for a discussion of how they can be used to enhance library services to your community.
NYSALB will also present the Velma Moore Award, recognizing outstanding service for libraries in New York, on Friday evening, following the NYLA Banquet.
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THE TRUSTEE
Vol. XV, No. 4, Fall 2004
TRUSTEE is published by the New York State Association of Library Boards, P.O. Box 11048, Albany, NY 12211 four times a year for $10.00 annually per subscriber. Subscription is a benefit of paid membership; cost of the subscription is covered by membership dues. Second class postage is paid at Albany, NY and an additional mailing office USPS#010-872, ISSN:1085-3170. Volume XV Issue #4, Postmaster: Please send address changes to NYSALB, P.O. Box 11048, Albany, NY 12211.
NYSALB
PO Box 11048
Albany, NY 12211
Phone: 518-445-9505
Fax: 518-426-8240
Website: http://www.nysalb.org
EDITOR: Samuel Patton, s.patton@acm.org
PRESIDENT: Norman J. Jacknis, norm@jacknis.com
1st VICE PRESIDENT: Martina Thompson
2nd VICE PRESIDENT: Erin Apostol
TREASURER: Richard Strauss
SECRETARY: Jane Sweet
ASSOCIATION MANAGER: Margaret Malicki
DIRECTORS:
Erin Apostol, Albany
Sharon Best, Geneva
Joan Hurley, Horseheads
Dr. Norman J. Jacknis, Cortlandt Manor
David Bruce Krogmann, Glens Falls
George Manitzas, Freeport
Samuel K. Patton, East Fishkill
Francis Picart, Brentwood
Nancy Simaitis, Waverly
George Stamatiades, Queens
Richard Strauss, Memphis
Jane Sweet, Clarence
Dr. William Taber, Richfield Springs
Jack Taylor, Jamestown
Martina Thompson, Pittsford
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