Category Archives: Advocacy

Advocacy, CMLE, Programs

It’s Here! It’s This Week! Postcard Party in the Park Happens Thursday!!

Clemens GardensWe are very excited to hang out in beautiful sunshine, talk with library people, and let everyone know how wonderful and valuable libraries are.

So we are hosting a Postcard Party in the Park this Thursday, and you are invited! (You, your family, friends, neighbors, polite strangers you met on the street – it’s a very inclusive invitation!)

CMLE HQ will provide postcards and addresses; you can write out quick notes to your stakeholders to tell them about libraries; and we will mail them. Quick and easy advocacy in action!

Thursday, May 25 from 11:00 to 1:00 we will be sitting at tables behind the Gift Shop at the Munsinger Clemens Gardens. Bring your lunch; we will provide snacks, postcards, pens, and addresses for your legislators. Beverages are available for purchase at the Gift Shop, and water fountains are nearby.

After our poll on the best day for this event, we have added a second time. We will also be there from 4:30 to 6:30 that afternoon. Stop by on your way home from work, or bring a sack dinner and enjoy the beautiful gardens, and the river! Snacks and postcards will again be available to everyone who attends. Bring your kids and sweeties and friends and patrons, and let them run around the garden while we have library fun! (Of course, everyone is invited to write out a postcard! But it’s not a requirement of having fun.)

We will provide suggestions for stakeholders who might appreciate some quick news for you, and give you some suggested wording to help you get started. This is your chance to enjoy yourselves in the company of other library people, chat about libraries, and do a little advocacy work to help us all!

Continue reading It’s Here! It’s This Week! Postcard Party in the Park Happens Thursday!! →

Advocacy, Children's services, School Media Specialist

Woodbridge School Board President Explains Vote To Fire Librarians

Fired stamp

From the Woodbridge Patch By Carly Baldwin (Patch Staff)

“WOODBRIDGE, NJ — The president of the Woodbridge school board talked to Patch Wednesday and defended the board’s unanimous vote last week to eliminate the district’s remaining librarians.

“I will candidly admit I did not anticipate how much backlash there would be on this,” said school board president Daniel Harris. He said the board received “dozens” of emails from people upset with the library changes, many from Woodbridge residents but some from all over the country. About 15 parents attended last Tuesday’s Board of Ed. meeting, causing one Board member to remark that she’d never seen the room so packed.

There are only three librarians left in the Woodbridge school system, and all three are at the high school level. Two have teaching certificates and will be offered teaching jobs in the district, Harris said. At least one librarian will be kept as a traveling librarian between all three high schools, Colonia, JFK and Woodbridge High.

It’s part of dramatic changes ahead for Woodbridge school system’s libraries.

With the librarians gone, Woodbridge school libraries will be transitioned into “a more flexible space for the district,” Harris said. “I don’t want to use the word ‘lounge,’ but it will be a place where students can work on projects together. You’ll see it look more like a college library, with couches and a coffee-shop style set-up.”

“A lot of the books will be recycled or donated,” he said. “Especially the encyclopedias and atlases, those are very outdated. The more popular books will be sent to classrooms or kept. We’ll probably look into an electronic method of allowing students to borrow books.”

And expect these changes to be happening very soon: The library at Colonia Middle School will be converted into a computer lab this summer. The new look for the district’s libraries will be in place by the time students return in the fall.”

(Read the rest of this article here!)

Advocacy, Communication, Programs, School Media Specialist, Training

AASL President’s Program addresses “What an administrator wants”

Dr. Scott Beck

Contact:

Jennifer Habley
Manager, Web Communications
American Association of School Librarians (AASL)
312-280-4383
jhabley@ala.org

CHICAGO – Scott Beck, head principal at Norman (Okla.) High School, will conclude the American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) Awards Ceremony & President’s Program taking place at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 24, as part of the 2017 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

“As school librarians, we know how critical it is to the success of our library programs to have a supportive administrator,” said AASL President Audrey Church. “I am very excited to have Dr. Scott Beck as my President’s Program speaker. Dr. Beck knows what a 21st-century library program that contributes to student learning looks like and understands the key role that today’s school librarian plays in instruction in his/her school. We look forward to him sharing his perspective on how school librarians transform student learning.”

Beck is currently the head principal at Norman High School, serving 2,000 students in grades 9-12. Over the course of his 17-year career in education, Beck has also served as an assistant principal and a National Board Certified social studies teacher. As principal, Beck has overseen a 30-million-dollar renovation at the high school, including a state-of-the-art learning commons and a 1:1 laptop initiative.

Beck presents nationally and internationally on educational issues. Past presentations include “Library as School Hub” and “Building the Eclectic High School” presented at the 2012 and 2013 High Schools that Work National Conferences. He holds a Master’s degree in education administration, curriculum and supervision and a Ph.D. in education leadership and policy studies from the University of Oklahoma.

The AASL Awards Ceremony and President’s Program is an annual event featuring prominent experts on issues relevant to school librarianship and is open to all registered conference attendees. For more information about this and other AASL programs at the 2017 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, visit www.ala.org/aasl/annual.

The American Association of School Librarians www.aasl.org, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.

Advocacy, Communication, Public, Services

Library Futures Task Force explores options for future

Home

(From the News Review,  by CARISA CEGAVSKE)

“The Sage Library System could offer Douglas County libraries a catalog system as well as courier service to share 1.7 million books with other Oregon libraries. Sage is a consortium with 77 member libraries in 15 Eastern Oregon counties.

Beth Longwell, systems manager for Sage, told the Douglas County Library Futures Task Force Friday that the cost for all Douglas County branches to join the system would be about $40,000 a year. Sage wouldn’t be involved in staffing or operations of the libraries themselves.

Joining Sage is one of many possibilities the task force is looking into as it ponders possible long-term solutions to restore a countywide library system. The county government, struggling with the loss of federal timber money, has announced it will pull funding for the library system at the end of this fiscal year. Most smaller library branches are already closed, and the Roseburg branch is slated to close at the end of this month.

Continue reading Library Futures Task Force explores options for future →

Advocacy, CMLE

Rain Delay! Join us NEXT Thursday for Postcard Party in the Park!!

Clemens GardensIt’s raining on us all this week, so not a great time to enjoy hanging out with library people with lovely flowers – but we love libraries and want to share that love with everyone using postcards!

So we are hosting a Postcard Party in the Park – with a slight rain delay to next week, and you are invited! (You, your family, friends, neighbors, polite strangers you met on the street – it’s a very inclusive invitation!)

CMLE HQ will provide postcards and addresses; you can write out quick notes to your stakeholders to tell them about libraries; and we will mail them. Quick and easy advocacy in action!

Thursday, May 25 from 11:00 to 1:00 we will be sitting at tables behind the Gift Shop at the Munsinger Clemens Gardens. Bring your lunch; we will provide snacks, postcards, pens, and addresses for your legislators. Beverages are available for purchase at the Gift Shop, and water fountains are nearby.

After our poll on the best day for this event, we have added a second time. We will also be there from 4:30 to 6:30 that afternoon. Stop by on your way home from work, or bring a sack dinner and enjoy the beautiful gardens, and the river! Snacks and postcards will again be available to everyone who attends. Bring your kids and sweeties, and let them run around the garden while we have library fun!

We will provide suggestions for stakeholders who might appreciate some quick news for you, and give you some suggested wording to help you get started. This is your chance to enjoy yourselves in the company of other library people, chat about libraries, and do a little advocacy work to help us all!

Continue reading Rain Delay! Join us NEXT Thursday for Postcard Party in the Park!! →