School Library System Council Meeting- March 1, 2017: Minutes

Auburn Enlarged City School District

Victoria Calarco
​Marcella Didio
Anne Mlod

Cato-Meridian Central School District

Susan Cutri

​Jordan-Elbridge Central School District

Cindy Cannata
Jennifer Martin

Moravia Central School District

Jenifer Westover

Port Byron Central School District

Melissa Beyel

​Skaneateles Central School District

Debra Covell​

Southern Cayuga Central School District

Dawn Sedorus

​Union Springs Central School District

Stephanie Berry
Lori Willey

Weedsport Central School District

Elizabeth Jurkiewicz

Start Time 12:45 PM

Item 1: Welcome, Introductions, and Thank You. 

The SLS coordinator welcomed everyone to this Council meeting. Judy Campanella from the Cayuga Community College Library was introduced. The SLS Coordinator thanked Missy Beyel and Aja Hahn (A. A. Gates Elementary School, Port Byron Central School District), Anne Mlod (Genesee Elementary School, Auburn Enlarged City School District), and Loretta Johnson (Jordan-Elbridge High School) for presenting as part of our Communication Coordinators meeting in the morning.

Item 2:  News and Updates:

Seymour Library. Jill Hand shared with us information about the programs and services at Seymour Library. She discussed programming for children (birth through teens) focusing on books, literature, movement, and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math). She also discussed programming for YA (young adult) and adults, and she shared with us "backpack" resources that they are developing to make library resources available to their patrons.

Cayuga Community College Library. Judy Campanella shared with us information about the Cayuga Community College Library. She discussed the perceptions of the library and librarians in higher education. She also shared with us information about their online courses. She indicated that the library is open to the public and that residents of Cayuga County can borrow library materials. They are also interested in partnering with our high schools to facilitate students transition from K-12 to Higher Education.

South Central Regional Library Council (SCRLC). Julia Corrice (Digital Services Librarian) was unable to join us  because of SCRLC activities as part of NYLA's Library Advocacy Day. We appreciate their advocacy efforts for all libraries in this region. We look forward to seeing them at our future SLS Council meetings.

Item 3: Old Business:

Database Orders. These are due to the SLS Coordinator on March 31. Please compile your database requests (by school) with the database names and prices. (Contact the SLS Coordinator if you need additional pricing information.) Share this information with your district business officer, request his/her signature on the document, and return it to the SLS Coordinator. 

Please note the changes to NOVEL-NY (Grollier Scholastic GO! resources will not be available, Research in Context, Britannica School, Britannica Academic, and Britannica Escolar will be available). The SLS is planning to purchase PebbleGo and History Research Center.

Upon receipt, we will verify orders for accuracy and communicate with you if we have any questions. Later we will communicate with district business officials to ensure that sufficient funds will be made available so that we may purchase these resources for your school libraries for the 2017-2018 school year.

Item 4: New Business

SLS LibGuide. The SLS Coordinator has set up a LibGuide site for information about the SLS, resource sharing activities, professional development opportunities, and our programs and services. New information and resources will be posted.

The SLS Coordinator will work with SLMS to set up LibGuides to promote their library programs.

Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities. The SLS Coordinator shared information on a calendar of events for 2016-2017 listing Council meeting dates, workshops and conferences, and other items of interest for school librarians. Using LibGuides and Google Calendar, this allows SLMS to easily find information and it to their calendars, and it allows the SLS to easily post new information. Upcoming items of interest include:

• "Best Books for Young Adults" with Kathleen O'Dean and "Librarians are Leaders!" with Jennifer LaGarde are scheduled for March. (Note: Kathleen O'Dean was canceled due to weather and is reschedualed for later this Spring.) 
• The NYLA-SSL 2017 Annual Conference will be in Buffalo, NY this year (May 4 - May 6).
• NYLA/SSL 2017 Carol A. Kearney Educational Leadership Institute will be at Cornell this summer. More information when it is available.

OPALS. The SLS Coordinator shared the OPALS Updates Newsletter dated January 2017. He also discussed ways that we can customize the Single Sign-On to better meet your needs.

Follett. A couple SLMS attended a recent Follett Destiny training and this lead to a discussion about what it offers and how it could be used to promote student learning and to connect students to library resources. Several SLMS expressed an interest in learning more about this product.

Cataloging Practices. The SLS Coordinator asked about the cataloging practices in our school libraries. Did SLMS use vendor MARC records? How did SLMS feel about the quality of these records? How much time did SLMS spend finding or fixing their MARC records? SLMS indicated that they use vendor records and that some MARC records are better than others. Some SLMS indicated they edit their records but many indicted that they do not have the time to devote to this task. The SLS Coordinator asked if it would be beneficial to SLMS for BOCES to provide centralized cataloging services. SLMS indicated that this would allow them more time to work with their students.

Inventory Practices. The SLS Coordinator asked about the inventory practices in our school libraries and asked SLMS to let him know if they have specific needs related to their inventories. This conversation will continue to be explored so that the SLS can support our school libraries.

SLS Services

Online Database Management System (under development). The SLS is working with OCM BOCES SLS to develop an online database system to facilitate the process of ordering our databases. This system will also provide SLMS with information about their databases (e.g.: usernames and passwords, etc.). This system will also allow us to easily update and access SLMS contact information. It is expected to be available for use this summer and training will be provided to SLMS early next year.

OPALS Single Sign On. The SLS Coordinator discussed ways that we can customize the Single Sign-On to better meet your needs.

Interlibrary Loan. SLMS are encouraged to participate in interlibrary loan activities. This allows us to easily connect our students to additional resources by leveraging the collections of other libraries. Please contact the SLS if you have any questions.

Axis 360. Students using Axis 360 can now return titles using the web interface as well as the mobile app. 

The SLS Coordinator asked SLMS how they would want to hear about new titles purchased for the class sets and audiobooks portal. This conversation will continue to be explored.

Marshall Cavendish Ebooks. It was discovered in February that our Marshall Cavendish ebooks were no longer available. Upon contacting Marshall Cavendish, it was learned that they sold their ebooks several years ago but they had maintained their portal until they recently took it down. As a result of this sale, nonfiction titles would be available through Rosen (using the Epointplus platform) but we lost our fiction titles that were sold to Amazon (fortunately this was about five titles).

The SLS Coordinator is working with both Marshall Cavendish and Rosen to identify all of the titles that we originally purchased in 2012, to ensure that these nonfiction titles are available, to get new MARC records for our catalog, and to explore options related to the ebooks we lost. The old MARC records still need to be deleted from our catalog. 

Digital Magazine Subscription. The SLS Coordinator discussed the idea of providing a digital magazine subscription service. This did not meet with much enthusiasm at this time. It will be revisited in the future.

Grants to Member Libraries for 2017-2018. The SLS is planning to continue offering grants to member libraries for the 2017-2018 school year for special projects that promote collaboration and student learning. More information to come.

LightSail. The SLS Coordinator discussed that Axis 360 easily integrates into the LightSail, a reading program that supports student reading and achievement.

Other.

Anne Mlod shared with us a recent communication she received from the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) about her application for the Roald Dahl’s Miss Honey Social Justice Award. She indicated that Sharon O'Connell (​Skaneateles Middle School) had encouraged her to apply for this award.

Marcella Didio​ shared that she had applied for and that Auburn Junior High School) was selected as a recipient of the James Patterson and Scholastic Reading Club grant program. Congratulations!

Victoria Calarco shared information about a visiting author that worked with all five of the Auburn Elementary Schools. Alexandra Siy video conferenced with students to teach them about basic photography techniques, how to conduct science research, and how to develop informational captions. She invited everyone to the students' gallery opening. 

End Time 3:00 PM

Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES

Andrew Dutcher, School Library System Coordinator

Seymour Public Library

Jill Hand, Youth Services Librarian

Cayuga Community College

Judy Campanella, Resource Sharing Librarian (Fulton Campus)