School Library System Council Meeting- October 7, 2016: Minutes

Auburn Enlarged City School District

Victoria Calarco​
Michelle Crosby
Elizabeth Cuddy
​Marcella Didio​
Catherine Leader (library clerk)
Christina Lupo​
Anne Mlod

Cato-Meridian Central School District

Susan Cutri
​Diana Hildreth (library clerk)

​Jordan-Elbridge Central School District

Jennifer Martin

Moravia Central School District

Ann Gaston
Jenifer Westover

Port Byron Central School District

Melissa Beyel

​Skaneateles Central School District

​Christine Brown
Debra Covell​
Karen Watson

Southern Cayuga Central School District

Dawn Sedorus

​Union Springs Central School District

Stephanie Berry
Lori Willey

Weedsport Central School District

Elizabeth Jurkiewicz
Brynn Speer

Start Time 12:00 PM

Item 1: Welcome, Introductions, and Thank You. 

The SLS coordinator welcomed everyone to the first Council meeting of the 2016-2017 school year. We then went around to introducing ourselves (names, schools, and school districts). The SLS coordinator thanked Anne Mlod for sharing her primary sources project with everyone in the morning. He also thanked everyone for attending.

Item 2: News from Seymour Library.

Jill Hand shared with us information about the programs and services for families, teens, and adults at Seymour Library. She also discussed the desire to work with school librarians during the school year. She also mentioned that it would be great to coordinate summer reading initiatives. The school librarians discussed past collaborative activities with Seymour Library and the desire to further explore future activities.

Item 3: News from South Central Regional Library Council (SCRLC). 

Julia Corrice (Digital Services Librarian) unable to attend our meeting because of prior obligations with the NY Cultural Heritage Network Women’s Suffrage conference. She expressed her desire and enthusiasm to meet with us in the future. We look forward to meeting with her in the future.

Item 4: News from SED and State Library.

The SLS coordinator shared information about the new law regarding Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) requirements. As of July 1, 2016, 100 hours of professional development will be required every five (5) years for all Professional Classroom Teachers/School Leaders and all Level III Teaching Assistants. This will replace the previously required 175 hours and this required professional development will be known as Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE). He encouraged everyone to touch base with their school district officials to ensure that they have the most up-to-date information.

Item 5: School Library System Plan of Service.

Information about the plan was presented and discussed.

Item 6: Upcoming Professional Development

The SLS coordinator shared information a calendar of events for 2016-2017 listing Council meeting dates, workshops and conferences, and other items of interest for school librarians. Upcoming workshops included:

• Makerspaces, Inquiry, and STEM Learning: A Day of Exploration. A full-day, hands-on event for regional educators to learn about makerspaces in schools and to interact with numerous robotics devices, apps and other tools for introducing computer coding to students, and other tools and apps that could be used in the classroom to promote STEM learning. Laura Fleming will deliver the keynote and Rick Weinberg will facilitate activities. These makerspace devices will be available for teachers to use in their classrooms after the workshop.
• Future Ready! 2016 Greater Central New York School Library Systems Conference.
• Focus on Science: Library Programs that Support the NGSS.
• NYLA Annual Conference.
• Intellectual Freedom and the K-12 Librarian with Deborah Caldwell Stone (Deputy Director, ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom).

Future professional development activities include: Kathleen Odean and best new books for grades 6-12; librarians are leaders with Jennifer LaGarde, aka: “The Library Girl”; the NYLA-SSL Annual Conference; and the NYLA-SSL Leadership Retreat.

The SLS coordinator asked school librarians to share with him ideas for future professional development workshops or member needs that could be met through professional development activities.

Item 7: Patron Records in Library Catalogs 

Numerous challenges were experienced this year relating to updating patron records in the school library catalogs. The SLS coordinator asked if school librarians would be willing to import their own records in the future since they would be able to more easily evaluate the accuracy and completeness of their records. School librarians discussed this idea. Many have done this in the past and they would be willing to do this in the future. Several also indicated that they would be willing to help others with this process. The SLS coordinator appreciated their support and he will set up a training on this later this year. He also indicated that he would work with individual school librarians on this as needed.

Item 8: OPALS Single Sign-In 

This was implemented over the summer for all school libraries using the OPALS library catalog. The SLS coordinator shared the usernames and passwords with the school librarians. He also asked everyone to ensure their passwords worked and to check to ensure all of their databases are listed. Please contact us if there are any questions.

Item 9: BOCES Media Collection 

Work was done on media lending library over the summer. Lori Willey discussed that many items were relocated to several of the schools in the area so that they would be more readily available to classroom teachers.  The SLS coordinator indicated that streaming media resources are available to classroom teachers through the Snap Media Catalog. Teachers needing accounts or additional support should contact BOCES.

Item 10: Grants to Member Libraries 

Three (3) grants were made awarded to school libraries earlier this Spring. The SLS coordinator will be in touch with these librarians about their grants.

Item 11: Class Sets of eBooks 

We continue to make class sets of ebooks and audiobooks available teachers. This system was set up to be easy to use in the schools. If there are titles you would like to see added to our collection and we will see if these are available. Titles ordered should be available by the next day. Class sets of Kindles are also available to loan to schools. School librarians shared positive experiences using these ebooks in their schools.

School librarians asked about using this system on Chromebooks and they indicated that although students could take notes in these ebooks, that these notes were not saved. The SLS coordinator talked with these problems and was told that they were working on solutions that they hoped would be available soon.

Item 12: Visits to School Libraries 

The SLS coordinator indicated that he would be visiting with school librarians in their libraries to meet with everyone and to see how he might better support their programs. Please let him know of any special activities that you are doing in your schools or other activities relating to your library program.

Item 13: Communications with Member Libraries 

The SLS coordinator is verifying the accuracy of the email distribution lists, please let him know of any changes. He is also exploring how to use Google Apps and social media to share information with school librarians.

Item 14: What's New at Your Library?

Several librarians shared with everyone collaborative projects they were working on in their schools or special programming they were doing with students in their libraries.

End Time 3:00 PM

Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES

Andrew Dutcher, School Library System Coordinator

Jill Hand, Youth Services Librarian​