News

"In response to President Trump's proposal to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services in his FY2018 budget, American Library Association (ALA) President Julie Todaro today issued the following statement:

"The President's proposal to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in his FY2018 budget just released, and with it effectively all federal funding for libraries of all kinds, is counterproductive and short-sighted. The American Library Association will mobilize its members, Congressional library champions and the millions upon millions of people we serve in every zip code to keep those ill-advised proposed cuts from becoming a Congressional reality.  Libraries leverage the tiny amount of federal funds they receive through their states into an incredible range of services for virtually all Americans everywhere to produce what could well be the highest economic and social "ROI" in the entire federal budget.

“The Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funded through IMLS is the primary annual source of funding for libraries in the federal budget. IMLS distributes the majority of LSTA funds to every state in the nation according to a population-based formula. Each state library determines how to best spend its allocated federal funds, which must be matched at the state level. The range of services provided to millions of Americans through LSTA grants is matched only by the creativity of the libraries that receive them: veterans transitioning to civilian life, small businesses seeking to expand their business online, summer reading programs, resources for blind and hearing-impaired patrons, resume writing and job skills workshops and computer coding courses to teach youth 21st century job skills.

"America's more than 120,000 public, school, college and university and many other libraries are not piles of archived books. They're trusted centers for education, employment, entrepreneurship and free inquiry at the core of communities in every state in the country – and in every Congressional district. And they’re staffed by the original search engines: skilled and engaged librarians."

Source: ALA Press Releases

Choose Privacy Week is coming May 1-7, and it's not too late to plan an event or two for your library and your patrons. Recently, there has been an enormous amount of press attention about FBI efforts to have Apple rewrite its operating system to bypass the security of its iPhones; even more recently about Microsoft's suit against the government to declare gag orders unconstitutional when government agencies subpoena its customers' information from Microsoft; and Uber's revelations that in a six month period, Uber provided government agencies with information that affected over 12 million (that is not a typo) riders and drivers.

This heightened public awareness provides a wonderful opportunity for libraries, bastions of Intellectual Freedom, to offer events that deal with personal privacy in the digital age, a topic that more and more people are becoming concerned about. The American Library Association offers a variety of resources to help promote conversations about what privacy means and how to protect it in today's connected world within libraries and in the wider community. Head over to chooseprivacyweek.org and take a look. 

Jim Campbell
Intellectual Freedom Committee Chair

To all Maine libraries – public, school, academic, special…

The Central Maine Library District (CMLD) Association is pleased to announce the statewide kick-off of ALA’s new Libraries Transform public awareness campaign. The CMLD Association’s contribution to this effort is the offer of a free set of posters to all Maine libraries who wish to participate.

The Libraries Transform campaign is designed to increase public awareness of the value, impact and services provided by libraries and library professionals. The campaign will ensure there is one clear, energetic voice for our profession, showcasing the transformative nature of today’s libraries and elevating the critical role libraries play in the digital age. The campaign has one main idea: Libraries today are less about what they have for people and more about what they do for and with people.

The CMLD Association will print and distribute the following five campaign posters:

The five posters read:

· Libraries Transform

· Because 5 out of 5 doctors agree that reading aloud to children supports brain development

· Because students can’t afford scholarly journals on a ramen noodle budget

· Because more than a quarter of US households don’t have a computer with an Internet connection

· Because employers want candidates who know the difference between a web search and research

To receive a set of posters please complete a brief survey by no later than April 16th: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/libstransform

We hope every library in the state will display the posters with pride!

Stay tuned! This is just the beginning of a long-term state and national advocacy project that will benefit libraries of all types. For more information and resources to bring this campaign to your library and your community go to http://www.ilovelibraries.org/librariestransform/ or find the Libraries Transform link on the Libraries page of the Maine State Library’s web site.

We're looking for program proposals, Ignite Session entries, and poster session submissions for NELA's 2016 Annual Conference!

Submission deadline is May 31st!

Click HERE to access the program proposal form.

Libraries play an integral part in building our global community. They are places where kindness, connection and preservation prevail, no matter the condition of the world outside. We're looking forward to gathering together again this year to learn from and network with our library friends and colleagues, so that we can continue to learn from each other.

"Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries." - Carl Sagan

Mary Danko, 2016 Conference Chair

Megan Bishop, NELA Events & Communications Coordinator

Celebrate all things LIBRARY with the Portland Sea Dogs on Tuesday,

April 19th at 6:00.

-Pre-game parade for library workers

-Each library picks a representative to throw out a first pitch

-Discounted tickets

We'll also use this as an opportunity for a Library Libations meet-up.

When you submit your application to the Sea Dogs let me know as well

so I can start planning!

For more information, please check out this PDF: Sea Dog Invitation Letter.pdf

Michelle Conners

Assistant Director/Adult Services, KFL

Maine Representative to NELA

mconners@kennebunk.lib.me.us

Now is your chance to vote for the 2015 Maine Readers' Choice Award winner.  The poll is opened on the Maine Readers' Choice Award website and will run until September 15 at midnight.

http://mainereaderschoiceaward.org

The finalists are:

*  Euphoria by Lily King

*  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

*  Redeployment by Phil Klay

These are three really classy books.

If you are doing paper ballots please email me (Valerie) the results.

Thank you!

Valerie  Osborne, Consultant

Northeastern Maine Library District

Bangor Public Library

145 Harlow Street

Bangor, Maine 04401

947-8336 ext. 114

1-800- 427-8336 ext. 114

Valerie.Osborne@bpl.lib.me.us

If you would like an easy way to send your thoughts to the Town Councilors

of Millinocket, the Maine Library Association now has a tool through ALA

that will help streamline that.

Visit http://cqrcengage.com/alame/app/write-a-letter?2&engagementId=119793

, fill out your information and click submit.  The next screen is an

editable email that will go to all current members of the Millinocket Town

Council.  The default message is brief, so feel free to expand and

personalize your message.  Please pass the link freely, especially if you

have contacts in or around Millinocket!

This is MLA's first time using this advocacy tool, which ALA has used for

years - many of us have participated in ALA's messaging campaigns over the

years.  If you would like MLA to set this up for a local issue affecting

your library, please let me know so we can work together - custom

recipients can be added so that advocacy emails can go to school boards,

town councils, individual committees, etc.

Best,

Nissa Flanagan

MLA Legislative Chair

New England & Western New York ASI Chapters

Fall Meeting

Saturday, 26 September 2015

10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

 

The Black Center

48 Lebanon Street

Hanover, NH 03755

 

Program highlights: Lisa DeBoer will be presenting One Is The Loneliest Number: Strategies for Collaboration Among Indexers, with interactive breakout sessions. Additionally, a panel of indexers, including Colleen Dunham, Steve Ingle and Joan Shapiro, will be addressing questions on the business aspects of indexing.

 

Registration information: http://www.asindexing.org/chapters-and-sigs/chapters/chapter-meetings-and-contacts/#ma 

Librarians touch the lives of the people they serve every day.  The I Love My Librarian Award encourages library users like you to recognize the accomplishments of exceptional public, school, college, community college, or university librarians.  We want to hear how you think your librarian is improving the lives of the people in your school, campus or community.

Each year 10 librarians are selected. Each librarian receives a $5,000 cash award, a plaque and a travel stipend to attend the awards ceremony and reception in New York City, hosted by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Each nominee must be a librarian with a master’s degree from a program accredited by the American Library Association in library and information studies or a master’s degree with a specialty in school library media from an educational unit accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.  Nominees must be currently working in the United States in a public library, a library at an accredited two- or four-year college or university or at an accredited K-12 school.

Nominations for the 2015 I Love My Librarian Award are open through September 28.

Nominate a School Librarian

Nominate a Public Librarian

Nominate a College, Community College, or University Librarian

If you want to resubmit a nomination from a previous year, we've made it easy.

Sign up here to be notified about future I Love My Librarian Award activity.

Questions?  Email Megan McFarlane, Campaign Coordinator,

American Library Association, mmcfarlane@ala.org.

Maine is one of five states chosen to take part in one of the first academic studies on the efficacy of story time.  OCLC, along with partners at the Washington State Library and Thrive Washington have been working with the Information School of the University of Washington to compile data and implement best practices into a program called Supercharged Storytimes!

The first research phase, unsurprisingly, took place in Washington State.  80 public libraries took part.  This phase was a roaring success, and now the project has expanded to five more states.  Maine was selected after a multi-tiered process, and being chosen is quite a feather in Maine’s cap.  In addition to Maine, the other states are: Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

In this phase, each state gathers a cohort of public library staff who present story times on a regular basis.  Staff who are interested apply directly to OCLC.  Library staff can expect to gain wonderful information and practical skills from this experience, whether they are new to story times or long-term presenters. Participating in this project will:

• Enhance existing early literacy programs (such as Every Child Ready to Read) with tips and tools that can help you purposefully and creatively incorporate essential early literacy concepts into your story times;
• Encourage sharing of and learning from experiences and ideas through an online-based peer support network;
• Provide you with research-based tools and tips that can aid story time interactivity and engagement with children and caregivers;
• Give you the confidence that what you are doing really does make a difference in helping young children learn to read;
• Empower you to articulate the value and impact of the early literacy services your library provides.

Hopefully you can see that some of these benefits are of particular interest to Maine.  First, all of the project takes place online.  In a state where travel to meetings, workshops and get-togethers is difficult, taking part in a high-quality, online experience is a boon to many.  

Second, you probably know that in Maine, a very small percentage of children are able to go to preschool.  Story time becomes crucial to a child’s school readiness.  Presenting the best story times you possibly can is helping young children get ready to read in kindergarten (or before!) and is making a measurable difference in Maine.

Third, we see more and more in Maine that cities are struggling to make ends meet, and the public library often suffers for this.  As the last bullet above states, this project will allow participants to explain the value of early literacy skills, story time, and the public library, and describe the impact these have on children and Maine’s future.

The Maine State Library hopes that every public library story time provider in Maine signs up for this project.  The links below lay out the information and expectations in detail.  Please read the information carefully.  If you have any questions or need help, please contact Early Literacy Consultant Shannon Schinagl at the Maine State Library: shannon.c.schinagl@maine.gov or 207-287-5660.

Need a general overview?  OCLC has provided a Supercharged Storytimes! Announcement Letter.

A more detailed description of Supercharged Storytimes! can be found here.

Please read the Supercharged Storytimes! Participant Overview very carefully.  All of the nitty-gritty is spelled out here, including requirements, time commitment, and what you can expect.

If you choose to participate, apply with a Statement of Interest.

If you would like to read the research from the first phase, the academic study is called Project VIEWS2.

Finally, the deadline for application is Friday, September 11, at 5:00 EST.

Please join Maine in participating in this exciting project!

Shannon Schinagl

Early Literacy Consultant

Maine State Library

shannon.c.schinagl@maine.gov

207-287-5660