News

Genealogy Special Interest Group

This group is for those librarians who serve genealogists/family history buffs and would like to provide better service. It definitely helps to have a personal interest in this pursuit, but it’s not necessary to join! At the very least we will network via e-mail, sharing developments of interest and providing virtual shoulders to cry on, if necessary. Moral support is so important! Plans are afoot to have social events, along with informative workshops. Co-chairs are B.J. Jamieson, Belfast Free Library, and Emily Schroeder, Maine State Library.

After reading William Finnegan's Barbarian Days as a summer reading selection, a group of high school students and teachers at Berwick Academy decided to build a surfboard in the library. We were all so inspired, we decided to construct a classic 9' wooden surfboard and we collaborated with Grain Surfboards in York, Maine. Many of the kids on the project surf the Maine and New Hampshire coasts! The project was funded by our Berwick Parents Community and we are auctioning off the board at their annual event next month. All proceeds will go to support programming like this at our school. It's been a total hands-on learning experience and collaboration between students, teachers, and Grain. This project has been so successful and generated so much interest that we plan to do it again next year, but work with Middle School students.

Just recently, Laird Hamilton, world-renowned innovator of crossover board sports and one of today's best known big wave surfers promote our project on Facebook.

More information on the project can be found on Twitter at: @BA_Innovation

Like most of you, I've been following the budget developments at the national and state level closely, with a great deal of concern. Locally, LD256 might have far reaching effects for our state in the way we support libraries online. We need to pay close attention to the details to ensure the MSLN remains adequately funded, and to be certain no other online offerings are endangered.

And then there's the deep cuts proposed by President Trump. He's called for the elimination of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). The one bright spot for me in this is that these proposals are simply that: proposals. We have already heard from Senator Collins' office that she intends to continue her strong support of LSTA.

The LSTA program brings real benefits to Maine. You can find them listed here: https://www.imls.gov/grants/grants-state/state-profiles/maine

Please see the letter from ALA President Julie Todaro for more information on what we can do on the national level: http://ala.informz.net/z/cjUucD9taT02NDE5NjUxJnA9MSZ1PTEwMDc1MjQyNTYmbGk9NDIyMzcxNzU/index.html

More information can also be found here: http://www.districtdispatch.org/2017/03/house-library-champions-release-fy18-dear-appropriator-letters/

I will be attending Library Legislative Day in Washington DC this year, along with Jamie Ritter and other Maine librarians. It will be important to be fully aware of the issues at play, and to coordinate our efforts with other agencies and organizations so that we can be heard at the highest levels of government. This coming Tuesday, I'll be on a conference call with the heads of all state chapters of ALA, discussing what can be done and how it can best be accomplished.

For now, know that we at MLA are following this closely, and we're communicating with our friends and allies across the country to make sure the needs of libraries are met, and (more importantly) the needs of our patrons. If you're looking for something you can do today, a short phone call to your Congressperson would never hurt. But please realize this might well be a long process. A marathon, not a sprint. We'll need continuing support in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

Respectfully,

Bryce Cundick
President 
Maine Library Association

"Since its inception 20 years ago, the grants and programs administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services have provided critical support enabling museums and libraries across the country to make a tremendous difference in their communities. The institutions we serve provide vital resources that contribute significantly to Americans’ economic development, education, health, and well-being whether by facilitating family learning and catalyzing community change or stimulating economic development through job training and skills development. Our agency’s support enables museums and libraries to offer learning experiences for students and families, as well as to increase care for, and access to, the nation’s collections that are entrusted to museums and libraries by the public.

We’ve invested in rural and smaller communities by supporting basic infrastructure and by developing libraries as local community hubs for broadband connectivity and digital literacy training — helping many residents gain job-related skills and, in many cases, find employment. In summary, our grants and programs support libraries and museums as essential contributors to improving Americans’ quality of life.

More than $214 million of our $230 million FY 2016 enacted budget targets museums and libraries directly through our grant programs. This includes $155 million for library services to every state and territory in the country through a population-based formula grant program.

As Congress now begins its work on the FY 2018 budget, our agency will continue to work closely with the Office of Management and Budget. More importantly, we will continue to remain steadfast in our work on behalf of the millions of Americans touched by the services of libraries and museums each day."

Source:  IMLS's Press Releases

"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