To get started with your plan, the California Preservation Program created a template that can be modified to suit any library.  The template is quite in depth, but filling in just the first few pages with information on who to call and when is a good place to begin.

The Baltimore Academic Libraries Consortium also has a wonderfully comprehensive disaster preparedness plan that outlines how to salvage all types of items, including books; discs; electronic files; photos; art works, and what materials are needed to do so.

Don’t wait, create a plan for your library today and make sure that all library staff know where to find it in case of emergency.

Q: Can a board gather in a parking lot, even informally or spontaneously  to conduct library business?
A: No, there is no such thing as an informal meeting

Q: What is executive session – when can it be called and what does a board do after the session ends?
A: From the COOG website:  “…. It is noted that an executive session is not separate from an open meeting but rather is a portion of an open meeting during which the public may be excluded. … First, a motion must be made during an open meeting to enter into executive session; second, the motion must identify the general area or areas of the subject or subjects to be considered; and third, the motion must be carried by a majority vote of the total membership of a public body.  See advisory opinions under “E” for “Executive Session” in the OML Advisory Opinion Index.”

This means that first the meeting must be called to order; you can not begin your meeting in Executive Session and then start the public meeting.  Personnel is not an excuse to go into executive session.
Q: What information should be made public before a board meeting or after?
A: You need to send the local media an announcement regarding the meeting.  You do not have to post minutes, but you do need to make them available 2 weeks after the meeting.

Q: How quickly do board minutes need to be posted on the internet?  For that matter – what about financials, directors reports, warrants – things that can be done in advance to the meeting?
A: Never, you just need to make them available

Q: If a board member is the spouse of an employee, may the board member participate in discussions of raises and salary scales. We know that he may not vote but can he be part of the discussion? If not, can he be in the room when the topic is discussed and voted on?
A:  Use common sense, what is the ethical thing to do?

Other things learned and worth repeating:

A library board may use skype or a similar product to conduct business.  The connection must  have video and audio, using video, to conduct business.

Information may be sent via email – it is improbable that all the board members will open the email at the same time.

Library trustees need to do the right thing and use common sense.  And if you have questions, visit the COOG website or call.  Bob Freeman or one of his staff will answer the phone or return your call.

Pictures from the evening

“Handbook for Library Trustees” author Jerry Nichols will cover the following topics:

- Your role as a Trustee;

- Effective Board Meetings;

- Legal and Fiduciary Responsibilities; and

- Working with your fellow Trustees and Library Director.

The State Library asks that public library directors and public library system directors encourage all new library board members to participate in this live webinar. For trustees who are unable to attend the live webinar on June 11, the webinar will be archived on the State Library’s website at a future date.

Mr. Nichols is the Director of the Palmer Institute for Public Library Organization and Management and retired Director of the Suffolk Cooperative Library System. Past Chair of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries, Mr. Nichols is also the author of the “Handbook for Library Trustees of New York State, 2010 Edition”

–>Here<– is the link to attend the webinar
Before the session, users can click this link to determine if their pc meets the minimum requirements for Blackboard Collaborate:

Please contact Amy Heebner, Library Development Specialist, Division of Library Development, New York State Library at aheebner at mail (d0t) nysed (dot) gov if you have any questions about the webinar.

1. 24/7 chat service for Small Libraries: May 23

Eleanor Sathan of Memorial Hall Library in Andover, Massachusetts will speak about why she joined the (at the time California-based) 24/7 Reference Cooperative. Memorial Hall was the first library outside California to join the Cooperative, back in 2000, so Eleanor has participated in the Cooperative since its infancy. As a result of Memorial Hall’s experiences, all Massachusetts Reference Centers joined the Cooperative as part of a statewide project in 2003. When the statewide project dissolved in 2010, Memorial Hall Library made the decision to continue to provide chat reference service to the Andover community, through continued membership in the Cooperative. Eleanor will discuss why chat reference is viewed as an important component of reference service for her library, and the value that a 24/7 service brings to small library.

Date: May 23 at Noon, Eastern Time

- Register for the meeting

- You will get a confirmation email with instructions for joining the meeting

2. Engaging with Patrons Online: June 14

What makes a chat session good and what makes a chat session exceptional? How do you know you’re truly helping a patron? Sometimes it’s not always clear from working with a patron in a virtual setting to know when you have satisfied their request. There has been a large amount of research done on how to reach and engage with patrons in that online environment. Carla Pfahl, Coordinator of AskMN (Minnesota’s statewide virtual reference service), and Merrie Davidson, Social Sciences Librarian and fellow AskMN librarian at the University of St. Thomas, will look at how to conduct a reference interview and what makes an exceptional reference transaction.

Date: June 14 at Noon, Eastern Time (UTC –4)

- Register for the meeting

- You will get a confirmation email with instructions for joining the meeting

3. Chasing the Sun: a 24/7 chat service by medical librarians for health professionals: July 2

The Chasing the Sun service enables health professionals to contact a medical librarian whenever help is required in using information resources after normal library hours. Although most hospital-based health professionals have 24/7 online access to a collection of bibliographic databases and full text products via their library services, but sometimes expert help is needed to use the resources or to perform a search outside of normal business hours. Chasing the Sun was started by medical librarians in Australia and England to take advantage of global time differences and offer out-of-hours librarian support for health professionals, in a cost-effective way. Join Mary Peterson, SA (South Australia) Health Library Network Knowledge Manager to find out more … and, if you are a medical librarian, how your library can join this global cooperative group!

Date: July 2 at Noon, Eastern Time (UTC –4)

- Register for the meeting

- You will get a confirmation email with instructions for joining the meeting

Stay tuned for additional webinars in the series!

Meet and Greet at the Ballroom Foyer 5:00 to 6:00 pm

Plated Dinner in the Mohican Ballroom 6:00 to 7:30 pm

Business Meeting 7:00  to 8:00 pm

• Election of Trustees
• SALS Service Awards
• Library Program of the Year Awards
• Library Trustee of the Year Awards
• Central Library Report Director’s Report

Program: Presented by Bob Freeman, Director of the Committee on Open Government  8:00 pmBob Freeman has worked for the New York State Committee on Open Government since its creation in 1974 and was appointed executive director in 1976. He received his law degree from New York University and a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Mr. Freeman has addressed numerous libraries and library associations throughout New York on issues relating to the open meeting law and FOIL requests. He has also spoken on open government laws and concepts throughout the United States, Canada, the far east, Latin America and eastern Europe. He has taught the only course in an American law school on public access to government information. He is the recipient of numerous honors, the most recent of which is the NYS Government Award for Excellence presented by the New York State Forum for Information Resource Management.

Invitations will be mailed.

For the latest information all summer long please check out the Summer Reading News blog

A recent post includes an update from the CSLP Annual meeting with information about ordering, slogans, themes, etc.

Please send DLD  any news about your summer programs and they will be happy to share on our their blogs.

OCLC uses information from a variety of sources to prepopulate location and contact information for thousands of libraries. The OCLC Library Spotlight program takes this a step further, providing a single, easy-to-use interface in which any library can add, edit and update its own information once, in order to populate multiple Web destinations. Initial data was taken from the WorldCat Registry, but libraries can add a variety of information, including pictures and links to services, social content and collections. A custom, mobile-optimized link allows libraries to easily publish information to smartphones and other mobile devices.

“The advantage of this program is that libraries can manage essential information about their local services in one central registry. Their information then becomes available in WorldCat.org and is fed into many OCLC partner websites and services,” said Chip Nilges, Vice President, OCLC Business Development. Library information that is entered into the OCLC Library Spotlight program will be syndicated into a variety of online environments and websites to more easily connect information seekers back to libraries.

OCLC’s Library Spotlight program extends the reach of all libraries to more audiences with essential information about libraries—through WorldCat.org and a network of partnerships across the Web. The simple process of claiming and managing a prepopulated profile gives any library a quick path to participation and visibility. This program represents one more way to register library data into the worldwide network of libraries.” — www.oclc.org