Library Trustee of the Year Award Nominations due 3/25/16

The Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS) Board of Trustees has approved the Trustee of the Year Awards, and wishes to recognize the hard work and devotion of Trustees in our member libraries. Last year’s recipients were Arnold E. Elman of Clifton Park-Halmoon Public Library and Barbara Caimano of Crandall Public Library in honor of their above & beyond involvement and support.

An individual may be nominated by the Library Director or a Trustee. The nomination should be submitted on library letterhead and accompanied by any supporting materials. Nominations by e-mail or fax will not be accepted.
Nominees should meet the following Eligibility Requirements:

Member of the Board of Trustees of a SALS member library for the 2015 calendar year
Initiated service(s), program(s) or community involvement on behalf of the library
Demonstrated exemplary leadership characteristics
Pursued excellence in the library and sought to have the library make a difference in the community

One Trustee per library will be considered, and the SALS Personnel Committee will select two award recipients. Winners will be announced at the April 19th, 2016 SALS Board Meeting, and the awards will be presented at the SALS 58^th Annual Meeting on May 16^th. The award consists of a framed certificate honoring the recipient’s achievements; there will not be a financial award. In the event that the award recipient is not present at the Annual Meeting, the certificate will be given to the library’s Board President for presentation at the library’s next Board meeting. The nomination must be received at SALS before 4:30 pm, March 25^th, 2016, Attention: Sara Dallas.

View/Download the PDF of this announcement

Plan of Service – Learning from Stakeholders

Save the date.
Two representatives of each member library (ideally the director and library board chair) will be invited to attend this meeting. During the meeting, participants will describe how the needs and expectations of the people they serve are changing. They will also begin to identify the resources they will need to effectively address those changing needs and expectations.

Location: Saratoga Springs
Time: 10-3 pm

PLA Project Outcome Available For All SALS Libraries

The goal of Project Outcome is to help public libraries understand and share the true impact of essential library services and programs beyond circulation numbers, program attendance and door counts. While many public libraries collect data about their services and programs, what they often lack is the data to support what benefits they are providing their communities, such as programs serving childhood literacy, digital and technological training, summer reading program and workforce development. Project Outcome is designed to provide simple tools and a supportive online community of library leaders to help turn better data into better libraries. This data will also help libraries tell their stories more effectively to their communities and their funders.

More and more, funders and community leaders want to know how library services make a difference and how people’s behaviors change as a result of a service.

How It Works

Project Outcome provides simple survey instruments and an easy-to-use process for public library staff to measure the outcomes of their library programs. For the first time, public libraries–whether new to outcome measurement or advanced in data collection– will have free access to an aggregated set of performance measurement data and analysis tools they can use to affect change within their communities and beyond.

To participate, start by setting goals for the outcomes your library wants to achieve through your programs, then choose the service areas where you want to measure outcomes. Measuring outcomes is becoming more important than measuring outputs. For example, an intelligent community (not large circulation numbers) should be the primary library goal.

At the end of a library program or series, library staff administer patron surveys for the relevant service area and report their results in a simple, online survey portal. Participating libraries can see their survey results in a visually interactive data dashboard. Libraries are encouraged to then use their data to support and promote future action – from allocating resources more efficiently, to advocating new resources more effectively, to providing support for future library funding, branch activity reports, and strategic planning.

For example: The Everytown Library would like to evaluate their adult programming. The goal is for all community members have the materials, programs and interactive experiences they need to satisfy individual lifelong learning interests. Everytown Library is about to start their Fall programming and would like to evaluate the programs using the Education and Lifelong Learning online Survey (see below for questions)

Education and Lifelong Learning

You learned something new that is helpful
You feel more confident about what you just learned
You intend to apply what you just learned
You are more aware of applicable resources and services provided by the library
What did you like most about the program?
What could the library do better to assist you in learning more?

For questions on how to register contact Jennifer Ferriss, 518-584-7300 x219