Library district director position available

Applications are now open for the position of Chemung County Library
District director. CCLD is the central library for Southern Tier. There
will be great opportunities in leading this recently-established special
district library with a solid history of public support. The position is
a Library Director IV competitive class Civil Service position and
successful candidates are required to score within the top 3 on a
training and experience Civil Service exam.

District Web site: http://www.steele.lib.ny.us/

Director’s Position announcement:
http://www.steele.lib.ny.us/Director_Announcement.htm

Library Journal Parapofessional of the year nominations

Paraprofessional of the Year Nomination Guidelines

Deadline: January 19, 2010

-- Library Journal, 3/13/2008

Library Journal will honor one support staffer with its 11th annual Paraprofessional of the Year award in its March 1, 2010, issue. Sponsored by Brodart Library Supplies & Furnishings, which underwrites the $1500 cash prize and a reception to honor the winner at the American Library Association conference in June, the award recognizes the essential role of paraprofessionals, now the largest constituency of library workers, in providing excellent library service. It places special emphasis on the efforts of the winner to further the role of paraprofessionals in the library profession. The winner will be profiled in the March 1 issue of LJ.

Nominating criteria

The criteria for LJ's Paraprofessional of the Year are excellence in performing their job, including contribution(s) enabling the library to best serve its constituents and/or its community (whether town, college/university, school, or corporation), the encouragement of reading and the use of the library's resources, a commitment to free access to information for all, and the candidate's work to build networks, organizations, and/or groups to back excellence in library work and new career paths for support staff, and improved communication and the breaking down of barriers between support staff and the MLS librarians with whom they work. Nominating letters should name the candidate and describe in 500 words or less why the nominee deserves the award. Supporting letters and accompanying material will be considered, but the nominating letter itself will be of prime importance.

Nominations may be emailed to miller@reedbusiness.com.

Nominations sent through regular mail should be addressed to:

Paraprofessional of the Year Award
c/o Library Journal
360 Park Avenue South.
New York, NY 10010.

Please note: the postmark deadline for all nominations is January 19, 2010

Training committee needs your help!

The Continuing Education and Training Committee needs your help! Please complete the 2010 CE & Training Needs Survey (link below) to helps us prioritize and plan upcoming CE & Training opportunities.

I am sending this message in plain text, so to best access this survey, open a web browser and copy and paste the URL into the browser's address bar.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=RY4WPbpp_2ffZ6o9k3vLrXXw_3d_3d

If you experience any problems, please let me know. Thank you for your time and effort!

Lindsay

Lindsay Stratton
ILS Training Coordinator
Pioneer Library System
2557 State Rte 21
Canandaigua, NY 14424

www.pls-net.org

Contact the Governor ASAP!

Dear Library Advocate, as you may know, the Governor has proposed mid-year budget cuts to close a $3 billion budget deficit. The proposal includes a 10% across the board cut to all state aid programs like Library Aid, which will result in a $3.3 million reduction in funding for library services. School Aid will be cut by 4.5%.

The proposed $3.3 million reduction in Library Aid is on top of the $8 million cut imposed back in April and the $3 million cut sustained last year. If the proposed cuts are approved, it will reduce Library Aid to $88 million or 1998 level of funding. With library usage continuing to increase and people of all ages depending on libraries to improve their literacy, computer and internet skills and the unemployed using libraries to search for new careers and employment, now is not the time for further cuts for library services.

I strongly urge you to contact your state legislators to ask them to reject the Governor’s proposed cuts. Libraries have already done their fair share towards reducing the state’s budget shortfalls, other alternatives need to be used before asking the library community to take further cuts. These proposed cuts impact all types of libraries and library systems, public, college, schools, etc.

Go to www.nyla.org and click on Library Advocate icon to send fax/email to your state legislators. Please pass this message on to other library advocates.

Michael J. Borges

Fun next Friday

I'm starting to get some fun goodies to give away next Friday.
I can't wait to see everyone at the Fall Support Staff Workshop!!

Fall workshop agenda

I have sent the Fall Support Staff workshop agenda out a few times in delivery but I thought I should also post it here.

9 - 9:15am - Arrive and place order for lunch if need be
9:15 - 9:30 - Announcements and introductions
9:30 - 10:30 - Book Repair (learn cost effective strategies to maintain the health of your collection, with quick, easy to learn, yet conservation-minded techniques.)
10:30 - 10:45 - Break
10:45 - 11:45 - Advocacy (develop your advocacy skills and learn how to promote your library on a local and state level)
Noon - 1pm - Lunch
Part Two
1- 2pm - Empire State College (A discussion about opportunities for undergraduate and graduate study at SUNY Empire State College.)

Add a comment or suggestion

Hello Everyone!
Gearing up for the Fall Support Staff Workshop, I thought I would try something new.

Answer the poll to the right of the postings.
or
Add a comment or suggestion to this post
and I'll put your name in a drawing to win something fun!
(make sure you put your first name and library name someplace on the post so I know who to put in for the drawing)
I'm trying to see how many people read this blog.

Thanks for your support!
Heidi