May+20,+2010

NYCSLS Council Council Meeting #4 Date: May 20, 2010 Time: 12:00 - 3:00pm Place: NYPL, Mid-Manhattan Library

__**Members in attendance**__: Kathy Steves, Christine Hatami, Beth St.John, Sally Young, Janna Robbins, Linda Cuff, Bernadine Lowery-Crute


 * __Office staff in attendance__**: Leanne Ellis, Melissa Jacobs Israel, Elizabeth Naylor-Gutierez, Judith Schaffner, Lynne Kresta Smith, Barbara Stripling

__**Documents at meeting:**__ //DOE T & L Integration//

12:00 - 12:30 Eat and greet 12:30 - 1:00 Announcements and Information 1:00 - 1:45 Restructuring of DOE 1:45 - 2:45 Programs Planned for Next Year 2:45 - 3:00 New Business/Other Concern
 * __Agenda:__**

//Announcements and Information// Barbara introduced Leanne Ellis, the newest member of the SLS staff, in charge of automation and the library catalog.

Lynne reported that there have been three spring conferences so far and all have been overwhelmingly well-received. The theme of the conferences is //Building a Culture of Reading//, presented by Olga Nesi. This will be followed up with a four-day professional development on "tagging" and "appeal terms" as a way to create book reviews or "book hooks". Kathy added that the meetings were tremendous and that she would bring many ideas back to her school.

Judith reported that the Liberty basketball game was a fabulous experience for the 1,300 students who attended Madison Square Gardens for the New Yorkers Read event. The PSA can be found on the SLS site under News. Macy's was very pleased with the many branding opportunities. They gave T-shirts to the reading ambassadors and paid for newspaper ads the day of the event. The game was the culminating event of the first round. The second round will begin next year for elementary students. Kathy suggested that participants write thank you letters to Macy's. The Garden was well-organized and also allowed the students to bring in their own lunch, which eliminated the problem of having students standing in long food lines. The players were generous in speaking with the students before and after the game.

//Restructuring of the DOE// Barbara reported that Teaching and Learning will be no longer. There will be two facets to the restructuing: there will be no more LSO's as of this summer and they will be replaced with clusters of networks. Every school will be a part of Children's First Network. There will be six clusters, similar to LSO's and 66 networks in the city, with about 20 schools per network. The philosophy will be that all curriculum and instruction will happen at the school level. Tweed wil also be restructured, as per the T & L Integration. There will still be partnerships, PSO's such as New Visions, CUNY, etc. under one cluster. The message is that "functions are moving, not people". Judith Chin will head up one cluster and each clusters will have five people on staff. One of the concerns for SLS will be the need for communication lines, which has been a problem since the Regions broke down. Barbara reported that she has been working to build liaisons with the LSO's but that this will be difficult without a contact person at the clusters to align with. The network structure provides a connection for administrators, not for teachers or librarians. In addition, T & L is facing a 15% cut, though SLS is protected by state funding and a Plan of Service. This Library Council represents the Library System and we have responsibilities. We will need to step up our Plan of Service.

//Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grant// Melissa reported that this federally funded grant of $42,400 wil extend over two years. We will develop digital citizenship curriculum with six schools including model lessons and technology for each school. In addition, we will develop short, Common Craft videos to teach digital skills. We can turnkey these at the fall conference. The citizenship curriculum will be distributed in two strands: cyber safety and cyber ethics. //Union Catalog// Leanne reported that there are currently 618 schools on Destiny. About 1,000 schools are still not automated. We are writing a proposal for a union catalog and considering Open Source. This is less expensive than Follett but there would be a conversion charge. One advantage is that Open Source does not charge for add-ons, which Destiny does. We want the library catalog to be a one-stop search tool for students. This conversion would enable us to meet the state mandate for a Union Catalog. The purchasing piece will be addressed at a future meeting. We will continue to support Destiny through the server. FLIM will be ready by September.

//The Reaching Up Grant// There have been positive reports from the field with projects being completed. There will be reminders sent out for participants to complete and send in evaluations.

//Fall Conference// Lynne reported that the keynote speaker will be Joyce Valenza. There will be 1-2 concurrent sessions and we are still looking for workshop presenters. We will continue with the network sessions, one suggestion being a non-public or parochial school session. The vendors will be on the 7th floor near the cafeteria and the workshops and concurrent sessions will be on the 6th floor. We could have four sessions and offer librarians the choice of attending brown bag sessions with vendors or going to lunch.

Kathy added that with the Diocese of New York has discontinued Library Connections so there is no communication forum. There will be another round of Catholic school closings due to low enrollment projected for next year. Some librarians have been terminated. Elizabeth stated that NYCSLIST has transformed library communication in NYC.

//PD Opportunities// The UFT, the DOE and the LOC have partnered to provide a 4-day workshop entitled History Comes Alive with Primary Sources. It will be held at the UFT in Manhattan on June 10th, 28th, 29th and 30th. Participants will explore the Library of Congress resources and the NYPL will provide a piece on local resources. SLS has received a few applications. Olga Nessi will offer a workshop on Appeal Terms to be held on August 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th. The NYPL will offer a one-day workshop on Using Primary Sources and Instructional Technology.

Dates for next year's Council meetings will be determined at a later date.