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Volume 19-38 | 9.17.19
MHLS Board Candidates
The election of MHLS trustees will be an item of business at the MHLS Annual Membership Meeting on Friday, October 25th. MHLS is governed by a fifteen-member board made up of three trustees from each of the five counties served.
 
Procedures for Election of Trustees:
 
Article II. Nominations:
Section 2.01 -The county library association of each county for which a trustee is to be elected shall meet for the purpose of selecting a candidate from their county to nominate at the MHLS Annual Membership Meeting. The chair of the county library association shall submit to the MHLS Executive Director the name of the county library association's nominee no later than two months prior to the Annual Membership Meeting.
 
Section 4.03 - Each member library is a voting unit having one vote.
 
Three MHLS Board of Trustee vacancies to be filled for terms commencing in January 2020:

The Columbia County Library Association has nominated:
  • Mark Wilson for a second five-year term. Mr. Wilson served as the MHLS' Board President in 2018 and 2019, and as Vice President in 2016 and 2017. Mark has been a member of the board of trustees of the Kinderhook Memorial Library since 1995. His dedication to his home library was integral to the success of that library's recently completed construction project. Mark is an avid library advocate and works tirelessly on behalf of increased funding for library services and programs, and to increase public awareness of the vital role libraries play in their communities
The Dutchess County Library Association has nominated:
  • Richard Swierat for a second five-year term. Mr. Swierat recently retired from his position as Executive Director of ARC of Westchester where he worked for 30 years to improve the lives of people with developmental disabilities. Ric has served as Vice President of the MHLS Board since 2018 and as a member of the MHLS Finance, Incentives, and Personnel and Planning Committees. In addition, he is playing a major role in fostering the MHLS' goal to obtain the New York Library Association's Library Sustainability Certification by providing support and guidance modeled from ARC's own sustainability project. Mr. Swierat has been nominated to serve as the MHLS' Board President in 2020.
The Greene County Library Association has nominated:
  • Mary Linda Todd for a first five-year term. Ms. Todd was appointed to the MHLS Board in May of 2016 to complete the second year of a three-year remainder term, and elected in 2017 to complete this term. Ms. Todd is a retired Library Development Specialist II who worked at the New York State Library from October 2000-April 2016. In this capacity, Ms. Todd was responsible for Library Development's Technology and Federal Aid Team; the NYS Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Program; led the State Library's statewide Outcome-Based Evaluation Initiative; was a contributing member of the State Library's NOVELNY Internal Team; and, Manager for the State Aid for Library Construction, the School Library, and NYS's ILEAD programs.
You can register for the MHLS Annual Membership Meeting by visiting 
https://mhls_membership_meeting_2019.eventbrite.com 

MHLS Announcements
With the annual increase in the MHLS delivery volume of the summer season winding down as well as the backlog of items after the Labor Day holiday, the MHLS Delivery Department requests that you please place any accumulated and extra delivery bins next to your regular outgoing bins for the driver to pick up and bring back to MHLS.
MHLS Libraries
The Amenia Free Library Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that Victoria Herow has been appointed as the new Library Director. Victoria is a graduate of Webutuck High School and Elmira College, and brings 9 years of experience at the Edsel Ford Memorial Library of Hotchkiss School to the Amenia Free Library. Victoria began her role as director on August 26th.
Professional Development
The Public Library Section (PLS) of the New York Library Association (NYLA) announced their 2019 award winners and MHLS is well represented! Congratulations to NYLA Conference Scholarship award winner, Michele DelPriore, Director of the Tivoli Free Library, L. Marion Moshier/Asa Wynkoop Award for Distinguished Librarianship winner, Amy Smith, Director of Programs & Youth Services from the Red Hook Public Library, and the Public Libraries Building Award winner, the Highland Public Library. Congratulations also to the Leadership & Management Section of NYLA conference scholarship winner, Sam Gruber, Director of the D.R. Evarts Library in Athens.
Resource Sharing & Sierra
The Sierra and Encore servers will be moved to Amazon's Web Services (AWS) starting at 12:00am on September 25th. MHLS is working with all vendors for the transition. There is no preparation work for the member libraries, but libraries are encouraged to test access to electronic resources that they purchase including SAM and Envisionware products on the morning of the 25th. It will be important to log into the resources with a valid library account to test authentication. MHLS will test all shared resources for access.
Sustainable Libraries
Libraries interested in applying for the 2020 MHLS Turning Outward Program are invited to join us on Tuesday, October 29th from 10:00-11:00am for an introductory webinar that will outline the value of "turning outward", through community conversations, to seek public knowledge about community aspirations to better guide the future design of library services, programs, partnerships and resource allocation.
 
The Saugerties Public Library participated in the 2018 MHLS Turning Outward cohort and their community conversations had a significant impact on their community members. The director of the Saugerties Public Library reported that, "a school board member at a board of education meeting stood up and commended the library for reaching out to the community. The board member said that the schools needed to do a better job of community engagement and suggested learning from the library to achieve that goal."
 
Please register for this webinar through the MHLS online calendar http://calendar.midhudson.org/
Administration & Management
The Directors Association Workshop topic for October 3rd is Open Meeting Law & Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) presented by Kristin O'Neill, Assistant Director, Committee on Open Government. In this workshop attendees will:
  • Learn the basics of Open Meetings Law and how it impacts board meetings
  • Receive an overview of the "Disclosure of Records Scheduled for Discussion at Open Meetings" amendment to OML
  • Learn about the scope of the Freedom of Information Law, including internal procedures that should be in place when responding to requests and what is covered under FOIL.
  • Receive answers to frequently asked questions!
Please register for this workshop through the MHLS online calendar http://calendar.midhudson.org/
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