SCRLC NEWS

Cheery Friday Greetings,

There are a few items to bring to your attention today!

Ask the Lawyer. A reminder that we have an attorney available who can advise our members in such areas as book challenges, intellectual property, privacy, digital rights management, vendor contracts, first amendment, civil rights, human resources, employment law and other legal issues that can impact library operations. This service is offered in collaboration with the other nine councils comprising the Empire State Library Network. In addition to direct members, the member libraries of SCRLC's public and school library systems can also use the service. The service continues to be provided at no cost to eligible members.

To submit an inquiry to SCRLC's Ask the Lawyer service, use the form on our website. First, consult the Recently Asked Questions (RAQ) as another library may have already asked the same question. If you are a public library or a school library, you may also want to check with your library system—especially if it is HR-related. Your system may have the answer for you.

Ask the Archivist is another “Ask” service that is available free-of-charge to our members and their member libraries through our participation in ESLN. The archivists, who work at several of the ESLN Councils, can provide answers to basic questions regarding archives and special collections. For more information and to submit a question, visit our webpage.

Ask Us 24/7 Virtual Reference. Ask Us 24/7 is a reasonably priced way to extend your reference service hours and availability. Participating libraries are from all areas of the state and include 7 SCRLC members who have belonged to the program for many years. More information can be found here—click on the link for Become an Ask Us 24/7 Library.

SCRLC’s Plan of Service Design Team met today for the visioning retreat, which was led by Laura Branca of the Dorothy Cotton Institute and TFC Associates. The retreat, funded by NYCON’s Otsego County Mini Grant program, was a great start to the planning process. The Design Team did a Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats (SWOT) analysis and considered questions to ask in a future membership survey.

SHLB and Advocacy. The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition is a nonprofit advocacy organization based in Washington, DC that works closely with the Universal Service Fund (USF), which includes E-Rate and Rural Health Care programs. They are, as are other agencies, concerned about the continuation of these programs, as well as the $42B Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which plans to expand high-speed internet access to all Americans regardless of location. The dissolution of the existing programs would be disastrous for rural residents, schools, libraries, and healthcare. If you are advocating with your federal representatives, please remind them of the importance of these funds. New York State receives over $200M from the E-Rate program alone. Visit SHLB’s website to learn more.

Stay warm out there this weekend! 

Yours in partnership,

Mary-Carol Lindbloom



Executive Director

MEMBER NEWS

Finger Lakes Library System, Four County Library System, and Southern Tier Library System joined together today, December 6th for a day of virtual learning and connection at Gather & Grow: Expanding Our Horizons through Library Partnerships.

In case you missed it, Claire shared a saga of travel postcards from 1908 courtesy of Cortland County Historical Society that included repeated (joking) threats to a dog in Special Edition: Watch Out Monte!

Civics4Action is seeking board members with museum and/or education backgrounds. It's a working board with projects like the Civics Ambassadors Program, in which they help libraries and museums develop and implement a civic strategy. Email Peter Lederer if interested.

The Network of the National Library of Medicine has three types of free citizen science kits to add to your library's family programming. Click on the kit links to apply.

Congratulations to Chenango County Historical Society, Dryden Town Historical Society, Fenimore Farm & Country Village (formerly the Farmers' Museum), and the Yates County History Center! They're among the 2024 Conservation Treatment Grant recipients just announced by the New York State Council on the Arts and the Greater Hudson Heritage Network.

SURVEY SAYS

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility

SCRLC has been working with our members to lead the Southern Tier Digital Equity Coalition. We're proud to announce that we were awarded a Digital Equity Technical Assistance Grant from the ConnectAll Office. The $78,750 award will pay for five part-time consultants (~5 hours / week) to work with our public libraries and all other community organizations to develop "shovel-ready" projects for the expected digital equity funding coming in the next few years. Keep your eye out for the job postings!

In our work with the Southern Tier Digital Equity Coalition, Mary-Carol and Claire have also been involved in the larger NYS Digital Equity Network (NYSDEN). They recently shared out a grant opportunity from the NYS Office of Faith and Nonprofit Development Services. Faith-based and other not-for-profit organizations can apply for up to $50,000 to invest in things like computers and Wi-Fi for increased and equitable access to essential technologies. This is a great opportunity for libraries to build partnerships! Spread the word and offer your expertise with other community organizations. Read more here.

Shift Work, Long Hours, and Fatigue with Nellie Brown

December 13, Noon

Indoor Air Quality with Nellie Brown

January 15, Noon

Hold, Fold, Walk, Run: Difficult Conversations with Maurice Coleman

January 28, 11am

Events produced by the eight other library councils in the Empire State Library Network are open for SCRLC members to attend.

Critical Incident Stress (CLRC)

December 10, 10am

The Essentials of Music Copyright Law (LILRC)

December 11, 2pm

HR Insurance Essentials- session 1 (LILRC)

December 12, 11am

Rethinking Revolutionary New York: A Conversation about Haudenosaunee Histories and the Sullivan Campaign (NYS Library)

December 12, Noon

Case Studies in Critical Pedagogy (METRO)

December 13, 1pm

Storing & Maintaining Digitized Materials (NNYLN)

December 19, 11am

Fundamentals of Human Resources (CLRC)

January 7, 10am

WEBINAR RERUN

Reports Reimagined: Using Infographics to Showcase Library Data was presented by Roma Matott on November 20, 2024.

NEW DIGITAL COLLECTIONS

Henry Street Outlaws

Three men leaning on a car with one inside. They're identified on the back as Joe Chendiello, August Paccio, Pete Pompeii, and Joe Pompeii.

Ethnic Diversity of Broome County / Broome County Historical Society

New Collection: Veterans of Newfield

A scrapbook lovingly compiled by a teenaged girl while her big brother served during World War II.

New Collection: Town of Mentz Historical Collection

The Town of Mentz includes the village of Port Byron, north of Auburn. The town clerk worked with Seymour Library to digitize their earliest records, which include boundaries, names, and voting records.

New Collection: Cemeteries of Backbone Ridge

Backbone Ridge is the area between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake, straddling Schuyler and Seneca counties. After decades of intensive agriculture, the federal government bought failing farms from anyone interested in leaving and turned the patchy compilation of land into the Finger Lakes National Forest. The communities were hollowed out. The Backbone Ridge History Group seeks to identify, repair, and catalog the cemeteries of those abandoned communities.

New Collection: Ethnic Diversity of Broome County

Binghamton is an incredibly diverse city, thanks to a bustling economy over the last century and waves of immigration. The American Civic Association was founded there in the 1930s to help immigrants settle. These photographs from the Broome County Historical Society's collection show things like Italian parades, Slovak women stripping feathers, the ACA office in the 1970s, and a naturalization ceremony.

New Collection: Spencer Historical Documents

A collection of the oldest historical documents owned by the Spencer Museum in Tioga County.

New Collection: Historical Cortland Collection

A smattering of local history materials found in the Cortland Free Library's archives, including transcripts of 1979 oral histories of Lebanese and Italian immigrants. There is also an article written by renowned Cortland native David Eugene Smith, one of the founders of the field of mathematics education. Postcards written by him and his wife Fanny to their niece, Helen Jewett (Smith) McAleer can be found on nyheritage.org, recently digitized by the Cortland County Historical Society.