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Cheery Friday Greetings,
There are several updates to share this edition!
From State Librarian Lauren Moore at NYLA
Lauren Moore provided a very informative update, including news that the Regents are considering an amendment to the Commissioner’s Regulations regarding Minimum Standards for Public Libraries. The proposal would establish a required set of policies for all public libraries. Here are some key details:
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A Notice of Proposed Rule Making will be published in the State Register on November 19, 2025.
- After a 60-day public comment period, the amendment is expected to go before the Regents for permanent adoption.
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If approved at their March 2026 meeting, the rule would take effect on March 25, 2026.
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Comments may be submitted to Michael Mastroianni, Office of Cultural Education REGCOMMENTS@nysed.gov
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Complete information is located here (the date of the memo says October 2024 instead of 2025 but the other dates are correct).
If these changes go through, public libraries will be helped in the same way that the Open Shelves Act will strengthen libraries' ability to handle book challenges. Hopefully, both components--the changes to the Regs and the Open Shelves Act--will be approved.
Mystery Book
Among the materials we brought back from the annual meeting was a copy of Take a Sad Song by Ona Gritz (2025). It looks terrific—but we’re not sure how it ended up with us. If you can help solve this mystery, please let me know!
Recent Book Discussion
I recently facilitated a discussion of Larissa Fasthorse’s (Sicangu Lakota) The Thanksgiving Play and What Would Crazy Horse Do? for a community group. Ms. Fasthorse is the first known female Indigenous playwright to have a play performed on Broadway. Jesse Green, writing in The New York Times on April 20, 2023, described The Thanksgiving Play as “a brutal satire of American mythmaking.” Both plays are sharply satirical and delve into similar themes including cultural erasure; who controls the narrative and who has the right to tell the story; the difference between performative allyship and advocacy that leads to change; and questions of complicity, identity, and belonging.
I found them engaging, discomfiting, and ultimately a bit transformative—they stay with you long after you finish reading. Perhaps in the future SCRLC could host a discussion, as well (let me know if you’d be interested). In many editions, the plays are bound together, including the Kindle version, and full enactments of The Thanksgiving Play are also available on YouTube. The upcoming holiday might provide a bit of time to spend some time with these plays.
Have a peaceful and safe holiday.
Yours in partnership,
Mary-Carol
Mary-Carol Lindbloom
Executive Director
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