The library is the heart of the community!
Providing the utmost steady beat to our communities means we must first foster our own professional growth. Refreshing opportunities enable us to infuse our communities with new ideas that can enrich and transform our libraries. This happened at the DIY Unconference in May, which provided a substantive platform to help broaden awareness of pertinent issues and concerns. We captured the essence of your
feedback
, and this input will inform the direction of current and future programming.
You can enhance your career with WLA this year, beginning with the Mid-winter Conference on January 29, 2020 at Ossining Public Library
Not a member? This is a great time to
renew your membership
and we now offer an organizational membership for up to five employees of a library. Membership runs from January 1 - December 31st.
Your questions or comments and ideas are most welcome!
Elaine Provenzano
President
eprovenzano@wlsmail.org
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Don't Forget to Sign up for WLA Mid-Winter 2020:
Wednesday, January 29th, 2020
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Ossining Public Library
9 am – 12 pm
Library Careers: Growth, Transition & Future
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Speakers:
- Susanne Markgren, Assistant Director, Technical Services, O’Malley Library, Manhattan College
- Linda Miles, Assistant Professor and Librarian, Eugenio María de Hostos Community College
Susanne Markgren and Linda Miles will discuss their book:
How to Thrive as a Library Professional: Achieving Success and Satisfaction
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Sometimes it seems as if the work we do just happens; the skills, tasks, and relationships to which we have become accustomed carry us along almost without our needing to think about them. What if we hit the pause button and deliberately examined our own individual careers and aspirations, the paths we’ve taken to get to where we are, and the direction in which we are headed? Consider some of the elements that help define your work and career in the library world: the vision you have for your career, your professional relationships, your organization’s culture. What are the secrets to positive habit development, telling impactful stories, working reflectively and mindfully? The presenters will discuss their recently published book, talking about how some of these elements can impact and improve professional practice in many different library settings. Participants will have an opportunity to delve deeper into their own practice, through a hands-on exercise, and come away with new directions and a toolkit for future exploration and development.
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WLA needs volunteers to be on the Annual Conference Committee. The Annual conference is a fantastic opportunity to utilize our creativity collectively and bring members together for a full day of networking and learning. Be a part of a great group of volunteers and plan one of WLA's biggest events of the year.
If you or someone you know is interested in joining the Annual Conference Committee, please email Giovanna Fiorino-Iannace at
giannace@wlsmail.org
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WLA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARD
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WLA will award at least two $500 professional development scholarships at our conference in May.This award is designed to assist WLA members pursuing Professional Development activities that will contribute to or enhance their performance in a library career. If you are interested in applying for an award, click here:
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2019 Recipients:
Justine Osterman,
Yonkers Crestwood Library
Maggie Leung,
Ossining Public Library
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SAVE THE DATE FOR UPCOMING PROGRAMS
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2020 WLA/WLS Mock Youth Awards
- Tuesday, January 7, 2020 5:30 pm-8:30 pm (*NO SNOW DATE)
Greenburgh Public Library, Questions? Contact Z at yabookbuzz@wlsmail.org
Spring 2020 Professional Development Programs
- Civil Service 101: NYLA President-elect, Claudia Depkin, TBD
- Art of the Interview TBD
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WLA 2019 Annual Conference
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WLA provided a unique forum for the 2019 Annual Conference with the DIY Unconference: Make it Yourself, Do It Yourself, Serve Yourself. Held on Monday, May 20th at the Gateway Center at Westchester Community College, the conference theme and topics were developed and voted upon by members of the Westchester Library Association. Members also facilitated a wide range of topic discussions, such as Staff Wellness, Future of Libraries, Assessment and Impact, Civil Service, Social Issues, Library Leadership, Team Building, Outreach, Customer Service, Early Literacy, Library Careers, and Programming on a Budget, culminating in a final session of shared learning. Feedback and survey data from the conference was overwhelmingly positive and will be valuable in planning future dynamic programming informed by membership input. To access a summary of Conference Topic Notes click
here
.The bucolic setting also included a lunchtime campus history talk and tour of the WCC President’s Cottage and garden by Carol Capobianco, Director of the Native Plant Center, and Jessica Tagliaferro, Drimmler Library Department Chair.
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Rory Scholl, 2019 WLA Annual Conference Keynote Speaker on May 20th
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Rory Scholl, a best selling humorist on Amazon.com, was the Keynote Speaker at the Annual Conference. In his address,
Truth in Storytelling: Unifying through the Tales that Bind Us
, he spoke of the power of truthful storytelling as a way to highlight our similarities and show that our differences are something we can learn from instead of letting them divide us. Sharing our stories is a way to build community--and what better place to do that than at our libraries?
Rory is an entertaining storyteller and a National Public Radio Moth Radio Hour Storyslam winner. He kept the audience engaged and entertained with his blend of wit, insight, and wisdom and left many considering a Storytelling Program for their libraries. For more information on starting a Storytellling Program at your library,
click here.
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On Monday, September 23, WLA held its first “Meet and Mingle” event, which was hosted by the Harrison Public Library. This new program offers our members an opportunity to meet colleagues, new and old, and to exchange ideas in an informal setting after work. The Harrison Library’s event was combined with an author event featuring distinguished law professor, Jill Elaine Hasday, who discussed the research for her latest book – Intimate Lies and the Law. It was a fun and informative evening. Stay tuned for information about the next “Meet and Mingle.” If your library is interested in hosting a future M&M program for WLA members, please contact WLA president Elaine Provenzano at eprovenzano@wlsmail.org.
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Mindfulness Tips to Reduce Stress Workshop
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A dominant theme that came out of our annual conference and is a recurring topic in library literature is the health and well being of library staff. At our fall Professional Development program on Wednesday, October 23rd, Columbia University Lecturer and Instructor, Young Mi Park, facilitated a workshop on mindfulness and stress reduction
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The presentation included an overview of the brain’s capacity to handle stress, and stress triggers such as the overwhelming demands of technology, and relating specifically to libraries, patron demands. Her suggestions included a reflection on positive self-talk, being aware of any innate biases, projecting empathy toward others, and resetting our emotional setpoint. Tips for stress reduction included: deep breathing; having a broader outside perspective; giving yourself the same good advice you would give others; writing down your biggest problems to see them on paper (offload); nature therapy (natural settings provide a soothing effect); engaging with others with empathy; gratitude practice (write down 3 good things that happened each day); meditation (calm down the reactive brain). Ms. Park emphasized that putting these measures into practice for twenty days will help develop a healthy habit for reducing stress. After a brief meditation and breathing exercise, attendees left the program much refreshed, with a toolkit of helpful practices to limit stress. Questions? Contact
Young Mi at
parkym@hotmail.com
or
(914) 689-1917
.
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On Saturday, October 19th at the Hammocks Middle School in Larchmont, children and teens went head to head in a Jeopardy style tournament. Thirty-four teams composed of students from 4th to 10th grade represented 20 Westchester libraries. Six Divisions of teams had 5 round robin games to head towards the quarter finals to semi finals and finally the Finals.
Congratulations to this year's champions (pictured right): the Children of Roz (representing Briarcliff in the Gr 4 - 6 age group) and the Readers of Oz (representing Pelham in the Gr 6 - 10 age group). The second place teams were Gummysaurus Rye (representing Rye in the Gr 4 - 6 age group) and the Somers Turkey Warriors (representing Somers in the Gr 6 - 10 age group).
WLA was proud to provide environmental friendly notepads to the participants and coaches this year. Congratulations to all!
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Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award
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Did you know? WLA has its very own book award! The Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Award highlights and promotes distinguished titles published in the field of storytelling. It is named for Anne Izard, who died in 1990; she served as noted librarian, storyteller, and Children’s Services Consultant in Westchester County, New York. The two year award period recognizes thirteen titles that can be used with confidence as resources for storytellers.
The award was bestowed on thirteen wonderful new titles at a ceremony on September 14. This year’s ceremony was held at the Ossining Public Library and was open to all WLA members as well as the general public. Two authors of winning titles attended the event and spoke beautifully about their writing process and the importance and universality of telling and sharing stories. A grand time was had by all and it was a joyous occasion celebrating the power of stories. Special thanks to the Ossining Library for hosting and for the Village Bookstore in Pleasantville for attending with winning titles for sale to all.
The committee is now hard at work on reviewing eligible titles for the 15th annual award, which will be announced in 2021. More information can be found on the
WLA website.
Our full list of winning titles for the 14th award:
- The Annotated African-American Folktales (Henry Louis Gates, Jr. & Maria Tatar)
- Beauty and the Beast (Maria Tatar)
- Brave Red, Smart Frog (Emily Jenkins)
- Crane Girl (Curtis Manley)
- Daemon Voices (Philip Pullman)
- Dancing on Blades (Csenge Zalka)
- How to Fracture a Fairy Tale (Jane Yolen)
- Manjhi Moves a Mountain (Nancy Churnin)
- Norse Myths (Kevin Crossley-Holland)
- Norse Mythology (Neil Gaiman)
- Once There Was a Story (Jane Yolen)
- The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet (Carmen Deedy)
- Thank You, Omu (Oge Mora)
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Library Spotlight: Greenburgh Public Library
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This year, we would like to visit member libraries and hear about the great things happening with staff and within their communities. After a recent WLA Board meeting hosted at GPL, we asked Director John Sexton to share some current highlights. Greenburgh devotes the first Thursday of each month to staff e-training, which includes all staff. Librarians choose two e-resources or an app that they would like to share with staff and everyone practices using the app until they feel confident. The following month, apps are promoted to the public. Having more focus on marketing library resources has led to a significant increase in ebooks and other resource downloads and has instilled greater confidence in staff. Thanks to John and his staff for sharing their training tips.
If you would like to share what is happening at your libraries,
please contact me: eprovenzano@wlsmail.org.
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Board of Directors
Executive Officers:
Elaine Provenzano
President
Giovanna Iannace
Vice President
Allison L. Robbins
Secretary
Sharon Rothman
Treasurer
Section Chairs
Mayra Cabrera & Anthony Reda
Academic
Kathryn Feeley
Reference
Maxine Grandison
Support Staff
Catherine Riedel
Youth Services.
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Regular Membership Fee is $30.00/year
Organizational Membership Fee is $100/year for five staff
Retired Librarian Membership fee is $10.00/year
Currently Unemployed Librarian fee is $10.00/year
Library School Student Membership Fee is $10.00/year
Membership year runs from January 1
st
to December 31st.
Please make your check payable to Westchester
Library Association.
Mail to: Kathy Beirne
Westchester Library Association
Ossining Public Library
53 Croton Avenue
Ossining, NY 10562
Email: Kbeirne@wlsmail.org
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