Suffolk County Library Association

Minutes of the Executive Board Meeting

April 19, 2002

Location: SCLS Blue Room

Present:: C. Gray, B. Hoffman, P. Bornstein, S. Ingram, S. Holden, K. Minschke, R. McEneaney, S. Ketcham, D. Miller, A. Lehner, C. Farrugia, L. Tesoriero, D. Jones, J. Carhart, C. Guzzo, A. Richards, J. Clemens, J. Loughren, J. Olney, R. Dressler, E. Hayes, F. Byrne, H. Bilbo.

J. Clemens called the meeting to order at 10:01 a.m. After a review of the minutes, K. Minschke moved to accept them, and P. Bornstein seconded the motion. None were opposed.

TREASURER’S REPORT: J. Loughren reported that he had prepared tax exempt applications for the various divisions to use. He presented his report, which showed a $16,589.08 fund balance. S. Ketcham moved to accept it. J. Olney seconded the motion. None were opposed.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT: R. Dressler thanked Joe Loughren for working on the tax exempt applications. She also thanked Angela Richards for her work on the recent Walk-a-thon in Northport Village. Angela had two suggestions for future walk-a-thons. 1.) Change the venue to a different historical setting, since we had used Northport two years in a row. 2.) Publicize ahead of time that a portion of the proceeds would go towards SCLA scholarships. Rona briefly discussed the upcoming sale of the L.I. Ducks tickets and asked what people thought about not limiting the number of tickets sold per person. A limit of 8 per person was suggested. She mentioned that brochures for the “Writers on the Vine” fundraiser would be coming out soon. There was a discussion about having new SCLA t-shirts printed. S. Ingram offered to work on a new image to use for the next batch of t-shirts. Rona read a letter from LILRC aloud. The letter asked SCLA to be a sponsor of the 7th Annual Archives Week, “Telling Our Story,” to be held this autumn. L. Teroriero made a motion to donate $100, the same amount SCLA contributed last year. S. Ketcham seconded the motion. None were opposed. 

DIVISION REPORTS:

DASL: S. Ketcham reported that their next Board meeting would be April 26th at the Southampton campus of L.I.U. R. McEneaney said she and Sue Terry of Dowling College would be presenting a preservation workshop at the LILC.

RASD: J. Carhart reported. The Electronic Resources committee is restructuring. They planned to meet May 1st and discuss new VRC products. A subsequent meeting is planned to discuss CybraryNet. Health Concerns is working on a program for October. Diane Eidelman has volunteered to become the new Historian (to replace Arlene Leventhal). The Long Island History committee had a good response to their “Cradle of Aviation” trip. It went well. OARS met in March and had a representative from Literacy Volunteers speak to them. They are working on compiling and distributing information they have gathered on programs for seniors. Deadline for the next issue of the Ramblings newsletter will be in early September. Readers’ Advisory is meeting to discuss police procedurals fiction. The RASD annual dinner is the same night as the SSSD dinner. It will be held at the Irish Coffee Pub in Islip. Jo-Ann said the division had been trying to solve the problem of overlapping meetings within RASD. A discussion followed.

CATS: C. Guzzo reported that there was a new “swap and sell” section on the division’s web page. She said 66 people attended the 1st Annual Technical Services Open Forum on April 12th. A possible trip to the Performing Arts division of the N.Y. Public Library in Manhattan had been proposed for the fall. She asked who issues CEUs earned through attendance at workshops and how the division should handle requests for CEU certification. A. Lehner explained that SCLS is an issuing body, and that they keep track of CEUs for public library employees as a courtesy. H. Bilbo mentioned that LILRC issues certificates. There was a discussion about the need for people to keep track of their own CEUs. It was suggested that divisions could, when asked, supply a letter simply verifying attendance at any given workshop, even though they are not the issuing body for the CEUs.

SSSD: F. Byrne reported that their board had met the previous Tuesday and finalized plans for their participation in the LILC. They had 30 people registered so far for their second Support Staff Roundtable on April 24th. E-mail for the division can now be sent to sssd@suffolk.lib.ny.us, thanks to Joe Loughren. The division has sent in their tax exempt certificate application to N.Y. State.

YASD: D. Jones reported that YASD had met on April 11th and discussed the upcoming “Battle of the Books,” to be held on August 17th. This competition, begun by Tracey Firestone, has grown into a big event. This year, thirty libraries are expected to participate.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

ARCHIVES: No report.

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS: No report.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: C. Gray reported that new committee member Angela Mondelli volunteered to be the contact person when people want to post SCLA events on LILRC’s Regional Events Calendar. Send e-mail with “LILRC Calendar” in the subject line to: mondelli@lilrc.org. The committee hopes to meet with their NCLA counterpart to discuss joint programs for the L.I. Library Conference. Carol said they would like to send a two-part survey out on the listserv, asking members for input on program topics and also asking if they had expertise to share. R. Dressler asked them to send her the wording before they sent the survey out. Carol Gray said the committee wondered if they could act as a “clearinghouse” for the scheduling of SCLA programs, to eliminate duplication and scheduling conflicts. Sheryl Sessa would be willing to work on this. Discussion followed.

ELSA: G. Pepa e-mailed a report that the 2002 brochures would be mailed out to coordinate with the LILC. The nomination forms will also be available on the SCLA web page. A question was asked about distribution of brochures to patrons, since this year, patrons are allowed to nominate. It will be up to each individual library director’s discretion whether or not to put the brochures out for patrons. A discussion followed. 

FALL DINNER: C. Guzzo reported that they had visited the Irish Coffee Pub as a possible site for the dinner. Cynthia submitted a sample questionnaire that could be sent out to the membership, asking them to vote for the location of the Annual Dinner. The Board approved it. 

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM: No report.

LDA AWARD: P. Bornstein reported that all the relevant material had been received. Everything has been forward to the judges, who are evaluating it.

LEGISLATIVE: L. Tesoriero reported that the next LILRC Legislative Committee meeting would be April 26th. She said the SCLA representative to this committee is called an ex-officio member. She suggested possible SCLA activities such as: sending “thank you” postcards as a follow up the Albany trip; periodic correspondence sent to legislators; sending various SCLA representatives along on LILRC committee visits to legislators.

LISTSERV: No report.

L.I. LIBRARY CONFERENCE: R. Dressler reported a balance of $32,387.25 in the account as of April 10th. Signs for locations of programs will be color-coded. There were 78 exhibitor’s tables reserved so far. David Baldacci’s book will be on sale that day for $18-20. He will sign them. The committee was working on a re-usable name tag holder for attendees. There were still a couple of time slots open for coverage at the SCLA table. Rona said current registration (177 people from Suffolk, 140 from Nassau) was at the break even point. She asked Board members to encourage staff members to attend. Many libraries had still not sent in their coordinated registrations yet. 

LONG-RANGE PLANNING: S. Holden reported that the committee had met to finalize the “Careers In. . .” brochures in time for the LILC. She asked for Board approval of a purchase of brightly-colored paper for the brochures (approximately $50). C. Gray made a motion to approve the purchase. J. Carhart seconded the motion. None were opposed. Sue mentioned that next year the committee might need to ask for reimbursement for a new cartridge for the reisograph machine they had been using for printing at Harborfields Library.

MEMBERSHIP: R. McEneaney reported membership was at 698, but qualified that by stating that many people had not renewed their membership in 2002. Reminder flyers had gone out two weeks previous. Non-renewing members will be dropped in May. Regina said that twelve library students had joined SCLA recently as a result of the Long Range Planning Committee’s school visits. Regina pointed out that there is no money in the budget for Membership, yet $100-150 per year is spent on mailing labels. Discussion followed. Divisions should absorb the cost of printing labels, either by printing out their own labels from a file e-mailed to them by Regina, or by paying for mailing labels ahead of time if Regina prints them.

NEWSLETTER: B. Hoffman reported that the next deadline would be May 3rd. The next issue will include a feature on the Long Range Planning Committee. Angie Lehner, who is retiring, will be featured in the Dec./Jan./Feb. issue.

NOMINATING: J. Clemens reported that she is looking for volunteers for this committee.

PROFESSIONAL CONCERNS: K. Minschke reported that she had met with the Executive Board that morning and discussed a proposed survey of the membership. She said she would go back to her committee and convey all the input she had gotten, then present a new draft to the Board.

PUBLIC AWARENESS/PUBLICITY: S. Ingram reported that he was working with the Long Range Planning Committee on the “Careers In. . .” brochures. L. Tesoriero mentioned that Stephen had worked on an informational bookmark that might be given to legislators. She suggested it might be adapted for other SCLA promotional uses. 

SCHOLARSHIP: C. Farrugia reported that they had received six requests for applications, and one completed application so far. The flyer for the new support staff award were ready, and would be given out at the LILC. She thanked Angie Lehner for help with the flyer. J. Carhart asked about the possibility of having one SCLA member as a liaison at every library. A discussion followed. 

STATISTICAL SURVEY: R. Dressler read a report from S. Atlas. The 2002 questionnaire is almost ready. There will be three additional job description salary schedules canvassed and added to the publication. Anticipated distribution is for the early part of May. 

SUFFOLK COUNTY JAILS LIBRARY SERVICE: No report.

WEB PAGE: No report.

LIAISON REPORTS:

CLASC: L. Clark sent a written report. E. Hayes read out details about the CLASC Annual Dinner on April 30th, featuring speaker Barbara McClintock.

E.S. BOCES: No report.

LILRC: H. Biblo reported that, for the first time in years, there was a full bus from Nassau County on the Legislative Day trip to Albany. He said the library contingent pushed that day for maintaining library funding in areas that lost population in the 2000 census. He said the Legislative Committee wants to make visits to legislators’ local offices, and they would need people from their areas to be in the delegations. Herb mentioned that Art Friedman is running for President Elect of the N.Y. Library Association. He handed out information on databases available through LILRC, and told people they could contact Min Liu at LILRC. Herb also reported on LILRC’’s annual “Libraries and the Future” conference in the fall, and a recent court decision on Internet pornography vis a vis libraries. He mentioned that the Regional Events calendar, which had been discontinued for a while, was now up again. He also said that LILRC was working on a union catalog for area academic libraries. Herb also reported on a push to establish a regional minimum salary for librarians, and mentioned that Hofstra had withdrawn from their Research Loan program. He reminded everyone about the June 13th workshop on finding aids for archival materials. 

LVA SUFFOLK: No report.

NCLA: L. Tesoriero reported. She shared a feature article about L.I. Reads that had appeared in Newsday on April 17th. NCLA is offering a block of L.I. Ducks tickets for sale (similar to what SCLA is doing), and they are selling well. They are updating their scholarships. The Andrew Ippilito Scholarship of $1,500 to someone enrolled in library school will be increased to $2,000. The Kate McNeil award for $1,000 to an entering library school student will probably be discontinued, and three awards of $500 each may be offered to librarians or support staff for continuing education.

PLDA: D. Engelhardt faxed her report. PLDA met on April 10th. They will host a fall program at SCLS entitled “Measuring Electronic Resources.” It will be given by Diane Mayo of Information Partners. The workshop will run almost a full day. 

SCLS: No report.

SLA: J. Olney reported that there would be a dinner meeting on April 29th at Tello restaurant in Huntington. Hope Tillman would be the guest speaker, and non-members were welcome to attend.

OLD BUSINESS: Rona thanked all division and committee heads for helping to revise the SCLA handbook. A mockup of the revised handbook will be handed out at the June meeting.

NEW BUSINESS: R. Dressler asked Board members to look at the current structure for SCLA membership dues, with an eye to revising them. She asked that members check at their libraries to see what the average salary was for part-time clerks and librarians. Rona stated that Angie Lehner would be retiring not only from SCLS, but also from SCLA. Angie will finish out the year, but we will need to replace her as Executive Secretary. 

J. Clemens asked for a motion to adjourn. S. Ketcham made a motion, seconded by C. Guzzo. The meeting was adjourned at 12 noon.