Joint meeting with public librarians, 12/12/12

We were pleased to host the public librarians for our annual joint meeting. We covered a lot of ground, including:

1. ebooks and ebook devices in the public library. They're going to be rolling out Nooks in January. The high school librarians shared they most likely will be going the same route after they encountered roadblocks in ordering from Amazon for the Kindles the library owns.

2. Technology Academy--the public library is hosting courses for middle and high school students in January, some of which will be taught by district teachers and administrators. Students who take these courses will receive extra credit from their science teachers.

3. VMWare in the library--Firewall issues on the public library's end have been resolved; they're awaiting technical assistance from the district. I will contact techservices.

4. Winter book club incentives: Reading programs are in place for breaks in December and February. Elementary librarians received incentive "monster" miniature trucks to raffle to participants.

5. Summer reading program: Librarians provided feedback concerning last year's district summer reading program, and school and public librarians volunteered to serve on a commmittee to make modifications.

6. Empowerment Academy: the public library once again will have an Empowerment Academy this summer; details will follow.

7. Library cards for all: in support of the district's commitment to ensure that every child has a library card, the public library put into place procedures to facilitate applications and distribution. Any child who receives a form from the school and returns it to his or her building will not need to provide the usual documentation because it will be assumed that the child indeed is a district resident. Once applications are processed, cards will be distributed through the school. Public librarians have already set up information tables at some parent-teacher evening events.

8. Community Reading Night will be held at Uniondale High School on April 10. Public librarians were asked to participate.

  9. A discussion about common core standards and the library's role took place, with both school and public librarians indicating their commitment to supporting the curriculum through resources, particularly informational texts, while at the same time not sacrificing the value the reading of literature has in children's lives.