SLS NEWSLETTER February 2015: Welcome

Communications coordinators are district representatives who assist with SLS planning and keep member librarians informed of school library system initiatives.  They meet 4 times per year.  All system members are welcome to attend the meetings.  The communications coordinators are:  Clarkstown-Susan Raul, East Ramapo-Emily Hernandez, Nanuet-Dana DeVita, North Rockland-Cynthia Zambri, Nyack-Carolyn Travers, Pearl River-Pamela Simboli, Ramapo-Dominick Martiniello, South Orangetown-Lois Parker-Hennion and Albertus Magnus-Doreen McAvoy.  Do not hesitate to contact your communications coordinators if you have information or a great idea to share with other members of the system.

The Crowne Plaza, Suffern will be the site of the LARC (Library Association of Rockland County) Conference entitled,"Let the Sparks Fly" to be held on Thursday, April 30, 2015. Keynote speaker, Jill Hurst-Wahl will address "Creating Sparks that Light our Profession".    Sessions will include Makerspaces/3D Printing, OSC Audits:  Procedures and Common Findings, Digital Story Time:  What Will Work for Your Patrons, After School Program Apps for Teen and Tween Librarians, Oral History in the Library and Turning Fear to Passion:  Creating Staff Buy-In for New Technology. 

Participants may register for half day or attend the full day program.  Registration information will be sent to each library.

System members will have many exciting opportunities for professional development in the coming months.  On March 13, 2015, library media specialists will be among the groups participating in a Countywide morning of professional development.  Librarians will meet at Nyack Middle School for two workshops.

Creating Book Trailers  8:30-10:00 

Book trailers can serve as marketing tools to draw readers, both students and staff, to your latest purchase or collection. In addition, student created book trailers can serve as peer to peer reviews or alternatives to book reports.

During this lively, hands-on session, participants will learn how and will create book trailers.  Participants are asked to bring one or two books for which they would like to create a book trailer.  By the end of the session, each participant will have created a book trailer ready to upload to their OPAC, or share with their administration and staff.  Participants will have the opportunity to share (demonstrate) their completed book trailer with the group at the end of the session.

 While the host site has computers available, participants are welcome and encouraged to bring their own devices.

The following, powerful book trailer was created by a student at Tappan Zee HS.

Creating a Vision of the 21^st Century Library.  10:10-11:40

 What does the 21^st century library look like?  Media centers and libraries are changing, and rapidly.  The focus on collaboration and integration of technology is a challenge in all spaces of a school building but especially in the library media center.  There are many factors that are changing in the media/library space.  Some of those include increasing adaptability, adding modalities and how to integrate technology.  This presentation is conceptual to show what is possible and what is trending across the United States.  The discussion, led by a designer, will focus on the media and maker/stem spaces.  Participants will learn about the factors to consider in a library redesign as well as interim steps to take to move their libraries to a 21^st century vision.    Registration for both workshops is now open on My Learning Plan.

Please use the link below to share your ideas for professional development workshops in 2015-2016.  Thank you.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/265RBND

Library systems across New York State will soon begin the process of developing Plans of Service.  The Rockland School Library System is reviewing the current CCD (Cooperative Collection Development) Plan as defined in our Plan of Service 2011-2016.  All members of the school library system, but especially current COSER participants, are invited to participate in the planning process.  In order to understand the aims of cooperative collection development (CCD), contribute to the discussion and provide constructive ideas,  please take a few moments to read our current CCD Plan.  It can be found on the Rockland BOCES website (www.rocklandboces.org).  Search for "School Library System Plan of Service".  The Cooperative Collection Development Plan is found on pages 25-32.  Comments should be sent no later than March 30th via snail or e-mail to Anthony Hosmer (thosmer@rboces.org).

The school library system has a collection of Science Screen Reports and Science Screen Reports for Kids available for loan.  These are cataloged and included in the union catalog.  There is also a print catalog available.  Formats available include video, DVD and streaming video.

System members have access to the SLS Follett Shelf.  The SLS purchased all EngageNY titles that were available in ebook format.  Please be sure to share with your teachers.  TeachingBooks is another resource that has been purchased for member libraries.  Surprisingly, many libraries do not include this resource on their webpage or advertise it to their teachers.

Although greatly reduced, the system maintains a small collection of professional (library) materials.  Please call if you are looking for something special.

Interested in Kamishibai?  We have the stage and many story cards available for loan.

"Ganondagan's House of Peace, a Teaching Guide for Seneca Nation and Iroquois Confederacy History" is also available for loan.

Please help the school library system determine the value of maintaining the union list of periodicals.  Please take a moment to respond to a very brief survey found at:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/69CBHGX.

The Rockland SLS union catalog has over 600,000 titles and over 1,000,000 holdings.  It is an excellent resource for that hard to find book, or temporary collection for a class project.  The union catalog is located at rcb.scoolaid.net.  The union catalog also shows the shelf status of materials held by OPALS buildings.  The OPALS districts are Clarkstown, Nanuet, East Ramapo, Nyack and South Orangetown.  Search, locate and request an interlibrary loan easily.  The union catalog automatically routes ILL requests.  Please be kind and respond to ILL requests even if you are unable to supply the item.  The supplying library should call or e-mail the SLS office to arrange courier pick-up and delivery of the ILL item.  Please remember to post your collection deletions directly to the union catalog.  MARC records for new additions should be sent as an e-mail attachment to the SLS office. 

Easy as...

1)Search...

http://rcb.scoolaid.net

2)Select...

Click the title

3)Request!

Click the ILL Request button in the Record Information page

Select the libraries from which to request the loan

Send the request

Questions?  Call:  Rockland BOCES, School Library System,          

(845) 348-3500 ext. 3596

The 31st Annual Rockland Read-In took place on Friday, February 13, 2015.  Results are currently being received by the system office.  Participants responded to the question, "How did your library celebrate the Rockland Read-In"?

Summit Park ES, East Ramapo  "Our students, staff and guests spent the entire day reading.  The students wore their pajamas.  Visitors and staff wore red in celebration of Black History Month, National Heart Month and Valentine's Day.  Various breakfast foods and books to be shared were in the library media center.  Over ninety visitors including politicians, members of our district administration, various members of our community and family members joined our school as we shared our commitment to reading". Emily Hernandez, LMS

Pearl River MS, Pearl River  "The Pearl River Middle School celebrated this year's Rockland Read-In by combining pajama day with their read-in.  The combination of cozy comfort and books made a perfect match and was a fun way to end the week."              Pamela Simboli, LMS

Fleetwood ES, East Ramapo  "A selection of library books were available for those of our Guest Readers who requested one. Other Guest Readers brought in their own personal "favorite book" to read to our students.   Our Guest Readers included many of the parents of our students, our Fleetwood Staff members, community members, as well as local officials and politicians, including District Attorney Thomas Zugibe, Sherriff Louis Falco, County Executive Ed Day, and a representative from Nita Lowey's Office."  Maureen McNaboe, LMS

Chestnut Ridge MS, East Ramapo  "I organize a free book distribution the day before the Rockland Read-In.  That way, our students all have something to read for the event.  The schedule was hectic but it was still a heart warming, meaningful day for our staff and our students."  Colette Politzer, LMS

Author, Author

Author G.A. Morgan personally read excerpts of her new book, "The Fog of Forgetting" to NMS students at a special lunch-time event.

Nyack parent, Nick Howard, has a special connection to our author, and as Ms. Morgan was to be in the vicinity, he helped arrange this special, spontaneous event, & your Library Teacher leapt at the opportunity.

Spoiler Alert: Reading is absolutely integral to succeeding in every walk of life, so to inspire a love of reading with a real-live author visit is a terrific opportunity!

Ms. Morgan readily fielded questions of every kind: About how she came up with her ideas; Did her childhood resemble her characters’; How did she happen to include two sisters who had been orphaned in Haiti as main characters, etc. Plus, she raffled off special stones that serve as icons in her tale. Students even got a scoop about a possible movie-deal in the offing for this first book in a trilogy.

Her visit coincided with our NMS PTA Book Fair, so she gamely sold signed copies, donating those proceeds to the PTA, & gave copies of her book to our library, local public libraries, & to students who had expressed a special interest.

In short, our students learned about the current state of independent publishing —cultivating their aspirations to write — as well as spurring their imaginations through reading .

This Library Teacher hopes that rather than truly falling into a fog of forgetting, our students find the wonders of reading live in memory, brilliantly, for always.

submitted by Nora Quinn, LMS

Nyack Middle School Library Media Center

http://tinyurl.com/NMS-Library-Pathfinders