Trustee Education: Home

RCLS maintains a catalog of on-demand, online, self-paced courses via NicheAcademy in the customized RCLS Staff Academy (Niche Academy).  The RCLS Staff Academy is a vetted selection for your use. Once logged on to NicheAcademy, select "Trustee Education" from the Categories dropdown menu in the upper right corner of the page for applicable courses.  {PLEASE NOTE: Do not type "NicheAcademy" directly into a browser search.  Doing so will take you to the main NicheAcademy website.  They have a vast catalog of courses, and not all of their offerings meet the criteria for Trustee Education credit. Credit hours for any particular NicheAcademy course are designated by NicheAcademy and may not correlate exactly to the actual time spent viewing their content.} 

Trustees must notify their library's record keeper independently of ANY education they complete in NicheAcademy. A Certificate of Completion should be offered at the end of any of their courses.  Download the Certificate and provide it to your library's record keeper.  RCLS does not maintain records for those programs.

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ADDITIONAL THIRD-PARTY PROVIDER OPTIONS

Trustees should track their own attendance for any education provided by a third-party [i.e., Mid-Hudson Library System (MHLS), Southeastern New York Library Council (SENYLRC), NYS DLD, NYLA, ALA, etc.]   RCLS does not maintain records for those programs. 

Trustees must notify their library's record keeper independently of ANY third-party education they complete.  Trustees may fill out a Self-Assurance Reporting Form for any training they complete.  (The Self-Assurance Form will serve in place of a certificate, should one not be obtained.)  Use the Self-Assurance Reporting Form found on the NYS Division of Library Development’s web site.

Trustees may access an Archive of Mid-Hudson Library System's recordings of their Trustee Handbook Book Club.  Those sessions carry Trustee Education credit and may be completed at your convenience.  Access the recordings & instructions here: Mid-Hudson Library System (midhudson.org) Non-MHLS Member Library Trustees will not be issued a MHLS Certificate of Attendance but can use the Self-Assurance Reporting Form found on the NYS Division of Library Development’s web site.

You may also opt to select courses from the following alternatives to complete your required 2 hours for the year.  The State Library has pre-approved the following trustee education providers:

• New York State Library/Division of Library Development
• Public Library Systems
• WebJunction
• New York Library Association (including the Library Trustees Section and other Sections/Roundtables)
• Reference and Research Library Resources Councils
• Empire State Library Network (formerly New York 3Rs Association)
• PULISDO (Public Library System Directors Organization)
• ALA including United for Libraries and other Divisions

Trustees may complete Self-Assurance Forms for any training from any provider. The Self-Assurance Form may be accessed here

Please refer to the FAQ's page of the New York State Library for additional information relating to Trustee Education Requirements. (Link: FAQ's page of the New York State Library)

New Users: The link to NicheAcademy in the box to the left will take you to the RCLS NicheAcademy login page. If you do not have an account, you can create one by clicking on the "Create a free account" text. See the example below:

While we try to grant access quickly, there may be a slight delay before RCLS Administrators are alerted and grant access to the academy. Please contact the RCLS ILS Department with questions regarding NicheAcademy.  Once your account has been established and you have successfully logged in, select "Trustee Education" from the Categories dropdown menu in the upper right of the page for applicable courses.