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MLA has been busy this quarter advocating for libraries and library funding. MLA had two librarians join State Librarian James Ritter to testify in support of LD 344: An Act To Amend the Laws Governing the Confidentiality of Library Records before the Judiciary Committee in Augusta. Anne Davis (Director of the Gardiner Public Library and a member of the MLA Legislative Committee), and Nissa Flanagan (Librarian at Merrill Memorial Library and MLA President) testified along with James Ritter in support of the bill and were also present for the work session, where the members of the Judiciary Committee were unanimously in favor of the bill.
The current law recognizes that information sought at the library may be sensitive, and protects as confidential the link between patrons and the materials they access. LD344 clarifies the current statute to specify that the personally identifying information our patrons use to register for a library card is confidential as well as their circulation history. It also extends the language of the statute to include items other than books, now that libraries circulate a wide variety of materials both digital and physical.
For those wondering, arguments in favor of the amendment include:
- Nonprofit libraries may set policies declaring this information confidential, but municipal libraries must comply with FOIA requests, so this law puts all public libraries on the same legal footing.
- The information supplied by patrons to receive a library card includes information which is not generally publicly available, including email addresses and cell phone numbers.
- Many patrons sign up for their cards assuming their information is confidential, and this amendment brings the law in line with what was generally assumed by librarians and patrons alike. Some patrons may have circumstances where their personal safety would be compromised should their contact information be released.
- 24 other states already explicitly protect both registration and circulation data.
The amendment does not affect the ability of library staff to access patron information, create reports using aggregate or anonymized data, or for law enforcement to request information. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this piece of legislation, or why MLA is supporting it.
MLA is also monitoring the Governor's proposed budget, especially with regards to the Municipal Revenue Sharing and taxation of non-profits. I wrote a column about how changes in Municipal Revenue Sharing would affect libraries, which ran in both the Portland Press Herald and the Kennebec Journal, and was also distributed to those legislators who are working on the state budget. It was well received and hopefully enlightened the public about the danger many of Maine's libraries will be in should Municipal Revenue Sharing be defunded. Taxation of non profits would certainly also affect many libraries in the state quite dramatically. I am sure you are all waiting as anxiously as I am to find out what this year's state budget is going to look like.
National Library Legislative Day is coming up on May 4, and MLA will be sending a representative to Washington, D.C. to speak with Maine's legislators about the issues libraries face and how they can help. ALA will release the details closer to the date about what bills will be highlighted, but it's a fantastic opportunity to connect with our legislators, and my experience has been that ours are very supportive of libraries and appreciate finding out how they can use their votes to sustain and fund libraries.
Finally, a new year means new MLA Board members. Please look for information regarding candidates to arrive via email soon, and don't forget to vote!
Thank you for your continued membership and support,
Nissa Flanagan
MLA President
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Book Award News
Here are some of the great book awards that have been given out in this past month.
Maine Student Book Award
Winner: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
Second Place: Star Wars: Jedi Academy by Jeffrey Brown
Third Place: Dogs of War by Sheila Keenan
For the current list of nominees and more information, check out their website.
Chickadee Book Award
Winner: Carnivores by Aaron Reynolds
Second Place: Exclamation Mark! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld
Third Place: Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and the Secret Mud that Changed Baseball by David A. Kelly
For more information and a current list of nominees, check out their website.
Lupine Award
Lupine Award Winner, picture book category: The Right Word by Jen Bryant;illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Lupine Award Honor, picture book category: Jubilee: One Man's Big, Bold, and Very Very Loud Celebration of Peace by Alicia Potter; illustrated by Matt Tavares
Lupine Award Winner, chapter book category: Zane and the Hurricane, by Rodman Philbrick
Lupine Award Honor, chapter book category: Half a Chance, by Cynthia Lord
Katahdin Award
Katahdin Winner: Chris Van Dusen
For more information about Lupine and Katahdin, check out their website.
Maine Readers' Choice Award
The Maine Readers' Choice Award has announced their three finalists for this year. The titles are:
All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
Euphoria by Lily King
Redeployment by Phil Klay
For more information about the Maine Reader's Choice Award, please visit their website.
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A Most Unusual Guided Tour
Welcome aboard folks. I know many of you have professional experience in the field, but I must warn you to be prepared at all times during the tour and remember to follow some basic ground rules. They might seem obvious to some, or silly to others, but they have been put in place for very good reason. First, photos are fine, but be aware that the lighting inside is tricky, unpredictable and can change at any time, so don't be surprised if the image you get looks completely unlike what you thought you saw. Rule number two. Please remain with the tour at all times. Last December on the Holiday Tour, we had a young couple who lagged behind so they could have a little private time in one of the rooms. He's still being treated at an inpatient facility because he's convinced that he's the reincarnation of Melville Dewey and she can't speak anything but Mongolian without breaking out in a horrible body rash. Third, please refrain from touching any of the items on display. While most are believed to be benign, there are a few that are capable of changing your personality and outlook completely. That's why we had you sign your tour waiver in the presence of a notary.
Ready to go? Please follow me. There will be time for bathroom breaks and questions at the end. One last comment before we enter, what you see inside may look like complete chaos, but remember that it has functioned in ways that have and continue to amaze many in the profession.
I wait as everyone enters the soft flexible door, waiting to see if anyone comments on its structure, but they're either squinting as they hit the darkened interior or texting God knows who. I wish we could ban those damn things, but once we get inside, it won't matter. The electrical impulses will jam the heck out of any signal.
We call this room the Den of Cluelessness AKA Where I learned to pay it forward. Note the series of early emails between the owner and his peers in the medical library world. As you can see, he came into the profession out of a combination of desperation and bravado. Desperate because his current role as an adult educator in an insane asylum was crumbling and brave because he had the ego and the delusion to claim that he could modernize the library at said asylum. Funny thing, though. He delivered big time, in part because he discovered the Zen of Librarianship. Know what you don't know and then learn it. Note how many responses he got from other librarians as far away as Great Britain, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Amazing how many wanted to play nice. Now, if you look at the wall on the opposite side of the room, you'll see a map of Maine that's covered with yellow pins, more than 150 in fact. Each one represents a library that he's personally visited and in many of them, he offered suggestions and examples of how he figured out various things or better ways to do something. That was the biggest lesson he took away from the era of cluelessness. If you want to keep it, you have to give it away.
I notice several of the tour members making copious notes while a few others are trying to figure out how many libraries they've visited during their career.
We move down the hall with its dark purple velvet wall hangings that depict scenes from books he's read and loved. I never get tired of the amazingly lifelike series from the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. It makes me realize why that series had stuck with him for over thirty years.
I wait until everyone is in the next room which we call the 'You ain't making Progress Until You Piss Someone Off' room. There are about twenty dioramas scattered about on display stands. I like the one with the racy graphic novels tucked into the oversize shelf, but the one that makes the most sense is the one where Christian fiction is housed as far away from Paranormal Romance as possible. One you're not likely to see in many places is the one where the miniature figure's hair stands on end while a teenager cowers in front of the checkout desk. Behind them is a whiteboard that says “Just accept the fact that when you're the entire staff and have a bad day, people are gonna see it, That's what apologies are for.” The other one I like is the same figure bending over an overflowing toilet with the caption, “Taking the plunge took on a whole new meaning when I started working here.” Finally one I doubt many librarians would admit to having a shared experience with, is one where an obese couple are bent over to look at the DVD section and neither one has their derriere adequately covered. This one is captioned thusly “In my next life, I'm mandating taller pants, longer shirts and unisex suspenders.
For the rest of this guided tour, please visit the Maine Library Association website.
Submitted by John Clark
Hartland Public Library
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On March 17, 2015 Windham Public Library celebrated 10 years of Tea for You @ the Library. Every 6 weeks an informal gathering takes place in the meeting room, bringing together all ages who take a few minutes to enjoy a hot cup of tea and some homemade delights. As many as 55 guests have shared in the comradery and learned special facts gleaned from the themes honored over the years. The tea is hosted by Barbara Kelley, Windham Public Library’s Reference Librarian and Laurel T. Parker, WPL Children’s Librarian. To learn more about this tea, check out this Keep ME Current article.
Submitted by Laurel T. Parker
Windham Public Library
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Pictured above: Lossene Dorleh, Library Assistant, in the One Button Studio
Thanks to a generous grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, the Edmunds Library at Northern Maine Community College has a One Button Studio. A One Button Studio is a preconfigured studio that allows users with a jump drive and without training to create professional-looking videos. This do-it-yourself recording studio requires only the press of one button to turn the entire studio on and begin recording.
The One Button Studio concept and design was developed by IT professionals at Penn State University. It was so successful on their campus that they shared their information and instructions online for the use of other institutions. The One Button Studio is a simplified video-recording studio that requires no preparation: camera, lights, and microphone are preset. With nothing but a jump drive, a user can instantly make a video. When a jump drive is plugged into a USB hub, a simple push of a button activates software that turns on the lights, microphone, and camera, and the recording process begins. No interaction with the computer at the center of the system is required. Another push of the same button saves the file to the jump drive when recording is finished. The raw file is compressed and saved, ready to be loaded to an online platform such as YouTube, Facebook, or Vimeo or edited using iMovie, Movie Maker, or other video-editing software.
The library used existing storage space, which was converted into a 10' x 15' room by the campus maintenance department. Once the room was created, the NMCC IT department was responsible for the technical portion of the project—installation of the software, computers, lights, microphone, and other required components.
The studio now includes a video camera, a computer, lighting, a microphone, and a projector. Other items, such as a lectern, a white board, a green screen, and tables and chairs, can be added to complement the core configuration. In the near future, the library will add a teleprompter and a lapel microphone.
The studio is available to students, faculty, staff, and community members, many of whom have shown great interest in using it. Over fifty reservations have been taken for the studio since the February 26, 2015 launch date. Adjustments have been made to the setup based on user comments and suggestions solicited via a feedback survey.
The initial response to the studio at NMCC has been enthusiastic. The primary purpose of the new facility is to enrich the academic experience of NMCC students, and already many have used it for speech classes, business communication classes, and mock interviews. Members of the faculty have created short instructional videos to embed in their courseware, and staff have produced departmental videos. Academic Success Center tutors have created math tutorials. Local organizations such as the Presque Isle Air Museum and the Presque Isle Historical Society have expressed an interest in using the studio to produce oral-history interviews. The One Button Studio at NMCC is the first step in the creation of a makerspace in the Edmunds Library, and additional grant funding will be sought to expand library resources to that end.
For additional information:
Penn State’s One Button Studio site, which includes a detailed equipment list, instructions, and further information.
Northern Maine Community College Library One Button Studio LibGuide:
Contact Information:
Gail Roy
Assistant Dean of Learning Resources
groy@nmcc.edu
Edmunds Library
Northern Maine Community College
33 Edgemont Drive
Presque Isle, ME
207-768-2734
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UNT and MCL Bring Scholarship Program to Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine
The University of North Texas' Department of Library and Information Sciences and the Manchester City Library are announcing a new collaboration to deliver UNT's Masters of Library and Information Sciences program in the Northern New England area. A small cohort of students from Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine will begin studies together at MCL in January 2016 and graduate in December 2017. The program will blend two on-site Institutes at MCL, with the remainder of the program delivered online from UNT.
Students will have the opportunity to choose from eight programs of study and six graduate academic certificates. DLIS is offering at least twenty $2,000 scholarships to students admitted to the cohort. Applications for the program are now being accepted until the cohort is filled.
For more information on the program and on upcoming information sessions, visit https://lis.unt.edu/vt-nh-me-cohort
Submitted by Dr. Phillip Turner, Professor Emeritus
University of North Texas
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Sharing is Good: An Update from Maine's Shared Collections
As we were all taught back in kindergarten, sharing is good. Several Maine libraries are demonstrating this through participation in Maine Shared Collections. Back in in July’s edition of MLA to Z (summer seems such a long time ago!) I wrote about wrapping up the grant activities of the Maine Shared Collections Strategy (MSCS). Based on our experience from the grant, we’ve developed our own collection analysis service. We provide libraries with data and advice for making decisions about what titles can be safely weeded and those which are potential candidates for long-term retention as part of Maine Shared Collections. So far, 16 libraries have participated in analyzing their print monographs collections (Edythe L. Dyer, Witherle, Northeast Harbor, McArthur, Freeport, seven Community Colleges, University of Maine Farmington, University of Maine at Presque Isle, University of Maine at Augusta, and UMA Bangor) and I’m keen to get as many libraries involved as possible.
Analysis to date
By committing to retain items, member libraries provide other libraries with the option to weed their own local copy, safe in the knowledge that their patrons can still access the title via existing resource sharing agreements. Overlap has been high (on average 40%) between libraries’ print monograph collections and titles already committed to retain by Maine Shared Collections members. Therefore, there have been plenty opportunities for weeding. Some libraries have literally taken their spreadsheets to the stacks to pull items for weeding. Those libraries that have already identified weeding candidates used the spreadsheets as another check before deciding whether an item could be safely weeded.
Generally, the titles identified as retention commitment candidates are those where there are fewer than ten holding libraries in OCLC, don’t have an existing Maine Shared Collections retention commitment, or are Maine related. The average number of titles identified as potential retention candidates account for less than 1% of the library’s print monograph collection. The numbers of titles involved – from only 17 to 97 – are sufficiently low that libraries have felt comfortable making the retention commitments, but there is no obligation for them to do so. Examples of titles that have been committed to retain include Rev. Seth Noble: a revolutionary war soldier's promise of America and the founding of Bangor, Maine and Columbus, Ohio by Carol B. Smith Fisher and Embedded memories: the story of Aroostook potato houses by Roger P. Akeley.
A nice byproduct of the collection analysis is documentation that identifies incorrect and missing metadata (e.g. incorrect and missing ISBN, OCLC numbers). This can be used to correct records, benefitting other libraries in our shared resource environment.
Benefits
There are four main benefits for participating in the collection analysis and joining Maine Shared Collections:
1. Data-informed collection management decisions. While data alone is never going to make decisions, it can be used to make more informed decisions based on overlap with peer libraries, rarity, and usage.
2. Insurance of retention commitments. The large volume of retention commitments made by the grant partners (approximately 1.4 million titles) and those made subsequently by new members can act as an insurance policy. Libraries can choose to weed those titles committed to retain by members while still retaining access to them via inter library loan.
3. Freeing up local shelf and storage space.
4. Contributing towards the common good. Even a small number of retention commitments will mean a library is contributing towards the common good of managing and preserving the print collection in Maine.
For even more about shared collections, check out the Maine Library Association website.
Submitted by Matthew Revitt,
Special Collections and Maine Shared Collection Librarian
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We hope you have enjoyed this issue of MLA to Z. Our next issue comes out in July, so get your article ideas ready!
Samantha Cote
MLA to Z Newsletter Editor
Youth Services/Technology Librarian, Winslow Public Library
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