Are you attending the Vermont Library Conference?

Please consider lending a hand to make this conference run smoothly.

Conference Angels are needed for these positions:

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For an update on the work of the committee this past year (2007-2008), see the committee’s report: vla-grc-report-may-2008.pdf

The Personnel Committee is meeting

Monday, May 12th, 10am-noon at the Midstate Regional Library in Berlin 

to begin planning its next project: a survey of Vermont public librarians’ wages and benefits. The Committee welcomes volunteers to help draft, administer, and analyze the survey.

 Contact Chair Amy C. Grasmick for more information:

Kimball Public Library
kimball_acg@hotmail.com
728-5073 

New VLA membership applications after April 30, 2008 will not be processed in time for any discounted conference registration fees.

Tuesday morning, April 29, the House voted to concur with the Senate-passed version of the library patron confidentiality bill (S. 220). Now it goes to the governor for his signature before becoming law. Please call or write your representatives and thank them for their support on this measure. Also, a big thanks to John Shullenberger for all his efforts on our behalf.

Contributed papers, panel sessions, preconferences, and workshops are due May 12, 2008.  The ACRL 14th National Conference, to be held in Seattle, March 12-15, 2009, will offer a forum for an exciting and energizing exchange of ideas on research, practices, developments, and visions in the field of academic and research librarianship. The conference theme, “Pushing the Edge: Explore, Engage, Extend,” reflects the promise and the challenge of the Northwest. The ACRL National Conference Executive Committee invites submitters to send their edgiest, most “out-there” proposals, to help make ACRL 2009 a truly groundbreaking conference. 

Proposals are sought for a variety of formats including contributed papers, panel sessions, preconferences, workshops, poster sessions, and roundtable discussions.  Deadlines for proposal submissions are as follows:

May 12, 2008 - Contributed papers, panel sessions, preconferences, and workshops

• October 20, 2008 - Poster sessions
• November 23, 2008 - Roundtable discussions

 Full text of the Call for Participation is available online at http://wwww.acrl.org/seattle (Click “Proposals”).  Proposals must be submitted via the online proposal form, available at http://www.eshow2000.com/acrl/2009/program_proposal_submission.cfm. Complete details about the conference are online at http://wwww.acrl.org/seattle.  Questions about the call for presentation and the 14^th ACRL National Conference should be directed to Margot Conahan at mconahan@ala.org, or by phone at 312-280-2522. 

. . .and urge them to vote in favor of S. 220, the bill to protect the confidentiality of library patrons records.  Please ask them to support the bill as voted by the House Judiciary Committee.  You might indicate that this bill will codify our professional code of ethics and make it clear to all Vermonters that their library records are confidential, and is much like laws in more than 40 other states.

To find out who your representatives are, go to:  http://www.leg.state.vt.us/legdir/legdir2.htm
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We have found a candidate to run for Vice-President / President elect.  John Payne of St. Michael’s has agreed to run.  A revised ballot can be found here : official-warning.pdf.  As always, additional nominations for all open offices may be taken from the floor.  - Brenda Ellis, VLA Secretary

In early March, several librarians made a presentation to the VT Telecom Authority about the expanding role of libraries in providing public access to technology and high-speed Internet services. The mission of VTA is, in part, to ensure “that all residences and business in all regions of the state have access to affordable broadband services not later than the end of the year 2010.”

The committee was thrilled to hear the presentation, and we hope it is a start of a conversation about our need for additional resources to meet increasing demands for services. A handout prepared for the meeting can be found here, Connecting the Unconnected.

If you would like more information, contact Lisa von Kann, Library Director, St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 802-748-8291, 1vkann[at]stjathenaeum.org.

Hello Youth Librarians,

 For those of you not yet initiated into the cozy inner circle of our CAYAL distribution list family  (just ask), Jill Coffrin and I invite you to scenic Colchester for our spring CAYAL MEETING, to be held Thursday, April 17th, from 2-4 PM at the Colchester Meeting House adjacent to the Burnham Memorial Library. Read the rest of this entry »