Library Legislative Breakfast at Grace Hall Library

Representative Peter Kocot speaks about his support of libraries to people attending the Legislative Breakfast at the Grace Hall Memorial Library in Montgomery on February 13. Listening are Representatives Don Humason and Rosemary Sandlin, who also spoke about how important they consider State funding for libraries. Also attending were aides from Senator Michael Knapik and Rep. Michael Kane.

‘Tis the season to let our legislators know how important libraries are to us, by writing to them (contact information at http://www.mass.gov/legis/legis.htm), attending legislative breakfasts (http://www.wmrls.org/wmrls/legislativebfast.html) and taking the Friends of WMRLS bus to the State House on April 2 for Library Legislative Day (http://friends.wmrls.org/2009-bus.pdf).

~ John Ramsay, Regional Administrator, WMRLS

M.T. Anderson to speak at Westfield State College

M. T. Anderson, author of "Feed" and "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing" among others will be speaking at Westfield State College on February 26. He'll be in the Scanlon Living Room from 3:30 - 5:30 pm.

~ Barbara Diamond Goldin, Emily Williston Memorial Library, Easthampton

Wii will Rock at West Springfield Public Library

West Springfield Public Library just received the exciting news that we have been awarded a Teen Tech Week mini grant from YALSA, the young adult division of ALA. The grant was sponsored by Verizon and is intended to bring technology into the library in innovative ways. We plan to use the grant to purchase a Wii game system and Rock Band for the youth department, and hold our first program during national Teen Tech Week, March 8-14th. The theme of this year's Teen Tech Week is "Press Play @Your Library". The inclusion of gaming in our program line-up at the library will compliment a music-sharing program designed earlier in the year by our high school interns, and will also hopefully draw in new users. We have an active population of teen and tween patrons who visit the library regularly to play a variety of games online. This next step incorporating technology in our library has patrons and staff equally enthusiastic. If anyone has run a successful game tournament or has tips and tricks for helping such a program go smoothly we welcome your suggestions and ideas!

Regional and Network Statewide Planning Summit Survey

Dear Western Region Libraries:

WMRLS strongly urges staff at all our member libraries of all types to take the easy-to-complete online planning survey.

We need to know what support services and resources are most important to your library and its users. The results of this survey will help shape future service directions and the very structureof organizations that exist to help libraries statewide. These include the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, the Regional Library Systems (including WMRLS) and the automated resource sharing systems (like C/W MARS and MassCat).

So, let your needs be known, no matter what size or type library you work at or represent. In these difficult times, it's clear that State funding is insufficient to provide everything we want. Things will need to change, and we need to know what services are priorities for your library and how they should be provided.

Thank you,
John Ramsay, Regional Administrator, WMRLS