Hearing Loss Program at Greenfield Public

Belated Tech services roundtable notes

1. Purchasing Co-op deadline March 31; bid by end of April - e-mail

Jan Resnick if necessary.

2. WMRLS Restructuring - process of merger continues; consolidation

of staff and services at the Regional level (47 staff to be reduced to 22); www.wmrls.org has link to merger transition report, with important summary beginning on p. 4; plan should be final by June; WMRLS building will be open for at least a year as delivery hub; MassCat and training will continue; one positive thing is that data bases will be state-wide eventually; MARLS Coop is state-wide already, and it works well.

Facebook: "We Love Western Mass Libraries."

3. FY11 budget - How have individual Tech Services Depts. been

affected? Frustration expressed re: TS staff getting cut, and the difficulty of using subs in TS; also, the difficulty of working as subs in public services, when staff are out sick, on vacation, etc.

4. C/WMARS -Janet Schrader on communicating with CWMARS and

especially when registering for workshops - PLEASE include full name, library name, e-mail and use subject line to state topic or workshop name.

5. CatExpress up for renewal; deadline is very soon. Janet

believes records will still be .99 per record, and it's the same rate for extra records.

6. Migration to Evergreen should be in 18 months. It will only

occur, however, after Serials and Acquisitions modules are ready.

7. RDA will begin to replace AACR2; it might be web-based only,

@$300/yr.

8. Next Meeting: June 9, 2010, 10 a.m. - Belchertown, Clapp

Memorial Library.

WMRLS ILL is Changing - Training Offered Next Week

Dear WMRLS Member Libraries,

Due to drastic budget cuts, the Regions are merging and ILL is changing. 

Although the major merger changes will happen in July, WMRLS needs to start clearing ILL loans and borrows so that everything for which we are responsible is cleaned up by the end of June.  We expect to stop as an ILL lender in early May and discontinue borrowing on behalf of our libraries around the same time.  We will be transferring the responsibility for handling member ILL title and periodical requests to your new ILL Center at the Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy.

The WMRLS ILL office will continue to handle subject requests through May to keep those school projects humming. 

Consequently, to prepare for the changes, we are offering training sessions next week to explain how ILL processes will operate in the new world.  Workshop registration information is at:  http://www.wmrls.org/events.  Workshops are April 27 and 28 in Lee, WMRLS and Palmer.  Registration is open until late Monday, but we will cancel sessions that are undersubscribed.  We apologize for the short lead time.

We hope to see you next week.

N. Janeen Resnick
Assistant Regional Administrator
Western MA Regional Library System

WMRLS Librarians Go Green with Project WILD

 

A BIG Thank you to ...

• Pam Landry, Education Coordinator of Massachusetts Department of Fish & Wildlife
• Gini Traub, Regional EE Coordinator, Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation
• Alexander Gillman, Regional EE Coordinator, Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation

For conducting the outstanding Project WILD Train the Trainer Workshops on April 9 at the Lenox Memorial Middle & High School Library and on April 16 at the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls. 

A Summary about Project WILD:

"Project WILD is one of the most widely-used conservation and environmental education programs among educators of students in kindergarten through high school. It is based on the premise that young people and educators have a vital interest in learning about our natural world. A national network of State Wildlife Agency Sponsors ensures that Project WILD is available nationwide --training educators in the many facets of the program. Emphasizing wildlife because of its intrinsic value, Project WILD addresses the need for human beings to develop as responsible citizens of our planet."

MLS Designated as Regional Administrative Entity

"The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) held a special meeting on April 13 at which it voted to designate the Massachusetts Library System (MLS) as the administrative entity to provide regional services to libraries and residents beginning July 1, 2010. This action was necessitated by a severe reduction in funding to the regional budget line...."   Read Complete Report