SLS Member Plan

Posted Thu, 04/21/2011 by cgharris

Commissioner's Regulation §90.18 requires that each school district and non-public member of a School Library System submit a member plan during each five-year plan of service period. The plan should describe how member libraries meet the needs of their students and teachers through resources and programming as well as describe how the libraries make use of the system and its resources. There are four data elements to the member plan:

(i) a description of existing library resources and services in a format established by the school library system;
(ii) procedures for prompt and efficient communication among school library media specialists and reporting to other members of the school community regarding system policies, procedures and services;
(iii) provisions for periodic reporting, at least annually, to the governing body of the school district or nonpublic school and to the administration, regarding participation of the member in system services;
(iv) assurance by the member and its participants that adequate qualified staff is available to organize and administer the library media program and fulfill system responsibilities.

2012 ALA Award Books Grant

Posted Tue, 01/19/2010 by cgharris

The School Library System is once again offering member libraries an ALA Award Books Grant. You will be able to select either the award winner or one of the honor books for each of the three covered awards (Caldecott, Newbery, Printz). In order to be eligible for this grant, you must apply online using this form by Wednesday, February 1st.

Game Library Gains National Attention

Posted Tue, 09/13/2011 by cgharris

Library Technology Specialist Brian Mayer authored two articles for the most recent issue of Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association of School Librarians. The Spet/Oct 2011 issue, guest edited by School Library System Coordinator Christopher Harris, addresses educational gaming. The Genesee Valley School Library System's collection of curriculum aligned modern board games has become a model program for school libraries throughout the country as evidenced by other articles in this issue quoting Mayer's work from the SLS website. One of Mayer's articles addresses the alignments that we have completed linking the games in our library to the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner and the new Common Core Standards. The second, an interview with noted game designer Martin Wallace, helps shed light on the role of game designer as author of another type of curriculum resource provided through the school library.

Summer Workshops

Posted Thu, 06/02/2011 by mswain

We are offering several workshops this summer. Some workshops are held in the morning (9:00 - 12:00) and some in the afternoon (12:00 - 3:00). Please sign up for any or all that you would like to attend.

JULY 6 (PM) - Mandarin: Our classic summer workshop is back. If you are planning on attending either this or the later Mandarin workshop, please email Andy or Brian with ideas for what you would like covered. These are very attendee driven and we try to cover topics pertinent to you.

JULY 13 (AM) - Advanced SMART Boards: Come join Liesl Toates from Model Schools and Distance Learning to learn beyond the basics of SMART Boards.

JULY 20 (PM) - New Fish4Info: Hands-on with the new Fish site.

JULY 27 (AM) - Digital Media Festival: If you are new, old-hat or just curious, come learn about the Digital Media Festival. We will share project ideas, tools and discuss the future of the festival. Several librarians who are very involved in creating award winning submissions will be joining us to share their experiences and best practices as well.

Annual Survey 2010-2011

Posted Wed, 06/01/2011 by cgharris

Thank you for taking the time to fill out this review of the School Library System's performance for the past school year. As per §90.18, the information collected from this survey will be submitted to the Division of Library Development as part of the SLS Annual Report. This is also a chance for us at the SLS to identify areas of concern that need additional effort during the coming year.

eBooks in Schools

Posted Fri, 12/10/2010 by cgharris

Attached is a Quicktime movie of the presentation file that I shared at our local ebook summit. Based on that discussion, the SLS and Media Library are looking to move forward with a hosted ebook platform such as the service offered by OverDrive. This would allow us to provide content for district-owned ebook readers. Depending on the disbursement of state funding for the SLS, this program might start as early as this year.

Please let me know if you have additional questions or would like me to come meet with you or staff from your school about ebooks. I am serving on an ALA task force about ebooks and equitable access for libraries and so am receiving regular updates on the topic.

NOVELny Online training webinars

Posted Fri, 07/30/2010 by cgharris

The New York State Library is pleased to announce online training sessions ("webinars") relating to the database titles recently added to the NOVELny statewide database program. These sessions will be conducted by a trainer from Cengage-Gale. They are offered at no charge to all types of libraries and will last approximately one hour.

The following sessions have been scheduled:

"An Introduction to Searching on Cengage-Gale," with emphasis on the Academic OneFile, General OneFile, and Health Reference Center Academic databases: Friday, August 20, 11:00 am ET.

"An Introduction to Searching on Cengage-Gale," with emphasis on the Academic OneFile, General OneFile, and Health Reference Center Academic databases: Tuesday, September 14, 4:00 pm ET.

"An Introduction to Searching on Cengage-Gale," with emphasis on the Academic OneFile, General OneFile, and Health Reference Center Academic databases: Monday, September 20, 12:00 noon ET.

"An Introduction to Searching on Cengage-Gale," with emphasis on the Academic OneFile, General OneFile, and Health Reference Center Academic databases: Monday, September 20, 4:00 pm ET.

SLS 2010 ALA Books Grant

Posted Fri, 04/30/2010 by bmayer

Congratulations to everyone who received an ALA Award Books grant. Attached you will find the records for all of the books that were selected by the participating schools. Import the files for the selected books you received and modify the records, adding your location information (852 field) and your holdings.

As always, please contact Brian or Andy with any questions that you may have.

Visiting Author Day – How to Meet with Success

Posted Thu, 01/21/2010 by jellison

When my school first joined the Visiting Author CoSer in 2006 I was excited about the opportunity for the students but also worried about how to go about pulling off a successful and memorable visit. The first thing I did was talk to Donna Katter about it and she gave me names of a couple of other librarians who had been having successful visiting author days for years. She suggested that I contact Carin Barwick at Geneseo Elementary and Jill Feine from Batavia John Kennedy to ask for ideas. I did this, and it was a big help. My two biggest suggestions to anyone who is planning a day are to start planning early and to get your faculty and staff involved.

SIGMS Technology Innovation Award

Posted Tue, 01/19/2010 by bmayer

The ISTE Media Specialists SIG (SIGMS) announces the 3rd annual “Technology Innovation Award”. This award is quickly becoming recognized as a premier award to honor school librarians for their outstanding work in integrating technology into teaching and learning in their schools. Sponsored by Linworth Publishing, Inc. and Follett Software Company, the award will be presented to two teams of a school librarian and collaborating teacher who have conducted an exemplary technology program extending beyond the library to meet the needs of classroom students and teachers. The purpose of this award is to identify, promote, and sustain excellence in collaborative and innovative technology-based projects driven by the school library media center in support of curricular and instructional needs in elementary, middle, and high schools.

Awardees will be notified in April and highlighted at ISTE’s annual conference and exposition in Denver Colorado, June 27—June 30, 2010. In addition, winners will:

  • Receive a one-year membership to ISTE (2 per team)
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