• Columbia County: Jill Leinung, first five-year term 
• Dutchess County: Barry Ramage, second five-year term 
• Greene County: Debra Klein, second, five-year term 

Jill Leinung, Columbia County	Barry Ramage, Dutchess County	Debra Klein, Greene County

• A report from MHLS Executive Director, Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, who: 

• Highlighted two member libraries for their outstanding accomplishments: 

• Claverack Free Library for the grand opening of their new facility 
• Kent Public Library for the passage of their first-ever municipal ballot initiative (414 vote)  

• Honored five MHLS staff who have reached service milestones with the organization: 

• Chris Herron, Facilities Manager & Assistant Delivery Operations Manager, 25 years 
• Joan Kay, Financial Assistant, 20 years 
• Linda Vittone, Financial Manager & Personnel Officer, 20 years 
• Chris McCann, Delivery Operations Clerk II, 10 years 
• Michael Tsahalis, Delivery Operations & Facilities Associate, 5 years 

• Provided a report on MHLS' service response in the face of COVID-19 and a highlight reel of member library activities to meet the drastically changed needs of their communities in the midst of the pandemic. Rebekkah focused on efforts by members to address digital inclusion and food scarcity challenges in communities throughout the Hudson Valley and shined a spotlight on creative and unique service and program designs by member libraires from mobile apps to facilitate local history tours to StoryWalks® to a storytime held in a canoe on the Hudson River!     

After the close of the business meeting Tracie D. Hall, Executive Director of the American Library Association provided the keynote address. Her talk was entitled "Fighting Two Pandemics: Information Poverty and What Libraries Can Do to Close the Gap." Ms. Hall's talk focused attention on the cost of being without internet access, information as a social justice and public health issue, the fight against information poverty, and the "Third Great Wave of Library Services." 

 

Ms. Hall shared Johannnes Blinz's definition of "information poverty": "...a situation in which individuals and communities do not have the requisite skills, abilities or material means to obtain efficient access to information, interpret it and apply it appropriately." She noted the three categories that contribute to information poverty: 

• Lack of access to affordable broadband infrastructure; 
• Lack of access to internet-connected devices, or a lack of device literacy; and 
• Low information literacy skills.  

The "Third Great Wave of Library Service" was put into context as coming after the first wave which lasted until the early 20th century as libraries worked to address reading literacy and the second wave latter in the 20th 

century to introduce technological literacy, and defined as the time in which libraries will "exteriorize" library and information services to close the digital literacy and data access gap.  

 

Ms. Hall called upon MHLS stakeholders to mobilize on this topic and understand that racial and ethnic minorities tend to rely more heavily on libraries for critical information needs and that for some in our communities the library is not seen as a welcoming place. She urged audience members to pay attention to "micro-inequities," subtle differences in tone, gesture, attitude and manner that can subconsciously come into play when we interact with those we perceive as different or "other." 

 

The close of the talk provided discussion questions library leaders can use in-house with their staff and boards: 

• In your experience what are the societal costs of individuals or entire communities being left "out of the loop"?  
• Does any of this discussion about the role of libraries in countering information poverty hit home to you? Why? What are some examples? 
• Some are worried that library service will be negatively impacted in the long term by the pandemic, what alternative future can we imagine that might result in libraries having greater impact than ever? 
• What are some ways that libraries can better place libraries and information services within reach of new publics? 

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