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Contact Us
The MHLS Bulletin welcomes submissions from member libraries.
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MHLS Libraries Give Back!
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What do 109.5 pounds of cat food, 156 books, several bags of trash and a pile of weeds have in common? They are all results of this year's second annual statewide event, The Great Give Back. The Great Give Back gives us all a chance to shine a light on the work libraries do to respond to the needs of the people in the community by creating opportunities for community members to 'give back' and also connect more people with what's going on at their local library. This year more than 35 MHLS member libraries participated.
Senator Sue Serino (left) stopped by Blodgett Memorial Library to drop off a food donation for the library's The Great Give Back event and the library surprised the Senator with their own donation of items for the Community Baby Shower!
In response to the rise in food insecurity over 30 member libraries held food drives - some of which continue to the end of this month. Both Ulster and Dutchess county libraries created a healthy competition to find out who could collect the most food stuffs. Roeliff Jansen Community Library, Morton Memorial Library & Community House in Rhinecliff and Desmond Fish Public Library all held cleanup events in partnership with RiverKeeper. This gave community members the opportunity to remove trash, debris, and even invasive plants from the Hudson River Watershed. The creativity in programming ideas continued with Saugerties Public Library collecting for the local Animal Shelter while Sarah Hull Hallock in Milton gathered much needed school supplies. Seniors in Patterson received a drive-thru breakfast, Cairo Public Library collected puzzles and books for Meals on Wheels, a juvenile detention center in Red Hook got new books for their library and so many more exciting and poignant events took place throughout the Mid-Hudson region. Thanks to all the member libraries that participated this year and thank you for steadfastly continuing to make a difference in your communities! 
Cairo Public Library collected puzzles, books and homemade masks for the Greene County Meals on Wheels Program. | 
Patterson Library staff get ready for the Senior drive-thru breakfast.
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Roeliff Jansen Community Library patrons get ready to cleanup in partnership with Riverkeeper.
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Check out the number of donated items Saugerties Public Library community members brought to the library for the local Animal Shelter. |
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MHLS Announcements
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More than 5,400 library professionals from around the world attended the Library 2.020 Conference on Sustainability in Libraries! MHLS Executive Director, Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, helped organize the conference events and provided the keynote presentation with a panel of library leaders in sustainability. You can view the recordings from the conference here, which include a presentation from MHLS Library Sustainability Coordinator, Casey Conlin, who teamed up with John Wackman of the Repair Café of Hudson Valley & Catskills to present a session on "Repair Cafés and Community Resilience."
Community and library advocate and MHLS Trustee, Rajene Hardeman, is one of the latest additions to The NYLA Voice. Her column, Libraries in Motion, will consider several library environments (public, private, corporate, academic, online and special) and using a combination of interviews, historic perspective, anecdotes and a sprinkling of stats, examine the commonalties and differences. A fun exploration of how libraries remain relevant and beloved. Look out for Rajene's next column in The NYLA Voice.
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Congratulations to Julia L. Butterfield Memorial Library in Cold Spring & Desmond Fish Public Library in Garrison for being awarded the Cold Spring Areas Chamber of Commerce, James G. Lovell Community Award. The award honors individuals who, by their example, generosity, and understanding of what makes Cold Spring unique, contribute to its social, economic and environmental well-being.
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The LaGrange Library will be closed from Monday, November 9th through Saturday, November 21st to pack up and move to their new location. The pickup location in Sierra for LaGrange now indicates their closed dates. This same information will also display on their transit slips, a side effect to changing that display. We ask that MHLS member libraries please continue to fill holds and put them into transit for LaGrange patrons during this time.
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Professional Development
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MHLS library directors and staff are welcome to register for Dealing with the Digital Divide on Tuesday, November 10th at 10:00 am. Internet connectivity is not a luxury, but a necessity required for everything from applying for a job to accessing elementary school learning materials to connecting with loved ones. But many people in our community cannot access broadband due to a lack of coverage and high costs. As the pandemic shifts more of our lives online the digital divide has become more apparent. Libraries have stepped up and found new ways to help people connect to this essential infrastructure through large scale and targeted projects. This program will highlight local libraries doing this work and address issues around reaching out and connecting with people who are not online. This is the final session in the 2020 Reimagining Library Services Series.
On Friday, November 20th at 1:30 pm the New York State Library will offer a one-hour webinar on Exploring the New York State Parent Portal. The Parent Portal houses the four websites created by the NYS Council on Children and Families with state agency partners to help parents and caregivers by providing positive parenting resources. You will learn how to use these resources to make families aware of childcare options, helpful hints to navigate concerns about development delays, and parenting support in your community. Register online.
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Resource Sharing & Sierra
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There are two opportunities to attend the MHLS workshop Cataloging - Understanding Item Records. Choose from Thursday, November 19th or Friday November 20th. Both 90-minute sessions begin at 10:00 am. This workshop will be beneficial for any circulation/tech services staff responsible for creating and/or managing item records in Sierra. Basic Create Lists knowledge will be helpful but is not required. Attendees will learn not just the "what" of their item records, but the "why" as well - why certain fields are important. Special emphasis will be placed on understanding how item records determine the way that Loan Rules work and best practices for maintaining and cleaning up your item records. The workshop will cover:
- What Item Record fields mean - including why Town Code, Patron Type, and Home Library often contain the same information
- How Item records determine which Loan Rule will be used in circulation transactions
- Best practices for Cleaning up your Patron Records with Create Lists
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Check out the upcoming Sierra Lunchtime Webinars with MHLS ILP Operations Manager Thomas O'Connell. All sessions begin at noon.
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 Self-response and field operations relating to enumeration in the 2020 decennial Census closed on October 15th, 2020. The efforts by MHLS member libraries to inform patrons and non-users of the importance and safety in completing the Census helped contribute to an increase in self-response over 2010 rates in many areas. An accurate count ensures these communities receive the funding and representation they are entitled to. After unprecedented challenges to a complete and accurate count including the introduction of new methods of self-reporting, efforts to suppress responses from hard-to count populations, and a global pandemic, outreach and organizational efforts by libraries through in person enumeration support and publicity campaigns were especially important. CUNY's interactive Hard-to-Count Map provides detailed information on self-response rates as well as non-response follow up rates for the 2010 and 2020 Census, which can be viewed at the state, county, and city/locality levels. Thanks to aid from the New York State Census Equity Fund at The New York Community Trust, MHLS was able to provide training and print and digital publicity materials to help member library staff and stakeholders understand and share the importance of the Census with their communities and how to support a complete count. With the enumeration phase of the Census completed, the Census Bureau will begin processing the data collected from the self-response questionnaires and non-response follow up reports to deliver state population counts according to their December 31st deadline. In the face of many challenges, and with a lot of really important things on the line in the 2020 Census, including our right to representation in our state and federal governments and funding for our schools, roads, and healthcare, libraries stepped up to make sure everyone in our communities were counted.
REALM Test 6 Underway: Five materials that are commonly found in furnishings and exhibits of archives, libraries, and museums were selected for the sixth REALM lab test. Battelle researchers will apply the COVID-19 virus to each item and measure how much remains after 2, 4, 6, and 8 days. The study began on October 8th and includes the following items:
- Marble (flooring, counters)
- Powder-coated steel (lockers, shelving, book trucks, exhibit elements)
- Laminate (countertops)
- Brass (fixtures, railings)
- Glass (windows, display cases)
For more information on REALM testing and results, visit the REALM Blog.
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Trustee Resources
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New York Releases Guidance on Paid Sick Leave: On October 20th, 2020, the New York State Department of Labor released guidance regarding non-COVID paid sick leave. The guidance document provides information about amount of leave, accruals, eligibility, permitted uses, and more, and the supporting Frequently Asked Questions document provides further clarification.
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Administration & Management
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The next MHLS Directors Association Business Meeting will be held on Thursday, November 12th beginning at 10:00 am. Directors, please register for this online event through the MHLS calendar.
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In compliance with new legislation from New York State, public employers, including public libraries, will be required to create pandemic response plans to protect workers in the event of another state disaster emergency involving a communicable disease. While association libraries are not required to create pandemic response plans under the new law, they are strongly encouraged to create similar plans for the event of a disaster involving a communicable disease. Plans are required to include the aspects below.
- List and description of positions considered essential
- Descriptions of protocols to follow to enable all non-essential employees to work remotely
- Description of how employers would stagger work shifts to reduce overcrowding
- Protocols for PPE
- Protocol for when an employee is exposed to disease
- Protocol for documenting hours and work locations for essential workers
- Protocol for working with essential employees' localities for identifying emergency housing if needed
- Any other requirement determined by the New York State Department of Health, such as testing and contact tracing
Created plans must be presented to all applicable duly recognized or certified representatives of the employer's employees as well published in a clear conspicuous location. For more information, see Governor Cuomo's announcement of the legislation.
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Library Assistant (Youth Services), Kent Public Library
Kent Public Library seeks a creative, enthusiastic library assistant to present story hours to pre-school children. Fifteen hours a week, generally 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, with occasional evenings and Saturdays. Should be able to work with Zoom and Facebook, then (when the COVID situation permits) in person with children. Must have a bachelor's degree and at least one year of experience working with young children. Salary range $14.00 to $17.00 per hour. Paid vacation, personal time and sick leave. First consideration given to résumés
received by November 30th. Résumés and cover letters may be sent to cdonick@kentlibrary.org. This is a Putnam County Civil Service position.
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