The Board of the Mid-Hudson Library System met on Saturday, March 11th, 2023 and: 

• Received a report on the status of advocacy to combat the proposed cuts to library aid and construction aid in the state budget;  
• Approved the priorities for funding within the State Aid for Library Construction Program;  
• Recognized MHLS Executive Director, Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, for being named the 2023 OCLC Distinguished Speaker, and 
• Authenticated the MHLS Annual Report to the State  

Directly after the board meeting the annual orientation for new system trustees was held. The content of the orientation covered board operations, key financial oversight documents and processes, and operational relationships. 

The next meeting of the Mid-Hudson Library System Board of Trustees is scheduled for Wednesday, May 17th at the Pleasant Valley Free Library. All board documents are viewable at 

https://board.midhudson.org/ 

This past weekend, MHLS member libraries celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. From programming to collections, the festivities took place system wide to celebrate Irish history and culture.

REMINDER: The cataloging department will suppress all items that have a status of ‘Lost & Paid’, ‘Discard’ or ‘Claims returned’, which have not been updated for 3 months, in the third week of March. The items will not be deleted. Changing the annual report code to “w - MHLS staff suppress” simply keeps them from displaying in the public catalog. This was approved by the DA in June of 2015.

Join Niche Academy for Going Beyond Captions: Creating Accessible Instructional Videos on March 29th at 2:00 pm. In this free webinar, Melissa Wong will help participants learn to create fully accessible instructional videos. The webinar will begin with a brief overview of disability that puts accessibility practices into context, then introduce design practices that support accessibility, including planning, narration, typography, and graphic design. Finally, the workshop will introduce standards and practices for captions, transcripts, and descriptive audio.

If you're interested but not able to attend the live webinar please register and a recording will be sent to you after the event.

Join Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, co-author of the Handbook for Library Trustees of New York State for the next session of Trustee Handbook Book Club: The Board-Director Relationship! This session will take place on Tuesday, April 18th, from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm. At each session, trustees will take a deeper dive on a topic relevant to their role and responsibilities as a library trustee. Each month trustees are encouraged to read a chapter of the Trustee Handbook. You can access the full Trustee Handbook Book Club series resources online at https://midhudson.org/trusteebookclub/

Join MHLS Executive Director Rebekkah Smith Aldrich for a 414 Vote Libraries Meetup on March 28 at 10:00 am. At this online meetup we’ll check in with MHLS member library teams going for a 414 vote this year, share best practices and ensure your team is on track to hit all of the required milestones for a successful vote. This is also an opportunity to learn from your peers also working on 414 vote campaigns this year.

MHLS Calendar