SLMS+Agend+&+Minutes+October+2010

Minutes from October 19, 2010 District Librarian's Meeting at West Elementary LMC

__Present:__ J. Turner, R. Carraba, D. Daley, H. Burakowski, P. DiSturco, J. Casamassa, S. Eichelberg, E. Urbanski, D. Janus, L. Wrobel. __Absent__: L. Knaze, M. Pava
 * Attendance**


 * Next Meeting**: Tuesday Nov. 16 at Clinton Elementary LMC. Agenda items include Soundzabound representative, and Carol Tauriello about the NYS SLM Program Evaluation.


 * Full Day meeting** will be Tuesday January 25 at Ebenezer. Agenda items include sharing lessons/events/ideas with SLMS at their own level. Bring all material and digital information to share.


 * New WS SLMS Progress report**: Teacher - SLMS Collaboration & cooperation has been strong at East Elem and will be a goal to improve in this area of at Allendale. J. Casamassa reports she will be at Allendale for the remainder of the year as a substitute for A. Marrano.

The elementary librarians are used in a variety of ways to provide an additional day of coverage for teachers once every two weeks as per WSTA contract. Principals determine how the coverage will be provided. Some elementary librarians are covering planning periods for teachers beyond the contract requirements. The need for library flexible scheduling as a more effective way to improve student achievement continues to be an area of concern. D. Janus will create a survey that documents how much time in LMCs are flexibly scheduled; who covers tha additional planning periods in each building. The information will be tied into the NYS Program Evaluation rubric, ways to improve the program based on money and staffing, the changing role of SLMS, and where & how should the skills and training of SLMS be best utilized.
 * Libraries and Coverage for Teacher Planning Period discussion:**

In discussion it was agreed that it is the responsibility of library aides to complete the duties and tasks assigned to them by SLMS, especially in the absense of the SLMS from the library. Uncompleted tasks must be completed by the SLMS, thus taking away from the SLMS completing their own set of duties and responsibilities. When aides fail to complete their assigned tasks and responsibilities because they were assisting other teachers in the library, there is a negative impact on the entire library program. It is understood, however, that aids must do "additional duties as assigned by the principal." Principals should be informed if problems with aides completing assigned library tasks continues. The library aide job description should be re-examined so that duties and responsibilities are clearly understood by all involved.
 * Library Aide Responsibilities**

SLS Minutes - S. Eichelberger, district representative Sandy reviewed the minutes from the School Library meeting. Among the topics she reviewed was the Gale Databases (will be categorized for easier access), eBooks (available through NOVEL; how to access), Teachingbooks.Net is ordered; Grolier is available through NOVEL. A request was given that the usernames and passwords of the various databases that students are required to sign in for be tied to the active directory usernames and passwords for ease of access. There will be a BOCES staff development day on Wednesday January 25, 2011. Volunteers are needed for the SLS Council. There will be a Big6 webinar. Sandy Eichelberger's unit America's Hometown Heroes was recognized with an award at the annual meeting of WNYLRC; a possible grant might be pursued for continuing this popular and important community service.

From Pat D.: The question was raised, how will we (Librarians) be assessed for non-regent (core) courses? How can we show how librarians impact students achievement? E mail Sandy for an article on Librarian's impact on student achievement. Rosalia reminded us that we can access the Moodle by: Username: first initial last name Password: senecateacher.