The January meeting was canceled due to inclement weather.
Fourteen members braved icy conditions to be present at the February meeting: Suzan Nelson, Walter Taranko, Sylvia Norton, Tamara Blesh, Edna Comstock, Abigail Garthwait, Teri Caouette, Donna Chale, Nancy Grant, Joyce Wheeler, Fran Haines, Gretchen Asam, Sue Leiter, and Margaret McNamee.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Suzan opened the meeting with a welcome to Fran Haines from John Bapst High School in Bangor. Fran has agreed to help with the scholarship auction.

Walter Taranko announced with pleasure that Sylvia Norton has been hired to fill the position created since Dot Gregory's retirement. Sylvia will work with Karl Beiser and with school libraries focusing on technology.

Suzan announced with concern that Audrey Conant, our Information Skills Chair, is seriously ill. For MASL members wishing to send her messages of caring and support, her address is P.O. Box 703, Trinidad, CA 95570. 707-677-3457 and 207-873-5625 (The Maine number will forward). She is presently in California.

THE SECRETARY'S REPORT was amended to read that the conferring of the James McCampbell Award has been suspended indefinitely, but could be re-instituted at a later time. In addition, Tamara Blesh is a member of the Maine State Library Task Force. With these amendments, the report was accepted.

THE TREASURER'S REPORT for December, 2000 and January, 2001 were accepted. There is one outstanding bill from Fall Conference. The new passbook CD has already earned interest; the scholarship CD continues to earn interest. Mileage for the State Board of Education liaison will be paid out of the substitute line for this year.

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Nancy Grant reminded everyone that a Spring Conference meeting will follow the February board meeting. 90 programs have been arranged. Additional suggestions should be forwarded to Joyce Wheeler for next year. Registration information is posted on the web; the form itself will be posted to the listserv and web page in two weeks. There has been no response yet to the posting about the possibility of draping the gym/dining area, but Edna Comstock spoke about many creative decorating ideas.

Nancy passed on information from Linda Lord and Laurie Brooks about a survey of teachers' technology use. They are looking for ten teachers who once taught without technology and who are willing to share how technology now impacts their teaching. Interviewees will be paid. Contact Linda Lord if interested.

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Joyce Wheeler spoke about the SMLD mobile tech lab which will Joyce Harmon will use at the Spring Conference. It has seven wireless computers and may have additional laptops. It was purchased with a New Century grant and is rented to public libraries for Internet training, genealogy workshops, and other events.

Auction items are being solicited. Audrey Conant's lupine plants were a hot item last year. Members should begin planning and requesting donations now.

INFORMATION SKILLS COMMITTEE: Audrey Conant has made arrangements for her senior project work to go forward while she concentrates on recovery.

LIAISON TO THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: Abigail Garthwait reported that she received a warm welcome as MASL reestablishes its liaison position. She brought a ninety-nine page copy of the January, 2001 Final Report of the Task Force on the Maine Learning Technology Endowment. The endowment is to ensure access to technology when and where it can be most effectively incorporated into learnings"

Information on the essential services document can be found on the DOE page http://janus.state.me.us/education/sb/active%20com%20hmpg.htm. Essential Programs and Services Chair is Wesley Bonney, State Board member. (Note: The following information was appended after the meeting. This committee has completed its work and the final report is available from the Maine State Board of Education's office at 23 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333-0023 or by calling 207-287-5813. The Legislature recognized that the committee needed to further study specific areas recommended in the report and ordered the State Board to continue its work with the next phase being to address the areas requiring more research. Those areas were divided into Task forces and are as follows: Transportation Task Force Vocation Education Task Force Data Development Task Force Special Education Task Force Best Practices Task Force.)

WEBPAGE: Abigail Garthwait reported good news about the webpage. Book Report May/June issue will feature our facilities standards. (Members reported that the facilities document is now being regularly used by superintendents and architects). We received a request from a district level organization in New York to use our School Library Media Specialist evaluation document. Simmons College would like to have a link on our webpage for their continuing education offerings. The site meter reports about twenty-five hits per day. The webpage presently adds a link to reprintable handouts about critical thinking skills and information about the Bangor Assessment controversy. Abby would like to showcase outstanding webpages from Maine school library media centers on a changing monthly basis. Nancy Grant offered to have some of her students work on best of Maine Entry articles for web posting. Abby and Tamara Blesh, Technology Chair, will meet to discuss changes and additions to the webpage. Abby reported on a visit to Brewster Academy, an independent New Hampshire School on the cutting edge of technology and school reform.

STANDARDS COMMITTEE: Walter Taranko and Sylvia Norton reported on the work of the standards committee (Walter, Sylvia, David Anderson, Karen White, Deb Ullman). The committee is doing research on qualitative and quantitative standards. To be realistic the standard for books may have to be a percentage rather than a specific recommended number per student. The committee hopes to have a report soon.

PR CHAIR AND ACTING INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM CHAIR: Gretchen Asam reported on her work involving the Bangor assessment situation. The Board voted unanimously to endorse Gretchen's letter to the publishers of books being used in the assessment and to vote by email on her draft of a letter concerning the Jack Prelutsky poem. Gretchen will also contact ALA for input.

NEEMA REPRESENTATIVE: Sylvia Norton spoke about NEEMA Book Examination Day and the NEEMA Leadership Conference to be held in October. The virtual meeting link with NEEMA was postponed due to our heavy agenda.

CONTINUING EDUCATION CHAIR: Teri Caouette and Walter will be meeting to work on a survey of continuing education topics and to solicit teachers for workshops.

Suzan spoke about the need to know about technology courses being offered around the state. Sylvia recommended Thomas College courses both at their Waterville campus and Westbrook facility. Abigail Garthwait will teach "Troubleshooting" and "Networking" and "Telecommunications" this summer at UMaine. She also proposed the possibility of other summer courses on campus, on-line or in combination.

MEMBERSHIP CHAIR: Edna Comstock suggested a rotating renewal date based on each member's payment date. This change would have to be announced and voted according to the by-laws. Edna will bring a proposal to the next board meeting. There is still a great need for a new members' brochure.

TECHNOLOGY CHAIR: Tamara Blesh reported on concerns of the CMLD executive board, regarding the presence of a MASL representative at the Maine Library Commission; about the evolution of Dot Gregory's position; about maintaining the focus of Maine State Library positions on helping school librarians; initiating MASL communication about school library concerns directly to the Commissioner of Education, the Department of Education, and the State Librarian. Tamara reviewed some ideas for her work as Technology Chair - website evaluation, plagiarism, e-group and other collaborative projects, and technology journals.

OLD BUSINESS: Suzan contacted Margie Soule regarding the Board's non-profit number. Suzan distributed more Chantons CDs and copies of an old membership brochure. Members are to bring suggestions to the next board meeting to update it and to give it a more professional look. One suggestion was to feature MSBA information. We will have a chance to put MASL membership information on a table at the Reading Round-up.

NEW BUSINESS: Sue Leiter, was welcomed as a potential board member.

It was reported that MLA feels that a lobbyist should be hired. The MASL board voted unanimously that there is a need for a lobbyist and MASL will pay half the cost for the lobbyist if we can afford it, but that both are contingent on finding a MASL representative. Edna spoke about filters and FCC rulings. The FCC will complete its rule-making by April 15. School districts must certify by October 22 that they are working on a filtering proposal. Edna will post information about filters and e-rate from the Maine State Library. Board members expressed concern regarding liability if filters remove the student's AUP designated responsibility and place it instead on librarians through supervision and/or monitoring. Ineffective filters, insufficient staffing and student privacy issues were raised.

Melora Ranney requested feedback regarding students' negative experience with filters.

Suzan distributed copies of an email letter to be sent to Nancy Kranich and the Executive Board expressing concern with the too early date (June 16-20) of the ALA convention in San Francisco. There is a call for presenters of best practices in school librarianship for the AASL Tenth National Conference and Exhibition November 14-18, 2001. For submissions contact http://www.ala.org/aasl/indy/explorasubs.html.

NEXT MEETING: The next MASL board meeting will be March 3 in Augusta.

Respectfully submitted,

Margaret McNamee margaretmc@lamere.net