Maine State Library

Present: Edna Comstock, Gretchen Asam, Francie Aley, Sylvia Norton, Suzan Nelson, Susan Allison, Teri Caouette, Nancy Grant, Jeff Small, Margaret McNamee.

 President Gretchen Asam called the meeting to order. Several items were added to the agenda. Proposed conference programs were discussed.

 Motion to approve the Secretary's Report was passed unanimously.

 The Treasurer's Report was distributed and discussed. A question was raised about an expense under line item number 22, "research project." It will be referred to the treasurer. The issue of tax exempt status was also discussed. A message regarding the location and particulars of Class Act will be posted to MELIBS. A motion was made and accepted to accept the report with appropriate changes as needed.

STANDARDS

The Standards Committee will have a work retreat at Sunday River this coming week.

A motion was made and passed to provide an incentive of $35 to increase participation in the collaboratory. Every time someone makes a meaningful contribution to the ELM Collaboratory, their name will be put in a drawing for a thumb drive. The Electronic Learning Marketplace provides an online (but secure   i.e. not public) forum for the Maine educational K-16 community. The forums are under the MDOE heading, School Library. Please look at and comment on threads like Chapter 125, Staffing (Professional and paraprofessional staff requirements for K-12 libraries), Vision, Resources, and the new standards work. The committee is looking for input from a wide variety of people.

CERTIFICATION

Proposed changes to certification for school librarians was discussed. Chapter 115 will be going to the legislature. The State Board acknowledges that there was an oversight that needs to be corrected. We need concise statements from MASL and others giving more testimony that the Library Media Specialist certification must include a MasterÕs degree. Jeff Small, our certification chair, will follow the issue closely.

OLD BUSINESS

Gretchen did some checking about Lawyers for Libraries. It seems that they are mostly for public and academic libraries. We are still looking for lawyers who specialize in school library issues.

CLASS ACT with Ross Todd.

Many collaborating teachers are committing to coming to the workshop in spite of MEAs scheduling. Emails are going out this week about the agenda and new location in Lewiston.

The lunch choices will consider low carb and other needs. Teams should be prepared to present summaries of their work. The workshop emphasis will be on analyses of the case studies.

CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES

We need to make some changes in our constitution. One option is to propose the changes at the May support staff meeting and table the discussion until the October Conference. Another option is to have an online meeting through the website. Proposed changes must be mailed to the membership 30 days prior to a vote. It could say that changes are posted and members should reply electronically by a specific date. Edna reviewed the proposed changes for the Board.

 A motion was made and passed to authorize Fran Haines, Scholarship chair, to change the dates for scholarship applications to reflect the change from spring conference to fall conference and to coordinate with MLAs dates.

The awards and nominating committees also need to be aware of the date changes. A notice will be made to MELIBS so people who are thinking of nominating a librarian or principle will be aware of date changes.

SUPPORT STAFF MEETING

The Support Staff meeting will be held May 8, 2004 from 8:30   2:3 2:30 at the William S. Cohen school in Bangor. Scholarships and CEUs will be available to members.

PR COMM

PSAs from mainelibraries.com will be sent to clear channel stations around the state. Suzan Nelson was starred in one of the PSAs! Edna showed the fund raiser mugs. She will try to get some to sell at the March 4 workshop.

REPONSES TO MEA

Gretchen will respond as MASL president to the article on reading that neglected to mention librarians many contributions to reading.

iBOOK DISTRIBUTIONS

Ibooks are being distributed to professionally certified librarians at content area meetings. Notices have been sent to the MLTI newsletter, to MELIBS, and in other places.

ALA REPORT

Sylvia spoke about NASSP's new Breaking Ranks II and about the upcoming High School Summits. Regional meetings will be held May 21 in Boston. A motion was passed to empower Gretchen to recommend Nancy Grant as a candidate to attend the regional meeting with up to $1000 for expenses, and to write the governor and the commissioner stressing the importance of including a library media specialist as part of the team.

AASL 2005 IN PITTSBURG

Sylvia encouraged members to go.

$25,000 partnership for 21^st century skills. (Sincere apologies from the secretary: I did not record enough details to enlarge on this issues!).

Early bird registration is coming up for ALA Orlando in June.

The next meeting will be March 6 possibly an ATM meeting. A conference Committee meeting will follow.

A motion was passed to adjourn the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Margaret McNamee

Secretary