Gardiner Public Library

Present: Suzan Nelson, Walter Taranko, Sylvia Norton, Edna Comstock, Abigail Garthwait, Teri Caouette, Nancy Grant, Gretchen Asam, Margaret McNamee, and Ralph Conant.

THE SECRETARY'S REPORT: With the following corrections, the minutes were accepted: John Bapst High School is located in Bangor; The University of Maine at Orono is to be called UMaine.

THE TREASURER'S REPORT: The treasurer's report was not available.

MEMBERSHIP CHAIR: Edna has been receiving membership money in response to the mailing. She suggested that we issue further invoices in September and hold off making any changes in the dues renewals at this time.

PR CHAIR AND ACTING INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM CHAIR: The Board voted unanimously to endorse Gretchen's letter to Greenwillow Publishers about the Prelutsky poem being used in the Bangor Assessment program. Gretchen also brought copies of the membership flyer which were distributed for study.

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT: The conference committee is in the middle of assigning rooms. Computers for email will be available longer (not in the auction room). Registration packets will be mailed soon and the form will be posted online in PDF format. The theme is lending itself to unique decorations. Nancy put conference information in The Maine Educator. Nancy made an excellent statement about filtering in an interview for her local paper.

SECOND VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Joyce Wheeler was unable to be present. Suzan noted that providing post cards for auction items with donor's name, address, descriptions and suggested price made it easier to write thank you notes. MSLN was down and many have been experiencing slow EBSCO connections in the afternoon. Because of concern that connection problems may affect testimony for continued funding, users are asked to please call when problems occur so they can be investigated. Some problems are due to Verizon, rather than MSLN. EBSCO may be put on the Internet2, but the new contract does not take effect until July.

LIAISON TO THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: Gail Garthwait spoke about the Making the Grade Award earned by Fort Fairfield with a school-to-work type venture in partnership with Borealis Bread.
WEB PAGE: Gail received a request to use facilities information from the web page in an Ohio architectural firm's newsletter.

OLD BUSINESS: Sylvia reported on nominations for School Library Media Specialist of the Year and on plans to facilitate the consideration of past recipients for the Maine Teacher of the Year Award. Work on the membership brochure was tabled until the next meeting. Suzan will check out the timing of the Maine Student Book Award winners announcement in conduction with fold and mail flyers and/or bookmarks.

NEW BUSINESS: Edna Comstock asked that the Board send a letter to the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, the Appropriations Committee, and House and Senate Leadership asking for support for the Governor's Learning Technology Endowment Task Force. The Task Force recommendations do include $175,000 for electronic databases and a role for the State Library on the Commissioner of Education's Advisory Committee. In recognition of the outstanding testimony from the library community, each Board member was given a complete copy of the Final Report of the Task Force on the Maine Learning Technology Endowment. Jeri Holt, a past MEMA president has been seriously ill. Her address is P.O. Box 250, Windsor, ME 04363. Sue Leiter and Gerry Crocker will be coming on the MASL Board to work on Information Skills. The Board passed a motion to help pay for Suzan's expenses for the Legislative Day in Washington, D.C. Suzan welcomed Ralph Conant to the Board meeting and to MASL. She expressed our deep sympathy in the loss of his wife, Audrey. Ralph came to the Board with a proposal in Audrey's memory to carry on her work. A motion was passed to accept the generous opportunity to use Conant House as MASL's central headquarters and to have an open ended fund within the Asgard foundation to be known as the Audrey Conant Scholarship Fund. Conant House is Ralph and Audrey's farm in Winslow. MASL will have access for most of the year to the family part of the farmhouse, to Audrey's children's literature collection, space for meetings and retreats with the peaceful, flower filled views that Audrey loved. Ralph and Audrey named their California home Asgard West and the Asgard Foundation for the Norse home of the gods. The foundation is a 501C3 and the scholarship will be used to help Maine librarians in many different ways as Audrey, herself, encouraged each and every one of us. A committee of MASL members will work with Ralph to administer the Fund.

A celebration of Audrey's life will be held at Conant House on Sunday, June 3.

NEXT MEETING: The next meeting will be April 7 in Augusta.

Respectfully submitted,

Margaret McNamee margaretmc@lamere.net