SCARBOROUGH HIGH SCHOOL

PRESIDENT'S REPORT:

President Suzan Nelson welcomed everyone and thanked 2nd Vice President Joyce Wheeler for hosting the Fall Conference with training by EBSCO and delicious food from Barbara's Kitchen.

THE SECRETARY'S REPORT: was distributed and accepted.

THE TREASURER'S REPORT: was given by the president with figures from the October board meeting was accepted. Suzan stressed that we did not have applicants for the scholarship last year and hoped that eligible people (MASL members for a year) would apply this year. She also reminded everyone that MASL dues are due in September (flyers on the registration table).

FIRST VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT:

Nancy Grant reported that the Spring Conference would be held the first weekend in May with the theme of trail blazers. She asked everyone to collect and donate trail maps for a comprehensive vertical file. The cost will be about the same, with possibly a small increase. Watch the MASL web page for postings.

SECOND VICE President's REPORT:

The secretary cast one ballot to elect Scarborough High School Librarian Joyce Wheeler as 2nd vice president. Joyce spoke about items for the scholarship auction, asking everyone to solicit donations from businesses and organizations in their areas and to come and bid on the wonderful selection.

INFORMATION SKILLS COMMITTEE:

Audrey Conant spoke about the senior celebration video which is being produced in conjunction with Poland Springs High School and several other schools with similar projects. The video will focus on documentation of skills, development of rubrics with concrete criteria, and teacher/librarian collaboration in the process. The case histories on the video can be used to plan pilot projects and ultimately as models for teachers and librarians to reach all students. It will be helpful in planning backwards from senior exit requirements to foundation skills taught formally and informally before the demonstrations of mastery in the senior year.

Audrey spoke with enthusiasm about the Harry Potter information skills activities she posted on the web page and the response from public as well as school librarians, linking MASL and MLA in a new way.

NEMA:

Sylvia Norton reported on the NEEMA leadership conference with Heidi Jacobson's excellent presentation on curriculum mapping. She encouraged everyone to attend the NEEMA 2001 Fall Conference.

OLD BUSINESS

Suzan announced that Fran Haines, John Bapst High School librarian, will be a new board member. Teri Caouette, Lincoln Middle School librarian from Portland, will also join as continuing education chair. She asked that the evaluation form include ideas for any brief/single shot training or workshops. There are still some open board positions include intellectual freedom chair. Jo Coyne spoke about the Bangor Assessment program alert. Although Superintendent Sandy Ervin claims that he did not direct books to be pulled from shelves (his statement is posted on the MASL web page), teachers who have attended the training felt otherwise. Nancy Crowell urged school librarians to contact public librarians for supporting circulation statistics to show that pulling books from school shelves will not ensure 'cold readings' Other issues involved included the have/have not aspect, the questions of author permission and who gets the money for the use of the authors' works. Sylvia spoke about the funding for the electronic databases which have been provided for one year through legislative support initiated by librarians, by the Maine technical colleges, and by Fogler Library of the University of Maine being designated as the Maine Science and Technology Library, a research facility. She urged members to promote the use of the databases, especially by remote access, making them available for every Maine citizen. She suggested inviting local officials to attend demonstrations of the databases; displaying the URLs in obvious places, sending flyers to teachers, and giving press releases to local papers.

NEW BUSINESS

Suzan offered Chantons---Lets Sing booklets and CDs from Richard Whiting to all elementary and middle school librarians for their schools. She reminded members that CEUs are available for the EBSCO training and asked that everyone fill out evaluation forms. Nancy Crowell invited all to visit the Scarborough Public Library next door. Margey Soule called everyone's attention to the Maine Student Book Award display of books, stickers, bags and annotated bibliographies. She announced new guidelines for MSBA committee.

NEXT MEETING: he next MASL board meeting will be at the Maine State Library on December 2.

The board meeting was followed by EBSCO trainer Ed Roche's excellent presentation on the electronic databases for the State of Maine. He provided search help sheets which can be printed from the databases. He demonstrated the features of Searchasaurus for elementary users. He explained lexile ranges of reading levels; limiters in MAS Full Text Ultra; advanced search features; image collections; full page images which require Adobe Acrobat. He showed the essential documents in American History and essential historical speeches in Master File Premier. He also showed how to search several databases simultaneously and how to check company directories and profiles.

Respectfully submitted [and all due forgiveness given!]

Margaret McNamee margaretmc@lamer.net