June 19, 2019

2019 Membership Meeting

LibraryLinkNJ held its annual Membership Meeting at the Monroe Township Library (Middlesex County) on June 5, 2019.

A Bylaws amendment was passed placing a 2% limit on increases to fees charged to member libraries in any fiscal year, starting in January 2020. You’ll find the updated Bylaws here.

The membership voted to approve the FY20 Strategic Initiatives and FY20 Budget. 

The membership elected the following members to the Executive Board for three-year terms, starting on July 1, 2019:

  • Steve Chudnick, Brookdale Community College Library (Monmouth County)
    Academic Library Representative
  • Corey Fleming, Paterson Free Public Library (Passaic County)
    Member-at-Large
  • Allan Kleiman, Montville Township Public Library (Morris County)
    Member-at-Large
  • Ricardo Pino, West Milford Township Library (Passaic County)
    Member-at-Large
  • Irene Sterling (Essex County)
    Lay Representative

We thank our outgoing Executive Board members for their service:

  • Ranjna Das, Burlington County Library System (Burlington County)
    Member-at-Large and Board President
  • Tanya Finney Estrada, Pennsauken Free Public Library (Camden County)
    Member-at-Large and Board Secretary
  • Adele Puccio, Maurice M. Pine Free Public Library (Bergen County)
    Member-at-Large and Chair, Bylaws Committee

 

Delivery Cost Share

The LibraryLinkNJ Delivery Service supports multi-type library resource sharing within New Jersey. Its goal is to provide a statewide Delivery Service with a policy that is sustainable, cost-effective, efficient, and equitable.

The LLNJ Delivery Task Force recommended for FY20 a single rate of $3.82 per stop statewide as a more equitable way to assign costs. The LibraryLinkNJ Executive Board approved this as policy at their meeting on May 15, 2019.

This rate was determined by looking at the total of funds needed from the cost share ($191,493) divided by the total number of LibraryLinkNJ paid stops per year (50,190) resulting in a cost per stop ($3.82).

This Equitable Formula also accounts for factors such as:

  • Number of delivery stops received per week by a library
  • Number of stops per week paid for by LibraryLinkNJ
  • Differential for K-12 schools (with service for 40 weeks per year) and all other libraries (service for 50 weeks per year).

This results in delivery cost share prices ranging from $191 to $955 per year (July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020), depending on the level of service a library receives. For a library receiving the maximum service of 5 days a week service, it represents a cost to the library of just $19.10 a week.

LibraryLinkNJ will invoice all delivery libraries by this fall.

A spreadsheet is available which details the cost per library based on the recommended Equitable Formula.

 

Virtual Town Halls

To keep member libraries up to date on the current state of LibraryLinkNJ’s budget and services, we hosted a virtual town hall meeting on May 23 devoted to a presentation of the Proposed FY20 LibraryLinkNJ Budget.

Materials for the May 23 meeting are now available on the event’s page on our website. Materials include:

We encourage you to share these materials widely with colleagues at your home library, and to contact Kathy Schalk-Greene with follow-up questions as needed.

  • Any questions from libraries can be directed to Kathy Schalk-Greene, Executive Director at LibraryLinkNJ, 732-752-7720, kathy [at] librarylinknj.org

 

CE Updates

Super Library Supervisor Series Registration Opens Tuesday, July 9th

The FY20 (July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020) Fall Series of Super Library Supervisor will be held at the Monroe Public Library (Middlesex County).

Dates:

  • Wednesday, August 28, 2019 - 9:30am to 3:30pm
  • Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - 9:30am to 3:30pm
  • Thursday, September 26, 2019 - 9:30am to 3:30pm
  • Thursday, October 3, 2019 - 9:30am to 3:30pm

Target Audience:

  • Library staff who are currently supervisors and have less than five years of supervisory experience.
  • Participants MUST be actively working as a supervisor at the time the series begins.
  • More experienced supervisors are welcome, if this is their first supervisory training.

Cost: $275, inclusive of all course materials, continental breakfasts and lunches for all 4 sessions.

For complete information on this series of workshops, and the link to register starting on Tuesday, July 9, go to the Fall Series Super Library Supervisor page. Registration is online only. Registration is a commitment to attend all 4 workshops.

  • Registration will open at 10 AM on Tuesday, July 9
  • Registration will close on Friday, July 19 or when the limit has been reached, whichever comes first
  • Once we close registration, we will use a lottery process to select a final total of 35 participants
  • Registration only places you in the lottery
  • We will accept up to 50 registrants to be placed in the lottery

Please contact lyu [at] librarylinknj.org (Mi-Sun Lyu) with any questions.

Our Learning Library: Archived Webinars

There is a wonderful library of LibraryLinkNJ webinars available on our website for 24 x 7 viewing and learning. Every webinar we host is free to participants and can be enjoyed, shared and watched in part or whole whenever it’s convenient.

If you missed any of these from the last year:

  • Revisiting Changes, Trends, and Values: Futures Thinking for Libraries - Miguel Figueroa
  • Supporting Civic Engagement in the Library: The Skokie Civic Lab Model - Amy Koester
  • From Access to Advocacy: The Disability Community In The Library - Bryce Kozla

or others, you can watch them and use the links to their materials from our past programs page.

 

MentorNJ Updates

MentorNJ Technology Small Meetups

Register now for upcoming MentorNJ Technology Meetups. Site hosts at each location work with dbaldwin [at] piscatawaylibrary.org (Doug Baldwin), Head of Technology at the Piscataway Public Library, to moderate discussions at each event:

  • June 21st, 10am-12pm @ Sayreville Public Library / (1050 Washington Road, Parlin)
    • ahaque [at] lmxac.org (Aziza Haque), Adult Services Librarian
  • August 23rd, 1-3pm @ Warren County Library - Southwest Branch (404 Route 519, Phillipsburg)
    • kdurkin [at] warrenlib.org (Kelly Durkin), Branch Manager, Catherine Dickson Hofman Branch

Please use the registration form to attend.

All meeting notes are documented in real time and shared with attendees, as well as made publicly available on the past meetups list (where you can find archived notes from the past meetings).

MentorNJ Meetups are an opportunity for interested library staff, at any level, to get together informally and discuss issues, ask questions, seek guidance, and learn more about various different topics related to libraries and library work. These particular meetups focus on technology in libraries, so from ILS systems, to social media, to IT issues, to makerspaces, to workshops and tech sessions, and much more, any topic related to technology and libraries is fair game.

Would you like to host a small meetup at your library, or to attend any upcoming meetups? Please find more about how you can promote your hosting meetup on the MentorNJ meetup page.

If you have any questions about MentorNJ meetups, please contact our meetup coordinators:

  • dbaldwin [at] piscatawaylibrary.org (Doug Baldwin), Head of Technology, Piscataway Public Library
  • rbingham [at] gcls.org (Ralph Bingham), Director, Gloucester County Library System

SAVE THE DATE: MentorNJ In-Person Networking Event

  • Date: Thursday, November 7, 2019 (Morning refreshments & lunch will be provided)
  • Location: Monroe Township Public Library (Middlesex County)

More information including the event schedule, programs, registration information, etc. will be announced soon!