March 2024

Volume 5.2

Welcome to the North Carolina School Library Media Association's Monthly newsletter!

Questions? Contact kenishasmith@ncslma.org

In this edition:

NCSLMA Website

OUR SPONSORS



PRESIDENT'S CORNER


Kristi Sartain

2024-2025



President’s Corner March 2024

Happy School Library Month!!

We are planning a host of graphics to advertise what an amazing School Librarian can do. Feel free to share these as we put them out on our social media accounts. Special thanks to Lucy Wilcox, our Advocacy & Governance Director, and to Missy Perritt, our Marketing Director, for the time they put into creating these graphics. 

If you would like to help NCSLMA help all of us, please consider joining a committee or volunteering to fill an open position. You can see what is available here. 

Faith is keeping up the Conference Blog. See the most recent post here

The Election for President is coming up very soon. If you are interested in learning more about the position, feel free to reach out. It requires a LOT of time (it’s basically an unpaid part time job) and a LOT of work, but it’s very rewarding and a great way to meet people all over the state! 

Kristy Sartain 

kristysartain@ncslma.org

Inside NCSLMA

REGION UPDATES AND INFORMATION

Thanks to everyone who presented, supported, and attended Winter Tune-Up!  It was a big success with 343 people registered and the session videos have had 290 views!  If you missed it and you’ve heard the buzz - you can register now and take advantage of all of the great sessions.  Here is the link for Second Chance Winter Tune Up 2024.  

A quick shout out to live PD in regions 1 and 8!  Both  Meredith Hill (Region 1) and Maggie Skroski (Region 8) and their advisory committees put on amazing days of learning! 

  • Region 3:  Are you interested in attending a Region 3 meet-up in April?  Please complete this google form so we can plan a get together.    
  • Region 2:   Region 2 is planning a live PD session and we are looking for presenters!   Please read and be a part of it.

CALLING ALL BLOGGERS

NCSLMA has a small blog on our website. If you would like to contribute to it, please send submissions to kristysartain@ncslma.org. We're looking for news items, stories about your library, fun events you have had, etc. Pictures can be included and are welcomed. There are no minimum or maximum length requirements. Share some of the great things going on in your library!

Advocacy & Governance

Book Programs

The Advocacy & Governance Committee has been working on resources to help you and your students (and staff .. and administrators ... and parents ... and more) celebrate School Library Month 2024! Keep an eye on your email for some great ways you can show off your fabulousness!

--Lucy Wilcox


District competitions are well underway and we have been excited to see so many schools joining our competitions.  

Don’t forget that book nominations are open all year so encourage the students and teachers to nominate a book to be considered for next year’s lists.  Believe it or not, we will soon begin working on those and we would love your input.  Each level of BOB has a nomination form located on their homepage on the website.


--Stacy Hersey 

NCSLMA Page Turner Book Club Announcement

Author Lucy Gilmore coming to the NCSLMA Page Turner Book Club on April 20th at 9:30am

We are having author Lucy Gilmore, author of our April pick The Lonely Hearts Book Club, at our April 20th meeting. If you're not already registered, you can register here. We'd love to have as many folks as possible.

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AASL

Professional Growth

ALA and AASL members are encouraged to vote in the ALA spring election at ALA.org/election.  The election ends April 3, 2024. You must have an active membership in order to cast your ballot.  For ALA, you can vote for President-elect, Councilor at Large, and 2 action items (bylaw amendments).  

School librarians are trying to win ALA Council seats to share the voices and issues for school librarians. They can if YOU VOTE!  The following are school librarians running for seats:


Caroline Akervik

Cathi Fuhrman

Katherine (Kathy) Lester

Stacy Nunn

Dennis LeLoup

Toni Negro

Because of changes to the ALA Council Composition, there are less positions available this year (12 at-large seats for a 3-year term versus 40 at-large seats last year).  Thus, your votes are even more important.

--Laura Aldridge & Sarah Justice

Let’s start off with a shoutout to our Regional Directors for the Winter Tune-Up!  Second chance sign-up is open till April 30th.  The sessions were excellent and recorded so you can watch those you missed and those you might want to view again.  Make sure you registered to access the videos.

Leadership Academy and I are looking at possible session topics to present at or Summer Learning Series.  I look forward to seeing what they choose. 

We are also looking ahead to Boot Camp which will focus on sessions for those new to our field and those unicorns of the school library world, library assistants.  Of course, some of us seasoned folks will find sessions of value as well.  We’ll be releasing a call to present later this year.

Professional Growth is also recruiting people to serve as mentors to those new to our field or who switched grade levels and need some support.  We also hope to start a cohort for National Boards.  We’ll need mentors who have their boards already.

Reach out to me at saralevin@ncslma.org if you have any ideas and/or are willing to mentor.


--Sara Levin

Awards, Grants, & Scholarships

Awards, Grants, and Scholarships are live! Media Coordinator of the Year will be live on April 5th. Please spread the word! bit.ly/24SLMAwards 

Thank you to everyone who has offered to be on the scoring committee. I have enough volunteers now. If you have any questions, please contact lesliepope@ncslma.org.

Networking

Don’t forget these upcoming networking opportunities!  Please come out and join us!


April AM Brew Crew: Saturday, April 6th 9-11AM

April Page Turners: Saturday, April 20th 9:30-11AM with Lucy Gilmore, author of The Lonely Hearts Book Club

April PM Brew Crew: Friday, April 27th 8-10PM

As a new division of NCSLMA, Networking wants to help you!  Please fill out this two question survey to let us know “What the Networking Committee Can Do For You?”.

UNCG Research Opportunity

Barriers to Equity for the Resource Description and Access (RDA) Standard 

We are faculty in the Information, Library and Research Sciences Department at the University of North Carolina – Greensboro, and we are conducting a research study to explore the barriers to learning about and using the Resource Description and Access (RDA) standard to create and edit catalog records. The time and expenses required to gain fluency with RDA can be prohibitive, especially for information professionals working in libraries with fewer resources, and we would like to collect data about this potential inequity in RDA’s application. 

We are inviting anyone who creates and/or edits catalog records for a library of any kind in North Carolina to complete a brief survey asking for your honest thoughts and perspectives on RDA. If you create or edit library catalog records of any kind for a library in North Carolina, including copy cataloging and original cataloging, you qualify to participate in this survey. You do not have to be employed specifically as a cataloger; technicians, students, and other library personnel who create or edit catalog records as part of their work are eligible. You must be 18 years of age or older to participate. 

Click here for the survey: https://uncg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eWMQBo9F8ckhxS6 

The survey is expected to take about 15 minutes to complete. Participation is totally voluntary, and respondents can stop filling out the survey at any point. Respondents will not receive any compensation for filling out this survey, though this information may contribute to the development of strategies to address barriers to equity in application of the RDA standard.  

You can find a full information sheet with details about participation in the study here. If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact Colin Post directly via email (ccpost@uncg.edu) or you can contact the UNCG Office of Research Integrity at ori@uncg.edu

 

Sincerely, 

Sonia Archer-Capuzzo and Colin Post


NCSLMA Sections

Advancement
Director: Faith Huff

Advocacy
Director: Lucy Wilcox

Awards, Grants, Scholarships
Director: Leslie Pope

AASL Delegates

Laura Aldridge & Sarah Justice


Book Programs
Director: Stacy Hersey

Membership
Director: Brene Duggins

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Director: Vacant

Regional Directors:
Lead: Lori Munroe

Social Media
Director: Alicia Luke

Website
Director: Vacant

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CONTRIBUTE TO THE NEXT NEWS & NOTES

Would you like to contribute to the next NCSLMA News & Notes?

We want to hear from you! Do you have an upcoming multi-school or district event, were you recognized in some way, are you involved in the coolest collaboration, or did you contribute in some other spectacular way that shows the value of school libraries and librarians? We know you did! So we want to share the fabulous things school librarians are doing across the state! Please submit links to articles, published materials, and/or graphics to Kenisha Smith (kenishasmith@ncslma.org). Materials should be "copy and paste" ready. Submissions will be edited and published at the discretion of the NCSLMA News & Updates Editorial Team.

Submission Guidelines Document



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