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Winter 2008
On November 9 close to a dozen people from around the state gathered in Augusta to discuss how the Maine Library System and the Maine Library Trustee Association could assist trustees across the state. The meeting was organized and led by Valerie Osborne, Bonnie Dwyer, and Shirley Helfrich representing the Northeastern, Central, and Southern Maine Library Districts. Steve Nichols, president of the Maine Library Trustees Association, shared the history of the organization highlighting his role in the past and a need to reinstate and increase the membership.
After much discussion, the group narrowed their action plan to four areas of focus: a website, a newsletter, regional meetings, and a statewide conference. The results from the work of the committees will be the topic of discussion for the second meeting which will be held February 8 in Augusta.
The Maine library district consultants have put together an exciting event for Maine’s library community! On Friday, October 3, the three district councils will hold a combined meeting at the Augusta Civic Center. Their special guest will be Joan Frye Williams, a nationally respected library consultant, who will discuss the future of libraries. Are the traditions that libraries hold dear in conflict with the expectations of their communities? Do those traditions conflict with public values? Joan will tackle these questions and challenge attendees to completely change their thinking about how they do business. Contact Valerie Osborne at Valerie.Osborne@bpl.lib.me.us or 207-947-8336 for more information about the event.
More information about Joan Frye Williams may be found on her web site at http://www.jfwilliams.com/. Among the interesting features of Joan’s web site is a webcast entitled, “What the Public Wants from the Public Library: Trends in Community Expectations and Preferences.” This and other webcasts may be found by clicking “Webcasts” on her home page or by visiting http://www.jfwilliams.com/webcasts.html.
What is one thing that every library board has in common? We all have questions! Do you or your board have a question that you would like to have answered by someone who has been there before or who is going through the same thing? Send the question along with your name and the name and town of your library to nlaclaire@gmail.com and we’ll see what we can do!
Question: How does the role of the Trustees differ from the role of the Director?
The short answer is that the role of the Trustees is to make policy and the role of the Director is to implement policy. A more detailed description of the differences between the roles may be found on pages nine and ten of the Maine Library Trustee Association’s Trustee Handbook, which is available as a free download at http://mainelibraries.org/publications/TrusteeHandbook.doc or in print for a small charge by calling Cheryl Ramsey at the Maine State Library (207-287-5620). The Trustee Handbook is an indispensible resource for every Maine library trustee.
Starting in the Spring edition, we will highlight a few web sites of benefit to trustees in each issue. If you know of any, please share them with us by sending their addresses (and even short reviews if you want!) to the email address below. Thanks!
Have something to share? We need your articles! Send them to nlaclaire@gmail.com along with your library’s name and town and we will do our best to include them in our Spring edition.