Welcome Back Message from MASL President, Jennifer Millikan
Welcome Back, Everyone!!
I hope you are all settling into this new school year nicely. Summer flew by this year; I know we say that every year, but this year it seemed shorter than ever, and that seems to be the consensus from everyone I’ve talked to. I think that is why I had to keep reminding myself that this was only the 2nd week with students; it seems like we’ve been back so much longer already!
I’d like to thank all of the MASL members who gave up so much of their time working on some great things for you, our members, including valuable professional development opportunities. I hope you had a chance to enjoy one of the awesome summer PD sessions we led across the state! Summer PD is just one of the options we have for a members. Stay tuned for some information about new PD offerings, and be sure to register for the Fall Professional Development Day on October 6th. And don’t forget to mark your calendars for March 24th – 26th for the annual Spring Conference – Challenge Accepted! – registration is open!
As always, the Readers Award Committees have been hard at work and recently released the 2019-2020 MASL Readers Awards Preliminary Nominees, so read, read, read!! If you haven’t checked out the MASL website recently, you’re missing out! Our PR committee did a wonderful job updating it, and I think you’re going to love the new design. They worked diligently over the summer with the help of C2C in moving over all of the content to the new website.
In case you didn’t hear us shouting it from the rooftop, SB 743, which contains our Librarian Bill HB 2411, was signed in the Governor’s Office on Thursday, July 5th. What a tremendous outcome to our advocacy efforts!
In continuing our advocacy efforts, I want to remind everyone about #WhatWeDo and the Social Media Advocacy Campaign. Next up on September 10th is “Technology Integration – It’s #WhatWeDo.” For more information on our campaign, please visit our Advocacy Resources webpage.
Did you know that membership in your regional affiliate is separate from that of your MASL membership? The nominal membership fee gives you access to another great community! If you’re not a member, please contact your region president. Information about the regions and contact information is available online, and please know that you can belong to more than one region!
Lastly, I would like to share two goals that I have for MASL this year. The first one is to explore what Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) looks like in the library and how that translates to helping all of our students. Secondly, I would like to introduce Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to give us another chance to connect with the librarians throughout the state – we are resources for one another! They would include A) Elementary Librarians, B) Middle School Librarians, C) High School Librarians, D) K-12 Librarians, E) Suburban Schools, F) Urban Schools, G) Rural Schools, H) Private/Independent Schools, and I) District Library Coordinators. And, of course, you can belong to more than one. Please look for more information to come on DEI and SIGs.
I think it is going to be a fabulous year, and I wish you all the best!!
Warmly,
Jennifer
Jennifer Millikan
2018-2019 MASL President