Mass Book Awards 
| A Reflection on the MSLA Presidency |
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Kathy Lowe , June 2007I have seen MSLA transform since I became President-Elect in June 2004. I spent the year before I became President working closely with then-President Ann Perham, learning the ropes and becoming more involved in the inner workings of the association. During that year under Ann’s leadership, the Executive Board completed MSLA’s three-year Strategic Plan and crafted the Vision and Mission Statements that still guide our organization today. All committee chairs and Area Directors now submit yearly Action Plans based on these documents and report their progress in their Year-End Reports. We held our first Legislative Day at the State House during Ann’s term and ran our first Bookmark Contest for School Library Month. Both of these events have grown and become more successful and popular each year. Now they are combined, with the Bookmark Awards Ceremony held the State House. This has raised Legislators’ awareness of MSLA and ensured their participation in the event. We have learned how to make technology work for us. Ann introduced virtual meetings and we now hold two meetings a year in a chat room on the Chatzy website. We have a Board-Only web page where reports and documents for our Executive Board meetings are posted and archived. Our former newsletter, Media Forum, has been revitalized in its online incarnation as MFO, now supplemented each fall by MFO Plus, an expanded yearly print edition that includes the Executive Board’s Annual Reports and is distributed at our conference. In order to bring in new faces with fresh ideas, the size of the Executive Board was nearly double with the addition of co-chairs for each committee and co-directors for each region. We added two Special Interest Groups (SIGs) – one for GSLIS students and another for retirees. Area Directors’ roles and responsibilities were expanded to include the recruitment and retention of members and collaboration on professional development opportunities with their regional YSS representatives. These efforts have raised MSLA’s profile and breathed new life into our organization. Advocacy is now a major focus of our organization. To that end, we have become more visible and involved with other professional organizations and committees in the state. I serve as MSLA’s liaison to the MLA Executive Board and Legislative Committee. My presence on both of these committees has increased our collegiality, mutual support and understanding. This year we completed a third joint statement with MLA’s Youth Services Section on school and public collaboration. MSLA became a Leadership Partner with MLA, giving us a seat on the Government Relations Advisory Committee that works with a lobbyist to promote the value of all types of libraries. MBLC invited me to be the school library representative on its Public Relations Advisory Committee which is overseeing the development of a statewide marketing campaign for all types of libraries – and school libraries will definitely be a part of the campaign. We have deepened our relationship with NEEMA, participating regularly in their board meetings and helping to plan the annual Leadership Conference. We have forged a new relationship with MassCUE, with whom we have developed a joint statement on the similarities and differences in the roles of library teachers and technology integration specialists and plan to work more closely in the future. We have also reached out beyond our profession to engage parents as advocates and promote the cause of school libraries to the Governor, the DOE, Legislature, and local officials, lobbying at the State House, speaking at parent meetings, and issuing Advocacy Packets containing MSLA’s Position Statement on School Libraries and documents that highlight the crucial role school libraries and librarians play in student achievement. We published Massachusetts Power: A Parents Guide to School Libraries with the assistance of consultant Connie Champlin and David Loertscher’s High Willow Research and, with NMRLS sponsored our first Parent Power workshop. Our PR co-chairs designed a professional looking and informative new membership brochure. Our Professional Standards and Curriculum committees developed PreK-Grade 12 Information Fluency Standards and we met with the DOE to discuss how these standards can be promoted and incorporated into existing curriculum frameworks. We met with a representative from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and as a result were invited by the office of the Governor’s Special Advisor on Education to contribute to the State’s successful application to become a Leadership State in the Partnership. We expanded our horizons by sending Executive Board members to national ALA and AASL conferences. MSLA board members have become AASL Affiliate Assembly representatives, members of the ALA Legislation Committee and School Library Task Force, participated in ALA Legislation Day in Washington, D.C. and the AASL Vision Summit in Chicago. One board member has become an ALA Emerging Leader. Several board members attended past School Library Journal Leadership Summits in New York City and Chicago and anticipate attending the next one in Phoenix. The ideas, relationships, and broader vision and understanding of our profession that we have gained from participating on a national level have resulted in a bigger and better annual MSLA conference, with the addition of the Exploratorium display of members’ best practices, the Author Fest, WaldenMedia previews, vendor sponsorships, high-caliber speakers, and cutting-edge presentations. The most significant change that occurred during my tenure was the renaming and “rebranding” of our organization. With the name change came a new, more up-to-date look, with a new logo and website design to reflect our 21st century image. This change was invigorating and has pumped new life into our association. Looking back over the past three years, I am proud and amazed at what has been accomplished. I look forward to my continued association with MSLA under the leadership of Sandy Kelly. Many thanks to all who have served on the Executive Board during this time and to the many MSLA members who have contributed the energy and ideas that makes this such a vital, professional, and forward-thinking organization. |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 29 June 2007 ) |
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