It has been a very busy spring with the MSLA board. This edition of the Forum will update you on some of what has been happening along with some suggestions for great summer reads. It is hard to believe that the end of another school year is upon us.

MSLA along with the Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) held our first joint Legislative Day in April, where we called on legislators to promote agendas for all types of libraries. Also, the annual MSLA Bookmark Contest awards ceremony was held in the Great Hall where students were recognized by their legislators and toured the State House with their families. It was exciting to see so many legislators in the Hall of Flags as students from across the state received awards and later toured the State House with some of their local representatives. Kudos to the folks who worked so hard to organize this event and to our new President Elect Gerri Fegan who will pass the torch on the bookmark contest to another dedicated member. If you are interested in helping with next years event please contact Gerri or me. It is a very rewarding experience.

Plans for our annual conference on Nov. 2-3, 2008 are complete. The theme is “Survivor MSLA” and it will focus on AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner and MSLA's new Information Fluency Standards. We have 15 authors scheduled for Sunday's exhibit hall opening. Dinner is Michael Tougias, author of Ten Hours Til Dawn, speaking on Survival Skills. Monday keynote speaker is Terry Young author of the Scholastic monograph, School Libraries Work. Other speakers are Judi Moreillon, Cassandra Barnett and Debra Kay Logan. A new and positive step this year is ONLINE registration and the ability to use a credit card; get in on the early bird registration fees while they last. This promises to be a fabulous conference.

MSLA board members and other school library supporters have been systematically speaking during public comments at monthly MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Education about the lack of equal access to good school libraries for all students and asking them to provide leadership at the DOE to develop a long range plan and statewide standards for school libraries. We have been busy recruiting parents, teachers, principals and students to make a three-minute presentation at each meeting. I was excited to make my visit the day that Dr. Mitchell Chester, the new incoming Director of the BOESE, sat in along with acting Director Jeff Nelhaus and new Director of the DOE Paul Revelle. In addition, the new technology standards were approved that day and the planned revisions for the new English Language Arts standards were announced. Future ELA standards will now have a separate research strand and future revisions of other core frameworks will have an integrated research strand.

As the MSLA executive board wraps up another busy year I would welcome anyone who might be interested in joining us. We have several changes coming up and I would like to thank Kahla Jourdan, Mary Kelleher, Sue Crowther and Paula Byrne who will be leaving the board after a number of dedicated years and contributions. Being an MSLA member, being committed to our profession and working hard to advance our position in the 21st century skills world is one of the best things we can do for our students and ourselves.

This will be a restful summer with lots of reading but I am already looking forward to next year’s events.

Best to all,

Sandy Kelly
President, MSLA