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RLRT March Madness: Win a Great Prize!
If you are an RLRT member, you may now enter The Best! March Madness Pool. The winner will receive their choice of any "I am The Best" merch on this page! Don't like or know anything about basketball? No problem, you will have fun and will probably win anyway.
1. Click here to sign up (there is a very simple registration)
2. Password= RLRT
3. Create your bracket starting March 13
4. Win an awesome prize
NASA Space Science Training: Explore Mars
Priority given to rural libraries! Don't miss the opportunity to attend the two day NASA Program in Waterville, NY. Applications due March 31.
Click to download full announcement
Photo of the week
Click for more
Not yet a The Best! subscriber yet? Try it, it's free and easy and open to all (we just ask that you please love libraries, and consider joining RLRT).
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The Best! Poll
Which of the following do you most closely associate with "Sustainability"?
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Opportunities
March 21, 2016—ARSL Call for Proposals Deadline
Online proposal form here
March 30, 4-5pm— Webinar: Building Trust and Student Empowerment through Assessment.
Featuring Barbara Stripling. Register here. Free for ESLN members (formerly 3Rs)
April 15 @ Albany, NY—YSS Spring Conference
Youth Services Section Annual Conference
April 22, 8am -4pm @ Albany State University-- UNYSLA Conference
Special Libraries Association Upstate New York Chapter Conference
May 4 & 5 @ Waterville Public Library—NASA Space Science Training: Explore Mars
Free Professional Development for Youth Services Staff in New York State’s Public Libraries. Space is limited; stipends available. Public library staff that provide, or plan to provide, programs for 8 to13 year-olds are invited to apply. **Librarians serving rural audiences are strongly encouraged to apply and will be given first consideration.**
May 23, 1-5pm @ Taylor Memorial Library, Hammondsport—RLRT Summer Meeting!
Please Register your attendance here. Additional details to follow soon.
June 8-10 @ Chautauqua Institution—38th Annual NYSLAA Conference
Library Assistants: Finding Our Strengths Through Change! Details
October 27-29 @ Fargo, North Dakota—ARSL Conference
The Association for Rural Small Libraries Annual Conference
November 2-5 @ Saratoga— NYLA Annual Conference
Details here
Go on, become a member, it's 5 bucks.
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The Best!
This week's stat is:
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THE BEST! FEATURE 
The Maker Movement in Small Rural Libraries
Hope Decker, Pioneer Library System
I opened up the third issue of The Best last Friday and there I was making a cutting board at the Phelps Community Memorial Library. The Phelps Library has a dedicated Makerspace room. It is an amazing resource, especially because this is not a huge library with a large budget. Leah Hamilton facilitated its creation by forming strong community connections and thinking innovatively.
My son creating with Circuit Scribe in the Phelps Makerspace
I left the woodworking program feeling accomplished and happy. I’d made a unique cutting board and learned how to use some power tools. We can provide that experience to our patrons even if we don’t have a dedicated Makerspace room like Phelps. We can even do it in small libraries with small budgets!
The cutting board I made!
At the Cohocton Public Library we made bat houses on a shoe string budget. I had some left over wood from another project and asked the local Boy Scout troop to measure and cut the wood into pieces. We ended up with 12 bat house kits. The participants brought their hammers or screw drivers, I bought nails and screws. I have a friend who is a bat expert, she gave a brief overview of bats and what makes a good bat house (you know, one that bats actually want to live in).
Bat house kits
It was a fantastic experience! When people create and learn new skills they feel empowered. Our community members, like bat experts and Boy Scouts, want to contribute their skills in a meaningful way. What better place, than a small rural library, to bring these two groups of people together?
Bat house building is a great program for whole families to do together
One caveat, if you do have a program where multiple hammers are being used at the same time…buy ear plugs for your participants and staff!
Phil Trautman (the new Director of the Cohocton Public Library) and his son making their bat house
Hope Decker is the Member Library Liaison for the Pioneer Library System and avid lover of small rural libraries. She was the Director of the Cohocton Public Library for nine years where she discovered the power of small rural libraries to impact their communities.
Let us know: What are YOU "Making" in your Library?
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The Best! 
Tom Vitale
Outreach Coordinator, CCLS
Post Office Outreach
On my outreach visits, I hear from libraries that your populations are constantly in flux and that one of your primary Outreach goals is to attract new citizens in your community to the library and make them aware of programs and services. For many new residents of an area, especially those still waiting on an Internet connection, there is a pressing need to visit the local Post Office and submit a Change of Address form.
So, why not bring your library to the post office? Partnering with your local Post Office can aid in your library's attempts to attract new patrons.
Ideas for Post Office Outreach:
1) Hold a contest that asks community members to make a model, take photos, do a painting, or make a drawing of the library or the library space for display somewhere at your local Post Office.
2) Have a print-out available at the Post Office explaining how to get a library card & the services/resources offered at the library.
3) Make pamphlets or library card registration forms available in the "New Resident" mailings the Post Office sends as a response to a change of address. For those of you who have not moved in quite a while or who have never received such an envelope, the Post Office typically sends an envelope to a new addressee with coupons and information about local businesses and services.
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March is Read Aloud Month! Click for resources.
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Submit
Send your photos, news, happenings, ideas and information to Eli Guinnee, editor.
eguinnee@cclslib.org
(if you got this by email, just hit reply) |
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Become a member
Membership in the roundtable is a mere $5.00 which comes with a newsletter, excellent meetings, and the knowledge that you are partnering with advocates for rural communities. If you have a current NYLA membership make a check payable to The New York Library Association for $5.00, memo should read RLRT Membership, and mail it to 6021 State Farm Road Guilderland, NY 12084.
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Contacts
Margo Gustina, President: gustinam@stls.org
Eli Guinnee, eNewsletter Editor: eguinnee@cclslib.org
Tom Vitale, Marketing Team: tvitale@cclslib.org
RLRT Website
Webmaster: Angela Gonzales
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And the mystery stat is... The number of children who are read to every day:
Less than half! 48%
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