At the Fall Statewide Council Meeting at the Maine Library Association Conference at Sunday River last Tuesday, the Maine State Library announced the beginning of our new service delivery model for Maine Libraries.

You can download the Summary, PowerPoint Presentation (program), a brief version from the Council meeting, as well as the new regional map, MSL staff liaisons, and specialty assignments at our website.

http://www.maine.gov/msl/libs/MRLS.shtml



This change is the result of evaluation work done over the last year with the intent to provide better and more focused services that can be evaluated for impact statewide.

We know change is hard for all of us but we are confident that all libraries in Maine will be better served by this model.  Actions in response to concerns raised at regional meetings and in the survey are being met in two ways

1.            The NMLD open position was filled by a "Small, Rural library Specialist" whose focus will be on libraries serving populations 5,000 and under.

2.            Library Development specialist staff would also serve as liaisons at the county level.  Each specialist will be assigned 35-40 libraries (county/region). There will be a dedicated contact person for each public library.

We are in the process of hiring 2 new "specialists".  An Early Literacy/Children's Specialist and a Statewide Specialist.



The following recommendations were made to the Maine Library Commission in September and were supported and approved.

1.            Create one Statewide Maine Library District

a.            The district will have 9 service regions - arranged by single or combined counties but still aligned with the same ARRCs as to not disturb ILL and other current ARRC services

b.            Each region will have an assigned MSL Specialist assigned as the liaison.

2.            Create one statewide advisory board (initial board to consist of volunteer members from CMLD, NMLD, SMLD boards) who will meet to determine best board size and library type distribution and make recommendations to the Commission.

3.            Continue with the 2 required council meetings consistent with Title 27 - one held at MLA each fall and one in the spring with rotating regional locations.

4.            MSL staff will provide regional meetings and trainings in the 9 locations sending a team of specialists to an area at least once a year.



Please feel free to contact me with any questions.  We ask for your patience as we re-tool and re-design the Library Development section of the website to reflect these changes as well as create new procedures and processes on how we work together in this new model.



Many thanks for all the support we received during this year long process!

Janet


Janet McKenney
Director of Library Development
Maine State Library
64 State House Station
Augusta, ME  04333

207-287-5620 (phone)
207-287-5624 (fax)

Twitter:  @janetmckenney