Louisiana Association of School Librarians
Executive Board Meeting
March 27, 2014
Call to Order
Amanda Graves
The LASL Executive Board met at the Cajundome in Lafayette on March 27, 2014. Amanda Graves called
the meeting to order at 11:04 am. Those attending were Amanda Graves, Dawn Pinkston, Cathy Smith,
Leslie Carloss, Jan McGee, Paula Clemmons, Cathy Seal, Jade Calais, Kristy Sturm, Janet Gary, and
Charlene Picheloup. Peggy Wheelis, Elizabeth Kahn, Beth Ferguson, Desiree Alexander, Stephanie
Braunstein, and Susan Gauthier were also present.
Minutes
Leslie Carloss
The minutes were sent out electronically and approved online.
Second Vice President’s Report
Jade Calais
For this year’s Midwinter, there were 28 sessions scheduled to occur. Due to the weather, several
presenters notified the morning of the event to state that they would be unable to attend the
conference. One presenter was absent due to illness in her family. As a result, 11 sessions occurred.
Keynote speaker Brian Mull arrived in enough time to deliver the keynote address.
Based on verbal feedback, attendees shared positive comments about the sessions and the keynote
speaker.
First Vice President’s Report
Kristy Sturm
Midwinter was a success despite the terrible weather. We originally had 12 vendors register for a table
for the conference, but only 6 of those 12 showed up due to the weather.
Chris Grabenstein is on his way to speak for the LASL Author Luncheon and I will be picking him up at the
airport very soon. He will be greeted with Zapp’s chips and Mardi Gras beads. We will present him with
a gift from LASL at the Author Luncheon.
President’s Report
Amanda Graves
I do not have any official statement, but Amber reports that our designated funds for the year are
$4,557.92 and our allocated funds are $805.00. Our numbers are still the same at about 178. A meeting
was had with the vendors and decided that LALAMP and Midwinter would switch every other year.
LALAMP will go on as usual for this year, but next year (2015) we are planning on a Midwinter and no
LALAMP. We will see how this progresses. We are in need of the following positions for next year:
LALAMP State Coordinator, Baton Rouge LALAMP coordinator, New Orleans/Northshore Coordinator,
LASL Secretary, and LASL 2nd VP.
AASL Affiliate Assembly Report
Charlene Picheloup
No report at this time.
Committee Reports
Constitution, Bylaws, & Policies
No report at this time.
Continuing Education
Jade Calais
No report at this time.
Membership
Melanie LeJeune
I just received membership numbers from LLA. See below.
LASL Numbers are at a total membership of 178, which breaks down as:
167 members have chosen LASL as their main section
11 members have chosen LASL as a second section
Last year, we had 179 members.
Legislative
Dawn Pinkston
LASL Legislative Committee is continuing to work on improving access to online research databases for
all Louisiana students in grades Pre-K through high school in public, private, charter, or homeschooled
settings. There are many important issues facing schools today involving teachers, students, parents,
and school administrators. One of the main reasons behind this continuing project is to convince our
Louisiana legislators, the present government, and the Louisiana Department of Education the value of
these research instruments for all of our children in the State of Louisiana.
LASL added the word “research” several years ago to say Online Research Databases on our handouts
for LLA Legislative Day at the Capitol to help the legislators understand our meaning behind our requests
for funding. Some do understand the terms and still some do not. In speaking with our current LLA
President, Vivian McCain, she understands our needs for these databases in school libraries and in public
libraries as well due to the funding cuts to the Louisiana State Library and the monies that come to the
parish libraries all over our state. She agrees with the “research” term but feels that we need to go
further and suggested “Online Research Retrieval Tools.” This term does indicate the primary focus of
the databases.
Our parishes still have to fund the online research databases out of local parish money. Each parish
does fund the databases that are felt to be the most useful to the students in the area. The same is true
for the parish libraries. World Book Online Encyclopedia is available in Lincoln Parish Schools and at the
Lincoln Parish Library but, is funded locally by both entities. The Lincoln Parish Library provides a
pamphlet listing the online research retrieval tools available to Lincoln Parish citizens and it is divided
according to those provided by LPL and by the State Library of Louisiana. I am sure other parish libraries
provide the same for patrons statewide.
When we as LASL members are thinking about our state office holders and we would like to contact
them, one of the best ways is online by searching for State of Louisiana, louisiana.gov. Another aid is
the PAR Guide to the 2014 Louisiana Legislature. PAR (Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana)
publishes this guide on a yearly basis. It contains all of the contact information for the state legislators,
legislative information, the legislative schedule, and maps of the Louisiana State Capitol and the
legislative committee rooms. The booklet also contains contact information for elected public officials
and members of boards, like BESE. Last year an app could be purchased for cell phones and this year it
is offered for free. You may search for “PAR Guide” at the Apple or Google app stores on your smart
phone and download The PAR Guide 2014 today.
Our LASL members have been quite active in working with the LLA Legislative Committee in contacting
statewide officials, especially BESE members and staff. There are programs at this year’s conference in
Lafayette encouraging librarians to become more involved in issues involving school librarians and
school libraries. LLA Legislative Day at the Capitol has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 21, 2014.
Legislators from all areas of Louisiana will be contacted throughout the ongoing legislative session from
March 10 through June 2, 2014 and personally on Wednesday, May 21, 2014.
Nominating
Janet Gary
No report at this time.
Publicity
Paula Clemmons
The Publicity Committee has added a new member, Susan Gauthier. Susan has been added as an
administrator to the LASL Facebook page. She has done a great job posting current events, fun quizzes,
and many other topics librarians find challenging and applicable.
There are plans to “freshen” up the site this summer. Please continue to send suggestions and
comments to me.
Here are the latest statistics for the month of February 2014:
Archive
7
BULLETIN 741
17
Celebrate Your Library!
28
COMPASS
44
Conferences
9
Curriculum
0
Curriculum - School Libraries PreK 4
12
Curriculum for School Libraries
36
PreK-12
Executive Board Minutes
1
GRANTS
16
home
825
/Lesson Plan
0
Exchange/Elementary/home
/Lesson Plan Exchange/Middle
0
/home
LA LAMP
16
LALAMP
LASL
16
28
LASL 2007-2008 Executive Board
LASL Midwinter Conference
7
53
LASL Mission
LLA CONFERENCE
10
15
School Library Media Specialist Award
Penny Kulp
The School Library Media Specialist Award committee reviewed the applications/nominations, discussed
the applicants, and is proud to announce that Susan Gauthier, librarian at Sherwood Middle School in
East Baton Rouge Parish is the recipient of the 2014 School Library Media Specialist Award.
Elizabeth Kahn moved that the requirements for the award be revised to be more specific and to ask for
more information from the applicants. Charlene Picheloup seconded the motion. The motion passed.
The committee will meet to make a decision about the proposed revisions and will present these to the
board at the next Executive Board Meeting held.
Standards
Cathy Seal
The work of the Standards Committee's tasks has been tabled since March 2012 when the board asked
me to chair an ad hoc committee comprised of the Standards Committee to develop a Compass Rubric
written specifically for librarians.
The Standards Committee presented the LASL Executive Board with a Compass rubric written specifically
for school librarians for approval. Now that the rubric work is completed, the standards revision will be
revived. Efforts to share the rubric around the state continue.
Cathy Smith and I are suggesting that we update the present standards in keeping with the concept used
to streamline Bulletin 741. For the Information Literacy section, we need to move to a model that is
directly correlated with the Common Core State Standards. More librarians are encouraged that the
CCSS centers on reading, writing, and research.
Membership of the Standards Committee will be updated and will reflect representation from around
the state. Our work will be conducted primarily by email.
We want our work to be sent to the LA DOE in increments and for final approval in late fall 2014. I have
secured a new contact person at the LA DOE, Annie Morrison. LASL should use as many avenues as
possible to survey librarians for input and solicit work on these timely projects.
Input from interested librarians is welcome. Contact Cathy Seal at cseal2@gmail.com.
Student Relations
Paula Clemmons
The Louisiana Teenage Librarians Association (LTLA) had another successful Convention on February 1617, 2014. Our featured author was Michael Northrup, author of the LYRC book Trapped. Students in
grades 6-12 also participated in a variety of workshops put on by Lagniappe Theatre Company, the
Alexandria Museum of Art, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Rapides
Parish Library as well as the State Library. The theme of the convention was “LTLA Lives in a Fantasy
World.” Lots of costumes and contest entries promoted such books as The Wizard of Oz and The Lord of
the Rings.
The new theme for 2015 is “LTLA Under the Big Top”. Books selections will come from the 2015 LYRC
list.
Sue Hefley Educator Award
Cathy Smith
Sadly, there will not be an award given this year. A few contacts were made regarding submissions, but
there was no follow-up from librarians contacted.
However, we did create some interest for next year and will begin working on it soon after the new
school year begins.
Louisiana Libraries
Leslie Carloss
No report at this time.
LA LAMP
No report at this time.
Old Business
Last minute Conference business was discussed.
Sandra Stokley
New Business
Changes to LALAMP and Midwinter were already included and discussed in the President’s Report. A
meeting was had with the vendors and decided that LALAMP and Midwinter would switch every other
year. LALAMP will go on as usual for this year, but next year (2015) we are planning on a Midwinter and
no LALAMP. We will see how this progresses. We are in need of the following positions for next year:
LALAMP State Coordinator, Baton Rouge LALAMP coordinator, New Orleans/Northshore Coordinator,
LASL Secretary, and LASL 2nd VP. Due to the change in the time of year that “Midwinter” will be held we
need to come up with a new name for the conference. We might have some sort of contest to pick the
new name next year.
Cathy Seal led a discussion about Online Research Databases in schools. Cathy is interested in a
statewide list of all the schools. She has a list of the private schools and asked Dawn Pinkston to contact
BESE member Ms. Connie Bradford to see if Ms. Bradford has a list of all the schools in the state of
Louisiana. Cathy’s concern is for the small districts and their schools, for example, Vernon Parish
Schools. She is curious about vendor pricing for the online databases for these schools. There are a
group of parishes that have formed a consortium and it is the District Cooperative of Louisiana (DCL).
Their goal is to promote student achievement by covering all possible resources. As the cooperative
continues to grow larger it can offer more resources for student achievement. One such partner
mentioned by Ms. Seal is the Cain Center, the LSU College Readiness Program, and Renaissance
Learning. These are two of the partners listed on the DCL web site. We all want every school to have
the opportunity to have the four main online database companies - EBSCO, GALE, WORLD BOOK, and
BRITANNICA. Is there a discount for members for these databases? Cathy mentioned that East Baton
Rouge Parish receives a ten percent discount. This would be a different way for schools to receive the
online databases than by going through the Louisiana State Library and the public libraries.
There was also discussion on the Petition Requesting Inquiry into Inequities of Teacher/Librarian Pay
Raises via HB1, 2013. Stephanie Braunstein drew up the petition and it is available on the LLA web site
and the LASL wiki. Cathy Seal spoke with Ms. Patricia Smith, Legislator for the Louisiana House of
Representatives. Ms. Smith is very supportive of school librarians and school libraries and is interested
in knowing whether librarians were included or excluded in the pay raise passed by the 2013 Louisiana
Legislature. The petition may still be signed and any registered voter can sign the petition. Stephanie
Braunstein arrived at the meeting and joined the discussion about the petition. She wants to continue
her research and would like to know which parishes gave the school librarians the pay raise and which
ones did not. Librarians from several parishes spoke about the pay raise.
Charlene Picheloup made a motion to adjourn and Dawn Pinkston seconded the motion. The LASL
members present agreed with the motion and the meeting closed at 12:15 p.m.
Respectfully compiled and submitted by Leslie Carloss (with thanks to Dawn Pinkston for taking the
minutes for me at the end of the meeting)