NHLA Executive Board Meeting
Monday, October 6, 2014
2:00 – 4:00 pm
New Hampshire Municipal Association, Concord, NH
Attending: Linda Taggart, Diane Lynch, Katherine Dormondy, Conrad Moses, Mary White, Mary Cronin,
Barbara Prince, Eileen Gilbert, Ann Hoey, Sylvie Brikiatis, Randy Brough, Cara Barlow, Kate Butler, Sarah
Loenardi, Mike York.
The meeting was called to order at 2:04.
Minutes from the June 17, 2014 and August 19, 2014 meetings were approved, with edits.
REPORTS:
President’s Report / Linda Taggart
 The Association of New Hampshire Law Librarians has decided not to pursue the government
documents workshop that we agreed to cosponsor, as they felt that the turnaround time was
too tight. They may pick up the idea at a later date when it can be more effectively planned.

ANHLL president Mary Searles contacted Linda about bringing a privacy rights workshop to NH.
Chuck McAndrew of NHLA-ITS was spearheading the same effort, so she brought them together
to coordinate.

We have had two board resignations: Kim McKee has accepted a new position and has stepped
down as co-webmaster. Stacia Oparowski of Portsmouth Public Library is considering the
position. Our esteemed past president, Diane Lynch, has also stepped down from her position as
co-chair of the conference committee. Thank you to Kim and Diane for their hard work and
contributions to NHLA in these roles.

There are a few remaining tweaks needed to the Wild Apricot portal, but both the membership
and events portals are close to being ready.

Deb Hoadley, from NELA, has sent us a contract to formalize the joint conference planned for
next October. She will also be sending a draft of procedures for joint membership shortly.

In preparation for the fall business meeting, we will need written annual reports from the
following:
● Vice President
● Treasurer
● ALA councilor
● NELA rep
● Advocacy
● By-laws
● Conference
● Continuing Education
● Intellectual Freedom
● Legislative
● Membership
● Nominating
● Scholarship
● Ways and Means
● Each section
Please submit your report in Word format to Linda by October 15 so that she can compile them
for the annual fall business meeting.
Treasurer’s Report / Cara Barlow
 Annual Compilation:
Brenda, the new bookkeeper, and Cara looked over the draft FY2014 compilation report from
Plodzick & Sanderson and found some discrepancies between the compilation and NHLA’s
QuickBooks accounts. Brenda worked with Donna LaClair of Plozdick & Sanderson and corrected
the bookkeeping. Cara spoke with Ed Perry earlier this week and he gave approval to the
revised draft compilation, so they will be issuing us a final one soon.

Section Bank Deposits:
Cara would like to remind NHLA Section Chairs that she needs their treasurers to email her scans
of deposits they make to their section’s Citizen Bank accounts. Cara needs that information
before the end of month in which the deposit was made in order to run the reconciliation
reports. The deposit information that should be emailed to her is:
 a completed NHLA deposit form indicating to which line the deposit should be credited
(i.e. spring conference, fall conference, postage, awards, etc.)
 a scan of the bank deposit slip
 scans of the checks
Also, sections should not be hanging onto uncashed checks for extended periods of time. We
had a situation recently in which a number of checks were held for more than six months and
were not deposited within the fiscal year in which they were collected. This is a problem for a
number of reasons - banks are not legally required to honor checks that are more than six
months old (though these were accepted, thank goodness), it impacted the section and NHLA
financial reports for two separate fiscal years, and it reflects poorly on the professionalism of
the section and NHLA.

NHLA Money: Collecting, Depositing and Requesting Payment Training
Cara will be offering NHLA financial procedures training on Wednesday Nov. 19, 11:00 –
12:00/12:30 depending on questions and Monday, Nov. 24, 10:00 – 11:00/11:30 depending on
questions. She will go over how to do deposits, make payment requests, the NHLA forms to use
and the NHLA budgeting cycle. Section or committee members who will be handling NHLA
money are encouraged to attend.

September 30 Profit & Loss: The September profit & loss statement shows we received
$3,382.88 in net operating income. This was largely due to the Fall CHILIS and READS
conferences. Cara has set up a line item to track expenditures on Advocacy (6055), which will
make it easier to budget to that issue in FY16. Cara is using the Travel & Conference line item
(6120) to track what we spend for Amy to attend ALA midwinter and annual conferences.

July 1 - September 30 Balance Sheet: According to the balance sheet, NHLA has $53,389.87 in
unrestricted operating funds, and $50,320.65 in restricted funds. Page two, under total other
current assets, there is $8,325.00. That is the total amount outstanding in Winchell Loans.
(Winchell loans are $1,500 interest-free loans to be repaid in five years and are funded through
lifelong memberships in NHLA. Applicants must be a resident of NH or employed by a NH
library, enrolled in an ALA accredited school of Library or Information Science, and be a member
of NHLA.) Our net income is $236.22, but this is a misleading number since a $1,159 CHILIS FY14
collection wasn’t deposited until FY15. If that’s taken into the equation, we are actually showing
a loss of $922.78. In short, we are doing OK.
NEW BUSINESS: None.
OLD BUSINESS:
Paralibrarian Section: Eileen Gilbert answered some questions about the section’s guidelines. She
stated the the section will have a 3 or4 member review committee. The intent is that voluntarily
participating in this certification process will give those who cannot pursue an MLS an opportunity to
demonstrate their interest and professionalism. It was suggested that the bylaws include that if there
are future changes to the guidelines, those changes will go to the NHLA Executive Board for approval.
This will be discussed more at a later date. The Paralibrarian Section hopes that NHSL will sign the
certificates, along with the NHLA president. At the fall business meeting on November 7, membership
will be voting to approve this group as new section, but not voting on the guidelines.
A motion was made and passed to approve the bylaws of the Paralibrarian Section.
Fall business meeting / Diane Lynch: The fall business meeting is very soon (November 7) and
registrations are arriving. The IT Section will soon discuss their presentation which will be more of a
discussion than a lecture. Once again, Linda reminds all Section and Liaison Chairs to send her your
annual reports for annual meeting, by October 15.
SECTION REPORTS:
Academic / Karin Heffernan – No report.
CHILIS / Gail Zachariah and Kristin Readel
 2014 SPRING CONFERENCE AT SNHU
We enjoyed record attendance, new members and a volunteer for the board.

2014 KBA Fizz, Boom, Read showcase was so much fun thanks to the roster of presenters that
the Summer Reading Program committee worked so hard on with Ann. Special presentations
from CHILIS board members Judy Russell, Nina Sargent and Tara Mackenzie were Fizz, Boom,
Readable and inspiring.

Ann and Kristin represented NH at CSLP and worked with librarians around the country
(including American Samoa, Hawaii and Alaska!) firming up details for themes for the next three
years:

2015 - Every Hero has a story, 2016 - On Your Mark, Get Set, Read (Wellness Themes),

2017 - Build a better world. (Check out my Pinterest boards to get you started).

CHILIS was glad to be a part of NHLA Spring Conference at Mt View Grand. Getting to see
Bethlehem’s brand new library was a treat. They got to be first with the Summer Reading Tshirt Quilt Banners created by Greenfield’s Monadnock Quilters Guild members.

Great Stone Face is working hard on a new slate of nominees for grades 4-6 for standard of
excellence in writing and kid appeal. 2014 winner M.H. Herlong’s Buddy won with 734 votes.

The Isinglass Award committee focuses on encouraging upper middle school (7-8) level students
to read for enjoyment and promote a life-long love of reading. 2014 winner In a Heartbeat by
Loretta Ellsworth. The committee has added skyping to increase participation in selection
committee.

Herlong, a New Orleans’s author, will be speaking and signing copies of her book at the October
9th Fall CHILIS Conference in hosted by Kristin Readel of the Stephenson Memorial Library,
Greenfield, NH. Record registrations at 133. No walk-ins will be accepted.

This year’s slate of officers that will be presented:

o Current President, Tara McKenzie, Conway Public Library,
o Vice-President/President Elect Kristen Paradise, Rodgers Library, Hudson, NH,
o Past President - Kristin Readel, Stephenson Memorial Library, Greenfield, NH
o Secretary, Liz Gotauco, Merrimack Public Library
o Treasurer, Nina Sargent, Thornton Public Library
o Web Master, Nancy Lang, Dunbarton Public Library
o Membership, Susan D. Laun, Portsmouth Public Library
o Fundraising: Thomas Billbrough, Colby Memorial
SAVE THE DATE! Spring Conference Date March 5, 2015, SNHU, Manchester


Membership is at 187 as of July.
Fall 2015 we will not have a conference but encourage our membership to participate in NELA
Manchester, October 2015.
ITS / Kate Butler
 The ITS Section held its quarterly meeting on June 26th at Keene Public Library. The topic of the
day was "home grown technology solutions". About 12 people were able to attend and they had
a good discussion about creative ways to deal with issues small and large.

READS / Katherine Dormody
 READS 2014 Annual Conference was held on September 19th at the Hooksett Public Library.
The full day conference, “Reference and Relevance in the 21st Century”, was a great success
with presentations from Bobbi Slossar, NHSL Technical Librarian, Louise Buckley, Associate
Professor, UNH-Dimond Library, and Deb Baker, Concord Public Library. Their presentations can
be viewed at reads.nhlibrarians.org.

Mark Glisson, Information and Technical Services at Hooksett Library, was the 2014 recipient of
the READS Award of Excellence.

The READS executive Board welcomes newly elected members Rebecca Crocket, Adult Services
Librarian at Pelham Public Library as incoming Vice-President and Mathew Bose, Assistant
Director at Hooksett Public Library, as incoming Treasurer. Corinne Chronopoulus, Director of
Peterborough Public Library is taking over as President for 2015
URBANS / Brian Sylvester – No report.
YALS / Sylvie Brikiatis
 No elections yet, they will be done on November 20 when they meet in Atkinson. They are
creating a new timeline for the Flume award process.
LIAISON REPORTS:
Advocacy / Mary Cronin
 The Advocacy Committee has registered to have a NHLA table in the exhibit hall of the NH
Municipal Association conference on Nov. 12-13 in Manchester. Thanks to Cara and Betsy for
taking care of this. Our table will be next to the NHLTA’s table; we will not be sharing a table.
We will have power at the table so we will be able to bring an electronic display and devices.
Thank you for your votes allowing for this additional cost.

The Advocacy Committee met on September 11, 2014 at the Pease Public Library in Plymouth.
We began by brainstorming to identify and prioritize the committee’s work. Here is what we’re
going to start with:
1. Strengthen relationships and encourage sharing among NH librarians - “It’s hard to
be a strong front if we barely know each other.”
Tasks:
● Encourage librarian sharing (as individuals, not institutions) in social media;
committee members will step up their own use of Twitter - in progress
● Start and promote a Tumblr for awesome library stories (“warm fuzzies”, “librarian
hero”) - in progress (will be at librarianheroes.tumblr.com)
● Create regional social opportunities for librarians (“librarians after hours”) - to do
● Come up with fun ways to promote “warm fuzzies” and “librarian hero” stories
(trading cards, hashtag for sharing in social media) - to do
2. Plan exhibition table at NH Municipal Conference (Nov. 12-13 in Manchester),
highlighting why libraries are worth support and funding.
Tasks:
● “Libraries Connect Communities” banner - donation from Greg Slossar
● Collect photos from NH libraries and existing library infographics to include in an
interactive display (most likely a slideshow)
● Pull together interesting NH library statistics and create infographic display posters
● Collect handouts for table, focusing on services and programs available from most or
all NH public libraries (NH Downloadable Books cards, NHSL info, ILL stats, etc.)
● Find volunteers (2 per shift) for the table at the NHMA conference

Does anyone on the board want to volunteer for a shift at the NHMA conference? (Mary will be
sending request to NHAIS-L to fill in empty spots soon.)

We have lost two members of our committee due to new jobs out of state. The next meeting of
the Advocacy Committee will be on October 30 at 10 am at the Pease Public Library in Plymouth.
We will be finalizing plans for the NHMA conference.
ALA Councilor/ Amy Lappin
 Life of an ALA Councilor tends to be fairly quiet between conferences beyond monitoring
conversations on various listservs and keeping up with committee reports. However, in
September, Amy submitted the 2014 State of the Chapter Report to ALA. Reports from the last
three years can be viewed here http://www.ala.org/groups/all-state-chapter-reports. Thank you
to all who assisted with putting this together. Only 26 states met the deadline and Amy was
proud that NH was among them.
ByLaws / Carlos Pearman and Eric Stern – No report.
Center for the Book / Edmund Lowe
 There was discussion of a Big Read using The Things They Carried, tying in with a Humanities
Council focus on programming for and about veterans. There was suggestion that the NH Arts
Council might be interested in participating, and that a meeting should be set up when the new
Council Director has started.

Ladybug Picture Book Award voting materials, ballots & tally sheets went up on the website
during June. Tally sheets are due on Friday, December 12, 2014 at 4:30pm. The Center is
looking for ideas for more content for the Ladybug facebook page.

Fourty-seven semi-finalist letters were selected out of 560 letters received from New Hampshire
students in the 2014 Letters About Literature contest. A state winner was selected at each of 3
levels. There is a news feed set up so people can subscribe to updates about LAL from the
Center's blog. The link is on the Center's main web page (http://nhbookcenter.org). They only
did electronic mailings this year, they will return to snail mail as well next year.

They were not able to put together a Poetry Project for April 2014, will try again for 2015.

The next Advisory Board Meeting will be held at the NH State Library on Wednesday, November
12,2014.
Conference Committee / Randy Brough – No report.
Continuing Education / Barbara Prince
 This year’s budget is dedicated to support the paralibrarian section’s professional development
needs – they are expecting to pay approximately $350 per program plus mileage for four or five
programs. It was agreed that presenters/teachers would be paid, but they can refuse the
payment or donate it back to NHLA. Fees for sessions would go to the continuing education
section. Because Ann Hoey mentioned that we might not always be able to have NHSL
coordinate registrations and payments, Barbara will go to Cara’s training. Cara can set up an
account for the Paralibrarian Section. Wild Apricot will allow online registration and people may
pay with PayPal, which will simplify matters. But registrants will still able to pay with checks.
Intellectual Freedom / Gail Zachariah
 During Banned Books Week, N.H. libraries and bookstores were very active promoting our
Freedom to Read. A few examples of programs include a Banned Books Read Out at the Water
Street Bookstore in Concord and a Banned Books Bingo at the Pelham Public Library. Many
libraries had active twitter and Facebook campaigns, which kept the issue of Intellectual
Freedom in our minds. This year, Banned Book Week had an emphasis on comic books and
graphic novels. Gail’s library, the Keene Public Library, had a lecture on the history of Censorship
in the Comics. The September issue of Smithsonian has a great article on the surprising history
of Wonder Woman. This came in the mail the day of the lecture, so they did not get to include it
in the presentation but everyone rushed home to read it. Gail encourages everyone to read it. It
shows another aspect of the comic industry.

Sadly, if you do a google search on Banned Books Week and N.H., you get listings of past
challenges in N.H. This year, there were a couple of additions to the list of challenges. Sean
Fleming from Lebanon Public Libraries has announced the challenge at his library to “Doing It”
by Melvin Burgess. Sean sent a nice email to the NHAIS list encouraging acknowledgement of
Ban Books week as a way of preventing our patrons from taking Intellectual Freedom for
granted.

Gail is aware of one other challenge to a book in New Hampshire last year; however, the other
decided not to respond publicity to the challenge and asked Gail not to become involved. Of
course, it is up to the library how they respond when this happens but Gail would encourage all
libraries to report all instances of challenges to the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom. Reports
are kept confidential and are used for statistical purposes only. Gail would also like to remind
library directors, that she is willing to offer any assistance that might find helpful.
Legislative / Randy Brough – No report.
Membership:
 There are now 498 members. Cara can run a report of members for each section.
NELA Representative / Amy Lapointe
 NELA is asking for prizes for the NELA Big Games. It was unclear if they were asking for prizes
from individual libraries or from the NHLA board.
NHAIS Liaison / VACANT
NH State Librarian / Mike York – No report.
NH State Library Liaison / Ann Hoey
 Mike York had sent an email via NHAIS about Lego Kits, which are a gift from the Lego
Foundation. Because there are 15 kits, each coop will receive one and determine how to share
amongst their members. There are 10,000 legos in each kit, designed for ages 4-7. Please share
your stories and photos with Ann and she will send them to the Lego Foundation.

Peterborough Library has joined NHAIS-local.
NH State Library Advisory Council Rep / Brian Sylvester – No report.
Nominating / Diane Lynch
 Voting is in progress for the NHLA 2014 election. If you have not yet cast your ballot, please do
so. Ballots are available online at nhlibrarians.org and can be sent to Diane via van at the
Laconia stop or by snail mail to her attention at Laconia Public Library, 695 Main St, Laconia, NH
03246. Please return ballots by October 29th, 2014 so that Diane can be sure to get the count in
and the word out to appropriate parties before the Fall Business Meeting on November 7th.
Scholarship / Sarah Leonardi
 Earlier in the year, the Scholarship Committee awarded a $1000 Rosalie Norris Scholarship to
Alyson Opshal and a Winchell Loan to Elizabeth Jose. Alyson is the Children’s Program Director
at the Chesterfield Public Library and is studying through the distance program at Texas
Women’s University. Elizabeth (Lisa) is Library Assistant at the Merrimack Public Library and is
studying online through Clarion University.

Currently the committee is reviewing applications recently received for two Rosalie Norris
Scholarships and Winchell Loans. The next deadline for scholarship and loan applications is April
1, 2015.
NHLTA Liaison / Conrad Moses
 NHLTA 2014 Awards Recipients:
Library of the year: Mary E. Bartlett Memorial Library, Brentwood
Ceremony on Saturday, October 25 at 3:00pm.
Library Director of the year: Dorothy Billbrough, Coby Memorial Library, Danville
Lillian Edelmann Trustee of the year: Doug Bank, Durham Public Library, Durham
Sue Palmatier Award Friends of the Library Group: Friends of Rye Public Library
Special Library Service Contribution Award: Elaine Brody, George & Ella Rogers
Memorial Library, Hudson

NHMA Conference: NHLTA will host a table next to NHLA at the conference. We feel this benefit
both organizations.

Upcoming Workshop: NHLTA is putting on a Personnel Management Workshop for Library
Trustees on Wednesday October 29, 10:00am to 1:15pm at NHMA. It’s free to all. For more
information and registration please go online at NHLTA website, www.nhlta.org

Spring Conference: The conference is still being worked on. Some of the things are which
workshops are more suitable for beginner Trustees and which ones are more suitable for
experienced Trustees. One idea is to set up some theme tables during lunch that participants
can visit.

Autumn Newsletter: NHLTA Autumn Newsletters has been mailed. There were several articles
on libraries; Newington’s Langdon Library, Stratford Public Library, Boscawen Public Library,
North Hampton Public Library, and Deerfield’s Philbrick-James Library. Also please see our
President Ed Moran message. The Newsletter should be up online soon if not already at
www.nhlta.org

NHLTA retreat will November 5, there will be no monthly NHLTA Board meeting in November.
This year facilitator will be Mary Ann Leon. The retreat helps us set some goals for the upcoming
year and review our strategic plan.

Advocacy: This is still in process and should be active after the Retreat.
Ways & Means / VACANT
Website Coordinator / Marina Hale – No report.
Archivist / VACANT
OTHER BUSINESS: Mary Cronin reported that she is not receiving all emails. Please remember to use
the link on the website when mailing to the board, so that all receive.
Adjourn: 3:38
Minutes recorded by Mary H. White, Secretary