• What's On Your Mind Round Tables

  • February 28th
  • April 19th

• Paralibrarian Officers and Committee Chairs

• Are you interested in becoming an officer of the Paralibrarian Section?

• Paralibrarian Section By-laws

• 2005 Paralibrarian Conference Information

• Paralibrarian Career Development

What's on Your Mind? a MLA/NMRLS Paralibrarian Discussion on Identity
February 28, 2005 -- 10:00 AM to 12:00 AM
Topsfield Town Library, Topsfield

This workshop follows the brainstorming workshop held last April for paralibrarians. One of the top topics paralibrarians wanted to pursue is the issue of identity: who am I and are others like me? Participants should come prepared to share their job descriptions,. Do you do what the job description says? Do you do more? And if so, how do you document that? Come and learn strategies and tips from each other.
Refreshments provided by MLA! Registration at http://www.nmrls.org/ce/ceform.shtml

What's on Your Mind? A Brainstorming Forum for Paraprofessionals
Tuesday April 19, 2005 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
SEMLS Conference Room

Paralibrarians are invited to attend this brainstorming forum. Ideas from the forum will be used for future training, discussion, and conferences. A recent Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) survey showed that there are many paraprofessional library workers who have a lot of ideas to share - about pay and opportunities for advancement, about respect and collegiality with peers, about the skills and values you bring to your library workplace - and more. This is a chance to speak up and out! This session is co-sponsored by the Southeastern Massachusetts Regional Library System and the Massachusetts Library Association Paralibrarian Committee. Facilitated by Cheryl Bryan, Assistant Administrator for Consulting an Continuing Education.
Registration: http://www.semls.org/Services/Continuing_Education/ceregform.asp or contact: semls 877-923-3531 semls@semls.org

New! Upcoming Paralibrarian Executive Board Meetings:

• Wednesday, March 2, 2005 10am - noon
• Wednesday, April 27, 2005 10am - noon

All meetings are held at the Marlborough Public Library unless noted otherwise. Click here for DIRECTIONS to Marlborough Public Library.

Welcome to MLA’s Paralibrarian Section!

We are happy that you have an interest in our organization which serves non-MLS library staff members. But who is a paralibrarian? We know that non-MLS staff can range in skills and experience from high school pages to directors of small public libraries. Our mission has to be comprehensive, inclusive, and inviting to appeal to a great variety of library staff.
Here are our goals:

• To provide every non-MLS library staff member who works in any type of library across Massachusetts with continuing education and networking opportunities.
•  To encourage paralibrarians to join MLA, thereby boosting membership and clout in the Association.
•  To create a paralibrarian acknowledgment program for career recognition and development.
• To create avenues of recognition for all the good work that paralibrarians do. We want to form a community that encourages respect and admiration for those staff members who want to build their careers but might never choose to pursue an MLS degree.
• To educate library directors and management of the need to allow their staff time away from the library and travel expenses to participate in workshops, serve on committees, and attend annual conferences.

The Paralibrarian Section currently meets approximately every six weeks on Wednesdays from 10 am to noon at the Marlborough Public Library. Everyone is welcome to attend; however, in order to have a vote you must be an individual member of MLA. In addition to these meetings, the Section holds its annual meeting and election of officers at the MLA conference each spring, sponsors a range of conference programs, and presents an annual report to MLA. The Section Chair acts as liaison to MLA and attends the MLA Executive Board meetings. Here is a list of the current Section officers and committee chairs:

Paralibrarian Section Officers and Committee Chairs

Return to Top

Are you interested in becoming an officer of the Paralibrarian Section?
A good way to find out is to attend a few of our Wednesday morning Executive Board meetings, where we make decisions on programs and plan for our future. Please contact any of the officers if you would like to attend. All officers of the Section must be individual members of MLA and must commit to attending most meetings. Read through our BYLAWS to get a sense of how we operate. An archive of our approved meeting minutes is also available. Again, THANK YOU for your interest and welcome!

Return to Top

Career Development Committee Announcement

No one knows better than Paralibrarians that the lack of a diploma doesn’t mean a lack of valuable skills and experiences or the lack of professional responsibilities. How do we make our years of work experience, related training and varied skills equate to what we’re worth?   The Career Development Committee has been working on developing a program to recognize the achievements of Paralibrarians within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

An exciting new program, based on the New York State Library Assistant’s Certificate of Achievement Program, is nearing completion.  Our goal is to have it finalized in time for the 2005 MLA Annual Conference.   We also plan on addressing the issue of statewide certification of Paralibrarians in the future.  If you would like to hear more about this program, contact Debbie Bockus (dbockus@wpi.edu), Chair of the Career Development Committee.

MLA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
MAY 9-10-11, 2005
SEA CREST RESORT, FALMOUTH, MA

DEFYING CLASSIFICATION! is the theme of the 2005 MLA Annual Conference.  The Paralibrarian Section will sponsor 5 programs guaranteed to be of interest to degreed and non-MLS library staffers:

ANNUAL PARALIBRARIAN SECTION BREAKFAST MEETING – Join the members of the PLS Board to vote for officers and catch up on section happenings. All are welcome to attend the meeting.  You must be a member of MLA to vote.

PARALIBRARIAN SECTION AWARDS -  Two awards will be presented at the luncheon: Outstanding Paralibrarian of the Year and Paralibrarian Advocate of the Year.  (see details for nominations and selection process at the Paralibrarian Awards link).

A JOB WELL DONE – Join a roundtable discussion on the topic of recognition and to brainstorm the new PARA program (PAralibrarian Recognition of Achievement) proposed by the PLS Career Development Committee.

EXTREME CUSTOMER SERVICE :  Springfield College builds a new desk – an opportunity to meet and hear about the people who planned and implemented a complete reorganization of the Information and Circulation desks at Springfield College, all in the name of “Extreme Customer Service!”

ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS : Dealing with Change – A favorite speaker from the “First Impressions” program at the 2004 MLA Conference, we have invited back Tricia Griffin-Carty to entertain and educate on how to handle the constantly changing facets of working in a library. 

Coming Soon: MEMBERSHIP INFO
Coming Soon: PARALIBRARIAN AWARDS

Return to Top

Section Charge:

Paralibrarain

.

Section Chair:

Chair, Paralibrarian Elizabeth Wolfe Marlborough Public Library 35 West Main St. Marlborough, MA 01752 (508) 624-6901 (508) 485-1494 ewolfe@cwmars.org

Meeting Schedule:

Check out the MLA calendar of events for the next Paralibrarian Section meeting