Library Advocacy Day is February 28, 2018. Librarians from across the state meet with legislators to discuss the importance of libraries. You can go to NYLA's Library Advocacy page to get more information. I encourage you to come that day but if you can't, please write your legislators and ask them to continue to support library funding. Pictures and stories of how your students use your library, and how it impacts them in a positive way, are more persuasive than I will be! Due to the financial strains in many areas, there is a lot of talk of a decrease in funding for library systems (such as SLS). What this means for you is that things we do to support you and your programs could be reduced: purchasing of eBooks and databases, conferences, professional development, etc. It could also impact funding to DLD which purchases the NOVEL databases that I know many schools rely on. Tell your story!

Some of you have been asking about databases costs for 2018 - 2019 school year. We don't have all pricing yet but as a general rule, when we send budget information to your districts in January, we estimate 5% over last year's (total) cost. This is because some products increase by 1% - 2%, while others may be 8% - 10%, or even more. This way we can "average" what the costs will be. We will be sending out lists of current purchases (with exact 2018-2019 prices) to your district Communications Coordinator in April. We will also be releasing trial information as we get it. If there's something you want to see, please contact Deb and she'll work on it for you.