SLS News Archive: 2021.09.20

SLS NewsBlast 2021.09.20

Welcome back!  We hope you’ve all successfully weathered the first few days of the new school year!

We’d like to extend a warm welcome to Jennifer McCorry, the new school librarian at Rush Henrietta Senior High School, where she fills the position vacated by Sheryl Diana’s retirement.  We’d also like to extend a hearty congratulations and fond farewell to Brian Smith, who will be retiring at the end of the month from Eastridge High School.  We wish both Jennifer and Brian all the best in the future!

SLS Mini-Grants are back this fall! 

After a brief hiatus last year, Mini-Grants are back this fall.  These competitive grants offer an opportunity for school librarians in the Monroe 1 region to apply for up to $1,200 to attend conferences (in state only this year) or professional development, carry out an innovative project, or engage in a focused collection development project that benefits the region.  More information and application materials can be found on our LibGuide at https://libguides.monroe.edu/SLS/MiniGrants .

OverDrive/Sora Updates. 

Hundreds of simultaneous access audiobooks, read-alongs, and ebooks have been added to our regional OverDrive Collection.  This resource, a collaboration between school library systems across NY, is called NY Reads.  The attached flyer provides information on how to add this resource to Sora.  A list of NY Reads titles, organized by elementary and secondary levels, is found at https://libguides.monroe.edu/NewsArchive/News (the second item under Announcements).  You will want to show students and teachers how to do this to take advantage of this fabulous resource. 

Upcoming Professional Development. 

Please see the attached list of Monroe One SLS Workshops this Fall.  There is also a separate flyer attached for an upcoming Collection Development workshop.  This is a collaborative effort between the Monroe One and Genesee Valley BOCES School Library Systems, and registration is through GV BOCES.  There are also many additional professional learning opportunities that may be of interest to school librarians offered by Monroe One’s Model Schools and Professional Learning teams.  We’ll have more information about SLS Winter and Spring opportunities coming soon.

Interlibrary Loan. 

ILL is back and operating normally across the 5 Systems region. 

Follett School Solutions Acquisition. 

Follett School Solutions (FSS), which includes Follet Destiny as well as their print distribution to schools, has been acquired by the Francisco Group.  We have been in touch with our contacts at Follett, and they assure us that there will not be any noticeable changes and that they hope that the new ownership will bring an infusion of funds to improve Destiny and FSS’s print distribution.  We will be monitoring this transition closely.  If you’d like more information about the acquisition, see https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210901005798/en/Francisco-Partners-Acquires-Follett-School-Solutions?fbclid=IwAR11RYCBSxf5Ht_hMS0fJxQCkOC06emQpfclL9fopW9MKIHQmDDw5rsNXFI

We wish you as wonderful and productive 2021-22 School Year!

Your Monroe One School Library Services Team!