Otesaga Resort & Conference Center

Here we are at another beautiful building. This is the Otesaga Resort and Conference Center on Otego Lake in Cooperstown, NY. Every year, all of the School Library System directors meet here for a three day conference.

It is a great opportunity for sharing ideas and information, as well as resolving issue that we are all facing. Some of the topics we discussed this year included: cooperative purchasing of an online resource for all of our schools, managing online database purchasing, consolidation of a statewide information fluency curriculum and school library advocacy.

With all of the work we accomplished in our time here, we did have some short breaks when we could take walks downtown or around the grounds of the Otesaga. Some people caught an early morning swim in the heated pool and everyone enjoyed the delicious meals. But don’t be deceived by the beauty of it all, Otesaga week means WORK!
Luckily, it is all done in this beautiful setting.

New York State Education Department Building

On this beautiful May afternoon, I attended a meeting of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries here at the Education Department Building in Albany. Several of the Regents and Commissioner Mills were in attendance.

In this meeting the Regents were brought up to date on critical issues in libraries – including the need to require certified school media specialists in elementary schools. They asked questions and responded to a presentation by Fran Roscello.

One of the perks of this job is that many of our meetings are in really beautiful buildings. The NYSED Building boasts 36 Corintian columns, one of the longest colonnades in the United States.