Monday Briefing - January 24, 2022

System Orientation for New Trustees

On February 7, 2022, at 5 PM we'll be offering an orientation for new Trustees about the System. All Trustees and Directors are more than welcome to attend. The main focus will be discussing what the Pioneer Library System is, the relationship with member libraries, where does our funding comes from, what we offer, and some other general information.

Let me know if there are other System-related topics that you would like me to share.

Register by clicking here .

Trustee Handbook Book Club Recording

The January 18, 2022 recording of the Trustee Book Club session on Budgets & Finance can be found on YouTube .

If you were unable to attend previous sessions, all the recordings can be found on Mid-Hudson's website: https://midhudson.org/trusteebookclub/

Legislative Update

Executive Budget

Good news, for the first time in many years there is a proposed increase to general aid. Proposed $96.1M ($2M increase over 2021)

Bad news, another year of rolling back legislative add-ons. Construction aid proposed $14M ($20M decrease from 2021)

NYLA will be coming out with some Advocacy pieces for the Executive Budget soon.

Library Advocacy Day 2022

Virtual on March 2, 2022. I will let everyone know when

Two Pre-Advocacy Day webinars (they will be recorded and posted)

• Feb 16 at 3 pm on Budget and Policy
• Feb 23 at 3 pm on Social Media

eBooks for All veto

The veto message expressed concern that the bill was in violation of copyright law (as alleged in the Maryland lawsuit). NYLA is still considering paths forward and will know more once we see where the MD lawsuit goes, this issue will be used in budget messaging as another reason that libraries need more funds.

Open Meetings Law

On January 14, 2022, Governor Hochul signed into Law Chapter 1 of the Laws of 2022 amending Chapter 417 of the Laws of 2021 to authorize any public body (as that term is defined by § 102(2) of the Open Meetings Law) “to meet and take such action authorized by law without permitting in public in-person access to meetings and authorize such meetings to be held remotely by conference call or similar service, provided that the public has the ability to view or listen to such proceeding and that such meetings are recorded and later transcribed.”

This will hold through the remainder of the State of Emergency. If that changes I will let you know.