Below is the January Newsletter from the Collaborative Summer Library Program. Lots of changes coming, please read on! You can also view it online at: https://www.cslpreads.org/cslp-newsletter-january-2018/ Cathy Lancaster Youth Services Coordinator Library of Michigan 702 W. Kalamazoo St. Lansing, MI 48915 LancasterC5@michigan.gov<mailto:LancasterC5@michigan.gov> | 517-335-8129 | www.mi.gov/libraryofmichigan<http://www.mi.gov/libraryofmichigan> Follow us: Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/libraryofmichigan/> | Twitter<https://twitter.com/libraryofmich> | Instagram<https://www.instagram.com/libraryofmichigan/> Trouble viewing? (View as a webpage<https://www.cslpreads.org/cslp-newsletter-january-2018/>) [https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/CSLP-Newsletter-Logo.jpg]<https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/CSLP-Newsletter-Logo.jpg>January 2018 October: 2018 Manuals have been sent Happy 2018! February: Content for the 2019 manuals are in their final revisions March: Attending PLA? Be sure to stop by the CSLP booth and say hello 2018 CSLP Annual meeting: April 8th – 12th. Denver, CO The 2018 Incentive catalog is live! Check it out today at shopcslp.com<http://www.shopcslp.com>! Be sure to check out this year’s webinar on the Early Literacy and Childrens Manuals hosted by the manuals editor. https://www.cslpreads.org/cslp-webinars/ CSLP Annual Meeting information now available! The CSLP Annual Meeting Registration and Information has been posted on the CSLP website. We will be meeting in Denver, Colorado at The Westin Denver Downtown Hotel on April 9 – 12, 2018. Please note that the conference is one day longer this year. You will find this information on the CSLP home page at: https://cslpreads.org. Once you are logged in, click on the green bar that says, 2018 CSLP Annual Meeting. On the Annual Meeting webpage, you will find all of the registrations information, hotel reservations link, brief agenda, travel policy and travel vouchers, Denver Visitor Guide, transportation and shuttle information from the airport to the hotel. If you have any questions regarding the meeting or travel, please contact Karen at 866-857-8556. Bedtime Math Reading Constellation Charts Available The CSLP 2018 Incentive catalog does not offer the Math/Reading Constellation Chart this year, however CSLP has a supply of these available for purchase. These are the same charts that you have seen in previous catalogs. They are packages of 25 for $2.50 each. Please contact Karen at karen.day@cslpreads.org<mailto:karen.day@cslpreads.org> if you are interested in purchasing these charts for your library. Enter to Win! Scholastic Summer Reading Road Trip Sweepstakes 2018 The Scholastic Summer Reading Road Trip, in partnership with the Collaborative Summer Library Program, is excited to announce a nationwide public library sweepstakes. Mark your calendars! Complete the entry form for a chance to be one of FOUR winners! [https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/scholastic.jpg] Highlights of the day include: * Tented stations for crafts and activities * Costume character appearances * Promotional giveaways for readers of all ages * Photo ops and more! No purchase necessary to enter or win! The application form can be found here: https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/summerreadingcontest-fl... Free Scholastic Literacy Partnerships membership required. Visit www.scholastic.com/rvcontest2018<http://www.scholastic.com/rvcontest2018> for official contest rules. [https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/matt_mclain.jpg]Matt McLain CSLP President Salt Lake County Library It’s amazing what happens over the course of a year. In June, the new Board had a vision of the direction we wanted to take CSLP, but there were so many details and possibilities, it was daunting figuring out where to begin. Looking back, we’ve accomplished more than I thought was possible. Some highlights: We’ve hired an Organizational Coordinator–Luke Kralik–who is doing exactly what the Board envisioned when we hired him, and accomplishing many of these faster than we hoped! * We have extended the artist and theme selections to five years out so we have more time to do our work, more time to get the program ready, and have the ability to produce better products to meet members’ needs. We know that the artwork is one of the most important pieces of what we do, and we are getting better at using the art with the program materials. * Similarly, we’ve aligned the work of the program year to the timeline that makes the most sense. While this will help us be better at meeting (and beating) deadlines, it is also the reason we are changing the annual meeting to fall beginning in 2019. * Luke is leading a committee to examine how we can do better at providing quality incentives–T-shirts, promotional materials, prizes, books, and printed materials–at lower cost, while responding to the suggestions you’ve made over the past several years about the changing needs of your state or community’s summer reading programs. We will hopefully have more news on this at the annual meeting. * We are building stronger partnerships that will complement our summer reading program and raise the profile of summer reading nationally. So far, we are very excited about partnerships with StarNet, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, and PBS! I am proud to say that CSLP is a strong organization with a very bright future. The leaders of CSLP, from the Board to Committee Chairs, to State Representatives, to members willing to share their expertise and opinions, are 100% vested in the success of CSLP. We cannot do the work we do without these contributions. We could not have CSLP without you. Your confidence in the organization means everything to us! [https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/chrissie_mcgovern.jpg]Chrissie McGovern CSLP Vice President Branch Manager, Gaston County Public Library CSLP is making some big changes and they are coming up fast! Our artwork process has already changed, but I am also excited about upcoming changes to our manuals and our annual meeting. In 2015 we ventured into contracting directly with an artist to provide artwork for the Children’s and Early Literacy programs. We fully own the artwork that David Macaulay, Brian Pinkney and now, Leeza Hernandez have created for our programs. Now that we own the artwork, there are so many different ways for us to use it. The board is currently looking to contract with a design house to assist with the production of our artwork. The design house would refine some of the artwork that we receive from our artists as well as create the supplemental clipart we have always had. One other thing we are hoping for is to find a way to tie the artwork of all of the age groups together, particularly now that we have one slogan. I think that the key word is freedom, though. We will have more freedom to choose which designs are used on our products and I think that is important. Another unique opportunity we have with the artwork is to take advantage of using the physical artwork. In March 2017, Brian Pinkney mailed me the actual artwork rather than scanning it and sending it digitally. It was a surreal moment when I opened the box that had the original watercolor pieces he created. This creates an opportunity for us to have these pieces framed and put on display, perhaps in our member libraries across the country and in our island territories. In addition to the changes in the artwork, we’re also anticipating some big changes to the manuals. We started small and contracted an editor and writers for the 2019 teen and adult manuals. While this change may not sound like a big deal to our member libraries now, it will be in a few years when we contract for all of the manuals. One of the reasons we decided to contract the manuals ourselves was to change the timeline of the manuals. This means that our members would have access to future manuals much sooner than they do now. As we get closer to the program year, material may be added to the downloadable version. We are also looking to reformat the print manual which begins with our first ever manual retreat for current and new manual chairs just prior to our annual meeting in Denver! BriAnne Newton has done a fabulous job of acting as the board liaison to the manual chairs, and leading the way to improve our manuals. One of the biggest changes we discussed at our board retreat in September is the move of the annual meeting from the spring to the fall. This change begins with our annual meeting in September of 2019. We will just have finished a Universe of Stories for our space theme and summer reading will still be fresh in our minds. (I know that for many of us summer reading is 365 days a year and is always fresh in our minds!) It will give us a better opportunity to discuss what worked well and ways to improve. Another reason I am excited about this change is that we will be rolling out the products with all of the big changes to the artwork, incentives and manuals at this time. Products will be available for hands on opportunities. This will be an opportunity to see everything first-hand instead of just in a catalog. But we’ll begin seeing some minor changes in just a few months at our annual meeting in Denver. There will be a hands on training from the Space Science Institute, an author visit via Skype, and even a possible Elvis sighting. CSLP is able to make these changes because we have two dedicated staff members who help the board carry out our mission. While the board is made up entirely of volunteers who all work diligently on CSLP projects in addition to our full time jobs, we would not be able to accomplish any of this without Karen Day or Luke Kralik. While change is not easy, I believe that as we grow as an organization, we can embrace these changes to better serve our members. [https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/deanne_dekle-1.jpg]Deanne Dekle CSLP Vendor Chair Youth Services & Outreach Consultant, New Mexico State Library I don’t think I’ve ever come out of a meeting or conference feeling as strongly about something as I did after the Board Retreat in September of 2017. The things we talked about and the decisions we made to move this organization forward were so inspiring to me, not only as a Board member, but a State Rep and a Youth Services librarian who had used the CSLP program every year I was in a public library. The Board is 100% committed to making the CSLP the best Summer Reading program and organization it can be. The kind of commitment I witnessed was really something special and I felt honored to be a part of it. Yes, the changes we discussed are big and scary and could go wrong but I believe it’s for the best and even if things do go wrong, we’ll learn from those mistakes and fix them to make CSLP an even better organization and program for libraries. It would be easy to stick with what we’ve always done and known, but the potential for so much more is within our grasp. We’re moving away from one company that we’ve had a great relationship with and who does everything for us: manuals, incentives, promotional items. We’re moving to take control and ownership of these things and finding other companies that can provide the same or better options for our membership. Right now we don’t know what we’re possibly missing out on but the possibilities for what we could end up with are exciting. As an organization we’re aware of so many of the difficulties facing public libraries these days: declining budgets, competition with other organizations in your communities, other resources people have access to for information. We believe the changes we’ll be implementing will allow libraries to have a little more freedom with their planning, purchasing (we have to make those dollars go a little further these days), and partnerships. We want the program to work for you. What our members’ needs are and the new direction we’re heading in with different companies providing different items (based on their specialties) should accomplish that. Yes, there will be bumps in the road, especially in 2020 our first program year with the new changes, but if you just bear with us, we’ll all come out for the better. [https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/cathy_lancaster-1.jpg]Cathy Lancaster CSLP Board Member at Large Youth Services Coordinator at the Library of Michigan In the Fall of 2014, I received a message inviting me to attend the annual meeting for the Collaborative Summer Library Program that following Spring. I was excited but a little confused. I got the manual in the mail every year from the Library of Michigan and I guess I just thought it was simply a commissioned piece of work. “You mean a summer reading conference?” I asked, thinking this surely had to be where we workshopped programs. No, it was explained, it is not quite a conference… Flashforward to April 2015, Rhode Island. I quickly learned that CSLP’s annual meeting was very work-focused and volunteers from across the country were relied on greatly to speak their minds and share ideas. I think that was the biggest eye-opener for me at my first CSLP meeting, was just how involved state reps and volunteers are, not just in framing the chapters for the manuals, but all facets of CSLP work. Members vote on artists, themes and slogans, often planning 3-4 years out. Insights on board decisions are shared and members often answer various surveys to shape the future of the organization and summer reading. As representatives from state after state lined up to vote on the 2018 theme, way back in 2015, it occurred to me how invested these fellow librarians are, and how much they reach out and listen to feed back from their fellow library staffers around each state. So, when I returned from CSLP back in 2015, I knew I wanted to continue to be involved. I knew I had to help bring progress and innovation to summer reading at-large. I guess that’s why I find myself on the board, it is a great group of passionate folks to work with and it allows me to bring the voices of my state to the table. If you’re reading this, then I know you are already passionate about summer reading. And I hope you, too, will volunteer to serve CSLP in one capacity or another – there are so many opportunities! [https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/sally_snyder-1.jpg]Sally Snyder Membership Chair Children’s and Young Adult Services Nebraska Library Commission Some of you know, and some of you may not, that I was CSLP President from September of 2007 to May 2009. After serving as President-Elect, President, and Past-President I happily floated along in the CSLP lazy river content… knowing others were handling the boat/work/efforts. In 2017 I was elected as Chair of the Membership Committee. At the board meeting I attended at the end of the Annual Meeting in Charleston – and when I joined the current board members at the in-person retreat in St. Louis last September, I found a lot of changes were underway. I am a ponderer and need time to consider ideas and my opinions about them. So we thought it best to give the membership the same opportunity, to think and ponder. I learned that while our current vendor does some very good things for us, we have exciting new plans for the future. An idea emerged to split the Request for Proposals into three separate documents. A vendor can now bid on one part of what we need. I believe the RFPs are split into paper items, incentives, and t-shirts. Working on a new Strategic Plan (they dragged me kicking and screaming into the room!) helped clarify our members’ needs, requests, and dreams. See you in Denver! [https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/elaine_betting.jpg]Elaine Betting Board Member at-large Youth Services Librarian Supervisor Lorain Public Library I remember my first CSLP Annual Meeting in Hershey, PA. I had no idea what this meeting was going to be like, but I remember being so excited when I got home because I had seen this group in action talking about themes, slogans, and manuals. It was like a library version of watching congress on C-SPAN! Now, we are trying to bring that excitement to front line librarians across the country. Through video and opening new opportunities for members to attend the Annual Meeting, we are bringing CSLP closer to the front lines. CSLP is working hard to find a way to make our products work for more libraries. I can’t wait to see how the new design house takes the amazing artwork of our renown illustrators and transforms it into graphics that really get to the heart of what libraries need. For those staff members who have never worked on a manual or who have never been to the Annual Meeting, CSLP can seem like this vague entity that just picks the slogans every year (love them or hate them), but we do so much more! I’m so glad that more librarians will be able to participate in this way and get just as excited about CSLP as they get about their summer reading program. What is on the horizon for CSLP? 2018: Theme/Music; Slogan/”Libraries Rock”; Artist/Brian Pinkney 2019: Theme/Space; Slogan/”A Universe of Stories” Artist/Leeza Hernandez 2020: Theme/Fairytales, Mythology, Fantasy; Artist/LeUyen Pham 2021: Theme/To be Determined; Artist/Salina Yoon [https://www.cslpreads.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Libraries-Rock-Las-Bibl...]