Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 39, September 25, 2024
(a)
Definitions.
(1) The term
school library system as used in this section means:
(i) an organization of school districts and
nonpublic schools cooperating with a board of cooperative educational services
(BOCES) to provide library coordination and/or services to member school
library media centers under a school library system plan of service approved by
the commissioner; or
(ii) the city
school district of New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse or Yonkers,
which has responsibility for the development of public school library media
centers in accordance with the standards established in Part 91 of this Title
in its individual schools, and which provides library media coordination and/or
services to such schools and to nonpublic school library media centers, under a
school library system plan of service approved by the
commissioner.
(2)
Nonpublic school library media center means a collection of
informational materials located in an area in the school devoted to library
media service for the students and faculty and under the supervision of a
designated member of the school staff.
(3)
Member of a school library
system means a school district or nonpublic school enumerated in a
school library system plan of service approved by the commissioner.
(4)
Participant in a school library
system means a school library media center in a member of a school
library system.
(5) For the purpose
of determining eligibility for State aid to a school library system pursuant to
section
284 of the
Education Law, enrollment means the total number of pupils
enrolled in the schools in a school library system service area on the first
day of October of the base year, as defined in section
3602
(1)(b) of the Education Law.
(6)
Certified school library media
specialist means a licensed teacher of library in the city school
district of the City of New York, a licensed school library media specialist in
the city school district of the City of Buffalo, or the holder of a school
media specialist (library) certificate, or a predecessor of such certificate,
in all other school districts and BOCES.
(7)
Coordinator of a school library
system means a certified school library media specialist with a
minimum of three years employment as a school library media specialist and
possessing a valid school administrator and supervisor (S.A.S.) certificate, a
valid school building leader (S.B.L.) certificate or a valid school district
leader (S.D.L.) certificate in accordance with Part 80 of this Title, or an
equivalent certificate title as determined by the
commissioner.
(b)
Governance.
(1) The board of
cooperative educational services or the board of education of the city school
district shall be the governing board of the school library system. In the case
of a school library system serving a combination of BOCES and/or city school
districts, one BOCES or city school district shall be designated as the
official administrative agency. Each such board shall appoint members to the
school library system council, including nonpublic school representation, shall
act as fiscal agent, and shall submit the plan of service to the commissioner
for approval.
(2) School library
system council.
(i) Each school library
system shall have a school library system council, which shall meet at least
four times a year. Such school library system council shall be composed of at
least nine members, and shall include representatives of the members in the
school library system and other representatives of providers and users of
library services in the school library system. The plan of service shall
specify the method of appointment of the school library system council. The
school library system council members shall serve three-year terms and shall be
appointed in a manner as to provide that, as nearly as possible, one third of
the members of the council shall be appointed each year. A vacancy on the
school library system council shall be filled by the governing board for the
duration of the term of the individual whose seat on the council is to be
filled. Members shall serve without compensation.
(ii) The governing board and the council
shall be responsible for development of the plan of service. Upon approval by
the council, the governing board shall submit the plan to the commissioner for
approval. After approval by the commissioner, it shall be the responsibility of
the governing board and the council to monitor the implementation of the plan
of service.
(c)
Plan of service.
(1) Content.
A BOCES or board of education of an eligible city school
district, or combination of BOCES and/or eligible city school districts,
seeking funding as a school library system shall submit to the commissioner a
plan of service approved by the school library system council in the form
prescribed by him or her. The plan shall include, but not be limited to:
(i) identification of all school districts
and nonpublic schools, both members and nonmembers, and their school library
media centers, within the service area of the school library system;
(ii) a statement of the policies and
procedures to be used for selection of the school library system council
members, indicating how such policies and procedures assure that the council is
broadly representative of the providers and users of school library media
services;
(iii) the means to be
established for locating and accessing library media materials by all the
participants through a machine-readable catalog which will be consistent with
standards for regional bibliographic data bases set forth in section
90.19 of this Part;
(iv) procedures for accepting, verifying and
responding to the requests for interlibrary loan, and a description of the
delivery system for sharing library media materials;
(v) identification of the staffing patterns
that will support the system, including the advisory services to be available
to its members;
(vi) the means by
which the school library system will assure compatibility in its computerized
and other technical operations with those of other library systems of the State
as specified in section
90.19(e) of this
Part;
(vii) identification of
special client group needs, and the means for meeting them;
(viii) the means by which the school library
system will assure continuing needs assessment and program development,
including staff development needs, and the appropriate activities to meet those
needs;
(ix) the plan for
cooperative collection development implementation;
(x) procedures for promoting awareness of
resources and services among system members and participants;
(xi) procedures for encouraging communication
among members and participants regarding effective practices and cooperative
projects;
(xii) procedures for an
annual evaluation by participants of programs and services, for an annual
report to members and other appropriate groups on system programs and
activities, and a description of how the results of the annual evaluation will
be used to plan future programs and services;
(xiii) procedures for evaluating the
appropriateness of cooperating with other library systems to provide more
effective and efficient delivery of services to the members and participants in
both systems; and
(xiv) a
description of the responsibilities of the communications coordinators
representing the member public school districts and nonpublic
schools.
(2) Criteria for
approval.
(i) No plan of service of a school
library system shall be approved unless there is evidence that the plan was
developed collaboratively with the administrators and school library media
specialists of the schools in the area to be served.
(ii) No plan of service shall be approved
unless it provides a method by which members of the school library system are
obligated to permit the interlibrary loan of books and materials to other
members of the school library system and to members of other systems with which
the school library system has reciprocal interlibrary loan agreements, except
for materials not loaned within a participating district or
school.
(3) Revision.
The plan of service of each school library system shall be
effective for a period of five years. Subsequent revisions thereof shall be
filed no later than April 30th for implementation in the school year beginning
the following July 1st. Plans and revisions shall be approved by the council,
the governing body and the commissioner.
(d)
System staffing.
Each school library system shall employ a full-time
coordinator of the school library system. School library systems, or
combinations thereof, with the enrollment of 200,000 students or more, shall
employ at least an additional 0.5 full-time equivalent certified school library
media specialist for each additional 100,000 students, or major fraction
thereof, to assist the coordinator in designated school library system
activities. At least one full-time clerical staff member shall be assigned to
each coordinator. Other professional and support staff members shall be
employed as necessary to execute school library system functions. The adequacy
of the staff in relation to the plan of service activities shall be determined
by the commissioner.
(e)
Functions of the system coordinator.
The school library system coordinator will be responsible
for the following aspects of the school library system, including but not
limited to:
(1) creation, updating and
maintenance of a union catalog in appropriate format;
(2) establishment and use of interlibrary
loan procedures, including delivery and policy;
(3) development and implementation of a
cooperative collection development plan;
(4) planning of professional staff learning
and other continuing education activities;
(5) ongoing communications with the
communications coordinators, with the school library system council, and with
other school or community personnel or agencies;
(6) development of a specialized collection
of selection and verification tools for use by system members;
(7) planning periodic meetings between the
school library system council and the communications coordinators;
(8) serving as advisor to member school
library media staff, school districts and nonpublic schools on program
development and improvement and assisting with development and updating of
members' plans developed pursuant to paragraph (f)(4) of this
section;
(9) serving as liaison to
appropriate State Education Department offices concerning system and member
needs and other matters;
(10)
development of cooperative activities with other school library systems, public
library systems and the reference and research library resources
system;
(11) conducting periodic
technical assistance visits to members and participants;
(12) planning and conducting procedures for
data gathering and reporting; and
(13) preparing annually a budget application,
on forms prescribed by the commissioner, to be approved by the school library
system council and governing board, and such budget shall be filed with the
department no later than April 30th of each year for approval and release of
State aid in the next school year.
(f)
Membership.
(1) All school districts and nonpublic
schools, located within a BOCES supervisory district which has established a
school library system, shall be eligible for membership in such school library
system, provided that each such member shall designate a certified school
library media specialist as the communications coordinator to the school
library system. The communications coordinator shall implement the procedures
to be followed in the district, within the general guidelines and procedures
determined by the school library system, regarding data collection for union
lists, cooperative collection development, other system requirements,
intra-district and inter-district loan requests, and necessary reports. The
communications coordinator shall keep other school library media specialists
and staff of the members informed of school library system policies,
procedures, activities and services. Time to perform communications coordinator
duties shall be provided by the member district or nonpublic school. The
communications coordinator shall have an outside telephone line, telefacsimile,
computer with internet access and e-mail and access to photoduplication
facilities.
(2) Within school
library systems established by the city school districts of New York City,
Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, a certified school library media
specialist shall be designated as communications coordinator to the school
library system from each zone, representative area or other internal
subdivision of the city school district used for school organization as
designated in the plan of service. Nonpublic school members shall designate a
representative to serve as communications coordinator between such nonpublic
school members and the school library system.
(3) Each member school district and nonpublic
school of a school library system shall permit the interlibrary loan of books
and other library materials to other members of the school library system or
members of other systems with which the school library system has reciprocal
agreements, except for materials not otherwise loaned by such member.
(4) Member plan.
At least once during the five-year period of each plan of
service, each member school district and nonpublic school member, and in New
York City any internal subdivision of the city school district used for school
organization, shall file with the system a plan which shows how district and
building library media resources and programs meet the needs of students and
teachers and describes the ways in which it proposes to make effective use of
the system. Such plan shall include:
(i) a description of existing library
resources and services, in a format established by the school library
system;
(ii) procedures for prompt
and efficient communication among school library media specialists and
reporting to other members of the school community regarding system policies,
procedures and services;
(iii)
provisions for periodic reporting, at least annually, to the governing body of
the school district or nonpublic school and to the administration, regarding
participation of the member in system services;
(iv) assurance by the member and its
participants that adequate qualified staff is available to organize and
administer the library media program and fulfill system
responsibilities.
(5)
Each member and each participant shall have a minimum library collection as
follows:
under 200 pupils: 1,000 volumes
200-500 pupils: 3,000 volumes
501-1,000 pupils: 5,000 volumes
over 1,000 pupils: 8,000 volumes
Approval may be granted by the commissioner for a variance
from the requirements of this paragraph upon receipt of adequate assurance that
a plan of acquisitions will eliminate the deficiency.
(6) Each school library system member shall
provide school library system personnel access to the bibliographic records of
its school library media centers for purposes of creating and maintaining a
school library system union catalog.
(g)
Reports.
By November 1st of each year, each school library system
shall transmit to the department an annual report for the year ending on June
30th of the previous school year, in such form as shall be prescribed by the
commissioner, and such other progress reports as may be required by the
commissioner. Such annual report shall include an evaluation by participants
and shall be approved by the department.
