N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 8 § 90.18

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 45, November 2, 2024

Section 90.18 - School library systems

(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.

N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 8 § 90.18

Amended New York State Register August 2, 2017 /Volume XXXIX, Issue 31, eff.8/2/2017

Amended New York State Register December 24, 2019/Volume XLI, Issue 52, eff. 12/24/2019

Amended New York State Register September 28, 2022/Volume XLIV, Issue 39, eff. 9/28/2022