Are you interested in supporting and strengthening our statewide library community?
The Massachusetts Library System (MLS) is seeking volunteers from among our member libraries to serve on our 15-member Executive Board.
To effectively represent our membership, our Board needs to be as diverse as our libraries. We seek members from varied backgrounds, with a wide range of experiences, working in all sizes and types of libraries (academic, special, school, and public), from all geographic regions of the Commonwealth, and performing all kinds of library work.
We currently have two open positions on the Board, each of which will serve a 3-year term to begin in January 2022. We also hope to build a roster of interested individuals that we can draw upon should a position become open during the year.
To maintain our library-type balance, our focus this cycle is on individuals from school and special libraries. To maintain our geographic balance, we’re especially interested in volunteers working on the Cape and the Islands, in the Berkshires, and in the Central and Northeast regions. That said, we welcome applications from across library types and throughout the state.
Executive Board responsibilities include attending monthly Board meetings (remotely for the foreseeable future, but eventually in-person in our Marlborough and Northampton offices), closely reviewing budgets, policies, and planning documents, representing MLS at local and regional meetings, promoting MLS services, and advocating for MLS funding.
Ideal candidates will be familiar with some MLS services, interested in learning and engaging with the Board’s work, committed to developing a thorough understanding of the needs of all types of libraries, and willing to contribute their perspective, their energy, and their skills to the continued success of the MLS team and Massachusetts libraries generally.
If you’re interested in joining us, please submit a Statement of Interest by the end of the day on Tuesday, June 1, 2021. The MLS Nominating Committee will review all submissions and recommend a slate of candidates to the Board. New Board members are elected by our membership at our annual meeting in November.
To learn more about MLS and the Executive Board, please see Information for Prospective Board Members.
Sincerely,
The MLS Nominating Committee
Matthew Berube, Jones Library, Amherst (chair)
Clare Dombrowski, Amesbury Public Library
Timothy Gerolami, Cape Cod Community College
Ellen Keane, UMASS Lowell
Margot Malachowski, National Network of Libraries in Medicine, Worcester
Sarah Sogigian, MLS (ex officio)
The MLS Team is committed to providing services that benefit and contribute to the library profession’s core values: diversity, inclusion, equity, access to information, free expression, privacy, and social justice.
