The planning panel for the southern Systems merger made progress last Friday and Saturday in several areas:

Membership criteria

• All current members of each library System will be grandfathered in as full members of the new merged system.  (This includes members of the Lewis & Clark, Lincoln Trail, Rolling Prairie, and Shawnee Library Systems.)
• Membership definitions are based solely on the definitions in the Illinois Library System Act and appropriate references in the Illinois Administrative Code.

Transition Board

• Approved members of the Transition Board.  Representing LCLS: Linda McDonnell (public library trustee), JoAnn Nabe (public library trustee), Diane Steele (public library director)

Delivery Standards

• Approved the Delivery Standards, pending endorsement and implementation by each of the four System boards.
• All aspects of the standards will be implemented in the short term (i.e. March-April, 2011).
• LCLS members will receive details regarding the standards as soon as possible following the March meeting of the LCLS Board of Directors (March 15, 2011)

New System Name

• Approved the name of the merged system as Illinois Heartland Library System.

Next meetings of the Planning Panel

• Friday, March 11, 3:30 p.m. — meeting via v-tel at each of the four System headquarters.  Agenda for the meeting is to review and finalize the Application for Merger document.
• Wednesday, March 23, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — meeting in-person at the Effingham Hilton Garden Inn.
• Friday, April 8, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — location TBD

Have a good week!
Leslie

The agenda for the February 25-26, 2011, Southern Systems Planning group has been posted.  Both days provide opportunity for public comment, and ample time for members to sit in on the many committee meetings.

We strongly encourage your participation at one or both meetings.

If you plan to attend either meeting and would like to carpool with your colleagues, there will be groups leaving from LCLS (6725 Goshen Road, Edwardsville, IL).  Please contact Brook Weber (brookweber@lcls.org) or Leslie Bednar (lesliebednar@lcls.org) for more information!