A Note from the

Marketing & Engagement Coordinator

NEO-RLS is hitting the road and we’d love to come see your library!

In 2026, we are planning in-person visits and meet & greets with libraries across the region. This is an opportunity for us to get to know our members better and share all the services available to library staff through NEO-RLS.

We’re currently offering three types of visits:

• New Director Visits: A chance to connect, learn about your goals, and explore how NEO-RLS can support you.
• Meet and Greets: Informal visits to strengthen relationships and hear directly from your team.
• Staff Day Presentations: Tailored sessions to introduce NEO-RLS services, resources, and professional learning opportunities.

If your library is interested in hosting a visit, please take a moment to fill out our interest form.

We look forward to connecting with you and your staff in person soon!

Jill

Exciting Events & CE You Can’t Miss!

January

Today! Makerspace Active Learning Community Meeting

1/21/2026

Top 25 Titles of 2025 (F)

1/22/2026

(AI)ccessibility in Digital Collections (I)

1/27/2026

Teen Summer Reading Program: Unearth a Story (I)

1/28/2026

The AI Advantage: Next-Gen Project Management (I)

1/29/2026

February

Don’t Go There: How to Avoid and Disengage from Controversial Conversations with Patrons and Staff (I)

2/4/2026

Directors/Deputy Directors Active Learning Community Meeting  

2/4/2026

On the Road to Reading: Early Literacy Outreach at Cleveland Public Library (I)

2/5/2026

Library Funding 101 (F)

2/10/2026

Genealogy Active Learning Community Meeting

2/10/2026

Leading From the Middle: Managing Up and Down Simultaneously (I)

2/11/2026

Adult Summer Reading Workshop: Unearth a Story (I)

2/12/2026

Human Resources/Fiscal Office Active Learning Community Meeting

2/13/2026

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility Active Learning Community Meeting

2/17/2026

Public Relations and Marketing Active Learning Community Meeting

2/18/2026

Make Presentations with Canva (I)

2/19/2026

It’s About Time: Supporting Neurodivergent Employees with Time Management in the Workplace (I)

2/24/2026

Workplace Wellbeing Active Learning Community Meeting

2/24/2026

New Supervisors' Academy (I)

2/25/2026

AI’s Environmental Impact (I)

2/26/2026

March

Library Programming with AI: Using AI to Help Create Impactful and Memorable Library Programs (I)

3/3/2026

Training/Staff Development Active Learning Community Meeting

3/3/2026

Creating More Joy & Resilience in the Library (F)

3/4/2026

Middle Management Active Learning Community Meeting

3/5/2026

AI & Information Literacy: Building Critical Evaluation Skills for Generative AI (F)

3/10/2026

Book Discussion Active Learning Community Meeting

3/11/2026

Circulation Active Learning Community Meeting

3/12/2026

Intellectual Freedom in Crisis: Moral Panics, Censorship, and the Cost to Library Workers (I)

3/19/2026

Mark Your Calendars for the 2026 Directors' Retreat

This year's Directors' Retreat will be held on Thursday and Friday, May 7 & 8, 2026 at the Punderson Manor Lodge & Conference Center  The program will focus on AI with sessions on leading through change and assessing current readiness and building an AI governance framework, and more.  Watch the newsletter for registration opening soon.

Still Seats Available

Join us for our Teen Summer Reading Program: Unearth a Story! With just one week to go until Wednesday, January 28th, seats are filling up fast!   Please register today, you don't want to miss this great event backed with ideas, programs, and so much more.  Click this event link for more information and to register.

Check out the photos below from our recent Children Summer Reading Program:

CSLP theme/slogan survey open through Feb 2

Each year the Collaborative Summer Library Program seeks feedback from library staff in Ohio and across the country for future summer slogan and theme suggestions. Please complete this brief survey to suggest a slogan for the 2029 theme of Nature and a fresh new theme for 2030.

Some tips for developing themes and slogans:

• Adaptable for all ages
• Translatable into Spanish
• Culturally sensitive and thoughtful
• Avoid puns and wordplay
• Catchy, memorable, concise
• Inclusive, accessible, applicable across settings

For a list of previous themes and slogans go to: https://www.cslpreads.org/themes-and-slogans/. One additional note: “Plant a Seed, Read” is this year’s iREAD slogan so it’s unlikely to be chosen for the 2029 CSLP slogan.

Please share your suggestions via the survey by Monday, February 2.

NOTSL Spring Meeting Call for Presentations 

Connections That Matter: Exploring Library-Vendor Partnerships

May 1, 2026

Cuyahoga County Public Library Parma-Snow Branch, Parma, OH

NOTSL is seeking librarians who would like to share their experiences managing vendors and vendor relationships for our Spring meeting. The deadline for your presentation proposal is February 1, 2026.

We would love to hear about your experiences as you deal with all the changes in the vendor community. Presentations can be made by individuals or groups of librarians.  They should be 45-60 minutes in length.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

• Maintaining good relationships with existing vendors
• Evaluating vendor service
• Switching to new vendors
• Differing purchasing models for electronic resources
• License agreement approvals

Please send presentation proposals to the program committee:

Robin Buser rbuser@cscc.edu

Masha Stepanova Stepanova.6@osu.edu

Cara Mia Calabrese cmcalabr@iu.edu

New Stark Library Operations Center Services 10 Library Locations

Stark Library employees recently moved to the new Operations Center in downtown Canton. The new 30,000-square-foot building ? which is not open to the public ? is the library system's new hub for its backend services. The building was designed for each department's specific needs and is located across the street of the site of the future new Main Library. The Operations Center serves all 10 library locations. Construction of the new center and new Main Library will cost about $66 million altogether, paid for with the library's capital fund and borrowing from the state's Public Library Fund.

Learn more about the new Operations Center here.

Email our Marketing & Engagement Coordinator Jill at jill.grunenwald@neo-rls.org if you have a story from your library you want to share. 

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Northeast Ohio Regional Library System | P.O. Box 1021 | Twinsburg, OH 44087