Report to Virginia Library Association on ALA Council Mid-winter 2009
Jessica Schwab (excerpts from fellow councilors reports; James Casey and Jonathan Betz-Zall)
According to announcements made by Keith Fiels on January 28, 2009, the total attendance reached 10,220 by Monday, January 26, 2009. That was well behind the 13,601 for the same day at Philadelphia Mid Winter 2008, and for the same day at Seattle in 2007 of 12,230. The lower attendance was ascribed to a combination of the sparse population in the Denver vicinity (compared to that of Philadelphia and Seattle metro areas) and the difficult economic outlook. Even before we assembled in Denver for this Mid Winter meeting, some discussion had begun about the possibility of reducing the scope of Mid Winter meetings or eliminating them altogether due to economic conditions.
ALA membership town hall meeting
The objective of this open ALA membership meeting was to gather as many cogent ideas as possible to present before the new Obama administration for improvement to service to patrons and to advance the cause of lifetime learning. Most of the funding will probably go to the individual states and existing programs. There were many contributions from the membership at large on a variety of topics (e-rate evolving into an actual discount program from a competitive rebate program, library services to the visually impaired, upcoming legislation regarding the Patriot Act reauthorization, immigrant patrons and their privacy rights, a school librarian in every school, etc.)
Budgetary status of ALA
Despite dropping revenues, ALA executives and budget officers have reduced expenses to the point where net assets remain stable and are somewhat higher. The endowment fund losses were grim. The fund fell 31.6 million in 2008 to 22.6 million.
ALA-APA
ALA-APA noted that National Library Worker’s Day will be held April 14, 2009. There was also discussion on the Library Support Staff Certification Program. Keith Fiels, executive director of ALA said that the fiscal viability of the organization is an immediate priority because the contributions for 2008 were $10, 475 below 2007 figures. ALA-APA’s salary survey functions are being transferred to ALA’s Office of Research. http://www.ala-apa.org/
Advocacy
The Library advocacy committee announced development of “tool kits” to assist library advocates with talking points. They are: “Advocating in a Tough Economy” featuring ALA president, Jim Rettig and “Add it up: Libraries make the Difference in Youth Development and Education”.
ALA’s Core Competences of Librarianship
After lengthy discussion and amendments the competences were passed. An abbreviated list consists of the following: “A person graduating from an ALA-Accredited masters program in library and information science should know and, where appropriate, be able to employ: Foundations of the Profession, Information Resources, Organization of Recorded Knowledge and Information, Technological Knowledge and Skills, Reference and User Services, Research, Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning, and Administration & Management.”
Electronic Member Participation: After 18 months of work the Task Force on Electronic Participation presented sixteen recommendations to Council. Although chaired and composed by some of the most respected councilors, the Task Force encountered some stiff challenges in its presentations as councilors complained of insufficient time to examine the proposals and the accompanying background information. Almost everyone supports the principle of allowing electronic participation in association business because it promises to save a lot of time and energy now wasted in personal travel, but major concerns were raised about serious problems of implementation including costs of technology and training. This does seem to be a “wave of the future” but a newly-formed caucus of younger councilors expressed frustration at the seemingly slow pace of change in ALA. The Task Force report is available online: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/council/councilcommittees/tfoemp.cfm.
Intellectual Freedom:
The Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF), reported some notable victories: The Child Online Protection Act was overturned after 10 years of effort, a National Security Letters case on gag orders without judicial review put burden of proof on government before enforcing them, and a Harmful to Minors literature sellers registration requirement in Indiana was struck down as too vague, not narrowly tailored to achieve its goal
Another harmful to minors case–Powell’s books in Oregon-is still underway. FTRF says that the state law makes no provision for judging value of content, as federal law does. FTRF has joined the Valerie Plame Wilson case challenging redaction, saying that the government must demonstrate harm of information that is already in the public domain
FTRF is monitoring two other important cases: the Miami-Dade School Board case on removing a book from classrooms and the North Central Regional Library District case on mandatory, non removable filtering. The last is an ACLU case; the Freedom to Read Foundation and ALA are not participating.
Intellectual Freedom Committee has published a festschrift for Gordon Conable and added a case book on privacy and copyright issues to its annual series. They are planning to publish a new edition of the IF manual in 2010. They are also publicizing a national conversation on privacy called “Privacy Revolution” with door hangers and a website: www.privacyrevolution.org
Banned Books Week 2009 will be held Sept 27-October 4. Information: www.ala.org/bbooks.
Council adopted three revisions to the Intellectual Freedom Manual on “Challenged Material”, “Restricted Access to Library Materials” and “Services to Persons with Disabilities”.
National Legislation: The Committee on Legislation encourages librarian participation in the legislative process through links on ALA’s website and through attending Library Legislative Day May 11-12. ALA’s Legislative Assembly is a good place for ALA units to be represented (for example, the Government Documents Round Table).
Council agreed to increase the committee membership to handle its expanded workload, encouraged ALA members to distribute listserve messages to other listserves, commended President Obama for his prompt action on Open Government, and supported reauthorization of the Library Services and Technology Act.
Meanwhile the Washington Office coordinated a massive effort to convince the Consumer Product Safety Commission to exempt libraries from having to examine all of their children’s materials for lead and other toxic substances. By the end of conference it was clear that both of the commissioners had heard from large numbers of concerned people and that favorable action could be expected soon. The WO also reported that the new stimulus programs will likely produce little sudden change at the local level. It’s very important for libraries to stay on the “radar screens” of their legislators-tell them what we are doing to serve their communities and create a better economy. Stimulus funding will probably go through the States in an effort to shore up major programs such as medicare and rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure.
FOLUSA and ALTA
Friends of the Library USA (FOLUSA) and ALTA (Library Trustees) have merged into one entity and have combined all assets. The new organization is called ALTAFF (Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations). It will be headquartered in Philadelphia under Director Sally Reed and with a total 3.8 staff. This proposal was approved by Council.
Other Resolutions
“Resolution on Understanding Gaza – One Conference, One Book, One Read”
presented by Councilor Elaine Harger was defeated. “Resolution on Access for Physical Mobility Impaired Conference Attendees” presented by June Pinnell-Stephens, passed overwhelmingly. “Resolution on Accessible Computer Workstations at ALA Annual Conference and Midwinter Meetings” by Melora Ranney Norman passed. “High Speed Internet Wireless Access at Conference Hotels” by Ria Newhouse was defeated.
Other Issues
I attended an ALA President’s Forum for the ALA candidates for President.
The two candidates, Kent Smith and Roberta Stevens, both gave informative, interesting speeches and answered questions from the floor. We also heard from candidates for executive council and voted on three candidates. We heard reports and voted on 40 council documents over three meetings, Council I, II and III. I also attended a Council Forum which was an informal discussion of the issues that would be brought forward at the Council meetings, and a meeting on chapter relations.
I thank the Council of the Virginia Library Association for sending me to ALA Mid-winter to represent the interests of our chapter. I represent VLA on ALA Council. I will work to the best of my ability to bring forth Virginia library issues to my colleagues on ALA Council. Please contact me at: jschwab@pwcgov.org if you have questions, issues or concerns for me to bring forth