Tuesday, July 26, 2011

ALA Annual 2011 New Orleans, LA

ALA New Orleans was hot, hot, hot! It is too much to try and condense here but take my word for it, the conference was great. Annual next year is in Anaheim, so make plans now to attend.

The following links take you to Council documents and actions, and will provide you with an idea of the topics of discussion on Council floor. Please contact me directly if you have any questions.

ALA Council Documents 2011 (Annual and Midwinter)
ALA Actions 2011 Annual

Thank you, SDLA, for allowing me this opportunity to give back to the Association. It has been an educational, enlightening and entertaining six years.

Lea Briggs
Chapter Councilor
Lea.Briggs@presentation.edu

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

ALA Annual 2011 Wrap-up

Links to documents containing actions of Council will follow when processed by the Council Secretariat.

Three documents of particular note are “think pieces” requested by ALA President Roberta Stevens. They are the report of the Future Perfect Presidential Task Force: Envisioning ALA’s Governance in the 21st Century, the Report of the Presidential Task Force on Equitable Access to Electronic Content (EQUACC), and the Report of the Presidential Task Force for Improving the Effectiveness of ALA’s Council.

I would like to thank the SD Library Association for its support of my attendance at the ALA conferences for the past 6 years.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

URGENT: Contact your U.S. Senators - ask them to sign on to library funding letter

Contact your U.S. Senators - ask them to sign on to library funding letter
Take Action!



Please call both of your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to sign onto this letter by COB Wednesday, June 8. Also ask library supporters to contact your senators as well.
Senators Jack Reed and Olympia Snowe are leading an effort to increase support for FY2012 federal funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and Improving Literacy Through School Libraries. Tell your senators’ staffers to contact Elyse Wasch in Reed’s office or Matthew Hussey in Snowe’s office. We need other senators to sign the Reed-Snowe letter as soon as possible. Please call immediately.

It may help if you describe at least one valuable service that your library provides the community or a success story about a library patron. Examples include access to computers and data services to aid job searchers, support for small businesses with marketing data and other resources as well as teaching digital literacy to people of all ages including K-12 students.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

ALA & E-books

Mike Mullin asked about discussion at the ALA level on the recent decision by an e-book publisher to limit usage. Here is a message on the topic from ALA President Roberta Stevens.

Lea Briggs
Chapter Councilor
---------------------------------------------------------
From: Roberta Stevens [mailto:rstevens@ala.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2011 11:57 AM
To: alacoun@ala.org
Subject: [alacoun] Message re E-Books

Message to the ALA Executive Board, Council, Division and Round Table Leadership, Equitable Access to Electronic Content Task Force and OITP’s E-Book Subcommittee:

Recent developments in the e-book marketplace have underscored the importance of a model for e-book purchasing and lending that reflects the interests of all of the stakeholders: authors, publishers, booksellers, libraries and, ultimately, the public.

At the recent Midwinter Meeting, my president’s report identified the names of the members of the Equitable Access to Electronic Content task force, which was created in response to a Council resolution. The task force, chaired by Linda Crowe and Michael Porter, will be meeting in Washington next week for a working retreat that is being financially supported by ALA. Among other groups, they will get assistance from OITP’s E-Book subcommittee.

I do not take your concerns about changes in the e-book pricing approach lightly. However, due to the far-reaching and long-term effects, the task force deserves time to gather information and examine the complex issues involved in equitable access to electronic content, including e-books. We will receive their report at the Annual Conference and I look forward to our using it, as an association, to formulate actions that will ensure we have 21st century libraries to meet the needs of our users.

Meanwhile, please feel free to continue communicating your viewpoints to publishers and e-book distributors.

Thank you for speaking up.

Roberta Stevens
ALA President

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Council III

January 11, 2011

Highlights:

Elected to Executive Board are: Dora Ho, Sylvia K. Norton, and Michael Porter.

Approved resolutions:
· To make several cosmetic updates to bylaws to standardize wording related to Council elections
· To support the National Portrait Gallery exhibits and to resist censorship of such exhibits

Check http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/council/index.cfm later for full details of official actions.

Many thanks to SDLA for its support of my travels as Chapter Councilor.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Executive Board Candidates Forum

January 10, 2011

Candidates for Executive Board; three will be elected later today.

Jose Aponte
Director
San Diego County Library
San Diego, CA

Karen E. Downing
University Learning Communities Liaison and Foundations & Grants Librarian
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI

Loida Garcia-Febo
Coordinator, Special Services
Queens Library
Jamaica, NY

Dora T. Ho, Young Adult Librarian/Program Specialist
Los Angeles Public Library
Youth Services
Los Angeles, CA

Sylvia K. Norton
School Library/Technology Planning Coordinator; Doctoral Student, PALM Research Center Fellow
Florida State University

Gina A. Persichini
Networking Consultant
Idaho Commission for Libraries
Boise, ID

Michael Porter
Communication Manager, WebJunction; President Library Renewal
Seattle, WA

Tom Wilding
Professor of Practice
School of Information Resources and Library Science
University of Arizona
Tuscon, AZ

Council II

January 11, 2011

At this session of Council, many of the general reports from committees and groups were received, including Policy Monitoring Committee, Committee on Organization, Freedom to Read Foundation, Presidential Task Force on Traditional Cultural Expression, Presidential Task Force on Equitable Access to Electronic Content, ALA Treasurer’s Report, and FY2012 Programmatic Priorities.

Honorary Membership is considered to be ALA’s highest honor. Honorary membership may be conferred on a living citizen of any country whose contributions to librarianship or a closely related field is so outstanding that it is of lasting importance to the advancement of the whole field of library service. It is intended to reflect honor upon the ALA as well as upon the individual. Approved ALA Honorary Membership of Yohannes Gebregeorgis, librarian and author, in recognition of his founding of Ethiopia Reads, a nonprofit organization that is establishing children’s libraries in Ethiopia and publishing bilingual and trilingual children’s books, thereby providing the children an opportunity to learn the love of reading, and increasing literacy in an entire nation.

Many resolutions were tabled to Council III for various reasons.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

ALA-APA Council

January 9, 2011

See this site for complete information: http://ala-apa.org/

ALA Council I

January 10, 2011

This report is of meeting highlights only. Full Council information such as agenda, documents and reports can be found at the ALA Council Web site: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/council/index.cfm

Reports of ALA/Council Committees
· 2011 ALA Nominating Committee Report – Robert R. Newlen, Chair, CD #26; CD #26.1
o Wide recruiting effort given to all facets of the organization. The current economy has a significant effect on limiting willingness to run for office. Candidates are listed in CD #26.1. Election results will be published April 29, 2011.
· Committee on Membership Meetings, Councilor Loida Garcia-Febo, Chair
o Members are not attending Membership meetings at Annual Conference so a survey will be sent to all members shortly after Midwinter to obtain information on what can be done to increase interest and attendance at Membership meetings.

Reports of Officers

· Review of Executive Board Actions since the 2010 Annual Conference, Keith Michael Fiels, Executive Director, ALA CD #15
· Implementation of the 2010 ALA Annual Conference Council Actions, Keith Michael Fiels, Executive Director, ALA CD #9

ALA Midwinter Council/Exec Bd/Membership Info Session

ALA Council / Executive Board / Membership Information SessionJanuary 9, 2011

Information session only; no business will take place at this meeting.

For details on documents and meeting minutes, please see the ALA Council website: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/council/index.cfm

Budget Analysis and Review Committee (BARC), Mario Gonzales, Chair
CD #33; CD #32Rev; CD #43Rev
Revenue is down but so are expenses. See Council documents for further breakdown.

ALA Endowment Trustees Report, Daniel J. Bradbury, Chair
CD #16.0; ET #6.1; EBD #13.1
2010 was a year of slow recovery.

ALA President’s Report, Roberta A. Stevens
CD #21
Updates on Task Forces.

Presidential initiatives:
Our Authors, Our Advocates
Video & audio PSAs. Virtual postcard to libraries on Jan. 11th.
www.OurAuthorsOurAdvocates.org

I Love Libraries website has over 400 quotations about libraries. Use these in your advocacy efforts. Cultivating your local notables toolkit also available.

Frontline Fundraising toolkit will launch online in February.

I Love My Libraries contest – public and school libraries video contest. See website for details.

ALA President-Elect, Molly Raphael
CD #29

Initiatives:
Advocacy – to help libraries across the country mobilize their constituents.

Diversity – Spectrum Presidential Initiative; Work on how we link our diversity work with our leadership development work

ALA Executive Director, Keith Michael Fiels
CD #23; CD #23.1 Midwinter Whitepaper

Attendance as of Saturday 7,194; slightly lower than Boston to-date: Total 9,600.

Membership: For the first time since recession, we have seen slight dip in membership. Currently down about 2% at 61,500. Organizational membership slowly decreasing.

Diversity Recruitment IMLS grants – funding 35 recruiters

Connect with your Kids campaign – formal partnership with Lifetime television network and a variety of parent-oriented magazines published by Scholastic to encourage parent-child library use

I Love My Libraries – Carnegie organization is still interested in funding another 5 year grant

Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards – first year; great addition to other awards given at Midwinter

Midwinter Whitepaper – send us suggestions on how Midwinter can be more effectively deployed to meet the needs of attendees, libraries and the Association.

New Strategic Plan - actively working on new plan; focusing now on Transforming Libraries Goal and Member Engagement Goal