Workshop Materials

The following information from Don Wood at the ALA Chicago office, while aimed at Chapter leaders, would be appropriate for anyone in a leadership role in libraries.
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Good afternoon!
Many of the past and current handouts from Orientation for Chapter Leaders Workshops are mounted on the ALA Chapter Relations Office's website: http://tinyurl.com/q9qt4e : In addition, there are links to related websites, as well. For example, you'll find these documents and links under the heading Advocacy:
Advocacy
Keeping Legislators on Your Side Advocacy (MS Word)
Save Ohio Libraries Campaign (MS Word)
Library Advocacy Day
Save Libraries in Your State
Capwiz 101 (MS Word)
Using Capwiz for Advocacy (PDF)
Capwiz Best Practices (MS Word)
CRO Legislation and Advocacy page
Library Snapshot Day Primer (MS Word)
Office for Library Advocacy
Advocacy & Legislation
Advocacy University
The next Chapter Leaders Workshop will be held on Friday, June 25, 9:30-4:00, during the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

Don Wood
Program Officer
Chapter Relations Office
American Library Association
50 East Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611
dwood@ala.org

ALA Council III

Summary and highlights - Council III is generally quite full of business and often goes over time, however, today we were able to release nearly 2 hours early.

Memorials:
John Clifford Mortimer, M-#1
Mary Alice Hunt, M-#2
J. Michael Rothacker, M-#3
Ken Davenport, M-#4
Sallie Farrell, M-#5
Eliza Atkins Gleason, M-#6
Effie Lee Morris, M-#7
James “Jim” Raymond Przepasniak, M-#8
Walter Reandeau, M-#9
Judith Serebnick, M-#10
John Charles Fox, M#11

Tributes:
Jeanne Sugg, T-#1
Sonia Sotomayer, T-#2

Intellectual Freedom Committee, Martin Garnar
First-ever Choose Privacy Week will be held May 2–8, 2010. All Choose Privacy Week materials (posters, bookmarks, buttons, and resource guide) are complete and for sale in the ALA Store at http://www.blogger.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.alastore.ala.org/.
New Intellectual Freedom Manual should be available this summer.
Banned Books Week is September 25 – October 2, 2010.
The webinars for trustees, entitled “Controversial Materials in the Library: Supporting Intellectual Freedom in Your Community,” visit http://www.ala.org/oif/onlinetrainings for more information.
LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund is celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year.

Committee on Legislation, Councilor Mario A. Ascencio
National Legislative Day Rally will be Tuesday, June 29 11AM See www.ala.org/nlld.

Broadband and Telecommunications
Late on Friday two additional “Notices of Funds Available” (NOFA) were published by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Commerce regarding the Broadband Infrastructure Program (BIP) and the Broadband Telecommunications Opportunity Program (BTOP). Further information is available through the ALA Washington Office, which will again be providing information on how libraries may apply and benefit from this second round of stimulus funds. The Washington Office will be starting this Friday, January 22, with a webinar providing an overview of the NOFA process and requirements for library applications.

New Business
· Resolution Concerning the Dratted ALA Event Planner
Action plan by the Exec. Director, Keith Michael Fiels
o Improvement a priority
o Survey councilors & members for specific problems and broad analysis
o ALA Librarian will work on standardization of item entry
o Review of annual database with appropriate editing
o Other issues as a result of survey will be implemented as feasible before Annual
o Put process in place for continuous improvement
o Progress & steps taken communicated to Council on an ongoing basis
o Next generation planner created through ALA Connect, Jenny Levine – beta tested at Annual conference
o Work on downloadable format for hand-held devices
o Reporting to Exec Bd at spring meeting and results will be shared with Council

Registration 11, 095 as of Monday compared to 10,220 in Denver.

ALA Council II

Summary highlights from Council II - more complete report available when final Council documents are processed.

Freedom to Read Foundation, Kenton Oliver, FTRF President

• Barbara Jones appointed as new director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom
  
• Newly created Krug Foundation will focus on creating an Intellectual Freedom textbook for school children and creating Intellectual Freedom webinars for library schools.

Treasurer's Report, Rodney Hersberger, ALA Treasurer

It's been a tough year for ALA financially, and it will be a tougher year next year. ALA Office is taking large measures to contain and reduce costs.

ALA Executive Director, Keith Michael Fiels

Sunday registration stands at 10,807

ALA President and Treasurer Candidates Forum

President Candidates

Molly Raphael http://mollyraphael.org/
Focus on Advocacy, Diversity, Defending Core Values

Sara Kelly Johns http://fromtheinsideout.squarespace.com/
Focus on Advocacy, Diversity, Intellectual Freedom, Transparency and Inclusion

Treasurer Candidates

Alan Kornblau http://akorn2010.webs.com/

Jim Neal

ALA Council I summary

ALA Council I is mainly an informational session, though some business does occur.

Candidates for ALA Executive Board will be:

Kevin Reynolds
J. Linda Williams
Annemarie Roscello
Patricia A. Wand
Ling Hwey Jeng

Report by Camila Alire, ALA President
Summary: Focus on Advocacy Toolkits, see http://www.camliaalire.com/ for more details.

Report by Roberta A. Stevens, ALA President-Elect
Summary: Focus on fundraising and planned giving

Report by Keith Michael Fiels, ALA Executive Director
Summary: Library Staff Certification Program about to roll out. Watch for email updates and check ALA website for more details.
Midwinter Conference attendance: 10,013 through Saturday, which is slightly higher than Midwinter attendance in Denver 2009
Audio proceedings of Council sessions will soon be available on the web for access of all members. Ethics Education program is progressing.

Report of Special Committees
Spectrum Presidential Issues: National Initiative for Inclusivity in America's Libraries
Betty J. Turock and Family have made a generous $100,000 donation to the Spectrum Scholarhip program. Participation by all ALA members is encouraged. Contact the ALA Office to make larger personal donations or donations on behalf of Chapters or Units.

Contact SD Legislators!

This information is forwarded from Kristin Murphy, ALA Washington Office.


Call NOW to Include Libraries in the Jobs Bill!

As you know, libraries are helping unemployed Americans get back to work not only by helping them acquire needed job skills, but also by offering no-fee access to the Internet for online job searching, computers for working on resumes, resources for building small business plans, and much more. Unfortunately, these very services are threatened by budget shortfalls in state and local funding; due to these budget cuts, many libraries may be forced to cut services that are so incredibly necessary during these tough economic times.

Take Action!

Right now, the House of Representatives is debating the Jobs for Main Street Act, and this bill would provide funding to a variety of programs aimed at creating jobs. No other organization is as dynamic or as well-equipped to build jobs as libraries, yet neither the House nor the Senate version of this legislation mentions libraries. By including specific bill language that includes librarians, we can continue to help people look for jobs, help people obtain their GED, build valuable job skills, and much more. To read the full proposal, please click here.

The House is expected to vote on this legislation TODAY. Please call your representatives TODAY and your senators tomorrow; tell them you would like to see librarians included in the Jobs for Main Street Act and explain to them that those funds are critical in putting librarians back to work so they can help people get back to work.

SPECIFIC STORIES MAKE AN IMPRESSION! Please tell them how your local library is using its resources to help people get back to the workforce. If you have had to furlough any library workers or had to reduce hours of operation, tell them that. If you see an increase in people using the free Internet access more for job applications than ever before, please tell them. If you see people attending your classes on word processing now more than ever before, please tell them. Please tell them how giving YOU the additional resources will help empower their constituents to get back into the workforce. To find out who your members of Congress are, please click on the "Take Action!" link in the upper left-hand corner of this message. Every phone call is critical ... We MUST reach every member of Congress within the next 48 hours!

BACKGROUND FOR JOBS FOR MAIN STREET ACT
1. Libraries play a key role in getting America back to work again. Nationwide, the library is the only source of no-fee Internet access for 71 percent of Americans. With more and more job applications only being accepted online, the public library is becoming the center of most American's job searches.

2. State Library Agencies reported in November 2009 that 77 percent of states cut funds that support local public libraries, which has meant layoffs, staff furloughs, and forced retirements. This has caused a 75 percent cut in services to the public including canceled statewide databases used for job searching, homework help, and cuts in 24/7 reference, which are used by small businesses and students.

3. Our proposal for saving libraries and helping America get back to work would be to provide a one-time $650 million to be distributed on a need basis through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

4. This proposal would create up to 13,000 library jobs in a few short months meaning this is a shovel-ready project.

5. The money would be used for library jobs that are focused on assisting patrons with getting back to work - thereby having the impact of assisting literally millions of Americans find employment. None of these funds would be used for facilities or equipment.

6. These funds would be distributed in a clear, concise, affirmative manner. Funds would be distributed to states using a formula through IMLS based 50 percent on population, and 50 percent on relative unemployment (similar to the Department of Labor's Dislocated Worker Program).

7. The Chief State Library Officer in each state would be responsible for distributing funds to local public libraries based on their local needs.

8. A minimum amount of funding per library could offer one library staff job per building based upon need and a maximum of five full-time staff.

9. Funds would be limited to hiring back staff released due to budget cuts, recruiting new staff and/or expanding staff services around job searching and employment skills training.

SDLA Conference Forum

Thank you to all who attended the ALA Forum at the SDLA conference in Aberdeen last week. The session was held to gather information to help shape ALA's next strategic plan. Member involvement gives voice to the needs of librarians, libraries and the communities we each serve. A summary will be posted here once it has been compiled.

Please contact me if you have any concerns or issues to be raised or questions about Council itself.

Lea Briggs
Chapter Councilor