Washington Library Association
ALA Councilor’s Report, ALA Annual Conference 2009, Chicago, IL
Jonathan Betz-Zall, Highline & Shoreline community colleges, jbetzzall@yahoo.com

Main issues: ALA budget, economy/advocacy, accessibility, Health Care reform, Sec 215 of Patriot Act, electronic participation, organizational dues, Intellectual Freedom/Judith Krug, ALA-APA

Report:
The governing Council of the American Library Association continued its longstanding tradition of considering a wide variety of issues of concern to ALA members. This year the selection included ALA’s budget woes, how to increase member participation in ALA activities, effective advocacy for libraries in troubled economic times, accessibility of library websites and other electronic services, healthcare reform, intellectual freedom statements, and Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Just as it has affected all of our libraries, the economic downturn has pinched ALA’s ability to carry out its mission. Headquarters staff has struggled to maintain services while having to lay off a few staff and asking everyone else to take unpaid leave, reduce accrued vacation, and otherwise economize. The results include a smaller budget deficit than expected for this year but also slower service in a number of areas, including answering the telephone when people call. The Executive Board also dipped into reserves, a move they hated to make. However, Council was able to agree to a “budgetary ceiling” of $64.4 million with no major programs eliminated.

For some time, a high-level, high-prestige task force led by ALA’s finest policy wonk has been studying “electronic member participation”—a broad concept covering a wide variety of issues. The resulting report, which I discussed in my Midwinter 09 report, won wide praise; now many units are working out how they will implement their portions of the recommendations. One of the major responses was the establishment of “ALA Connect”: a place for members to connect with all of their responsibilities in ALA. For example, on one website I can see all of my committees, the people with whom I most frequently communicate, organized into virtual “communities”, and even store and share documents with other members. This was launched in March with little fanfare but has already been adopted by LITA and numerous members. LITA people spoke of “flattening” their organization for more efficiency and connectivity.

Several states reported severe budgetary problems, perhaps the worst being Ohio which threatened to close most of the smaller library systems in the state and Michigan where the State Library is being threatened by a liberal Democratic governor [as nearly happened in Washington a few years ago]. Late in the conference one of the chapter councilors proposed to put ALA’s staff in full crisis mode on this issue, to which the Executive Director replied that they already are implementing a crisis management plan. It turned out that what the councilor really wanted was for ALA to try to meet with President Obama; the staff agreed to request such a meeting.

ASCLA, the ALA division that represents librarians serving people with disabilities, has been working for several years to urge libraries to conform to Federal regulations regarding the accessibility of electronic services like websites, catalogs and databases. If these are designed too “visually”, blind people can’t use them. ASCLA people obtained the co-sponsorship of several other major ALA units including the Intellectual Freedom Round Table to assist the passage of two resolutions strongly urging libraries to follow the Federal regulations: one on accessible library websites and one on the purchase of electronic services from outside vendors. The IFRT Councilor very effectively stated that access issues are closely tied to intellectual freedom—without access, people with disabilities are not free to enjoy the services that should be available to everyone.
Four years ago, ALA went on record supporting the concept of “single payer” health insurance as a way to rein in costs and equalize benefits. With the new administration in Washington there is a new push for health insurance reform, some councilors wanted ALA to reiterate our previous stand in the hope of influencing the debate. However, the resolution was watered down to replace “single payer” with the much broader term “universal coverage”. After strenuous debate the term “with single-payer option” was reinstated and the resolution was adopted.

The Freedom to Read Foundation had a difficult year with the death of Judith Krug. In recognition of Ms. Krug’s dedicated service to IF across the nation, chapter councilors spontaneously organized to have each state chapter adopt a memorial resolution for her. These were collected and present it to her family. In IF news, the Obama administration decided not to appeal the Appeals Court decision on the National Security Letter gag order. The burden of proof of necessity of a gag order is now on the government. FTRF has taken on a new case: balancing the “value” of speech versus government interest. The videos in question portray animal cruelty which is illegal everywhere, but the case was brought over distributing those videos for profit. Allowing the government to regulate content is the violation of intellectual freedom. Ongoing cases being monitored include the “Vamos a Cuba” book in Miami, “Bradburn vs. North Central Regional Library” in our state (no position taken), a meeting room policy in Contra Costa County, Calif, and violent video game rentals. FTRF has formed a new task force to study diversity concerns with respect to IF issues. They have just begun to offer free one-year memberships to graduating library school students.

IF advocates disagreed over strategy while discussing “dueling motions” on the expiration of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act at the end of this year. Assuming that the section will be reauthorized, the Committee on Legislation advocated a series of specific reforms, but the Intellectual Freedom Committee called for the government to “sunset” the section (allow it to expire). After discussing how to combine these efforts, Council agreed to a public statement calling for the sunset while advising the Washington Office staff to advocate the reforms if it becomes clear that the section will be reauthorized.
As usual, there was also considerable time and attention given to internal matters, including training on professional ethics. A surprisingly fierce debate took place over the selection of a specific training firm took place, with the committee chair becoming visibly upset when someone called the committee’s actions “unethical” and Council rejected the Ethics Committee’s main proposed action. I expected such drama to arise elsewhere, not on this issue.

ALA-APA continues to advocate for improved library salaries as well as to provide certification and research on related issues. The Certified Public Library Administrator program has found its market in small to mid-sized libraries, and the Support Staff certification program is on track to begin in January. The ALA-APA Council adopted a resolution supporting changes in labor regulations to recover overtime protections for workers who were redesignated as “professionals” by the Bush administration.
I am attaching my notes which will provide more detail on these and some other issues.
Having served as ALA Chapter Councilor since 2003, I am now stepping down from this office. I thank the members of WLA for having confidence in me all these years, especially those of you who commented on ALA activity, either critically or supportively. It’s been my honor to serve you and I’m confident that my successor, Cher Ravagni, will find her own way to do so effectively.

Chronological Notes

Sun July 12

Council/Exec Board Membership Information Session
BARC: economic uncertainty, revenues down but expenses down more, investments are turning around, plans to be presented later. Considered prioritizing web code cleanup and accessibility review. Very involved, complex, rigorous, consultative budget process. Looking at electronic participation—high impact on budget. BARC is a council committee, reviews budget in line with strategic plan, annual priorities, budget assumptions.
Endowment Trustees: last half of 2008 “extremely volatile”, lost a lot of money, but turnaround early in March. Recovery will likely be slow, steady over a number of years. Endowment increased, overall return of 5.8% compared to benchmark 3.7%. Building up fixed income funds to be a larger proportion of funds. Rebalancing—review holdings to maximize performance, this is the value of active management. Has generated 2.5 million in earnings, 1.1 million more than passive management would have.

ALA Connect: replaced online communities with open source software Drupal, launched in April. http://connect.ala.org
Goals:
1. Collaborate workspace for every group to centralize dispersed activities, so all committees are entered into database.
2. Provide profiles for members to tell more about selves, build professional networking, not facebook for librarians, no status updates, personal pictures. Will be there when you need it, not constantly demanding attention. Entered all 60K members: name, picture, workplace, affiliations (automatically; you don’t have to update). Nobody sees contact information unless you make it available.
3. Allow members to create their own communities without some of bureaucracy. Prepopulated with 190 discussion and interest groups within divisions. Members have created more than 80 communities. Yesterday someone created GIS across ALA, public service issues across all types of libraries.
Various features: roster for each group, already being used by divisions, committees. LITA has flattened org by creating a public forum. GODORT steering committee went ahead and created community. BIGWIG voted to move all activity into Connect. Use has been steady.
If you want to participate, turn on email notices to get updates from site.
Future plans, integrate continuing education clearinghouse to notify of events of interest. Profile will be like an online CV, historical contributions, document career with ALA including who you worked with. Add grassroots advocacy tools. Allow people to come together around issues as they come up.
No one right way to use Connect—make it valuable to yourself and use those pieces.
Designed site to allow interaction with people outside the group one piece of content at a time if desired. Discussions can be private (within group) if desired. Can have categories just for your group.

ALA APA Information Session
President visited 14 chapters, asked how many were aware of APA, found peak at 10%, urges active members to bring attention to APA and its work on behalf of all library workers. CPLA value should be trumpted. 2009 Salary Survey results are now available, higher response rate this time. Available in print and database form, one version for public libraries and one for academic libraries available at lower price online from ALA store.

Council I
President’s report: US President Obama’s “United We Serve” provided opportunity to promote libraries.

President-elect reports: initiative on advocacy, frontline rank & file workers, preparing & empowering them to be advocates at their comfort level with the people they know the best, also advocacy for literacy. Working group looking to five ethnic group affiliates for resources/projects/products that might be useful for outreach and service. Young Turks advisory group grew out of concerns for recruiting/retaining younger librarians. Listen, get advice on what it will take to keep them in profession. Fundraising initiative: spectrum scholarship advisory group of past presidents.
KM Fiels report: lots of activity. Research grant from Gates Foundation extended through 2012 will allow collection of financial data from libraries, sustainable connectivity as part of library budgets. I Love Libraries project http://www.atyourlibrary.org/ directed by Leonard Kniffel, outreach to public, exciting and inspiring, e.g. vacation planning. Trying and experimenting. Including libraries as core community institution gets communities extra points when applying for federal stimulus funds. Weekly conference calls for libraries on how to get involved with this. Book Links will be fused into Booklist as quarterly supplement.

Implementation of recommendations of Task Force on Electronic Participation
Council Transparency: need for survey to gauge member interest in governance activities. Examined options for making council operations more transparent—range from simple to complex. Costs high but coming down. Captioned transcripts can’t be posted because of inevitable errors. So options include transcriptions by court reporter or cleaned up version of captioning. Also audio recording of sessions 1.5K, real time streaming audio webcast $11K, real time audio/video webcast: $55K per year! Because of contracting arrangements with convention center. Discussion: transcript raises issues of liability: individual remarks could be taken out of context in a variety of legal problems. Worry that someone would try to harm ALA by doing so. Individuals’ remarks might be taken as representing the whole association. Do we need real time or would recordings suffice? What about detailed minutes?—requires a certain level of trust that minutes actually reflect the proceedings. Are that many people really interested in the details of running the organization?

Monday, July 13, 2009
ALA-APA Council
Exec Director report: reduced revenue resulted in reduced staff, shifting staff to ALA. Support Staff certification rolling out, hope for enthusiastic reception as public library administrator program has been. Divisions have approved standards for certification, if Exec Board approves will be field tested in the fall, supported through IMLS. Providers being signed up.

Treasurer’s report:
Focus on certification, advocacy, reports/analysis
APA can’t charge dues so much rely on revenues. Reduced revenues but management hopes for improvement in the last three months. Shortfall 19,000, expect to pay 11K interest but no principal repayment.

2010: CPLA program, Lib support staff certification program beginning January 2010
Next year will repay 25K of principal.

Certified public library admin program: mostly mid-sized libraries, lower than expected enrollment. Lack of awareness, encouragement by supervisors, variety of expectations by states on CE. Belief that people already have adequate management skills, fewer states and library schools can offer mgt training. Graduates and enrollees are spreading the word, chapters are promoting CPLA.

Cttee on Salaries & Status of library workers
Pay equity bibliography is complete. Conference programs. Union 101—how to start a union.
Overtime pay protection: APACD#8.3 In 2003 US Dept of Labor weakened Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, exempting “white collar” workers, up to 6 million people, including library workers. Resolutin regarded as unclear, referred to special session.
Salary and status related policy statements: needs improvement.
28,256 attendees, almost 1000 more than Wash. DC.
Question about financial impact of increased attendance on budget, not laying off staff.

Membership Meeting
In economic stimulus, libraries and communities colleges were among few “callouts” in bill—funding specifically for broadband. US is one of few countries that does not have a national broadband plan. Other countries have plan and funding: importance for education, literacy, economic development. US falling behind our international rivals. Orgs called for significant funding, got 7 billion, we need to make it work. Libraries are a big part. Money divided between two gov’t agencies: commerce and agriculture. Ag focuses on rural, residential funding. NTIA priority 3 identified community anchor institutions including libraries. But in rules, anchor institutions did not receive priority. But gov’t officials want to fund anchor institutions, so libraries should apply. Computers, wiring, connectivity. Great opportunity to get funding to support initiatives. Help transform capability to serve communities. Resolution on libraries and continuing wars adopted.

Council II:
Policy Monitoring Committee report: Removed policy that hasn’t been used for 30 years but was developed to address censuring racist institutions. Current reference file guidelines.
Membership Committee: increasing organizational dues
Cttee on Professional Ethics: reason for code of ethics. Celebrated 70th anniversary of adoption, programs presented and planned: ethics in a digital world, Q&A will be posted on ALA webpage. Initiative for ethics education, involving Institute for Global Ethics Questioning of designation of specific supplier. Do we trust our committees to fully investigate? Voted down selection of firm.

Freedom to Read Foundation: difficult year. Death of Judith Krug. Successful gala. Gov’t decided not to appeal decision on National Security Letter gag order. Burden of proof of necessity of gag order is now on the government. New case: balancing “value” of speech versus government interest. Videos of government cruelty being sold. Ongoing: Vamos a Cuba book in Miami, Bradburn vs. NCRL (no position), meeting room policy in Contra Costa County, Calif, video game rentals. New task force to study diversity issues with respect to IF issues. Free membership to graduating library school students.
Treasurer’s report: Revenues down, 1.6 million budget gap. Rod doesn’t expect public economy to recover until 12-18 months after private economy does. 2011 may be no better than 2010. Programmatic priorities, Shortfall in indirect cost recovery applies only to expenses. Revenues and expenses both down. Use of board reserves 436,000. ALA employees had to take 5 furlough days. Structural adjustments required but we don’t know how bad the economy will be. Revenue projection 27.3 million. Expect dues to thold steady, last year of increase. Both major conferences on east cost, more attendance, but all 3 in FY 2010. Publishing modest increases. General fund needs 28K to break even. Assumptions: must cut costs without killing programs. New business development: moving forward. Build projects and structures, mergers, outside opportunities. Gen Fund 25M, Divisions 25M, overall ceiling 64.432,034. Question on layoffs: mostly in publishing, combining Booklist and Book Links, call center, conference services. Weeklong furlough 250K savings, having some impacts on services but staff has been just great. Suite is a meeting room with bed attached. Exec Bd expenses have been reduced 5,000. Membership renewals were down in May—maintaining memberships will be a challenge. Down 2.6%, just under 2000 members, 65,500 approx. total. Question on scooters—advance notice of fee not given. Budget presented does not include hiring freeze or furlough, makes assumptions about factors over which we have no control.

Civil marriage resolution: dealing with government regulation of marriage. Mostly strong support.

Afghanistan war resolution: defeated. Most speakers either asked for support of troops or ALA focus on libraries. Dismissed membership meeting adoption.

Council III
Memorials, etc.

APA resolution on protecting overtime pay. Revised, adopted.

Elaine retiring because of not wanting to fly & cause more global climate change.
Reminder: new councilor orientations, mentoring program

Constitution & Bylaws: working on non-in-person voting. 1. Clarifying how votes may be taken, allowing simple majority. SRRT objected to electronic voting by Council. Adopted. 2. Allowing evotes. Adopted.

Cttee on Legislation: Library Legislative Day cancelled in favor of rally during ALA Annual conference in June. Website on Broadband support under stimulus act is being extensively used. Successful forum on government information. Google Book Search settlement—need for continuing assessment of its impact on ala members and member institutions: call for ALA wide representative group for ongoing vigilance. Full funding for Gov’t Printing Office. Public access to research by federal employees or funded by gov’t. Digitization of gov’t documents. Concern for preservation of paper records: changes in electronic technology. Preserving American Historical Records Act.
Reauthorizing Sec 215 of USA Patriot Act. Should we only call for sunsetting or specify improvements we would accept?

Intellectual Freedom Cttee: new interp of Library Bill of Rights, access to digital information, importance of information to IF, labels & Rating systems, Minors & internet interactivity—all adopted.

International Relations Cttee: over 400 librarians from 85 countries. Receptions, programs held in Chicago. US Committee on the Blue Shield established 1996. ALA has about 2000 international members from 113 countries.

Cttee on Organization: change name of Continuing Education round table to “Learn”. Round Table Coordinating Assembly expansion.

Resolutions:

Intergeneration day means libraries: support intergen programs during the week of October 4
Accessibility for Library Websites: urges libraries to comply with Federal regulations (sec 508), & calls for federal/state funding to support

Purchasing of accessible electronic resources: strongly recommends that libraries require vendors to guarantee that products and services comply with Sec 508 regulations.
Endorsing legislative proposals for single payer/universal health care. Amended to call for “universal” health care, including single payer option.

Action plan to remedy current library budget crisis: develop a critical crisis management approach, create an action plan to lart legislators, stakeholders and constituents to action through all media and interpersonal channels available. ALA staff already doing this. Adopted after adding transmission clause.

Expanding electronic participation: provide access to proceedings of governance sessions of Midwinter 2010. Too costly? Means of assessment? First step Council. Worry about opponents of IF taking quotations out of context. ALA is moving aggressively on program related components, still thinking about governance related components. Adopted.l
28,941 final attendance, about 500 more than Washington DC.

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE—Chicago, Illinois. July 10-15, 2009. Notes by James B. Casey

Despite extremely difficult economic conditions facing libraries, the attendance at this Annual Conference in Chicago reached what could be a record high at 28,941. The prior three Annual Conference final attendance reports were 22,047 for Anaheim (2008), 28,499 for Washington (2007) and 16,784 New Orleans (2006). Future Mid-Winter Meetings (January) will be held in Boston (2010), San Diego (2011), Dallas (2012), Seattle (2013) and Philadelphia (2014). Future Annual Conferences (June) will be held in Washington, D.C. (2010), New Orleans (2011), Anaheim (2012), Washington (2013) and Las Vegas (2014).
Oak Lawn Public Library Trustees Richard Gast and Marian Sullivan attended this Annual Conference. My wife Diane Dates Casey completed her fourth year as Division Councilor for the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS). I continued my fourth term (twelfth year) as a member at-large of ALA Council, and completed my second and final year as a member of the ALA Committee on Organization (COO).

GODORT (Government Documents Round Table) sponsored an excellent program of small group discussions and re-evaluation of issues facing government documents access in libraries. Several different types of libraries were represented. The concerns ranged from shifting of records to electronic from print format, the lack of interest by government entities in the preservation and accessibility of their own records – especially prior to and after they are out of office – and the vast types of government records ranging from minutes of local government meetings to important documents concerning the founding of our Republic. It was an interesting discussion, but plagued by poor acoustics (five small group breakout sessions in one room simultaneously).

ALCTS sponsored a fascinating forum on the Future of MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging). Rebecca Guenther of LC (Library of Congress) discussed how MARC 21 designed as a communications format, enables the old MARC reality to evolve to the new era of bibliographic control by interacting with RDA (Research Description and Access) and FRBR (Functional Requirements of Bibliographic Records). She believes in the gradual evolution of a MARC reality that will not “go away”. -- Ted Fons of OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) is Director of World Cat Global Metadata Network indicated that there are 2,472 public libraries (like Oak Lawn PL) out of 11,694 “governing members”, but that OCLC boasts 69,826 libraries in 112 countries that can be accounted customers and 55,284 are in the USA. He discussed Crosswalk Web Service and the CDF (Common Data Format) that enables Crosswalk to translate catalog records from many different formats in World Cat. [Past Perfect?] He believes that this OCLC service can enable other records to coexist with MARC 21 and join the common realm of searchable data. Diane Hillmann from the Information Institute of Syracuse University was frank in declaring that MARC does not have a future and that RDA – a FRBR based bibliographic vocabulary -- represents the more modern approach that looks outside the traditional and old fashioned reality of MARC. She referred to metadata registry http://metadataregistry.org as a resource. This was a fascinating program extremely valuable to those among the cataloging librarians who are conversant with the complex issues of bibliographic control.

ALAWO (Washington Office): This important briefing hosted by Bernie Margolis (the new State Librarian of New York) and Vivian Pisano (Chair of OITP – Organization for Information Technology Policy) provided Conference attendees with excellent information concerning the new opportunities and challenges ALA Washington Office faces with the new Obama Administration and Democratic Congress. Emily Sheketoff, Director of the ALA Washington Office) described how the new Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress have not been as supportive of ALAWO initiatives as was expected due to very tight budgets and economic uncertainty. LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) appropriations have not been as large as requested by the ALAWO, for example. The battles will be as difficult as they were under the past administrations and perhaps more challenging as Democratic majority support is sometimes divided. --- Kristin Murphy discussed Library Advocacy Day as an opportunity to lobby on Capital Hill on June 28, 2010. Apparently, Legislative Day for May 2010 will not be held. --- Timothy Fomer discussed how the proposed settlement of difficulties between Google and publishers has been slowed somewhat by legal briefs submitted by ALA relative to privacy, fair use and equal access. --- Roger Rapaport discussed the “Right to Write” Fund that is being used to provide pro bono legal assistance to emerging authors to fight off challenges from established publishing houses that could crush new creation. Roger urges Librarians to access http://www/righttowrite.org for further information.

BROADBAND FUNDING – ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). Robert Bocher (Technical Consultant with the Wisconsin State Library) led this discussion. Bob described how many parts of the USA (especially rural areas) have inadequate speed of response time. Most of the USA is at or below 1.5 mbs while only a small minority (which would include OLPL, is at or above 10 mbs). Much of the industrialized world is ahead of us in this regard. Chris McLean was one of the founders of the E-Rate program in the late 1990s. He discussed how the ARRA has funneled $7.4 billion into efforts to expand broadband access even to rural areas. While much of his presentation caused me to fear that he was reinventing the intensely bureaucratic – arcane, complex and unbeatable – bureaucratic system of the E-Rate that would deprive rural areas of the USA of the badly needed funding, I realize that the new ARRA is targeted at larger entities who may, at least, have the grant conversant on payroll who can fight the battle to secure such funding. [I am told that libraries need to contact their internet providers to find out how they might be able to join with their efforts to secure this ARRA money. The efforts of public libraries (individually) to secure such money have been de-emphasized in favor of those larger scale businesses and organizations.

Lynne Bradley, of the Office of Government Relations, was among several articulate speakers who urged grass roots advocacy on Federal issues. Librarians wishing to keep up to date on the latest issues before Congress should note the following sites: http://www.ala.org/washoff.

OITP and PLA (PUBLIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION) provided a program on the Future of Libraries that was extremely well attended, but somewhat less than successful. The first three speakers indicated that a policy brief on what we should expect as a “future” should come out in early 2010, but that it “would not surprise” many of us. Another speaker indicated that her organization is looking for new and innovative technology uses in libraries, but declared that no prize, recognition or cash award would be forthcoming to the winner. The message that we need to “challenge our assumptions” and look at the broader spectrum of public and community reaction in assessing the future was neither surprising nor especially helpful.

The PLA program on LIFE AFTER 2.0 was extremely informative and expertly delivered. Meredith Farkas of Norwich University discussed why 2.0 innovations had been inspired more by the novelty of the innovative than by the actual service needs of the public and mission statements of public libraries. Her inclination was to indicate that many such ventures had failed to reach viable objectives. Lori Bell of Alliance Library System gave a good presentation about the success of SECOND LIFE and why the future of the web is 3D and moving towards a reality similar to the realm of Avatars. [While not actually criticized, Second Life wasn’t even mentioned by the other speakers.] Michelle Springer (Office of Strategic Initiatives at LC) described how Library of Congress moved aggressively into Flickr in 2008 and into Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and iTunesU during 2009). The LC apparently achieved huge success by posting thousands of historic photos, news clips, films, songs and other information in these popular venues. – Helene Blowers (Digital Strategy Director at Columbus Metropolitan Library) indicated that Facebook has become a “socially interesting” site and an “engagement opportunity” for libraries. She believes that Facebook and other Web 2.0 resources represent an emerging social connectivity similar in magnitude to that of e-mail back in 1993-94.

ALA MEMBERSHIP MEETING – July 11, 2009. This was a civil and intelligent gathering that featured discussions by Patty Wong (Director of the Yolo County Library in California) and Chris McClean who discussed how libraries can deal with the depressed economy and maintain decent service despite difficult conditions. They realize that political persuasion may be critical. Advocacy University – on theALA website – was discussed as a rallying point for libraries faced with difficulties. The new ALA President, Camila Alire presented “Libraries: The Heart of ALL Communities” http://www.camilaalire.com as a viable theme from which to fight. --- At this Meeting it was realized that ALA’s financial situation has been hard pressed by the dire state of the economy. Cost reduction measures such as wage freezes, furloughs, attrition and layoffs are underway already. When former Treasurer Herb Biblo challenged the Executive Board, President, Treasurer and other officers for whom expenses are paid by ALA for conference attendance to “give up their perks” as long as such necessities as motor scooters for handicapped individuals require a $25 per day charge, many of us could anticipate a battle ahead. During Biblo’s tenure as Treasurer (1980s), it was said that such officers were considered to be Councilors and therefore did not have their expenses covered by ALA.

ALA COUNCIL/EXECUTIVE BOARD/MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION SESSION: The Budget and Analysis Committee (BARC) report by James Neal was detailed and informative. He reported that revenue was down, but that efforts by the ALA Staff to reduce expenditures had anticipated the bad news and actually exceeded the lower than expected revenue so that the Association will remain on a sound fiscal footing. Jim Neal had fulsome praise for ALA staff as well as the administrations of divisions and round tables in dealing with difficult economic times. [This praise was well deserved, in my own opinion.] Jim also indicated that ALA’s commitment to enhancing the accessibility and functionality of the ALA website would remain a central objective despite the fiscal limitations. -- Dan Bradbury, Chair of the Endowment Trustees, reported that ALA’s endowment fund had reached $24,799,482. It had been at $31,221,000 (June 30, 2007). The endowment fund had fallen down to about $20 million several months ago, but the recovery gave many Members a lift. [Even more encouraging is the long term perspective. The endowment trustees have been managing our resources extremely well with an increase from $11,022,000 in 2000 to $30,554,000 in 2008. Although the trustees emphasize their conservative investment strategies, the gains achieved over the years have indicated a fairly aggressive equity position.] --- The technical side of ALA also seems to be in expert hands. Jenny Levine gave an excellent presentation on ALA Connect. She described the goals of ALA Connect to: providing a collaborative workspace, providing the opportunity for professional colleagues to link and also to enable them to for communities of common interest. Jenny indicated that 80 such communities currently exist.

ALA/APA COUNCIL: President Rettig delivered a “report” on ALA-APA that lasted all of six minutes. He did note that in presentations he had made as president that only about 10% of those responding to his questions indicated participation in (or knowledge of) this organization. He commented that there is little effective promotion of ALA-APA taking place. He urged that we let our colleagues around the country know about the salary surveys http://www.ala-apa.org/salaries/alaapasurveys.html being produced by ALA-APA and Library Worklife http://www.ala-apa/newsletter/newsletter.html . [I took the opportunity of examining the “2009 Salary Survey” published by ALA-APA in the ALA Store and found that the 90 page document was for sale at the “member discounted price” of $81.]

COUNCIL I: The most important discussion during this short, early, session of Council involved responses to the presentation by ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels about steps towards implementation of the TFOEMP recommendations. Much work has been accomplished during the past six months, but this presentation by Mr. Fiels discouraged taking the steps needed to provide real time dissemination via streaming or broadcast of ALA Council deliberations so that those Councilors who could not attend in person would still be able to participate. The ALA ED described the cost of life audio taping to be $11,000, the real time streaming to be $55,000 per year and voting remotely by Councilors who are not present at $144,000 per year. Added to these costs in a recession plagued budget, Mr. Fiels cited comments by ALA legal counsel about the possible threat of litigation if one or another of our Council Members decided to say something critical of someone while expounding from one of the microphones. --- Several of us spoke out in favor of pressing forward with electronic participation at this central and most important decision making body of ALA. Several of the younger members of Council – Amy Harmon, Aaron Dobbs and Jennifer Emanuel – would not take “no” for an answer and came back to Council III with a resolution and a fresh set of good arguments.

ALA-APA COUNCIL: This brief, one hour, session featured the financial reports of the ALA-APA organization as well as some progress reports concerning the emerging support staff Certification Program. Although some efforts were made to modify the customarily inflated revenue projections for ALA-APA, the 2010 revenue expectations were still far ahead of the actual performance of the organization through most of 2009 and the anticipated surplus at the end of FY 2010 seems to be unlikely. The beginning net asset balance for 2010 is a negative $244,459 and the optimistic scenario presented in this FY 2010 budget would finish the year with a negative $210,202. --- It was reported that the Certification Program of ALA-APA has already had 13 graduates and 129 candidates currently enrolled. A much larger push for certification of library workers is said to be expected in early 2010. --- “A resolution on Support for Overtime Pay Protection” was supported in principle by the majority in Council, but errors and lack of clarity in the document itself prevented it from passing through this session. The resolution was finally brought back at Council III and passed by 77 – 64.

OCLC PRESIDENT’S LUNCHEON: This splendid luncheon was enjoyable in every respect. The news imparted by OCLC Board President Larry Alford was even better. He indicated that OCLC would not have any price increases during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009. This was to be accompanied by a wage freeze for OCLC Staff. The OCLC Record Use Policy that had been introduced in the Fall of 2008 proved to be unpopular with the Membership and had been withdrawn on June 22, 2009 with the original policy established in 1987 restored for the present time. In Governance, OCLC transitioned on July 1, 2009 from the OCLC Members Council to an OCLC Global Council (chaired for 2009-2010 by Jan Ison, Executive Director of the Lincoln Trails Library System in Illinois). One of the global meetings in the establishment of this new governance structure occurred in February 2009 and was a “virtual meeting” --- touted by OCLC as a means of saving money and expanding participation. [ALA Council sessions cannot be conducted in this way?] --- OCLC Executive Director Jay Jordan (1998-present) described many new services and initiatives supported by OCLC. World Cat has reportedly grown from 39 million records in 1998 to 138 million in 2009. Steps are underway to make library holdings records accessible via PDA and Smart Phones with “Quick Start” enhancing the ease of access to World Cat. The many important new projects launched by OCLC can be accessed at the link http://www.oclc.org .

COO (Committee on Organization): Steve Matthews concluded his one year term as Chair of COO at this Annual Conference. He moved up to the Executive Board of ALA at the end of business at this Conference. This meeting dealt with a request by CLENERT (Continuing Library Education Network and Exchange Round Table) to change its name to the LEARNING Round Table (LEARNINGRT). This request was approved by a 5-3 vote and several other issues were taken under consideration. A report from Executive Board Liaison Donna Chen addressed several of the difficulties faced by ALA during this bad economy. Membership has fallen by 2.8% to 65,437. All ALA employees have been asked to take 5 furlough days and 10 positions have been eliminated (of which two were by layoff). Several key vacancies in Director level positions exist at ALA including the Office of Intellectual Freedom and Public Library Association. On the positive side, ALA held its first “virtual conference” during this Annual and 50 people “attended”. Support Staff certification for ALA-APA will begin in January 2010. Much is expected of this ALA-APA initiative.

COUNCIL II: Among the important measures passed at this session was the ALA Policy Monitoring Committee action item calling for the elimination of the category of “Virtual Members” (6.16 in the ALA Policy Manual). Some Members of the TFOEMP viewed this measure as essential to the removal of “second class status” for electronic participation. --- The ALA Membership Committee Report sought and achieved a dues increase for organizational members of ALA in a measure to bring costs more in line with the levels existing for individual memberships. The Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE) Resolution on Ethics Education failed, however, due to the Committee’s insistence on providing one firm – the Institute for Global Ethics (IGE) – with the task of providing Ethics Fitness Seminars to Members. Councilors preferred to have an RFP used to solicit proposals from a variety of organizations deemed qualified to undertake such training. --- The ALA Treasurer’s Report highlighted the prudent steps taken by ALA Management and Staff to address the budgetary shortfall. The budgetary ceiling for ALA was approved. --- A “Resolution on Civil Marriage Equality Regardless of Sexual Orientation” passed with a near unanimous vote. A “Resolution on Libraries and the Continuing Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” failed by a very large vote with many Councilors expressing uneasiness at resolutions professing a particular foreign or military policy.
Judith Platt, Freedom to Read Foundation President reported that she will be succeeded by Kenton Oliver in that office. She recalled the great services provided by the late Judith Krug in fighting for intellectual freedom over many decades. Judith Platt noted that the Obama Administration’s decision NOT to appeal a ruling by the 2nd Circuit Court that places limits on the government’s ability to place gag orders when National Security Letters (NSLs) are issued has rendered that Court ruling final and represents a major victory for privacy rights. A case entitled U.S. v. Stevens is scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court during its 2009-10 session in which entire categories of speech could be denied First Amendment protection if the perceived value of the speech is deemed to weigh against “compelling government interest”. – These and many other court battles are being waged with FTRF fighting on behalf of intellectual freedom. ALA Members are encouraged to join the FTRF. http://www.ftrf.org/joinftrf.html

COO: Karen Muller, ALA Librarian and Knowledge Management Specialist, is also co-convener of the Web Editorial Board of ALA. She indicated to COO that the ALA HANDBOOK OF ORGANIZATION for 2008-09 will be the final paper copy of that document. A new, online version will be presented to ALA Members in September 2009. Many of the links and search features were described by Karen as superior to the paper version. The financial saving to ALA at this time of budget shortfall will be in the tens of thousands of dollars. --- A request to change the composition of the Round Table Coordinating Assembly (RTCA) was approved. --- The name format of several committees listed in the ALA HANDBOOK OF ORGANIZATION was changed at the urging of Janet Swan Hill. --- Finally COO urged the Executive Board to give clearer direction relative to steps to be taken in addressing the TFOEMP recommendations. --- This was my final meeting of my two year term as a Member of COO.

INAUGURAL DINNER FOR INCOMING ALA AND DIVISIONAL PRESIDENTS: Diane and I attended this gala event to support the new ALCTS President, Mary Case (University Librarian at UIC). As a Divisional Councilor, Diane is a member of the Executive Board of ALCTS.

COUNCIL III: This final session of the 2009 Annual Conference was full and eventful. It also ended 25 minutes ahead of schedule! --- Among the action items brought forward by the Constitution and Bylaws Committee was approval of wording that specified that votes by members of the Executive Board, Council, Committees and Task Forces may be taken by mail, electronically and via conference call.” --- Committee on Legislation secured Council support for passage of a resolution requesting that the “…ALA President, with the advice of the Executive Board, convene an ALA wide representative group to continue to assess the proposed Google Book Search Settlement and its ongoing impact on ALA Members and member institutions and to make recommendations for action by the Association and its members.” --- The Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) secured passage by Council of a number of important action items, including one seeking the “sunset” of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. --- A Resolution Promoting Sunday, October 4, 2009 as “Intergeneration Day Means Libraries” was passed unanimously. --- Resolutions on accessibility of Library web sites and for accessibility of databases purchased by Libraries also passed. --- “A Resolution Endorsing Legislative Proposals for Affordable, Universal Health Care” passed with near unanimous support. --- A resolution calling for an “Action Plan to Remedy the Current Library Budget Crisis” also passed. --- Councilors Jenny Emanuel and Amy Harmon secured passage by Council of a resolution that will make accessible over the ALA website the recording of the entire deliberations of ALA Council beginning with the next Mid Winter Meeting --- Boston, January 2010.

My notes do not, of course, highlight all of the actions taken by Council during this eventful Conference. Copies of the final wording of all resolutions an action items from Council Sessions will be posted and available on the ALA Web Site http://www.ala.org in a few weeks.

CONCLUSION: Chicago proved to be a splendid and highly successful venue for this Annual Conference. Attendance was at a possible record high, temperatures were relatively mild, and the City itself is of great interest to the intellectually inclined ALA membership.
The biggest problem of Chicago as a site remains the great distance between the McCormick Convention Center and most of the hotels and restaurants serving downtown. Shuttle busses were invariably crowded and delayed, moving from one meeting to another remained a difficult and exhausting venture and the relatively few eating facilities in the vicinity of the Convention Center were generally overcrowded.

ALA Council sessions were not always a model of efficiency, but the deft leadership of President Jim Rettig and careful planning by the Resolutions Committee Chair Michael Golrick enabled the business on our agenda to be completed on schedule.

If there was one central theme of this Conference, it was the extremely difficult economy and its impact upon libraries -- and upon ALA itself. Virtually everyone with whom I spoke confirmed that the budgetary constraints were “everywhere” and likely to continue for at least one or two years. One experienced councilor even announced publicly from the floor of Council that she was “quitting Council” because of the excessive “carbon footprint” required to fly to Conference. It turns out that she had also lost her job. Another veteran Councilor who told me privately that he had similar concerns stated that he was not able to come back. I hope that growing opportunities for electronic participation in ALA might someday empower people who cannot afford to attend and those who have “carbon footprint” or other concerns.

My sincerest thanks go to the Oak Lawn Public Library, the Library Board and Taxpayers of Oak Lawn for supporting my participation in ALA.

James B. Casey, July 15, 2009.

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION MID WINTER MEETING –
Denver,Colorado. January 23-28, 2009. Notes by James B. Casey

Despite cold, snowy weather, the pleasant surroundings of downtown Denver provided an excellent setting for an eventful Mid Winter Meeting. Remnants of the Democratic National Convention back in July 2008 still lingered with signs, souvenirs and tee shirts hailing the Democratic candidates. The term “Denvercrat” was seen in some shop windows. However, most ALA Members seemed to be focused less on the election of 2008 than on the realities of 2009.

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 that 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.

Oak Lawn Public Library Trustee Marian Sullivan enjoyed a productive session involving Association for Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA) committees and programs. However, ALTA has been merged with FOLUSA (Friends of the Library USA) to become ALTAFF (Association for Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations). My wife Diane Dates Casey began her fourth year as Division Councilor for the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS). I continued my fourth term (twelfth year) as a member at-large of ALA Council, and my second year as a member of the Presidential Task Force on Electronic Member Participation (TFOEMP) and as member of the ALA Committee on Organization (COO).

VISIT TO DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY:
I was pleased to have an opportunity to visit the large and beautiful Central Library in downtown Denver. With 450 staff and 23 locations around the city, it is said that 79% of Denver residents have library cards. Construction of a new central library had been approved in a referendum in 1990 that secured a $91.6 million bond issue and was completed in 1995. The building is still “like new” and many of the main public reading areas contain relatively secluded areas where young or adult patrons can curl up with a good book out of direct eyesight of anyone. There were relatively few instances of “face out marketing” among the stacks in the Fiction and Children’s areas. Several of the “show piece” areas including the Western History & Genealogy department and (oddly enough) the Administrative Offices were superb. The large art gallery in the Administrative Offices features excellent art work by Library employees and a fine view of the City. The “Computer Lab” for the public to browse the internet while using the Central Library is actually no larger than that in our own Computer Center at OLPL, but Senior Librarian Megan C. Kinney of the Computer Technology Center was kind enough to show me a fully equipped Computer Training Room that is used exclusively for training and remains locked when not in use. -- I also enjoyed using the Café at the entrance of the public library and had a quick coffee while waiting for the building to open at 10 AM. That café is about the same size as OLPL’s Bookends Café, but has a much more limited offering of food choices.
Like OLPL’s café, the vendor leases the space from the Library. The vendor confided to me that she had been one of several successive café proprietors to occupy the space.

FORUM ON EDUCATION FOR LIBRARIANSHIP:
This program – one of several open discussions on Library Education presented over many years – was hosted by former ALA President Michael Gorman and featured remarks by two eminent educators and two well known practitioners. The central thrust of this session was to discuss the impending presentation before Council of a set of approved “Core Competencies” that should be acquired by any graduate of an ALA Accredited MLIS program. Unfortunately, copies of that core competency list had not yet been distributed to Council or to anyone in the room for this session. Dr. Rick Rubin, Professor at Kent State University and Dr. Ken Haycock emphasized the need for core competencies for every graduate and expressed some impatience at remarks by the practitioners and members of the audience when concerns were expressed about subjects and areas of expertise that were “never taught in library school”. Janet Swan Hill, a leading manager at the University of Colorado at Boulder, maintained that a very large proportion of recent MLIS graduates are not sufficiently conversant with cataloging and other skills necessary for the establishment of “bibliographic control” of library collections. --- This was a worthwhile discussion, but rendered less so by the fact that the actual “Core Competencies” document was not yet available for distribution to those in attendance.

AUTHOR FORUM: WOMEN OF MYSTERY:
This was an interesting panel discussion featuring mystery writers who divulged both the driving force behind their authorship and some of their secrets of the trade. Erica Spindler, author of 28 books including SEE JANE DIE, BONE COLD and COPYCAT, began her writing career in romance and suspense, but has recently moved into more complex police procedural novels where clues are revealed along the way. She urges new authors to begin with the crime and work backwards in crafting the story. Francine Matthews, the author of espionage mysteries, is also known as Stephanie Barron, the creator of mysteries set in the 19th Century and a series featuring Jane Austen as a sleuth. In developing a plot outline, she urges that the writer begin with the end and then work back. Mary Jane Clark, author of ten novels featuring news reporters such as CLOSE TO YOU and DO YOU PROMISE NOT TO TELL, indicated that her writing only enabled her to retire from CBS news in 2007. She maintains that short chapters tend to build suspense and keep readers turning the pages while longer chapters often discourage readers from taking on another 20 pages before turning off the lights for the evening. Nancy Atherton is the popular author of the AUNT DIMITY series and originally grew up on the west side of Chicago – using the Austin Branch of the Chicago Public Library. -- These authors all expressed gratitude for the Libraries and Librarians who inspired their early reading and writing.

ALAWO (ALA Washington Office) UPDATE:
The ALA Washington Office presented a review of issues facing the Library community as the 111th Congress and the new Obama Administration begin ( http://www.ala.org/washoff ). Kendall Wiggin, Chair of the ALA Committee on Legislation, ALAWO Director Emily Shekitoff and Lynne Bradley from the Office of Government Relations, described the new opportunities available to Library advocates, but also cautioned that the competition for money and influence will remain significant. Major issues such as expansion of affordable broadband and telecomm services will require Libraries to be “at the table” and to be prepared for a “marathon” of continued effort rather than a sprint.

The panel discussion for this program included warnings by Ken Wiggin that the huge stimulus dollars likely to be released for the purpose of creating jobs would probably be targeted to existing programs, states and municipal governments. Although the fund release may be rapid, there will be little sudden change at the local level. He warned again that despite the change in political climate in Washington, the battles won’t be easy for Library advocates. --- Lobbying expert Stephanie Vance emphasized the economic and political challenges we face by noting that each and every one of us owes $34,000 towards the national debt, 76% of all states have fiscal deficits and that there are 147,000 associations competing with ALA for influence within the District of Columbia. She urges that library advocates continue to stay on the “radar screen” of their legislators. --- Former Colorado State Senator Ken Gordon urged that Librarians continue to tell lawmakers what they are doing to serve their communities and to create a better economy. Senator Gordon, who served for 16 years in the Colorado State Legislature and was lately Majority Leader of the Senate before term limits forced him out, was very closely involved with many of the causes supported by most Librarians ( http://www.kengordon.com/letter.htm ). He noted that the stimulus funding will probably go through the States in an effort to shore up major programs such as medicare and rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure.

TASK FORCE ON ELECTRONIC MEMBER PARTICIPATION (TFOEMP):
The objective of this task force (appointed in Summer 2007) was explore ways and means by which ALA could incorporate more of the new technology in providing better service to the Membership. After months of intense work, a thorough and wide ranging study was finally prepared for this Mid Winter Meeting. On January 24, Janet Swan Hill, Chair of the TFOEMP, met with about half of the members of the Task Force to assemble thoughts on the challenges she might face at Council II (Tuesday) when the long (65 page) report and its sixteen recommendations were to be presented to the Council for approval. Concerns expressed to TFOEMP members during this Mid Winter involved the awkwardness of opening up the deliberations of governing bodies to electronic observation, the costs involved with creating an environment where full electronic participation can take place and the technical difficulties (and competencies needed) to bring this project about. The TFOEMP was prudent in sending out the long report as early as October to some bodies and to the Council itself by December 15. This effort to bring key bodies such as BARC (Budget Anaylsis and Review Committee) as well as the Executive Board and Executive Director into the discussion several months ago should have (we hoped) enabled most of the recommendations to be passed and for the continuing exploration of options to proceed. The TFOEMP produced a large body of exceptional work in a timely manner under the deft direction of Janet Swan Hill. Members of the TFOEMP include Vibiana Bowman, Courtney L. Young, Dawn Vaughn, Gina Persichini, Judy Nelson, Joe Sanchez, Keri Cascio, Karen Schneider, Charles Kratz, Michael J. Miller, Peter Hepburn, Stephanie Sarnoff, Sue McTavish and James B. Casey. -- This was to be the final meeting of this original TFOEMP. http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/council/councilcommittees/tfoemp.cfm

SPECIAL ALA MEMBERSHIP TOWN HALL MEETING:
This extraordinary Membership Meeting, opened to all ALA Members and with a free access microphone, was hosted by ALA President Jim Rettig and the COL Chair Kendall Wiggin. The objective was to gather as many cogent ideas as possible to present before the new Obama Administration for improvement of service to patrons and to advance the cause of lifetime learning. Ken reminded us that most of the stimulus money will probably go to the states and to existing programs. He urged that we drive a connection in our own local media efforts between jobs and the work of libraries. ----- I was not surprised to find that the dozens of members who came forward to speak out had many excellent contributions to bring forward based upon what, for many, was a lifetime of labor in the field of serving our public. And there was remarkably little duplication in the remarks. (My own essay was on the need to move the e-rate program for public libraries from a competitive rebate program to an actual discount program – where public libraries would not have to submit labor intensive paperwork every year in order demonstrate worthiness to receive a rebate one year after the funds had been expended, but an “up front” discount based upon Census data verifying need.)

COUNCIL I:
James G. Neal, new Chair of BARC (Budget Analysis and Review Committee), gave a succinct and highly effective report to Council on the budgetary status of ALA. Despite dropping revenues, highly effective management by ALA Executives and Budget Officers have reduced expenses to the point where the net assets of the Association remain stable and even somewhat higher than during 2007. The one year investment picture prepared by Daniel J. Bradbury on for the ALA Endowment Fund was very grim. The Fund fell from $31.6 million one year ago to $22.6 million. On the bright side, the Fund’s portfolio fell by 27.7% while the overall market drop was an even more egregious 38.5%. The Trustees are taking a cautiously optimistic position on the market at this time. [It wasn’t mentioned that less that ten years ago, the Endowment Fund stood at only $11 million and the Trustees prior to that were content to maintain conservative positions through the huge market rises of the late 1990s. The Endowment Trustees who succeeded them in the early 2000s took on a more aggressive position and drove the Endowment Fund up to $31.6 million. Even with the collapse to $22.6 million, the Endowment Fund is still far ahead of where it was at the beginning of this decade, due to the deft management of the Endowment Trustees of the 2000s.]

The very brief report by the ALA-APA spokesperson Nancy Bolt noted that National Library Worker’s Day will be held on April 14, 2009 and revealed the major progress anticipated for the LIBRARY SUPPORT STAFF CERTIFICATION PROGRAM http://www.ala-apa.org/certification/supportstaff.html . Nancy indicated that demand for ALA-APA certified training for Support Staff is very strong. The first enrollments will be accepted in January 2010. The cost for the ALA-APA certification (beyond the tuition and school fees) would be $350.

The Library Advocacy Committee announced the development of “tool kits” to assist Library advocates with talking points and convincing arguments. “Advocating in a Tough Economy” (featuring ALA President Jim Rettig)
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/advocacy/advocacyuniversity/toolkit/index.cfm and “Add it Up: Libraries Make the Difference in Youth Development and Education” provide excellent guides in formulating strategies to tell our story. http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/advocacy/advocacyuniversity/additup/about/index.cfm

Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels announced that he and his team are working on the development of a cost matrix to determine the affordability of making Council deliberations more widely and readily accessible to the ALA Membership. [This step is already addressing one of the recommendations of the TFOEMP.]

ALA-APA COUNCIL:
ALA ED Keith Fiels announced that bringing ALA-APA to fiscal viability was an immediate priority. Consequently 40% of ALA-APA Director Jennifer Grady’s time and salary are to be devoted to ALA activites. ALA-APA will operate with a staff of .60 FTE for Director and .50 FTE support staff and a reduced overall operating budget. ALA-APA ended 2008 with a net loss of $19,098 and overall net assets for 2008 fell to a negative $248,427 from the negative $229,329 in 2007. Contributions to ALA-APA were $10,475 below that of 2007. --- In response to a question, the ALA Executive Director indicated that the number of contributors to ALA-APA from among the ALA Membership was only about 1 or 2%.

The enrollment in the Certified Public Library Administrator Program has been relatively modest in number, but testimonials from recent graduates were read and noted as a source of optimism for the future of this program.

The ALA-APA Standing Committee on Salaries and Status of Library Workers reported that six programs will be on the agenda for Annual Meeting in Chicago and two resolutions are also being prepared for presentation at that Conference.

ALA COO (Committee on Organization):
Most of COO discussions centered on more firmly establishing the rules governing Member Initiative Groups (MIG) and distinguishing them from another smaller, informal organization type within ALA called Discussion Groups. MIGs include Libraries Fostering Civic Engagement, Games & Gaming, Information Commons, Library Assessment and Virtual Communities & Libraries.

COUNCIL II:
The Treasurer’s Report provided a good overview of the cost/benefit advantages of the work of ALA Washington Office. The ALAWO has been leveraging very big advantages to libraries via the exercise of influence and promotion of library issues among the national political leadership. Treasurer Rodney Herseberger noted that three of the larger revenue producers – publishing, meetings and conferences, and dues – had not been increasing at a significant enough rate. New approaches and business models may need to be examined. ALA will have to reduce expenditures if revenues decline as a result of the floundering economy and dropping attendance.

Council was also pleased to hear of the outstanding work being done by the Freedom to Read Foundation http://www.ftrf.org (1-800-545-2433, ext. 4226) and to learn about its efforts to support litigation in defense of our liberties. FTRF President Judith Platt presented reports on recent victories in the battle to preserve intellectual freedom and privacy rights. (Freedom to Read Foundation memberships are only $35 for personal members and $100 for organizations.)

Michael Gorman sought Council approval for the establishment of “ALA’s Core Competencies of Librarianship”. These had been presented at the Forum on Library Education on Friday, January 23, to an audience of Library faculty and practitioners. 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.” -- After lengthy discussion and some amendments, this worthy document finally passed.

TASK FORCE ON E-MEMBER PARTICIPATION REPORT (TFOEMP):
This 16 recommendation report was presented with much skill before Council II by Chair, Janet Swan Hill. Four of the sixteen recommendations were approved at this session. The rest were planned for Council III.

COO Meeting:
The merger of FOLUSA and ALTA – combining all of the assets of those divisions – was approved at this Mid Winter Meeting. 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. The vote by ALTA to approve this amalgamation was 293 to 20. Although there were some protests against this merger, the overwhelming majority was agreeable to the transition. Consequently, COO voted to accept the merger. --- The Committee on Legislation (COL) obtained approval by COO to expand its membership from 10 to 15. COL needs more members to do the work of intensified lobbying in the new 111th Congress and the demand for membership on COL is very heavy. This will open the doors to more effective lobbying. ---- ALA CONNECT ONLINE was demonstrated by Jenny Levine to COO. The communications capability available to ALA Members, committees, divisions, and other bodies can be enhanced dramatically. The “soft launch” of this site will be in late February 2009 and may well begin with COO as one of the beta organizations involved.

COUNCIL FORUM:
About 100 Councilors appeared for this discussion and reviewed a number of possible resolutions. As is customary for these forums, most resolutions were battered with criticism by Councilor colleagues. To my chagrin, several of the recommendations that had been presented by our TFOEMP were assaulted in this way. While several of us on the TFOEMP tried to affirm the notion of full fledged electronic member participation, the audience remained sharply divided at this forum.

COUNCIL III:
J. Douglas Archer reported on behalf of the Intellectual Freedom Committee and submitted three new interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights – Challenged Materials, Restricted Access to Library Materials, and Service to Persons with Disabilities. All were passed by a near unanimous vote. --- COL Chair Ken Wiggin presented two Resolutions to Council: “Resolution Commending President Barack Obama on his Commitment to Openness and Transparency in Government” and “Resolution in Support of the Reauthorization of the Library Services and Technology Act.” Both passed by a near unanimous vote. --- Beverly Lynch, Chair of the International Relations Committee, presented a “Resolution on the Connection between the Recent Gaza Conflict and Libraries.” After about 45 minutes of debate, the resolution passed by a wide margin. --- COO Chair Steve Matthews reported the work of his Committee. Among the items acted upon was the final combination of ALCTS and FOLUSA into ALTAFF. Council vote was nearly unanimous.

Discussion continued on the 16 TFOEMP recommendations. In this instance, Chair Janet Swan Hill proceeded with advice from the Parliamentarian (Eli Mina) in order to move more efficiency on completing the 16 recommendations. After the approval of recommendations 4 and 5, the remaining recommendations were discussed in a bundle and approved. The entire set of recommendations has been referred to the Executive Board and BARC for further investigation and formal report to Annual Meeting in Chicago. [This passage of the TFOEMP recommendations represents a significant step for ALA into broader use of technology in conducting business.]

“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.

My notes do not, of course, highlight all of the actions taken by Council during this eventful Mid Winter Meeting. Copies of the final wording of all resolutions an action items from Council Sessions will be posted and available on the ALA Web Site http://www.ala.org in a few weeks.

CONCLUSION:
This proved to be a highly productive, but less than efficient Mid Winter Meeting. Despite the good efforts of President Jim Rettig, Council sessions became bogged down in disputes and “word smithing” as complex issues such as the TFOEMP and Core Competencies required hours of meandering discussion. More airing of resolutions by e-mail weeks or months before the Mid Winters and Conferences could help immensely.

The City of Denver was pleasant (albeit, snowy), but the low attendance for this particular Mid Winter proved to be discouraging. Discussion before Council pertaining to the elimination of Mid Winter did not re-emerge. However, starting in 2010, both Mid Winter and Annual will be shortened by one day (in terms of Council sessions). Instead of finishing on Wednesday, work will conclude on Tuesday afternoon. This is a welcome change.

My sincerest thanks go to the Oak Lawn Public Library, the Board and Taxpayers for supporting my participation in ALA.

James B. Casey, January 28, 2009

From Jonathan Betz-Zall, Washington Chapter Councilor, Concerning the ALA Midwinter 2009 Meeting

---

Washington Library Association
ALA Chapter Councilor's Report
Midwinter Meeting, January 2009, Denver, Colorado
Jonathan Betz-Zall with some text from Councilor James Casey of Illinois

The American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting, focusing primarily on business, produced some noticeable changes in organizational practices even as the old guard struggled to maintain the organization's basic values. Newer librarians, particularly members of the organization's governing Council, advocated for more electronic participation and free internet access, while more experienced members tweaked various organizational structures and worried about slow-growing revenue streams and potential program reductions. Meanwhile, ALA worked to advocate for library interests in legal, financial and intellectual arenas.

Specific Areas of Concern-

Intellectual Freedom:

The Freedom to Read Foundation 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 casebookon 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). Most importantly for WLA, they encourage chapters to involve themselves more deeply in legislation.

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.

ALA also held a special members meeting to allow librarians to make statements that they wanted President Obama to hear and consider. The following notes by Councilor Jim Casey describe it well: “This extraordinary Membership Meeting, opened to all ALA Members and with a free access microphone, was hosted by ALA President Jim Rettig and the COL Chair Kendall Wiggin. The objective was to gather as many cogent ideas as possible to present before the new Obama Administration for improvement of service to patrons and to advance the cause of lifetime learning. Ken reminded us that most of the stimulus money will probably go to the states and to existing programs. He urged that we drive a connection in our own local media efforts between jobs and the work of libraries. ----- I was not surprised to find that the dozens of members who came forward to speak out had many excellent contributions to bring forward based upon what, for many, was a lifetime of labor in the field of serving our public. And there was remarkably little duplication in the remarks. (My own essay was on the need to move the e-rate program for public libraries from a competitive rebate program to an actual discount program – where public libraries would not have to submit labor intensive paperwork every year in order demonstrate worthiness to receive a rebate one year after the funds had been expended, but an “up front” discount based upon Census data verifying need.)”

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

ALA-APA:
ALA’s Allied Professional Association carries out activities that ALA cannot do for various tax-related reasons. Since its establishment six years ago it has struggled financially but does seem to be carrying out an effective program to certify public library administrators and is close to establishing one to certify library support staff. Our own Highline Community College is to be one of the first training providers for the latter. ALA-APA’s salary survey functions are being transferred to ALA’s Office of Research. http://www.ala-apa.org/

Library Education:
After ten years of work, the Library Education Task Force won Council’s approval for a set of “Core Competencies for Librarianship”, specifying a set of outcomes that “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.” For more information, please see this website: http://www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/careers/corecomp/index.cfm

A more detailed, chronological set of notes on Council meeting follows.

ALA Council/Executive Board Information Session:
internal economics going well but investments are doing very poorly. Trying to move investments to more productive areas, diversifying portfolio.
2009 election: March 17 to Apr 20, results announced May 1. All electronic election.
New video on "Why run for Council?" with a variety of councilors. Will be on YouTube. Also ALA website.
Next presidential initiative: member-driven frontline advocacy.

ALA-APA Information Session:
Strengthening Professionalism in the Public Interest--draft statement by variety of professional group approved by Exec Board. Reported at Anaheim conference.
Salary survey going out to 4000 libraries, need good response. Chap Councilors will receive state specific lists to help encourage participation.
Tues Apr 14 is National Library Workers' Day. Nominate great student workers and supervisors.
Lib Support Staff Certification Program report: program expected to be ready to certify one year early.
• Competency-based, aimed at academic and public library staff people.
• Survey generated positive results, 2700 comments. Also positive response at conferences.
• Online portfolios: Not to give credit for experience but to demonstrate competencies in 6 of 9 sets.
• Policies & procedures for policy implementation.
• Currently projecting 300 enrollees in first year, 2010.

Council I:
Library Advocacy Committee: newly established this year, working groups Training, Coordinating, Ad-hoc advocacy group. New toolkit: advocating in a tough economy avail on ALA website, including ROI calculator. Public piece: Add it up! making the case for libraries influencing children and teens. Advocacy university with many tools. Building statewide coalitions during a tough economy: example of library ecosystem at work, e.g. Nebraska & Colorado. Name change: Committee on Library Advocacy.
Constitution & Bylaws: Bylaws adjusting placement of sections. Discussion arose about dues revisions as discussed on Council listserve. Extended delinquency provision to two months.
Executive Director's report: new Choice building acquisition running into problems with use of brownfield site. Diversity officer about to be hired. Lead in books issue--consumer product safety commission is being bombarded with comments.
Executive Board actions: comment that SRRT is unhappy with continued prohibition of ALA units from endorsing candidates. Request to have Current Reference File more available--promise to have scannable version available by Annual conference.
Implementation report: sweatshop resolution lists prepared of clean vendors and questions to ask prospective vendors.
Gaza resolution referred to International Relations Committee.
Council Forum: Mon 8-9:30 Hyatt Regency Centennial A, Tues 4:30-6 CC 402

ALA-APA:
Working on financial stability--restructuring. Collaboration between ALA Office of Research and ALA-APA on librarian salary survey.
Negative net revenue in 2008 of 19,000 because salary survey publication went out late. Results should be better in current quarter. Expect to be on track for positive performance throughout the year. Did make an interest payment on loan last year.
CPLA certification is going well--evaluations are positive. But participation has been below projections, office is asking councilors to create more buzz about program. Graduates are helping with this. Variety of other publicity underway. Comments: need to convince employers of the benefits of CPLA. How does it compare to MPA? Asking Chapter Councilors to promote at state level. Word of mouth most effective. Opp't'y for continuing education in rural areas. Target younger people who are still paying for college loans.
Salaries & Status report: six conference programs at annual. Resolutions coming up for annual, asking for input on outsourcing at wpaullin@aclsys.org
National Library Workers Day: April 14, 2009. Need volunteers for various committees: Pay Equity, Research, Resources/Statistics, Unions. Lobbying for Employee Free Choice Act? Not actively, just monitoring.
Resolutions guidelines tweaking adopted.

Council II:
Financial report: to be viewed within programmatic priorities and value statements
Washington Office: OITP convenes meetings on policy, e.g. conference on traditional cultural expression, future of libraries, e-rate simplification
Copyright advisory network: librarycopyright.net est in 2004 almost 2 million page views last year
also lobbying for education, chlidren's literacy, school libraries inclusion in No Child Left Behind
Legislative Action Center--web based timely information/action center
Nat'l Library Legislative Day--over 400 advocates came last year May 11-12 this year. Also Virtual Library Legislative Day.
Intangible results: e.g.getting EPA libraries reopened ; generally great return on investment ; LSTA & e-rate funding stable
Broad institutional strategies: promote ALA vision and mission at every opportunity ; establish & support a network of relationships that promote ALA's mission & priorities
influence legislation and regulation where possible
General trend--next year is last year of dues increase, revenues will slow down.
Mature business not likely to produce major revenue growth <10% per year
Need for revenue growth: staff, technology, fluctuating prices
Concerned that recession will impact library purchases of services
New business model: penetrate current markets deeper, new products for current markets, current products for new markets, new products for new markets

Freedom to Read Foundation:
Child Online Protection Act challenge succeeded after 10 years of effort unconstitutionally overbroad, burdened speech among adults, favors parental filters
National Security Letters case on gag orders without judicial review, put burden of proof on government
Harmful to Minors literature sellers registration requirement struck down, too vague, not narrowly tailored to achieve its goal
Ongoing harmful to minors case--Powell's books in Oregon no provision for judging value of content
Valerie Plame Wilson case challenging redaction, government must demonstrate harm of information that is already in the public domain

Library Education Task Force, Core Competencies of Librarianship has been through 10 years of development, to specify outcomes, not process of education. Amendments included explicit coverage of diversity (defeated--redundant), add "leadership" (adopted), add "freedom of expression" to legal framework (adopted), add "social responsibilities" to roles of library professionals (defeated--redundant). CD 10

Caregiver study task force: resolution adopted last Midwinter. COSWL taking over the function.

TF on Electronic Member Participation report, CD 35. Policy level: principles & discovery--main focus, Fiscal considerations--unable to flesh out in time available, Implementation. Asking only for passage of ideas, implementation to come later. TF assumes that participants in eparticipation will pay for the privilege. Financial problems of availability of technology. Accessibility barriers: both need to attend and requirements of technology. No recommendation on Midwinter. Very confusing situation led to extended discussion both in Council II and in Council Forum.
1st recommendation: encouraging experimentation with providing electronic access to non-governance activities.
2nd recommendation: all meetings of ALA are open to all members and the press.
3rd recommendation: openness of between-meeting activities--accessible to all members.
4th: Replacing virtual membership (non-voting) at ALA level with full virtual committee membership. Details to be assigned to successor task force.

Council III:
Intellectual Freedom Committee: published festschrift for Gordon Conable, casebooks available this years, privacy and copyright issues, IF manual aiming for publication in 2010, publicizing "Privacy Revolution" with door hanger
Cttee on Legislation: encouraging librarian participation through links on website and Library Legislative Day. Legislative Assembly a place for ALA units to be represented. Expanding committee membership to handle expanded workload. Encouraging members to distribute listserve messages to other listserves.
Commending Obama for position on Open Government.
Supporting LSTA reauthorization.
International Relations committee: Blue Shield worked on US passage of the Hague Convention. Debate on Gaza resolution (watered down) adopted.
CPSC put "hold" on banning children's books while they investigate.
Committee on Organization: changing committee names, approved merger of ALTA and FOLUSA, expand Committee on Legislation
Resolutions Committee: guidelines for resolutions at Membership Meetings.
Website Advisory Committee: CMS support will expire, meeting planner will be improved. Funds needed to make website fully accessible.
TF on Electronic Member Participation report CD35: reconsidered 35-4 because many councilors felt unclear on whether they had eliminated authorization for virtual members throughout ALA. Amended and adopted to clarify that we're eliminating "second class" status of electronic members of committees. 35-5: participation requirements to be updated to include virtual/email membership activity. Variety of objections and supports for other recommendations. Fairly strong support for eparticipation in general, just concerns about specific implementation problems. Referred the rest of the items to ALA Executive Board.

Resolution on setting up a "one conference one book" program on Gaza for Annual Conference. Purpose: Education of ALA members. Referral to IRC failed. Rejected.
Resolutions on accessible workshops adopted.
Resolution on high speed internet wireless access at conference hotels.

10,220 attendees, 7905 members.