MemberBlog

September 22, 2009

Dear Colleagues:

The weekend of September 11th, a group comprised of the ALA board members, division leaders, roundtable representatives and senior staff met in Itasca, Illinois, to begin the development of ALA’s new strategic plan. The new plan’s goals and objectives will set the association’s strategic directions for the next five years to 2015. (ALA’s current plan goes through 2010.)

For the last six months, work has been underway to gather member input and information on the changing environment for libraries, librarians and the association. To date, 15 member forums have been conducted at state chapter meetings, and another 20 are planned for this fall and early spring of 2010. A member survey of ALA programs and services, their importance, and the association’s performance in each area was conducted, with 9,000 members participating.

In addition to the survey and forums, an Environmental Scan has been created on ALA Connect, containing articles, reports and other information on the social, educational, economic, political, and technological environments within which we will operate, as well as issues and trends specific to different types of libraries. (To see the Environmental Scan, surveys or forum reports, go to ALA Connect, log in, and click “My Member Communities” and then “ALA 2015 Environmental Scan.”)

In mid-October, ALA board members will meet with a larger group of division leadership and roundtable representatives in Chicago to continue working on draft goals and objectives. Following this meeting, we will then circulate a draft plan for discussion by ALA councilors, committees and the membership as a whole. It is our hope that those members attending Midwinter will schedule discussions of the plan as part of their meeting agendas, and we are looking to schedule a working session on the plan for Council as part of the Information Session at Midwinter.

Again, following Midwinter, ALA groups and individual members will be invited to share their thoughts and suggestions which will be considered for incorporation into the document as we prepare for review and approval by the Board in April. The document will then go to Council prior to Annual Conference for Council’s final approval at Annual Conference.

When we developed the current 2010 plan, we received over 2,500 comments from ALA groups and individual members. These comments were aggregated, analyzed, and ultimately incorporated into the plan as it moved forward over the course of its year- long development. We look forward to the same high level of member involvement as we move forward on our 2015 Plan.
Thank you for your help in this process.

Camila A. Alire
President
American Library Association

ALA is pleased to announce a new digital supplement to American Libraries Magazine for the International Library community: "Global Mission, Global Membership". Published in digital format only to coincide with IFLA's 75th World Library and Information Congress taking place this week in Milan, Italy, this supplement takes readers through the opportunities offered to members and the wider profession by the American Library Association. You can view, print and share this digital issue of American Libraries by visiting http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/b9badc6a.

Over 30 pages of information include an introduction by Michael Dowling, Director of the ALA International Relations Office, an overview of recent publications from ALA Publishing, details on participating in or exhibiting at ALA Annual Conference and the Midwinter Meeting, a discussion of the enhancement to committee work through ALA Connect, news from JobList on employment in the States, plus additional information on North American MLS/MLIS programs, ALA rights management, and a run down of member benefits.

This digital supplement is ideal for long-time international members to share with colleagues, newer members to acquaint themselves with everything ALA has to offer the library profession abroad, and for domestic members to learn more about the scope of ALA's international activities. Please feel free to share this link - http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/b9badc6a - widely.

Contact Michael Dowling at mdowling@ala.org or John Chrastka at jchrastka@ala.org with comments or questions.

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.