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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.