3/24/08 ALA Midwinter Conference Report 2008
By Pam Hickson-Stevenson, OLC ALA Councilor
ALA met in Philadelphia on January 11-16, 2008 for its annual business meeting. What follow are the highlights of the meeting. Total attendance was 13,601.
At the Midwinter Conference, the ALA Council:
• Approved four items presented by the Policy Monitoring Committee that dealt with wording changes to policies
• Did not approve a resolution on member access to electronic lists of the ALA
• Approved recommendations for changes to the standards for accreditation made by the Committee on Accreditation (Chaired by KSU SLIS Director, Dr. Richard Rubin)
• Approved a resolution providing accessible workstations at ALA midwinter meetings and annual conferences
• Approved recommended resolutions from the Committee on Legislation dealing with: Government Printing Office FY 2009 appropriations; safeguarding electronic government information and e-government; opposing postal rate increases for small circulation publications; commending the FBI whistle blower (Bassem Youssef) who spoke at Midwinter; full funding of the federal digital system
• Approved applications for ALA affiliate status from the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials and the On-Line Audiovisual Catalogers
• Elected three to the ALA Executive Board: Em Claire Knowles, Diane Chen, Joseph Eagan
• Gave first approval to two changes to the ALA Constitution, dealing with vacancies of elected officers and terms of office for members of the Executive Board
• Approved a resolution calling for an end to the violence in Kenya, a return to press and broadcasting freedom and the right to peacefully assemble for the Kenyan people
• Approved the formation of an ALA Advocacy Committee consisting of 13 members
• Approved a resolution of support of women as caregivers in the workforce
• Approved a resolution on the confiscation of Iraqi documents from the Iraq National Library Archives that called for the return by U.S. and British military forces of cultural documents to Iraqi repositories
• Approved changes to the ALA Code of Ethics; the new Article IV now reads: We respect intellectual property rights and advocate balance between the interests of information users and rights holders.
• Pat Mora, Effie Lee Morris and Peggy Sullivan were given Honorary ALA Memberships.
Other ALA Council news of interest:
• The Budget Analysis and Review Committee reported that the Association finished another year in the “black”. Total revenue for the Association FY 2007 (unaudited results) was $280,151 more than anticipated. Total revenue was budgeted at $47,639,417.
• The report of the Presidential Task Force on Graduated Dues Structure revealed that a thorough study required for assessing the implementation of a Graduated Dues Structure would cost $518,885. The task force identified five components for the study of this topic: membership survey; trends in the library profession; dues modeling; revenue impact analysis; and stakeholder review. The survey portion – a $45,000 component – may be implemented fairly soon as an affordable initial step.
• The market value of ALA 's Endowment Fund increased by 8.4% during calendar year 2007 and reached $31,221,422.
• The ALA Washington Office reported on current lobbying efforts underway to include wording in the No Child Left Behind re-authorization to require that schools employ certified school librarians and to retain language in the current Farm Bill (HR 2419) to call for expansion of broadband connectivity for rural areas.
• The new web site redesign has been placed on the web for comments with the hope that it will be released in June 2008. Starting at Midwinter 2009 ( Denver), ALA will require that members seeking ALA assistance in finding hotel accommodations have already registered.
• The Executive Board will develop guidelines concerning the formal endorsement of individual candidates by divisions, round tables and other units of ALA.
• The Freedom to Read foundation marks its 40th anniversary celebration in Chicago and is seeking to expand the fund raising efforts to include institutional memberships.
• Council received an interim report from the Task Force On Electronic Member Participation (TFOEMP), which was launched last summer and is proceeding under the charge: “To examine existing documents and develop recommendations to adapt ALA polices to help the Association move forward with effective e-participation practices; to survey current and planned e-participation throughout ALA and its units; to explore, in consultation with BARC, the financial implications of expanded e-participation; and to report its findings to the ALA Council at the 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver, Colorado.”
• The International Relations Committee reminded Councilors that IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) Conference will be held in Quebec City during August 10-14, 2008 and urged U.S. Librarians to attend.
ALA/APA Council news of interest:
• The ALA/APA is now paying back its loan to ALA at the rate of $25,000/year. The organization has progressed in a budgetary sense from a negative $235,060 in 2006 to a negative $229,329 in 2007.
• The Certified Public Library Administrator program has “graduated” its first participant. The program has 25 active courses offered by five providers and there are 96 candidates actively enrolled.
• The next National Library Workers Day is Tuesday, April 15, 2008.
