[Publib] New Orleans ALA

Wed Jul 5 13:56:02 EDT 2006

This is Part I of my notes.   ----  In fact, the spot chosen for our
Publib

Get Together proved to be closed down (boarded up) when we arrived

On Friday at 5:30 PM.  The Riverwalk wouldn't have been much better

Since about 75% of the food court was shut down or out of business

and the places where we sat for past Publib affairs was essentially

empty - even on a Friday night.  Jim Casey

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ANNUAL MEETING - New Orleans

June 23-28, 2006.  Notes by James B. Casey

Only some 10 months after the Katrina hurricane devastated many
neighborhoods of New Orleans and forced tens of thousands of its
residents to relocate, the ALA Annual Conference returned to the
beautiful and culturally interesting Crescent City.  The waiters, cab
drivers, hotel officials, and entertainers of the City worked very hard
to make us feel welcome. If anything, they gave us all an example of
service ethic and courage that we might hope to carry to our own daily
work when we return home.  Although most of us simply went about our
conference business while noticing some evidence of the disaster
(favorite restaurants and shops that were gone, a virtually empty
Riverwalk on Friday night), our very presence at this site was
considered to be newsworthy.  Even the New York Times covered the event
(Adam Nossiter article in June 24, pg. A13) with remark that this was
the first major meeting in New Orleans since Katrina and is seen as a
$27 million "shot in the arm" that will lead the way for millions of
dollars worth of future meetings.  It was reported that 87 meetings ($2
billion worth) had been cancelled or moved following Katrina.  

The final attendance of 16,964 was well short of the huge Chicago
attendance of 27,962 established in June 2005 (as might be expected
given the large metro population around the Windy City), but even short
of the tepid attendance of 19,731 at Orlando in 2004 and slightly under
the prior record low of 17,482 established for the SARS affected Annual
at Toronto in 2003.  However, most Conference attendees I spoke with
were glad that they came to New Orleans in 2006 are enthusiastic about
coming back to the "Big Easy" in years to come. 

My wife Diane Dates Casey finished the first of year of her three year
term as Division Councilor for the Association for Library Collections
and Technical Services (ALCTS) and participated actively in Council
Sessions.  I proceeded through my third term (and ninth year) as a
Member At-Large of ALA Council.

ADVOCACY INSTITUTE:  On Friday, June 23, a very active and thought
provoking session began with discussion of two very serious challenges
to the very survival of Libraries.  The push for 65% of all funding for
education to be targeted directly to the classrooms of our public
schools looks - on the surface - to be a good idea.  Unfortunately,
school library and media centers and school librarians don't seem to
fall under the definition of "instructional" and hence are outside of
the 65% while football coaches (for example) are included.  Although
Texas, Georgia and Kansas have signed on to the 65% solution, the battle
still rages in other states.  Speaker Ann Dutton Ewbank (Chair, American
Association of School Librarians Task Force on Instructional
Classification) pointed out that school librarians do provide direct
instructional services and also that the results of surveys and tests
show youngsters producing higher levels of educational achievement in
schools that have functioning school libraries.  Ann also noted that
even the Director of the 65% solution program is of the opinion that
school librarians should be classified as instructional personnel.
However, the debate goes on and school librarians often fall victim to
budget cuts - even in Oak Lawn. Kay Boies (Director of Communications at
Texas Library Association) discussed TABOR (Tax Payer Bill of Rights)
Laws and their impact in the 15 states that have been affected by the
measure.  Massive tax cuts may be considered favorable to many citizens,
but less advantageous when their favorite services and programs are
eliminated.  Colorado was noted as one state where TABOR had to be
suspended when essential services were paralyzed as a result of
insufficient tax flow.  

FORUM ON LC SERIES AUTHORITY DECISION: This program was packed with 300+
ALA Members and Cataloging advocates determined to hear how to cope with
the recent series authority record decision by the Library of Congress.
The cataloging community was seeking leadership following this immensely
important change of tact by LC.  Fortunately, such leadership was
present and engaged.  Gary Strawn of Northwestern University Library
offered a full report under the link
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/public/ALA/490Resolution.doc 

Gary Strawn was among the speakers who not only criticized the manner of
LCs decision, but offered a suggested path by which the library
community can address the issue.  He asks:  "Is it possible
automatically to match a 490 field to the corresponding authority
record?  If so, how reliable is the match?" and "Is it possible
automatically to convert a 490 field into a traced series if so directed
by the matching authority record?  If so, is the result acceptable?"  

A speaker from the National Library of Medicine emphasized - to
considerable applause - that more research had been needed before
unilateral changes were made by the Library of Congress to long
established processes.  The notion that the Cataloging Community moved
too slowly and that immediate steps were needed by LC to force the issue
was considered to be erroneous.  That speaker noted that: RDA (Resource
Description and Access) needed to represent current best practices and
not be pressed forward in a unilateral and hurried manner.  She said
that ALCTS needs to "put the 'science' back in Library Science."

Those of us who are not as aware of the cataloging and classification
issues faced by the Library world may be thankful that there are
dedicated catalogers and information science specialists such as those
hundreds who gathered to hear this program (and others during this
Annual) who have the willingness and intellectual ability to engage this
issue on our behalf.  

ALAWO - ALA Washington Office - Briefing brought us up to speed on a
number of crucial issues.  Initially, Stephanie Vance provided an
interesting overview of best practices in lobbying under the title
"Don't Let Democracy Get You Down."  She presented an unvarnished view
of the ineptitude and inefficiency of the legislative process. (
http://www.advocacyguru.com <http://www.advocacyguru.com/>  ) Lynn
Bradley and Miriam Nesbit offered updates on key issues before Congress.
Included was an issue which ALA is supporting to "better deal with the
use of copyrighted works whose owners cannot be located with reasonable
effort."  (HR 5439 "Orphan Works Act of 2006").  Other legislation is
termed "Broadcast Flag" and calls for strict confinement of ways in
which broadcast materials can be used.  Heavy fines or restrictions in
bills such as S. 2686 by Senator Stevens could prevent information
exchange in such vital initiatives such as distance learning and
resource sharing.

Librarians wishing to keep up to date on the latest issues before
Congress should note the following sites: http://www.ala.org/washoff
for ALA Washington Office.    http://www.ala.org/ogr ALA Office of
Government Relations.  http://www.ala.org/oitp  ALA Office for
Information Technology Policy, and also the Federal Library Legislative
Advocacy Network FLAN   http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/fflan/fflan.htm  

________________________________

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Ruth Hayden
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 12:24 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Publib] New Orleans ALA

I wasn't able to attend ALA and would be very interested to see postings
about experiences, speakers, booths, meetings and seminars. Did the
Publibbers find a good place to gab and relax? If you have thoughts
you'd like to share, I'd love to listen.

Ruth Hayden

Technical Services Librarian

Smyrna Public Library

Smyrna, GA 30080

rhayden at ci.smyrna.ga.us

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