[Publib] ALA Annual Conference 2007 -- Notes (Part 1)

[James Casey]

(I can send it as an attachment in Word on request.)

 

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE - Washington, D.C. June
20-27, 2007.  Notes by James B. Casey

 

 

This Annual Conference in our nation's capitol set a record attendance.
Registrations for this ALA Annual reached 28,635 and surpassed even the
previously established high of 27,962 set in Chicago in 2005.
Washington more firmly outpaced the three other recent Annual
Conferences --- 2006 in New Orleans (16,964), 2004 in Orlando (19,731)
and 2003 Toronto (17,482).  This is the first time since January 2001
that ALA has held a Mid-Winter Meeting or Annual Conference in our
nation's capitol and it will not be returning until 2010.  Future
Mid-Winter Meetings (January) will be held in Philadephia (2008), Denver
(2009), Boston (2010), San Diego (2011), Dallas (2012) and Seattle
(2013).  Future Annual Conferences (June) will be held in Anaheim
(2008), Chicago (2009), Washington, D.C. (2010), New Orleans (2011),
Anaheim (2012) and New York City (2013)  

 

Oak Lawn Public Library Trustees Marian Sullivan and Rich Gast continued
their active service on ALTA (Association of Library Trustees and
Advocates).  Technical Services Department Head James E. Baker gathered
information on innovations and procedures through attendance at valuable
LITA and ALCTS programs during the conference. My wife, Diane Dates
Casey, finished the second 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 as well
as attending a special ALCTS National Conference concerning trends in
Technical Services on the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of ALCTS
(1957-2007). As Division Councilor, Diane sits on the ALCTS Board of
Directors and its Executive Committee.  I completed my third term (and
tenth year) as a Member At-Large of ALA Council and began my fourth term
(2007-2010) at the end of this Conference. 

 

TOUR OF THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. MEMORIAL LIBRARY.   I was pleased to
receive a very thorough tour of this facility by Department Head Paul
Mills.  This building serves as the "main library" for the huge District
of Columbia Public Library and its dozens of branches.  I was especially
interested in observing the steps taken by the Librarians in the Popular
Library and Youth Services Departments to market their collections and
make the spaces as "user friendly" as possible.  I noticed that the vast
majority of shelving in the Youth Services Department were no higher
than 4' and thus reachable by the youngest of patrons.  Although
challenged for space and suffering declines in circulation, the
Librarians are working very hard to correct the problems and may be
looking forward to a move to a new facility in downtown Washington in
years to come.

 

VISITING CAPITOL HILL:  Locating the Congressional Offices proved to be
fairly simple and the Metro System was both fast and inexpensive.
Congressman Lipinski's office was kind enough to arrange a tour of the
House offices and the chambers of Congress for me.  Interns Carrie
Gilbert and Sarah Pittenger were ready for my arrival at the
Congressman's Washington Office (1717 in the Longworth House Office
Building).  I also visited the Offices of Senators Durbin and Obama in
the Hart Senate Office Building.  I left my card at these offices and
was told that aides specializing in education and library legislation
will be in touch.  

 

ALA WO (Washington Office) ALA COL (Committee on Legislation) Assembly:
Although not a member of this Committee, I was permitted by Molly
Fogarty (Chair of COL) to sit in and listen to updates on key issues
facing the Library community during the 110th Congress. --- First,
however, it was announced that the veteran ALAWO Legislative Counsel
Miriam Nisbet is leaving ALA to assume a major leadership position at
UNESCO and will soon be moving to Paris, France.  We were sorry to lose
her services, but pleased at her promotion.  - 

The FY 2008 Labor/HHS (Health & Human Services)/Education Appropriations
have received much support in Congress, but some provisions could face a
Presidential Veto if funding for Stem Cell Research is included.  LSTA
(Library Services and Technology Act) State grant program funds had been
restored to the $171.5 million originally set by President Bush.  ---
Rep. Grijalva (D-AZ) has added language to a House Bill that would
include include MLS librarians along with teachers under a provision for
$5,000 in "discretionary loan forgiveness" for Perkins educational loans
as long as the librarians in question are serving in a poverty area
(designated "area of national need".  --  NCLB (No Child Left Behind)
reauthorization has seen efforts by library supporters in Congress to
establish a definition for "Highly Qualified Library Media Specialist"
and set a goal for at least one such media specialist to be employed in
every single public school receiving assistance under this act.  

 

Among the many legislative initiatives reported at this meeting were two
bi-partisan bills that would enhance important open government laws,
including the Freedom of Information Act, the Presidential Records Act
and whistleblower protections.  ---  The Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) Amendments of 2007 HR 1309 introduced by Rep. Clay (D-MO) with
two co-sponsors, includes reforms to reduce backlogs and delays in
responding to FOIA requests; provides incentives for agency compliance;
and in general, strengthens FOIA.  (Passed 308-117).  The OPEN
Government Act of 2007 (S. 849), introduced by Sen. Leahy (D-VT) and
Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) with nine co-sponsors, is similar to HR 1309 and was
reported out of the Judiciary Committee in April 2007.  

 

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.  For the Legislative
Action Center updates and to learn how to help ALAWO
http://www.capwiz.com/ala   For copyright updates:
http://www.ala.org/copyright 

 

ALCTS (Association for Library Collections and Technical Services) FORUM
ON BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONTROL:  This presentation concerned the Library of
Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control that had
been charged to investigate future trends in cataloging.  Dr. Jose'
Marie Griffiths, the Chair of this Group, spoke as did my wife, Diane
Dates Casey (a member of the Working Group).   Dr. Griffiths noted that
the three main areas of the study were to focus on 1/ Users and Uses, 2/
Structures and Standards, and 3/ Economics and Organization.  She
explained that her main focus has been on the economic and human
resources aspects of the problem and determining where the workforce
will come from to deal with the bibliographic future.   The report is
due in November 2007 and the deadline for input from the Library
community to the Working Group will be on July 15, 2007.  The website
for the Working Group is  http://www.loc.gov/bibliographic-future. RDA
(Resource Description and Access) is the future direction of cataloging
that will succeed the old AACR2 (Anglo American Cataloging Rules #2).  

 

WEB JUNCTION (OCLC) PROGRAM AND RECEPTION:  OCLC (Online Computer
Library Center of Dublin, Ohio) provided an excellent reception for the
users of their Web Junction service.  Web Junction serves as the host
for PUBLIB as well as other important Library communication services.
This reception was well attended and featured an appearance by OCLC CEO
Jay Jordan.  

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20070709/6e73da57/attachment.htm