Council III Ends Final Session Early

January 24, 2012

In a session that ended nearly two hours early Tuesday, Council III took action on measures that covered such issues as the refusal of some publishers to sell ebooks to libraries and the threat to intellectual freedom in the Mexican American Studies Program of the Tucson (Ariz.) Unified School District.

After three votes, a series of defeated amendments, and a bit of discussion, Council passed a revised measure in opposition to any policies of publishers and distributors that adversely impact access to e-content by library users and directs the Digital Content and Libraries Working Group to review the situation and recommend appropriate action offered by New Jersey Chapter Councilor Cynthia Czesak and Councilors-at-large Mario Gonzalez and Valerie Bell (Council Document #35 revised).

Recent news reports highlighting the removal of educational materials in connection with the elimination of Mexican-American studies classes in the Tucson Unified School District promoted a resolution from the Intellectual Freedom Committee, supported by other ALA groups that included all five ethnic caucuses, that condemns the suppression of open inquiry and free expression caused by closure of ethnic and cultural studies programs on the basis of partisan or doctrinal disapproval (CD#19.1 revised). It also condemns the confiscation and restriction of access to educational materials associated with ethnic and cultural studies programs and urges the Arizona legislature to pass HB 2654.

Approval was also granted for three Committee on Legislation measures that oppose the Research Works Act (CD#20.1) and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 and the Stop Online Piracy Act (CD#20.2), and on the loss of crucial government information (CD#20.3).

Council elected three new members to the Executive Board (CD#11): Robert (Bob) Banks, chief operating officer, Topeka and Shawnee County (Kans.) Public Library; Alexia I. Hudson, reference and instruction librarian, Pennsylvania State University, Abington College; and John A. Moorman, director, Williamsburg (Va.) Regional Library.

Memorial resolutions were passed for Dorothy M. Broderick, D. Whitney Coe, John Minto Dawson, and Robert W. Houk. Tribute resolutions honored Jill Nishi, Lois Ann Gregory-Wood, Maryellen Trautman, William J. Boarman, and Norman A. Sugarman.

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On December 9, ALA announced a $25 million bequest by James W. Lewis, of Washington, D.C. The gift, the largest individual bequest in ALA’s history, will fund scholarships for aspiring librarians with demonstrated financial needs. Throughout Lewis’s career at Merrill Lynch, where he leads the Lewis Group as senior vice president and senior relationship manager, he has demonstrated his commitment to libraries and their communities by generously volunteering his time, including as a member of the Board of Visitors at the library of his alma mater, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He also served as a Library Trustee Board member at District of Columbia Public Library for 10 years.”

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Council III Ends Final Session Early

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