Council II: Addressing Priorities

By Amy Carlton | January 11, 2016

Council II discusses FY 2017 Programmatic Priorities. Photo courtesy of Lauren Pressley

ALA President Sari Feldman called the Council II meeting to order at 10:02 a.m. on January 11.

Vicky Crone, chair of the Policy Monitoring Committee, presented their report (CD#17) and requested approval to separate Policy B.2.1.7 Labeling and Rating Systems into two new interpretations (Labeling Systems, CD#19.4, and Rating Systems CD#19.5). The motion passed.

Andrew Pace gave the report for the Committee on Organization (COO), in place of committee chair Susan Considine (CD#27). The committee recommended changing the name of the Office of Literacy and Outreach Services Advisory Committee to the Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services Advisory Committee to match the name of the corresponding ALA office. The motion passed.

COO also proposed that Council formally designate a dean/director position on the ALA Committee on Accreditation. This motion also passed.

Leslie B. Burger, chair of the International Relations Committee (CD#18), reported on the committee’s meeting with IFLA president Donna Scheeder and encouraged councilors to attend the IFLA conference in Columbus in August. Other initiatives of the committee include the recent Sharjah Book Fair in the United Arab Emirates, the German Library Conference coming this March, and the Havana Book Fair next month in Cuba.

James R. Rettig, chair of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, sought approval of the application of the Joint Council of the Librarians of Color to become an affiliate of the ALA (CD#25). The motion passed.

Freedom to Read Foundation (FRTF) President Julius C. Jefferson Jr. (CD#22), discussed several legal cases the foundation is following, including US v. Moalin, Wikimedia v. NSA, and Antigone Books v. Horne. He also introduced FRTF’s new director James LaRue, who started January 4.

ALA Treasurer Mario Gonzáles presented the FY 2017 Programmatic Priorities (CD#13.1) to develop the budget for fiscal year 2017. The three strategic directions for 2017 are Advocacy, Information Policy, and Professional and Leadership Development. The motion passed overwhelmingly.

Resolutions concerning accessibility of ALA conferences and meetings for people with disabilities and replacing the Library of Congress subject heading “illegal aliens” with “undocumented immigrants” were deferred until Council III on Tuesday.

ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels reported there were 7,128 attendees and 3,608 exhibitors, for a total of 10,736 total registrants; 10,568 attended Midwinter in Chicago in 2015.

President Feldman adjourned the meeting early at 10:40 a.m.

Tagged Under

Alison Griffin (middle), Vancouver, Canada, looks at books in the exhibit hall along with other attendees.

11h

Katie Gaddini writes: “Book bans may have mushroomed in the Trump era of reactionary politics, but they have a well-established history in America. One woman in particular, Norma Gabler, redefined the current strategy and logic behind modern book bans. Called ‘education’s public enemy number one,’ by critics in 1980, Gabler led the crusade against the so-called secular trend in school textbooks throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Even though Norma and her husband Mel worked together, Norma was the public face of their efforts for decades.”

Time: Made By History, Nov. 13
14h

Many members know Bill Ladewski as executive director of the Reference and User Services Association, an ALA position he has held since 2019. In early September, Ladewski added another title to his CV: director of Member Relations and Services. In this role, he and his team are charged with providing service and information to the Association’s nearly 50,000 members. Ladewski answered our 11 Questions to reintroduce himself to the ALA community.

AL: The Scoop, Nov. 19
1d

John Warner writes: “I understand what people mean when they invoke the term ‘institutional neutrality,’ but I don’t know how it’s workable in today’s world. Higher education institutions are built upon a foundation of actual values, values that are, by definition, not neutral. The Kalven report, the Rosetta Stone of institutional neutrality produced by a faculty committee at the University of Chicago in 1967, is not a call to make all work emanating from an institution ‘neutral,’ but is instead a call to make the atmosphere for scholarly inquiry and debate as free as possible.”

Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 15
2d

Angela Hursh writes: “Ever wondered how your library’s email performance compares to others? Benchmarks help you understand how well your emails perform in key areas and identify opportunities for improvement. They also allow you to compare your email marketing performance, set goals, and stay on top of trends. However, the lack of industry benchmarks for email marketing metrics specific to libraries has been bugging me. Metrics from similar industries don’t fully capture the unique aspects of promoting a library. To help libraries accurately measure their email effectiveness, we’ve created the first-ever library email benchmark report.”

NoveList, Oct. 22
2d

Rachel Hendrick writes: “Students and library vendors are pushing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption in higher education, but there are very few resources that help librarians and scholars separate the wheat from the chaff. Luckily, we here at Choice love a good assessment rubric. (In fact, we made a PDF of our assessment rubric.) Even the least tech-savvy of us can use a very simple AI literacy framework to think critically about whether an AI application is worth your time.”

Choice 360 LibTech Insights, Nov. 13
3d

Rowana Miller writes: “In my experience, many young library-goers identify as storytellers but not writers. These are the kids who draw Captain-Underpants-style cartoons, who craft meticulous Minecraft universes, and who plot elaborate Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, but who believe that ‘writing’ is limited to five-paragraph essays. But when children draw the connections between their natural storytelling proclivities and the written word, they can become self-motivated to develop the communication skills that will help them for the rest of their lives. Libraries, I believe, are uniquely positioned to help children make this connection.”

ALSC Blog, Nov. 15
3d

ALA has reopened its search for an executive director in partnership with executive search firm Isaacson, Miller. A committee of ALA member leaders will oversee the search. The selected candidate will succeed Interim Executive Director Leslie Burger, who was appointed in November 2023. “We are excited to embark on our search for a new executive director,” said ALA President Cindy Hohl. “This leadership position is critical as we navigate the years ahead. We seek candidates who have knowledge of the library community and the urgent issues we face.”

ALA Communications, Marketing, and Media Relations Office, Nov. 14