Council III Addresses Gun Violence

By George M. Eberhart | January 24, 2017

ALA President Julie B. Todaro called Council III to order at 9:32 a.m. on Tuesday, January 24.

Memorials were read for J. McRee “Mac” Elrod; Robert “Bob” Alan; Valerie Bross; Sandra “Sandy” Friedman Dolnick; Nettie B. Taylor; Ruth Gordon; John Shuler; Karen Avenick; Robert White; and Warren “Jim” Haas.

A tribute was offered to honor Emily Sheketoff for her service as executive director of the ALA Washington Office.

William “Bill” Sudduth, chair, presented the tellers report (CD#11.1): Patricia M. “Patty” Wong, Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, and Trevor A. Dawes were elected for three-year terms (2017–2020) to the ALA Executive Board. They will be seated at its fall meeting on October 27–29 in Chicago.

Pam Klipsch, chair of the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC), and Ann Dutton Ewbank, chair of the ALA Committee on Legislation (COL), submitted a revised resolution on gun violence affecting libraries, library workers, and library patrons (CD#42.1). A resolution had originally been passed at the ALA Membership Meeting during the 2016 Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. Council deferred action on the resolution and directed a joint COL/IFC working group to develop discussion drafts that ALA members could then comment on. The working group produced a consensus resolution (CD#42.1) to be submitted for Council approval. The revised resolution passed.

COL Chair Ann Dutton Ewbank and ASCLA Councilor Chris Corrigan requested that a resolution on a Deaf Cultural Digital Library be postponed indefinitely (CD#20, pages 9–10). COL and ASCLA both decided that the resolution was premature. The motion passed. Council then passed a motion to accept the COL report (CD#20).

IFC Chair Pam Klipsch presented her report (CD#19) that included revision of the form for reporting challenges to include hate crimes; six new library privacy checklists; a Q&A on makerspaces, media labs, and other forums for content creation in libraries; and guidelines to minimize the negative effects of internet content filters on intellectual freedom. A resolution on access to accurate information (CD#19.10) was amended upon a motion by Executive Board member Peter Hepburn to include “librarians and library workers of all types” in one resolved clause. The motion to amend passed, with the direction that further wordsmithing would be done by the ALA Executive Office to ensure consistent language. The motion to accept the IFC report as amended passed.

ALA Treasurer Susan Hildreth presented the treasurer’s report (CD#13.1), which includes the addition of “equity, diversity, and inclusion” as a fourth strategic direction for ALA (in addition to advocacy, information policy, and professional and leadership development). The motion passed.

Councilors Chris Corrigan and Mike Marlin submitted a report by the ALA Conference Accessibility Task Force (CD#37) as an information item.

ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels reported on the final registration totals for the Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta: 5,410 attendees, 2,916 exhibitors, and 669 complimentary passes, for a total of 8,995 registrants. This compares with 11,681 registrants for Boston in 2016 and 11,497 registrants for Chicago in 2015.

Council III adjourned at 10:57 a.m.

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