As the new calendar year begins, I am carrying that optimism forward. We are approximately one-third of the way through the American Library Association’s (ALA) fiscal year, which runs from September 1, 2022, to August 31. The most uncertain days of the pandemic seem to be behind us. Like many of our libraries and, indeed, many … Continue reading ALA Finances on Track
In this fourth and final column introducing ALA’s newly implemented five-year strategic plan, I want to mine the connection between creating institutional belonging and facilitating the change management critical to organizational sustainability and impact. The first of these begets the second. In addition to the overarching goals of the new Pivot (or change management) Strategy, … Continue reading The Table and the Folding Chair
This is a critical area of focus for the American Library Association (ALA) and for the LIS community at large. This past year exposed digital access barriers such as expensive and low-quality broadband, the ongoing paucity of technology in the lowest-income households, and the overlap of limited reading skills and limited digital literacy. Left unchecked, … Continue reading Belonging as Technology
However, as we start 2022—and as my term as ALA treasurer winds down—I have much good news to share regarding ALA’s financial situation. First, the ALA Executive Board, Budget Analysis and Review Committee (BARC), and Finance and Audit (F&A) Subcommittee worked closely with ALA leadership to balance expenditures on the revenue base and adjust them … Continue reading Building ALA’s Future
Lately, however, we have faced mounting external pressures against those core ideals. To name just a few: barriers placed on equitable access, a persistent lack of diversity and equitable mobility in the US workforce, proliferating attacks against intellectual freedom with increased challenges to LGBTQIA and antiracist content, the pandemic’s disruption to education and employment, and … Continue reading Membership as a Movement
I visualize nkyinkyim’s lines moving one direction, then the opposite whenever I hear the word “pivot,” by now one of the most overused (and misused) terms bandied about since the start of the pandemic. For the LIS sector, where our mission is more important than ever despite changes in external conditions and internal resources, business … Continue reading The Pivot and the Path
