ALA Elections 2019 [edited]

ALA ballots are coming out. I received mine, and have started working through the list.

There is a great guide to the election with candidate statements on the ALA web site. It is a great looking booklet, with a great description of Council including some of the pertinent actions taken over the past few years.

http://www.ala.org/aboutala/sites/ala.org.aboutala/files/content/governance/alaelection/2019/elections-booklet-2019.pdf

There is a link on page 16 to the Council bio statements (PDF, 194 pages!):

http://www.ala.org/aboutala/sites/ala.org.aboutala/files/content/governance/alaelection/2017/All%20Councilor%20bios%202017..pdf

And there is an Excel workbook on the main election page:

http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/alaelection

Here is a link to Andromeda Yelton's wonderful Council Candidate Sorter. (She has been doing this for several years now ... maybe 5 years?) The code behind it on GitHub (which I only very moderately understand...)

http://thatandromeda.github.io/ala_candidate_filter/2019_ala_council.html

The results will be posted April 10, 2019 on that last link above.

ALA Elections - 2016 version

It is getting to be that time again. ALA Election time.

The good news could be that I am not running for anything this year. I have enough to do already. In June/July I become the President of a division (ASCLA).

Every year I have a couple of colleagues who ask for advice on making selections from the very long list of candidates for ALA Council. It is a long list! One of my friends has taken the list of ALA candidates and created a searching tool so you can create your own list of parameters as you decide for whom to vote.

Here is the link to what Andromeda Yelton has created: https://thatandromeda.github.io/ala_candidate_filter/2016_ala_council.html

Play around with it. See how it works for you. I might create a list this year, but then again I might not. Back in 2009 (that was after I left), the ALA Executive Board  set some campaign guidelines. As an "officer" within ALA, I received an email with the following noted:

Appointed committee chairs, or members of committees may endorse candidates and may use ALA electronic discussion lists to express their support for an individual candidate or candidates for ALA offices, as long as they do not use their official titles or create the impression that they are speaking on behalf of an ALA committee or unit of ALA. Candidates can list endorsers by name, but not by ALA title or office. Executive Board members shall not endorse any candidate in any American Library Association election.

I need to ponder more.

ALA Elections 2015 - Some Reflections

First of all, wow. It was an interesting election.

All of the results are posted on the ALA web site, here.

One of the documents that I particularly looked at was 2015 Election Response Rate by Ballot. With all the sections of divisions and all the round tables, there are 81 different ballots. (Yes, you read that right, 81!) Most people only get some of them. How many, depends on how much you pay in dues and how the particular division or round table is structured. What I was interested in was the participation rate.

Both for ALA as a whole (Ballot 0 - Officers), like in the local, state, and national elections, the turnout of voters is not always what we would like. It is usually lower. But, I am proud to say that the election in which I was a candidate had one of the highest participation rates.

My visual inspection (I could not quickly grab it an put it in Excel for sorting, but may try again) shows these as the top participation rate groups:

RMRT	56.06%
GLBTRT	38.67%
LearnRT	38.34%
ASCLA	33.66%
IFRT	33.62%
EMIERT	32.68%
SRRT	31.14%

This means that ASCLA was the only division with more than 30% participation. It is the smallest division (615 members eligible to vote). But it clearly reinforces my contention that it is the easiest to get involved in - I believe that the voting participation rate shows that.

ALA Elections 2015 - about me

Edited 5/11 - no part 2 or part 3!


If you have not received your ALA ballot, they are distributed over several days.

Some of you may have noticed my name out there. This went out to a discussion list a little bit ago:

ASCLA 2015 Elections are Approaching!
Please click on this link to view the following ASCLA members who will be running for election for ASCLA offices in the 2015 Elections. Please join me in thanking these members for agreeing to stand for election for an ASCLA office and be sure to vote in the Spring elections! Voting begins on March 24, 2015 through May 1, 2015 @ 11:59 PM CDT.

Because of my standing for election as Vice President/President-Elect of ASCLA. For those who do not know, ASCLA  is the Association for Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies, one of the divisions of the American Library Association.

It is the smallest of the ALA divisions. For more about ALA and ASCLA, visit the tab ALA 101 (on this blog).

So, here is what I said in my statement of professional concerns:

I have often recommended to new members of ALA to find a home in ALA with others whose work is like theirs. ASCLA has been ALA's smallest division and because of the small size, it is possible to get to know people and to become involved.

I did some simple analysis of recent membership trends, and plotting ASCLA's membership against ALA's membership shows that ASCLA has retained members better than ALA. That does not mean that we do not have to continue to work to recruit members, but it does show that ASCLA has value for ALA members. I have many contacts across the association, and want to leverage the knowledge those people have, to make ASCLA even more successful. Part of the perspective which I bring is from having been active in the larger organization. I believe that my experience, and contacts, will help position ASCLA for the future.

I ask for the vote for those of you who are ASCLA members.

I did stand for this office once before, in 2000. In that election, I was not successful. The difference was four (4) votes. In a way I was relieved. I changed jobs after agreeing to run, and it would not have been as good a fit as it is now. I also had a great deal less experience with ALA.

ALA 101 - Updates

Back in the day....(damn, I sound like a geezer), I posted a series of notes about ALA and its structure and governance. When I last changed format of the blog, I took the index to them and made it a "page."

Today, I updated that page to include a couple of new links. One is to a guide on the ALA web site which has some important definitions of terms, and the other is linked to a blog which aggregated some of the links commonly used by a Councilor.

Here is the link to the updated page: http://michaelgolrick.blogspot.com/p/ala-101.html

ALA Executive Board Elections

There has been a recent discussion on the ALA Council List about parts of the process for electing ALA Executive Board members. Anyone can read the postings. Go to the ALA List of discussion lists http://lists.ala.org/sympa and look under Governance for the Council list. Once you click on it, look for the box on the left side of the page for Archives, or look here for the threaded discussion.

As background, you may want to read Bobbi Newman's wonderful post The First Rule of ALA Executive Board is You Don’t Talk About ALA Executive Board. It gives all the foundational documents (and links) and some insight on her experience, which is more recent than mine. I highly recommend that you read the comments also, not just because I commented. Peggy Sullivan, who was both on the ALA EB as President and as Executive Director, offers some perspective as well.

In the comments I said a couple of things that I want to repeat for those who don't bother to go there:

I served on the ALA EB from 2003 – 2006, and started my blog most of the way through my term. I did talk some about being on the Board, and certainly on the blog have talked about service on Council. ...

One of the wonderful things that happened when I ran was that the six of us nominated by the Committee on Committees all went out to dinner at that Midwinter. It was a very congenial group. Two of those six were elected (the other person elected was nominated from the floor and could not join us for dinner). Of those not elected two were elected in later years.

One of the important points that Karen has raised, is the fact that it is easier to publish, even share, intentions today than it was. It is also true that there was (I am no longer a member of ALA Council, so I can't judge the current climate) a climate of this election being one of "standing for election" unlike for President, Treasurer, or even Council itself, of "running." After all, I have helped candidates with handing out flyers, talking up platform issues, even doing electronic mailings. I did so gladly when I felt that I could, and that it did not compromise my position.

[An aside: I spent my first two terms on Council as a Chapter Councilor. I perceived my role as that of representing my state, and of representing ALA to my state. For Presidential and Treasurer elections, I was (well, tried to be) as even-handed as I could. The only opinion I would offer would be a private one, privately. As a member of the Executive Board, I felt that I could not in good conscience campaign since I would wind up serving with the successful candidate, and if I had vocally backed the "other candidate" that would have felt awkward to me. That is a statement of why I acted the way I did. As a Councilor-at-Large, I did as I wished, and did publicly endorse and actively support candidates.]

A part of me agrees with the idea that there should be more discussion prior to Midwinter, and more opportunities to interact with the candidates. When I "stood" for election, I did not really stand still. I made it a point to talk to fellow Councilors at the reception (Midwinter only event) for new Councilors. I chatted with them before and after sessions, each meeting of the Council Forum/Caucus, at the Chapter Councilor meeting, at committee meetings, etc. I did ask those I knew to vote for me. As many know, I am usually vocal, and did not silence myself during the period. Today would be different.

There is also not always someone nominated from the floor. There was the year I was elected, and that person was one of the successful candidates.
 

ALA Elections - Part 3

I was handed an unexpected gift this morning. I was actually going to make ALA Elections - Part 3 a different topic (now it will be Part 4), and will do a list of endorsements for Council once I review the final list of candidates. Here is some info about the process.

• Elections open on Tuesday, March 19.  Between March 19 and March 21 all eligible members will be sent an email with voting instructions.  
• This year ALA is offering members the option to access the ballot by using their individual credentials and URL that will be contained in the email, or by going to the ALA website and using their ALA member ID.  
• When you have finished voting you will be able to download an “I Voted in the ALA Election” web badge that can then be affixed to your Facebook page, Twitter, email, or what have you!
• The election closes on Friday, April 26 with the results being announced on Friday, May 3.

There is an election guide on the ALA web site. That page includes links to all the Association-wide candidate pages, plus a link to a document with the bios of Council candidates.

Among other gems on that page is a list of the 2014 Nominating Committee (on which you can serve only once in your life). If you want to run for something, they are the folks to ask!

ALA Elections - Part 2 - President

I am enthusiastically supporting Courtney Young for ALA President in this election. I am excited about her candidacy. If elected she would become ALA's youngest President. Yet at the same time, she has built an incredible track record in the Association already.

Let me pause for a moment to talk about my history of public endorsements. For my first seven years of service on ALA Council I was the Connecticut Chapter Library Association. In that role, I worked to connect the state association with the national one, and worked to help the chapter members to become more active in their national association. In that role, I did not think it was appropriate to campaign for any candidate for ALA office (well, except when I was running). I then served three years on the ALA Executive Board. As one of those chosen from ALA Council to help govern the Association, it was not appropriate for me to choose one candidate over the other since I would be working with the winner, no matter who it was. Since then, I have actively worked for some ALA candidates.

As in many past years, there are two very good candidates for ALA President. My endorsement of Courtney does not diminish my respect (personal and professional) for her opponent.

Here are some of the reasons why I am supporting Courtney:

1. Courtney has vision and an understanding of where the Association needs to go.
2. Courtney has had leadership experience, particularly through the New Members Round Table which is an important source of engaging new librarians.
3. She has a great deal of background in the financial issues which will continue to be important in setting ALA's direction. (She has served on many of the same committees on which I have served.)
4. She is very articulate. As ALA President you never know what external event will shape your ALA President, and I am sure that Courtney will handle whatever comes her way with complete confidence and aplomb.

Here is a link to the debate held at ALA Midwinter. (Fair warning that it automatically plays...) Courtney is the first of the two ALA Presidential candidates to speak.

Finally, for Facebook fans (yes, I am powerless over Facebook, and my life there has become unmanageable), Courtney's campaign has a Facebook page. That is in addition to the traditional web page.

I have one final observation about ALA Presidential candidates. Usually the candidates are chosen to give some choice. Rarely is it male versus female (although that does happen). More often it is an ALA insider versus an outsider. In this case the insider is Courtney. I am supporting her because of this. An ALA President realistically has only a little more than 2 years to accomplish any specific goals. The winner of the election has the two months (or so) between the results being announced and Conference to get up and running. There is one year as President-Elect to set the stage, and one year as President to get something done. I have seen enough to realize that once the spotlight is off (as immediate Past President), not much new is accomplished on any specific goals. Some ALA leaders have effectively worked with their predecessors and successors to accomplish more than would be expected. And Courtney is one of those who will be able to do this because she understands both how important it is, and how to actually do it. With a short window, the insider has a much better chance of achieving results.

Please vote for Courtney.

ALA Elections - Part 1

ALA Midwinter is almost upon us. I will not be attending it this year. However, it is where a lot of the campaigning for ALA and Division offices takes place.

I'll be blogging about the candidates for ALA President in a separate post, as I have in past years. I'll also take a look at the Council candidates list.

I belong to several divisions, and recently received the issue of the newsletter listing the candidates. And, what a great crop of candidates! In this case the Division is the newest named division: United for Libraries.

First a bit of history. United for Libraries was formed by the merger of the ALA division ALTA -- Association for Library Trustees and Advocates which then became ALTAFF, Association for Library Trustees Advocates, Friends, and Foundations -- with the independent FOLUSA -- Friends of Libraries USA. Over the years I have belonged to one, the other, and occasionally both. The merger makes sense, but that is not the topic.

While on the ALA Executive Board, one of my liaison assignments was to what was then ALTA. I always enjoyed working with the wonderful folks who were working so hard to advocate for libraries.

This year, in addition to candidates for President and Secretary/Treasurer, UFL is electing a division councilor and board members. For the board positions, they are putting up only the number of candidates to fill the vacancies.

For what ALA Council does, see my (now old) post on ALA governance.

The candidates for Vice-President/President-Elect are both people I know and respect. It will be a hard choice for me. One candidate is Christine Hage who I know from activity on PUBLIB, ALA Council, and PLA. While it is not mentioned in the UFL write-up, my recollection is that she has served as PLA (Public Library Association) President. That experience would stand her in good stead in this position.The other candidate is someone whose skill I respect greatly. Peter Pearson is the President (i.e., "head honcho" or chief paid employee) for the Friends of the St. Paul (MN) Public Library. He has led the organization to be one of the premier public library support organizations. He was my inspiration when I was in Bridgeport (CT) and worked to help re-start the Friends group there. When I got to Eau Claire, I found that he had been very helpful in setting up and guiding that organization over the years.

The Division Councilor candidates include the incumbent, Susan Schmidt and Nann Blaine Hilyard. I can't claim to know Susan well, but I know that she has done a good job (based on electronic postings) in reporting to UFL. Nann is someone I know very well. She is very active on PUBLIB. That is where I first "met" her, and I think that we actually first met in person at a social event organized on that list. Since then, we both served on ALA Council together. We also served on the ALA Executive Board together.

For me, this will be a tough decision.

The other parts in this series, will include a discussion of ALA Council candidates as well as one posting about the ALA President campaign.

Post #501 - ALA Elections 2011

Wow....I have done 500 posts since July 2005.

ALA Ballots are out. In past years, some colleagues would ask my advice on voting choices. Here are mine for this year.

First, for ALA President, I am voting for Maureen Sullivan.

For ALA Council this is the year we will elect 34 Councilors. There is one vacancy, so the person who is 35th highest in votes will fill out a 2 year term. I commend:

• Diedre (Dee) Conkling
• Martin L. Garnar
• Charles E. Kratz*
• Diane R. Chen*
• Linda Mielke
• Matthew P. Ciszek
• John Carl Sandstrom
• Jenny Emanuel
• JP Porcaro
• J.Douglas (Doug) Archer
• Kate Kosturski
• Shirley Ann Bruursema
• Roberto Carlos Delgadillo
• Pamela C. Sieving
• Andrew K. Pace
• Margaret L. Kirkpatrick
• Em Claire Knowles*
• John DeSantis
• Bobbi L. Newman
• Bill Turner
• Patricia A. Wand
• Eric David Suess
• Mike L. Marlin
• Barbara K. Stripling*
• James K. Teliha
• Toni Negro
• Ed Garcia

*These folks are all former members of the ALA Executive Board, and bring a great deal of experience to the association.

Others on the list are folks who have served on Council, and whose work and opinions I respect. There are yet others who are newer to the profession, have started working their way up, and deserve the opportunity to participate in the governance of ALA. [This latter group includes: Bobbi L. Newman, Jenny Emanuel, Andrew K. Pace, JP Porcaro, and Kate Kosturski.]

I want to specifically note that Shirley Ann Bruursema is a Trustee, a group under-represented on Council, and she has served well as the ALTA/ALTAFF Division Councilor. I also want to note that Mike L. Marlin is a well-spoken advocate for special users of libraries, especially those with vision issues.

So...those are my recommendations.

LITA Kerfluffle

I love Karen Schneider. We first met electronically in the early days of PUBLIB. We then actually met in person at a conference, and worked together for a while on ALA Council. I have been reading her blog, Free Range Librarian, for as long as I have been reading blogs. She (along with Rochelle Hartman and Jessamyn West) was part of my inspiration to blog.

Karen has been involved in LITA and tech stuff for a while. She recently posted about ALA's Open Meeting Policy and the whole LITA Kerfluffle (thanks Karen Coombs for that term).

Karen S. was actually at the meeting in question. I was not. I was half-heartedly watching the tweets, and doing other things.

Now, I am a little bit of an ALA Policy Wonk. OK, I admit it. In the past {mumble} years I have not gone to an ALA meeting with out the Handbook in hand, and once pulled it out at lunch in a restaurant.

Post-ALA, I have poked and nudged a few of my friends in higher places about the implications of this very unfortunate scenario.

Karen gets it right, and is a very much better writer than I am. (After all, she does have an MFA in writing...) Here are a couple of quotes which eloquently sum up my take on the issue:

"...the Open Meeting policy has obviously been OBT (Overcome By Technology)." Actually, Karen was lobbying for webcasting the transcription of ALA Council meetings years ago.

"...the more you open your proceedings, the healthier your organization." This is part of why open meeting laws exist for governmental bodies as well.

This quote will not get immediate comment from me, but is strongly emphasized in her post:

ALA as a body needs to immediately point its wonkiest law-making committees at the “open meeting” question, and the response — which needs to happen no later than Annual 2011 — needs to be both informed by ALA values (such as our historical commitment to intellectual freedom) and by our urgent need to stop losing money.

I am all for that, and have done a little poking myself. "One warning to all is that as as rule, ALA committees tend to get focused on the idea that something needs to be made available to the entire association, BY the association, in a uniform manner. I’m all for authority control, but we need to let flowers bloom when they’re ready, and ease up on the argument that “we can’t afford it” because ALA, as an association, can’t personally put a camera in every meeting room. "

Thanks Karen for your (usual) eloquence.

New Technology, Open meetings? Not at LITA

I have seen some of this on Twitter, and on a blog, but I am very concerned about something that happened at ALA Midwinter.

Here is the tweet which caught my attention:

griffey I was requested, a motion was made, and the LITA Board of Directors voted to have me cease streaming and recording the Board Meeting.... 11:59 AM Jan 8th via HootSuite

Michelle Boule (Smith) posted about it on her blog, and I encourage you to read it and the comments. (14 comments at this writing, including one of mine.)

For those who are not familiar with ALA and its structure, LITA (Library & Information Technology Association) is a division of ALA. (Here is a brief discussion of ALA's divisions from my ALA 101 series.) For the business inclined, divisions are "wholly-owned subsidiaries" of ALA. Therefore all of ALA's policies apply to the divisions and their meetings.

The ALA Policies (7.4.4 for the governance geeks) require that all meetings of ALA and its units be open to members and the press. It is very simple, and very simply stated.

What happened? Well, Jason Giffey, on his own initiative and with his own equipment, started to stream and web-cast the LITA Board Meeting. Now, except when discussing "matters affecting the privacy of individuals or institutions" this meeting should have been open. If he had not been a Board member, and had just wandered into the meeting, he would have every right to record and stream the meeting. I would use as analogy of what would happen if a news report, or even citizen, walked into a City Council meeting. (It is the example which first occurred to me probably because of my extensive public sector experience.) It is a public meeting and the public has the right to know.

Jason backed down when the LITA Board got upset. A part of me respects his doing that since he is a Board member and needs to continue to work with the Board. However, another part of me is very sad that LITA took this stand.

LITA is supposed to include librarians on the cutting edge of technology. "Big ALA" has been wrestling with opening up governance and ALA Council meetings. Here was a chance for LITA to take the lead and show how it can be done, and done effectively, and at very little cost. They blew it.

Karen A. Coombs commented in a similar vein on the broader topic of the relationship between virtual and physical participants.

I heard the argument stated that the reason for shutting down the web-cast was that a consultant was presenting a report which was copyrighted. I say: BALDERDASH! If LITA hired a consultant to write a report, and based on what I know about standard ALA contracts, any copyright remains the property of the division -- as far as the consultant is concerned it is a "work for hire."

If Norman Horrocks were around, he is the one I would turn to first. I am going to urge my colleagues on the ALA Executive Board to look into this. I consider it an egregious violation of the ALA Open Meetings Policy.

Norman Horrocks

Norman Horrocks died in mid October.

I am still devastated about Norman's death.

How often do you find me speechless, never mind that Janet Swan Hill is also speechless?

Norman was, in every sense of the word, a gentleman. He was a man who was incredibly gentle and nice. While I cannot claim to know him incredibly well, I never saw him say a really cross word, and never, even when chastising me, did he not have a gentle look of kindness in his eyes.

I am not sure that I can pinpoint when I first met Norman, but I heard of him at the beginning of my career as a librarian. Perhaps because Michael Gorman taught my "Intro to Librarianship" course and it was around the time that Norman when to Scarecrow Press.

I do know, that when I first was being oriented to ALA Council (back in the mid 1990s), my predecessor as the Connecticut Library Association Chapter Councilor talked about him.

Early on, I made my presence known on ALA Council. (I was the one who used the phrase "core values" on the floor of Council in a debate about a resolution on outsourcing in Hawai'i which resulted in two task forces, and finally a policy.)

Norman was most kind in offering comments about wording and the process suggested.

Jessamyn West (one of my Web/Library 2.0 heroes) posted a great reflection on the man.

ALA Candidates - President, Treasurer, Council

ALA election ballots are about to go out. I have had a couple of requests to list the folks I would endorse for office.

I know and respect both of the ALA Presidential candidates. I have had the opportunity to work, and socialize with both of them over the years. I will be voting for Sara Kelly Johns. Sara's web site is here. Sara is a school librarian from upstate New York. She has been president of AASL, and is a very dynamic speaker. (I was also flattered that Sara called me very early on for advice.) Sara has been reaching out to other parts of the profession, and has served as a trustee for a public library in New York. Here is her response to the questions from the Public Library Association about the biggest challenges facing public libraries today.

For Treasurer, I am endorsing Jim Neal. Jim has been very involved with ALA finances over the years. I think he has vision and can articulate the important financial issues which ALA inevitably faces. He has a very simple web page which states his credentials.

The Council list is longer. Here are the folks I will be supporting:

1. Larry Romans (current Executive Board member and articulate member of Council)
2. Pam Sieving (Pam has been at-large and the RUSA Division Councilor)
3. Nann Blaine Hilyard (friend from PUBLIB, also served on Exec Board with me, been on Council several times)
4. Thaddeus Bejnar (former New Mexico Chapter Councilor, and former chair of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee)
5. Gladys Smiley Bell (former president of BCALA)
6. Matthew P. Ciszek (a friend on Facebook and Twitter)
7. Karen E. Downing (just finished her PhD)
8. Loida A. Garcia-Febo (president of REFORMA)
9. Sarah Smith (library school student at Simmons, who was persuaded to run at Midwinter in Boston - we need the voice of students in Council)
10. Janice Greenberg (Facebook friend)
    
11. Jason Griffey (blogger-extraordinaire)
    
12. Erlene Bishop Killeen (school librarian from Wisconsin, has a good level head)
    
13. Charles Kratz (current Exec Board member who also has a good perspective)
    
14. Mary Mallory (ASCLA colleague and advocate)
    
15. Bernard A. Margolis (New York State Librarian, even though he is not well at the moment, Bernie is an important voice)
    
16. Michael L. Marlin (ASCLA colleague and vocal advocate for people who are blind)
    
17. Melora Norman (public/academic librarian from Maine, former chair of COO)
    
18. M. A. (Peg) Oettinger (retired school librarian, now from Pennsylvania)
    
19. Michael Porter (Libraryman ... need I say more?)
    
20. Susan Roman (Dean at Dominican's library school, and former development staff at ALA)
    
21. Patrick Sweeney (up and coming California librarian)
    
22. Bill Turner (former DC Chapter Councilor, current chair of Resolutions Committee)
    
23. Patricia Wand (academic librarian who I got to know while working on the beginnings of ALA-APA, Pat is also a good thinker)
    
24. Larry Nash White (Library Educator and statistics guy)
    
25. Tom Wilding (at the U of Arizona library school, another good thinker from the origins of ALA-APA, Tom has also chaired committees)
    

That's my list!

Censorship and ALA program in Chicago

It really annoys me when folks who have absolutely no clue about how the American Library Association operates, leap to conclusions, and mis-state what happened.

My issues start with the Annoyed Librarian (who at least professes to be a librarian and an ALA member at an academic institution). The good thing about AL, is that he/she actually states most of the facts fairly correctly. And he/she is correct that "I doubt the ALA or the ALA Council will have much to say about this." But for the reason he/she is wrong.

First, this was a program organized and sponsored by a Round Table. Round Tables (as units within ALA) are among the looser of the kinds of units. They have no ability to speak for the organization, and at best can get ALA Council to act by getting the Round Table Councilor (or another of their members) to bring it up.

Second, the main reason why Council did not act is that there was nothing to do! What can you do if you invite a panel of people, and suddenly all but one quit! You no longer have a panel! (A panel of one?) What to do? I think the Round Table did the right thing and canceled the program.

The charges by folks like Steven Emerson are ridiculous. An ALA unit (part of a professional organization) is supposed to replace a panel discussion with a presentation by a single individual? I think not!

Then there is Dan Kleinman who runs a web site and blog alleging to be "Safe Libraries" but who has been on a long campaign against freedom of speech in public libraries. In his blog, he shows his complete lack of understanding about conferences and how they are organized by challenging "the ALA to include Robert Spencer in next year's panel."

[Side note: In the library world you can usually tell when someone does not like or understand ALA because it is "the ALA" rather than just "ALA" for me it is a red flag -- almost every time!]

What is most interesting is that the speaker who did not cancel has written a much more even handed treatment of the incident. While Robert Spencer does not explicitly accuse ALA of censorship, he does take a little jab. It seems that he is more interested in being heard than in denigrating an organization which actually invited him to speak.

ALA Council -- What's up?

Here we are, about a month away from the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. [I consciously chose not to link. I hate the way ALA Conference web sites are set up.]

The ALA Council list has been incredibly quiet, and free of content.

Interestingly the two most recent "hot topics" were about whether documents would be posted to the Council list or we had to go to ALA Connect to find them and a discussion about loyalty oaths brought about when a councilor found a 1950s era resolution on the topic.

[Geezer alert] I remember the day when the Council list [ALACOUN] was a very high traffic list with lots of posts and discussion of issues being raised before coming to the floor of Council. That has changed dramatically. I am unsure of the reason why, but I have a "gut feeling" that some of it has to do with the shorter terms. One point that proponents of shorter terms made was about having an opportunity for "new blood." Well, it seems we have had that, and the folks now elected are not nearly as vocal as those in the past.

Some of you who read this are my constituents (since I am a Councilor-at-Large). I welcome, indeed solicit, input. I will continue to speak out when I feel a need, but if there are burning issues, let me know.

Judith Krug: Tribute and Thoughts

Many folks have written about the death of Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) Director Judy Krug. I won't even point to the wonderful articles in the New York Times and Washington Post. There is a somewhat incomplete article in Wikipedia (my recollection is that it used to be fuller, and had a photo!). There are some wonderful quotes in Wikiquotes, though. Most of them I can mentally hear Judy say!

She was a staunch supporter of the first amendment to the US Constitution which includes "free speech" as a core value of life in the United States.

I had heard of Judy for years before I ever met her when I became an ALA Councilor. However, from then on I learned to listen carefully to what she said, and to respect her incredible commitment to a value which is important to me.

I was not going post on this until I read John Berry III's recent Blatant Berry post (which I am expecting to see in the print version of Library Journal. He has followed that up with a shorter post that is pure tribute and expresses the need to have the ALA OIF headed by a librarian. The longer post says some of the things I would have about Judith. However, John (and yes, I know him in person), has lost what made Judy so critically important in defending the First Ammendment. Let me quote the third to last and the penultimate paragraphs:

The new chief of OIF and FTRF must be a consolidator, a diplomat, and a lobbyist of high skill. This IF leader must not only defend ALA’s IF apparatus but manage its continued evolution in an environment of easy technological access to information, where censorship is often practiced not by removal of information but by its online manipulation. Beyond that, innovations like Google Book Search pose new challenges. The new leader must possess the legal, political, and moral fiber to outmaneuver the opponents of free inquiry and individual privacy in the courts, the marketplace, and the civic community.

Just as important, the new leader of OIF must face the longstanding gap between our principles and our practice. This gap comes in part from transposing policies born in the print age, such as providing open access to all library materials for juveniles, and the difficulty of allowing unrestricted use of public access computer terminals.

The first of the two above paragraphs hits the nail on the head. The next leader of the OIF must be incredibly tactful, articulate, visionary, and politically skilled. Where I take issue with John Berry is the second of the two paragraphs above. In a country (and profession) which is as large and diverse as ours, there will always be differences. These will include places where there is a gap between principles and practice. But, just because there are gaps does not mean that on a "core value" issue such as this, we should be any less diligent in expressing our views. Policies (in public libraries) are generally made by appointed or elected boards. In an age of technological change there will be a lag in having the policies (created in an earlier enviornment) matching the new environment.

The next head of the OIF *must* continue to express unqualified support for all that the First Ammendment stands for. To do anything less will allow us to slide down a slippery slope.

Running for ALA Council

I have not seen the final list of candidates yet for the ALA Council election this spring, but I am on that list. Please vote for me.

You will get lots of votes (if you are an ALA Member), and another one of the candidates has posted a video to a new-to-me web video service, blip tv. First a link to the video, and then here it is embedded:





More discussions on ALA Council and elections to follow.

ALA Council - What is it all about

This was shown at ALA Midwinter, and has now been posted on YouTube



I know all the players.....I recommend watching if you want to know more about serving on Council. The list of candidates for this year will be out shortly! It is too late to get on the ballot this year (by ALA Bylaws, petitions need to be in by January 30.) There is always next year.

I am running this year, please vote for me.

ALA Presidential Candidates

It is that time of year again! The ALA Nominating Committee has chosen Kent Oliver and Roberta Stevens to run for ALA President.

I am strongly endorsing Kent for President.

Kent was the Kansas Chapter Councilor when I first joined Council. He was an incredible mentor to me in my early years. He also co-convened what was then called the Council Caucus. In that role he was also a role model for organizing the group, and an excellent example of fairness and listening. He encouraged/cajoled me into following in his footsteps in that group as well.

While Kent is no longer in Kansas (he got a great job in Ohio), I know that one of the things he brings to his ALA roles is the importance of the Chapters (state associations) and the critical relationship between ALA and the Chapters. Sometimes this relationship is strained when ALA leaders forget about or do not understand the local situations.

Kent ably served as the chair of ALA's Intellectual Freedom Committee for four years. It is a tremendous vote of confidence to have four successive ALA Presidents appoint you to chair this very important committee.

Please support Kent. I expect that he will have events at ALA Midwinter, or you can visit his web site. There is also Kent's personal page on FaceBook (feel free to be his friend) and the Campaign's page on Facebook.