LLA Opening General Session

The program began with remarks by Melanie Sims (LLA President). She thanked the sponsors and those who produced the conference. She introduced Jim Lorenz, Chief Administrative Officer for East Baton Rouge Parish and representative of Mayor-President Kip Holden. He made the usual comments about libraries and having a special place in his heart growing up in Alexandria. He ended by talking about our attendance at the conference with a joke, “keep spending your money here, we need the sales tax revenue.” He then read the proclamation declaring March 8-12 Louisiana Library Association Week.

Melanie the introduced board and mentioned the display in the lobby in memory of Sallie Farrell. ALA Chapter Councilor Stephanie Braunstein read the ALA Memorial Resolution.

Melanie then introduced Camila Alire (ALA President). [Disclosure, I have known Camila for about 15 years. We began on ALA Council as Chapter Councilors at the same time.]

Camila started by noting that she has eaten all over the world, but she had her best meal at Juban’s in Baton Rouge. She also noted that the ALA Annual Conference will be in New Orleans in 2011. As ALA President she has two initiatives, the one she talked about today is the main one. There was a great all day workshop yesterday with good attendance and covering the advocacy topic in detail. Below are some notes based on her talk and slides.

Advocacy from the front lines.

What is advocacy – active support of a cause or course of action (or supporting a group or person).

Traditional types of advocacy: legislative where library administrators, trustees, friends, and general public (library users primarily). Spokane Moms for school libraries in Washington state. Frontline advocacy includes librarians and library support staff (not administrators).
Two simple concepts: be able to articulate the value of our libraries [story about talking with NMLA members who had two reactions: “deer in headlights” not my job; my director will not allow that]; value as library employees. i.e. what can the library do for you.

Need staff to serve as connectors and talk with everyday users. Talk about what the library has. These new users will become the grassroots folks who will speak to support the needs of the library.

Camila used as an example, the University of New Mexico Library's quest to increase their base budget for library materials. They were successful, ultimately, by enlisting staff to advocate with their user groups.

Should everyone be involved in frontline advocacy? Yes, as long as the staff are working at their own comfort level. Level I: Based on title/responsibilities; Level II: other librarians and library staff.
Build a team: determine the extent of frontline staff involvement; involve librarians and library staff in brainstorming/messaging.
Empowering staff: match message with venues and delivery methods; provide scripts and/or “cheat sheets” (i.e. talking points or visuals); work with staff for input on process and delivery; staff members deliver the message; meet to assess outcomes.

Library Advocacy? It’s everybody’s job!

At the end, she said “Anyone who thinks they are too small to be effective….has never been in bed with a mosquito!”

ALA web site with tool kits

Finally she answered two questions. The first was about the timing and remaining work on the ALA strategic plan. The second was about what she what to do if school principal will not release funds for books and magazines what to do… The latter was an interesting situational discussion. The first will be covered in a separate post.

The opening general session ended with two book cart drill teams. The first was the Ouachita Girls whose theme involved the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints. The second performance by East Baton Rouge Dewey Deci-Belles with a theme which promotes the Big Read book (this year, The Great Gatsby).

YouTube videos have been posted:

1. Ouachita
2. East Baton Rouge
   

ALA Elections are HERE

This is the first of two posts on the topic.

First, don't forget to vote on the By-Laws amendment, and please vote yes! The language is more general, and more accurately reflects reality.

Second, vote for Camila Alire! I noted earlier some of the reasons I am supporting Camila. (And if you click on the Camila Alire label, you can see all of the posts!)

Later today, or tomorrow, I will be posting about ALA Council Candidates.

ALA Elections are coming!

I received the email last week which said:

In preparation for the 2008 election, ALA is testing all email addresses for assurance that web balloting material will be properly received. All Web voters will receive ballots between March 17 and March 19, 2008, in a 48-hour e-mail blast.

I guess that means that it is time to look at the Council list.

At the end of the month, the Public Library Association will have its biennial national conference in Minneapolis. I expect to see both ALA Presidential Candidates there. Remember I am supporting Camila Alire!

ALA Presidential Candidate and Grassroots Advocacy

My friend Camila Alire is running for ALA President. (I know I posted about this here.)

Camila has been thinking about the issue of school libraries and librarians with the situation in Washington State uppermost in her mind. She recently posted some of her thoughts about the grassroots advocacy on her blog. However, they are important enough that I am going to (with her permission) reprint them here.

I use the term grassroots particularly when I refer to library advocacy. But, I never knew the origin of the term. I assumed, correctly, that it had to something to do with grass and its roots. That was about all the assumptions I could make. So, I went online to find more about the origins of the term. Voila, I found what I was looking for. On Answers.com, grassroots is described as getting beneath the grass and its soil to the roots which are vital in keeping the grass alive, thriving, and green.

This made perfectly good sense to me and fits into the whole concept of grassroots library advocacy. The grassroots effort goes beyond our organized political system. It starts back home. I call it back home advocacy. Case in point is the growing grassroots movement in Spokane, Washington, where three mothers refused to accept the cutting of certified school librarians from the school libraries in the Spokane school district due to budget cuts.

These three moms started the Washington Coalition for School Libraries and Information Technology – WSLit (www.fundourfuturewashington.org ) They are the roots embedded in the soil of their children’s educational success. This group of women, joined by others, have lobbied their state legislators for the introduction of Senate Bill 6380 (House Bill 2773) which would provide Washington school districts with the funding for certified school librarians based on the size of the school districts as one of the components of legislation. Sound familiar? This is somewhat similar to the SKILLS Act that we in ALA have been lobbying for with our U.S. Congress. (The two bills also include allocating $12 per student for school library materials budget.)

This past Friday, the Coalition held a summit – the Washington School Library Media Program Summit – and rally in Olympia, Washington’s state capitol. ALA was well-represented by President Loriene Roy, AASL President, Sara Johns, and Julie Walker, AASL Executive Director, Julie Walker. The event was to garner more support for their grassroots efforts on behalf of school libraries.

As an ALA presidential candidate, I maintain that grassroots library advocacy goes hand-in-hand with back home advocacy. My back home advocacy has two purposes. The first is to engage library supporters at the grassroots level to raise the awareness level of the value of libraries and library employees. These roots include parents, patrons, trustees, students, faculty, frontline librarians/library staff, and library administrators. The second purpose is to implement a nationwide Back Home Advocacy Day at the local level in August when both our state and federal legislators are “back home” in their legislative districts.

Let the Washington Coalition’s roots spread to other states to get organized in efforts to put certified school librarians back in school libraries and to fund school library materials budgets more responsibly. As your ALA president, I would not only support the spreading of the roots for support of school libraries but I would also use this grassroots effort as an excellent model for organizing and implementing a systematic Back Home Advocacy Day.

ALA Presidential Candidates Forum

About 100 people are here listening to the candidates debate. First to speak is my friend (and the candidate I support) Camila Alire. Her theme is "Vision, Vitality, and Voice."

Among other proposals is for an "At Home ALA Legislative Day" to have coordinated visits to legislators while they are home.

Good salaries and better salaries are on her agenda, including our ability to advocate for ourselves. Camila is committed to diversity (and was president of REFORMA a number of years ago). Equity of Access is on her list. Literacy skills are critical.

Camila is incredibly vivacious and the vitality part of her platform rings personally true.

Linda Williams is a school librarian from Maryland and is someone I know and like. Libraries are our foundation and our future is her theme. Equity of Access is an important goal. (She mentioned speaking with one voice (which can be a sensitive topic in ALA!) She will work to break down the "silos" in ALA. (A good idea!)

She did focus on the closing of school libraries and the fact that 40% of schools do not have library professionals.

We need to engage more members in the association. She referred to an ASAE book which addresses the needs of younger members of the profession. She wants ALA to use Web 2.0 skills to engage members of the Association.

Dr. Ruth Gordon asked the first question. Which was a multipart question and included a reference to ALA's "third rail," the Operating Agreement.

Leonard Kniffel, editor of the American Libraries, talked about the various ways that AL will distribute the statements and question and answers in several ways. His question was about bi-lingual education. (And there is not much difference between the two candidates on this issue.

[I am going back to the PLA Board, having "shown the flag" at the forum.]

Camila Alire for ALA President

Here is why I am supporting Camila for ALA President, her most recent post called UPS and ALA. Given that the current President-Elect, Jim Rettig, has expressed similar thoughts about the need to change the profession.

Now, this is not to say anything bad about J. Linda Williams (the other candidate) with whom I have worked in ALA.

In any case, if you are an ALA member, please vote.