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.

ALA's Call for Committee Volunteers

Have you ever wanted to serve on an ALA Committee? Well, now is the time to get your name in for committee appointments which begin after ALA Annual in Anaheim. Most member are appointments for two years, and chairs are appointed for one year as chair (and may or may not already be members of that committee).

So....what committees are included? Well ALA has a page listing all the association-wide committees. There are two kinds of committees: Council and Association. The only difference is who decides. The Committee on Committees (elected by Council from its membership) appoints to the Council committees. The Committee on Appointments appoints the other committees. The Committee on Appointments is made up of the President-Elect of each division. You can fill out one form for both committees at once, and it is now an interactive form. Here is the text of the email which has begun to make the rounds:

ALA President-Elect Jim Rettig is seeking applications and nominations for appointments to 2008-2009 ALA and Council committees.

He will fill slots on the following committees: Accreditation; American Libraries Advisory; Awards; Budget Analysis and Review; Chapter Relations; Conference; Constitution and Bylaws; Council Orientation; Diversity; Education; Election; Human Resource Development and Recruitment Advisory; Information Technology Policy Advisory; Intellectual Freedom; International Relations; Legislation; Literacy; Literacy and Outreach Services Advisory; Membership; Membership Meetings; Nominating (Deadline for Nominating Committee applications is September 1, 2007); Organization; Orientation, Training, and Leadership Development; Policy Monitoring (current Council members only); Professional Ethics; Public and Cultural Programs Advisory; Public Awareness; Publishing; Research and Statistics; Resolutions; Rural, Native and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds; Scholarships and Study Grants; Status of Women in Librarianship; Website Advisory; ALA-Children's Book Council (Joint); ALA-Association of American Publishers (Joint) and ALA-Society of American Archivists-American Association of Museums (Joint). Committee charges can be found in the ALA Handbook of Organization.

All applicants must complete and submit the electronic 2008-2009 ALA Committee Volunteer Form. The form is available on the ALA web site. The deadline for submission of committee volunteer applications and nominations is Monday, December 3, 2007, which the exception of the Nominating Committee, with is September 1, 2007.

Geographical location, type of library, gender, ethnicity, previous committee work (not necessarily with ALA), ALA and related experience, and other factors are considered when the committee slates are compiled in order to ensure broad representation and diversity on all committees. The ALA Committee on Committees and Committee on Appointments will assist ALA President-Elect Jim Rettig in making appointments. Committee appointees will receive appointment letters after the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, PA. Appointees will begin their committee service after the 2008 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA.

Questions concerning appointments can be directed to ALA President-Elect Jim Rettig at jrettig@richmond.edu or Lois Ann Gregory-Wood, Council Secretariat, at lgregory@ala.org

Go for it. If you don't ask, you don't get!

ALA Nominating Committee

My friend ALA President-Elect Jim Rettig posted about the ALA Nominating Committee. It is so important that I not only provided the link to his post, but am re-posting the message below:

The ALA 2008 Nominating Committee is soliciting nominees to run on the 2008 spring ballot for Councilor-at-large. The Councilors-at-large will serve three-year terms, beginning after the 2008 ALA Annual Conference and ending at the adjournment of the 2011 Annual Conference. Members who wish to make nominations should submit the followingi nformation: nominee name present position institution address telephone fax and e-mail address. Self-nominations are encouraged. All potential nominees must complete the Potential Candidate Biographical Form. Nominations and forms must be received no later than September 1, 2007. Nominations may be sent to any member of the 2008 Nominating Committee. Committee members are:

W. Lee Hisle, Chair
Vice President of Information Services & Librarian of College
Connecticut College
E-mail: wlhis@conncoll.edu

Nancy Bolt
Nancy Bolt & Associates
Golden, CO
E-mail: nancybolt@earthlink.net

Tyrone Heath Cannon
Library Dean
University of San Francisco
E-mail: cannont@usfca.edu

Jon E. Cawthorne
Associate Dean
San Diego State University
E-mail:jcawthor@rohan.sdsu.edu

Alma Dawson
Professor
Louisiana State University
E-mail: notaed@lsu.edu

Karen E. Downing
Foundation and Grants Librarian
University of Michigan
E-mail: kdown@umich.edu

Loida A. Garcia-Febo
Asst. Coordinator, Special Services
Queens Library, Jamaica, NY
E-mail: loida.garcia-febo@queenslibrary.org

Dale H. Ross
Trustee, Ames [IA] Public Library
E-mail:dross24704@aol.com

Jennifer A. Younger
Edward H. Arnold Director of University Libraries
University of Notre Dame, IN
E-mail:Jennifer.A.Younger.1@nd.edu

To encourage diversity and leadership development, the Committee will refrain from nominating current Councilors for election to another term. However, the Committee encourages all current Councilors who wish to continue their service to the Association to file as petition candidates. Petitions will be available from Lois Ann Gregory-Wood, Council Secretariat, ALA, 50 E. Huron, Chicago, IL 60611, Email: lgregory@ala.org, or during the 2008 Midwinter Meeting. Petitions require 25 signatures of current ALA members.

One of the more interesting things about the ALA Nominating Committee is that, in the course of your ALA career, you can only serve ONCE, lifetime, on this committee. It scares me to recognize so many names over the last several years!

Rettig for ALA President

I have previously noted my endorsement of Jim Rettig for ALA President. I received the test email from the ALA election company, so you know that the ballot blast will be soon. The email said over a 48 hour period beginning on March 15.

I was reading through my aggregated blog feeds and was pleased to find that Michael Stephens has endorsed Jim. He says some great things, including transcribing some of Jim's answer on Library 2.0 and ALA. He has also noted that Jim has been blogging since last summer at The Twilight Librarian.

More will follow.

Our next ALA President? [Post 200!]

I haven't mentioned much about the ALA Presidential Campaign this year. It is the first time I have been in a position where I felt I could actively campaign for a candidate. For my first seven years on ALA Council I was the Connecticut Chapter Councilor, and I felt that an important part of my role was to promote ALA, and get information from all the candidates to my constituents, the librarians of Connecticut. For the past three years I was on the ALA Executive Board. Since the winner of the election would join me on that body, if I actively campaigned for the person who did not win, I was concerned that might affect the working relationship needed to get the best results for ALA.

This year is different, and I am actively supporting Jim Rettig for President. I will do a later post with more reasons to support Jim, but his post about pending state legislation on Twilight Librarian (his personal blog) demonstrates his thoughtful and articulate nature as well as his willingness to speak up. I believe he will be a truly GREAT ALA President.

In a final personal note, this is the 200th post on this blog. Who would have thought that I would have gotten this far. Thanks to Rochelle and Jessamyn who both helped me get started.