Associations

ALA's Citywide Meeting Q&A Tool Enlightens Attendees

Blake — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:39:57 -0400

A Report From meetingnews.com on the ALA. The association's use of new technology is part of a closer integration between its membership services and meetings teams, designed to bring the most value of an event to both members and non-member attendees.

Oregon Library Association versus Pacific Northwest Library Association

StephenK — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:06:14 -0500

Recently the dispute between the Oregon Library Association and the Pacific Northwest Library Association had some new life breathed into it through at least one posting I caught over on LISWire. I've read through what Samantha Hines, PNLA President, has written as well as the statement of reasons by OLA relative to withdrawal as well as the PNLA response to OLA. A quite valid question that could be asked is if said situation will be discussed on LISTen: An LISNews.org Podcast.

Nope.

Separatism within regional structures is a painful thing without a doubt. Just as divorce happens within human couples, this is essentially a divorce between two legal entities. Just as every single divorce is not given more than perhaps just passing mention in a newspaper's "legal news" section, this has not seemed to have risen to the level of frankly an interesting story. That it has dragged on since October 2009 with only occasional statements being issued infrequently by either side casts it either in the light of not being too worrisome of a concern or otherwise too far outside the usual weekly production cycle of the podcast.

I hope that both sides reconcile and come to a suitable peace either between them or through reintegration.

ALA Secrets lives

Anonymous Patron — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:12:24 -0500

http://alasecrets.com/

Transcript of ALA Attack on Few Groups that Oppose the ALA

SafeLibraries — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 03:53:24 -0500

A transcript of an ALA attack on some of the few groups that criticize it is available at "ALA Chills Free Exercise of Democracy by Publicly Attacking Mom and Pop Groups Who Dare to Oppose ALA Influence That Endangers Children."

Favorite part:

Deborah Caldwell-Stone says, "There are several other Internet-based library censorship advocates across the country. These include Family Friendly Libraries; Library Patrons of Montgomery County, Texas; Grassroots American Values; Pure Pioneers, and a group called Know Your Library. Now, these groups appear to share information and tactics." Share tactics? The ALA holds seminars on sharing tactics but refused to allow me to attend! And a few mom and pops around the country are evil for "sharing information and tactics"? Did the "Office for Intellectual Freedom" really say that? Is the OIF's interest in intellectual freedom credible? No.

This is the story of a struggling librarian from Uganda

Anonymous Patron — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:16:31 -0500

The incoming chair of the Petroleum & Energy Resources Division [DPER] of SLA dropped us a link to an interesting librarian.

This is the story of a struggling librarian from Uganda, Africa and how the Petroleum & Energy Division [DPER] of SLA has sponsored his membership in SLA and now DPER is fundraising to help bring Stephen Kizza to the 2010 SLA meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. The division board members feel that this very positive story demonstrates the power of SLA networking and how SLA members help one another. DPER International Relations Chair, Dennie Heye of Shell in the Netherlands said, "I want the world to know the power of SLA and networking. I hope it inspires others to do the same with peers in lesser developed nations."

http://slablogger.typepad.com/sla_blog/

http://beyondthebookcast.com/global-information-partners/

http://globallibrarianship.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/raising-funds-for-global-information-par...

Here is the link to the transcript of the podcast. http://www.beyondthebookcast.com/wp-images/HeyeKizzaTranscript.pdf

Please contact Dennie.Heye@shell.com

Web Advisory Committee: Recommendation about the Use of ALA Connect

Blake — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:32:37 -0400

The Web Advisory Committee (WAC) is a standing committee of the American Library Association (ALA). One key duty of the WAC is to advise the association on priorities and strategies that promote utilization and continued development of the ALA website.

In Spring 2009, ALA introduced ALA Connect, a new section of the ALA website. Fulfilling our mission of advising the ALA on website issues, the Web Advisory Committee strongly urges all ALA organized groups and ALA members to take advantage of the ALA Connect service.

ALA Connect replaces the Online Communities service that ALA previously offered as a virtual, collaborative, workspace online. ALA Connect is a centralized space where official ALA “groups” can work together online. In addition, any member can create new “communities” (unofficial ALA groups) without any staff assistance, so the site will combine association work with communities of interest in one place.

Whether you participate in a “group” for an official committee, roundtable, section or divisional activity, or whether you engage with one of the other unofficial “communities” that become available, you have a number of tools with which to work together. By default, each one has blog posts, online documents (like wiki pages), a calendar, polls, a chat room, a discussion board, and images (logos, pictures, etc.). The group can use any or all of the tools it finds valuable.

ALA Connect should be your primary workspace for committee work, for information and for networking within the ALA organization.

All official ALA organizations and committees have a page in ALA connect. To visit yours go to connect.ala.org and log in with your ALA website username and password. The Web Advisory Committee is committed to using the new Connect space to carry on the work of our committee and our task-oriented subgroups. Collaboration on this document has been done using ALA Connect.

You can learn more about:

* about ALA Connect at http://connect.ala.org/about
* video tutorials are available at http://connect.ala.org/taxonomy/term/9427
* have questions? get help at http://connect.ala.org/help
* the role of the Web Advisory Committee at http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/itts/website.cfm

We look forward to seeing you soon on ALA Connect!

ALA Web Advisory Committee

Michael Stephens, Chair

An Oddball Notion

StephenK — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:19:14 -0400

Left-wing pressure group Color of Change has had a boycott campaign running against right-wing talk personality Glenn Beck. So far it is claimed that multiple advertisers have yanked their ads from Beck's television on Fox News Channel although reportedly no ads have been pulled from the syndicated radio show, the magazine Fusion, or the website. While Beck's ratings remain high, the prices for ads are likely becoming depressed.

Already seen on LISNews today was a link to a blog post concerning an ad by legal materials publisher West. In that ad, West stated that if you know your librarian on a first name basis you are spending too much time at your library. Between that ad campaign and the situation at Fox News Channel, a golden opportunity exists.

What would it take for the American Library Association to break from past ad campaigns to do something new? What would it take to get the President of the ALA in a 30 second television ad to make a quick statement? Such an ad script could simply state:

“Hello Glenn Beck viewers. Color of Change is running an advertising boycott against Glenn over his release of what they term racist disinformation. In today's stormy seas of competing viewpoints, libraries remain your safe harbor for finding truth. I'm Jim Rettig, president of the American Library Association, reminding you that libraries still serve you since time immemorial.”

A bad thing is that the name of the ALA President did not come to mind immediately for me. The latest incarnation of the ALA website makes it quite the safari to actually determine who the President is. Getting actual face time in a commercial break of a national cable show with high ratings would presumably have some benefit. Having President Rettig say that in a library setting at the University of Richmond where he is University Librarian would personalize the point nicely. This would not have to be a complicated affair to produce and should not be any flashier than your average used car lot ad on local television.

As a way to reach the great unwashed, this might actually have more effect than yanking all advertisers. Recently the boycott effort has started to backfire on Color of Change as some of the companies in the boycott have decided to not only pull their ads on Beck's program but to pull their ads off any political program regardless of whether it leans left or right. This may be the time for independent ALA action that could lead to positive results for libraries especially when publishers undercut the status of law libraries through ads by those same publishers.

If anybody in the ALA sees this and wants to run with it, you have my blessing.

ALA revamps intellectual freedom guidelines

Anonymous Patron — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:00:16 -0400

You can find them here: Intellectual Freedom Manual

They cover the below issues:

* Minors and Internet Interactivity: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (new)
* Importance of Education to Intellectual Freedom: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (new)
* Access to Digital Information, Services, and Networks: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (revised)
* Labeling and Rating Systems: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (revised)

I was most surprised by their full-throated support for al-Qaeda and sharia law in American libraries. As well as the right of sex offenders to kidnap and devour our children at Nancy Pelosi's house at taxpayer expense.
And the recommendation that families be forced to watch pornography together.

Just playing. That one's for you, Dan. Enjoy.

ALA announces approval of Library Support Staff Certification (LSSC)

birdie — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:08:11 -0400

The Executive Board of the American Library Association approved
the establishment of a certification program for library support staff
at its Monday, July 13, meeting in Chicago. The LSSC Program is the
first national, voluntary certification program for library support
staff. Funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library
Services, the program will now enter a testing phase in five library
organizations across the United States.

Camilla Alire, ALA president, said, "This innovative certification
program demonstrates the value of all library support staff to our
national association and to our nation's libraries. LSS are critical to
the success of our libraries in meeting the needs of our users."

Candidates must demonstrate achievement of six sets of competencies. Three of the sets, Foundations of Library Service, Technology and Communications and Teamwork are required. Candidates must also demonstrate achievement of three sets chosen from seven additional competency sets. Candidates will either complete approved courses or submit portfolios that demonstrated their achievement.

Here is the document that was approved by the Executive Board.

Pondering The Viewing Glass

StephenK — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:04:52 -0400

An Essay of the LISNews Summer Series

One of the issues coming out of ALA Annual 2009 this year is the matter of transparency. Librarians like technology. Librarians like to use to technology. Price tags are a little daunting, though, when presented for things that seem to be so cheap as to be almost free as in beer.

Norman Oder has a report in Library Journal that outlines the costs of various options in promoting transparency. Oder's report does not explain too much in depth as to how the particular figures are derived. The annual cost of posting audio files of Council proceedings seems to be a bit high on the processing/posting end unless such has included the eventual costs of bandwidth in serving up such files. In some respects the cost of bandwidth in serving up content can be far greater than the cost of producing it.

Accessibility is also a tremendous concern. Simply put, the process of securing transcripts is not cheap. The work of a court reporter is not easy, requires specialized training, and they are quite well compensated for their troubles. The Council's lawyer also quite rightly pointed out that having transcripts of Council discussions could result in lawsuits over remarks by councilors.

Is it really practical to broadcast every waking moment of every panel, session, and hustings at ALA Annual? Is it really necessary? With hundreds of panels and multiple situations where you have concurrent panels, attention is easily divided. A vast army of observers would be required to have coverage at every single panel. Having videographers accompany the observers would only increase the manpower requirements. Post-production would be a situation more like the investigation by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board relative to the sheer volume of materials to digest. There is a reason why tech news outlets like CNET have a couple weeks of vacation prior to the Consumer Electronics Show as they leave a skeleton crew behind at the office as their army converges on Las Vegas. The only known group that would even attempt this with volunteers is PixelCorps and they have not attempted anything on this sort of scale.

Is all hope lost on covering ALA? No! The technology does not yet exist for proper tele-presence structures so that civilians not attending ALA in person could still be there virtually. The funds to outfit an army to cover the event, let alone cover the attendant logistical nightmares, are non-existent. For the cost of hardware to pull this off, one could presumably fully fund the operation of a rural library for several years. In this case one must look outside the walls of librarianship and step away from comfortable paradigms. Television networks like Universal Sports and ESPN do show ways this could be better handled.

A paradigm used as of late by Universal Sports is not to provide full coverage. Logistically they cannot wage the same level of effort all the time that is required for covering an Olympics. This is where the matter of editorial judgment comes into play. Only highlights of events are recorded for air. Not everything is broadcast in real-time as some events are shown on tape delay. The FIVB World Cup series for beach volleyball was one example of select matches being shown on a delay. Coverage of triathalon competitions, rowing, swimming & diving, and more fall under similar presentation rubrics.

Television networks already exist that could carry this programming. One would be ResearchChannel which has coverage via terrestrial broadcasting, cable television, video on-demand, webcast, satellite, and more. Northern Arizona University's UniversityHouse channel, University of Washington Television, and University of California Television are all also available by way of satellite within North America. There are somewhat traditional television-based distribution channels available for pushing conference coverage outward.

In covering only highlights, much of the nightmare of logistics goes away. If you have a smaller team picking and choosing among panels, you can provide a representative sample to viewers at home. The question of deciding what to cover is a matter of editorial control that has no simple solutions, though. In an organization that can seem to outsiders like a confederation of interest groups, the decision-making authority of what to cover is best held not by a committee but by a single editorial official. It could take years for an editorial committee to make a decision in creating a highlights reel like this while a single individual might take action more quickly.

For all the costs of bandwidth, streaming, captioning, and more involved in Internet-based distribution, DVD fulfillment through a publishing arm like what ALA already has may conservatively allow for a start to such. With online video downloads already quite large and quite costly to transfer in some cases, the use of physical media may allow for easier dissemination. Linux distributions like Ubuntu and OpenSolaris do this already through physical media distribution for this who lack the bandwidth to either download their operating systems or download them in a timely fashion. This physical alternative to virtual distribution could become a new stream of revenue for ALA, too. Selling sets of DVDs of proceedings could potentially take events to members who could not be there. As Andrew Tannenbaum wrote in Computer Networks: “Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.

All of this discussion may be great but it points out a separate issue. Is ALA Annual becoming unwieldy in its size and growth? Could more be accomplished if it was broken down into a set of separate events spread across the entire year? If that were to happen, keeping a court reporter in-house would be more cost effective and would mean an ALA film team could be utilized perhaps.

The matter now stands at a question point. What is it the membership wants? What is your ALA?

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Stephen Michael Kellat received his Master of Science in Library Science from Clarion University of Pennsylvania in 2004. He presently is a librarian in private practice in southern Nevada after having worked in academic cataloging, private sector retail, and alpaca husbandry.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.