Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Council III


The Constitution and Bylaws Committee brought forward some changes in the bylaws that were all passed. Included in the changes was the acceptance of the Association for Rural and Small Libraries and the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services as affiliates. The Intellectual Freedom Committee reported on the changes proposed to the newest edition of the IFC Manual. IFC submitted six revised policies including, "Access to Library Resources and Services Regardless of Sex, Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation," "Access to Resources and Services in the School Library Media Program," "Diversity in Collection Development," "Evaluating Library Collections," "Expurgation of Library Materials," "Free Access to Libraries for Minors." The International Relations Commitee made their report to Council and brought forth a resolution entitled, "Iraq Replacement Resolution," which passed. This is a replacement resolution for the one passed during Midwinter 2008 due to some inaccuracies in some of the whereas clauses. The Committee on Organization brought forth a revision in the composition of the committee, which was passed. The Committee on Legislation reported that they wanted representation from all the divisions and roundtables on the Legislative Assembly. Three resolutions were brought forward: A Resolution in Support of the National Agricultural Library, which was passed; a Resolution on the E-Governnment Reauthorization Act of 2007 (S. 2321) which urges Congress to re-emphasize it's commitment to support the role of libraries in the delivery of E-Government services; Resolution in Support of Preservation and Access to the Audio Heritage of the United States which resolves that ALA urge Members of the US Congress to charge the US Copyright Office to conduct a study on the desirability of bringing sound recordings before 2/15/72 under federal jurisdiction. All passed. A Resolution Adopting the Definitions of Digital Preservation and the Revised Preservation Policy for the ALA, which passed. Lastly, a Resolution on Expanding Council Transparency was brought forth. This Resolution asked for the Executive Director of ALA to explore methods of making Council proceedings more transparent to the ALA membership and report back to Council during midwinter. This also passed. The photo is of Jennifer Kutzik and me at a Council meeting. Jennifer is the LSSIRT (Library Support Staff Interests Roundtable) representative to Council and a long-time employee at CSU.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

ALA Council I

Council I included the following business:
(1) Midwinter Minutes approved (available on the ALA website.)
(2) Nominations for the Committee on Commitees and the 2008-09 Planning and Budget Assembly.
(3) Report from the Resolutions Committee.
(4) Report from ALA Executive Director including the Implementatin Report of the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meeting Council Actions
(5)The ALA Treasurer's Report.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

ALA Annual Conference Council 2

In Council 2 a number of motions for change in the ALA Policy Manual were presented and passed. The FY 09 budgetary ceiling was approved. A Resolution to support funding for cataloging and bibliographic control at the Library of Congress was presented and a motion was made to refer this to the Committee on Legislation, which was defeated. Opinions were strong in favor of making this forward in an expedient manner and not deferring. In the end, this resolution passed. The next Resolution introduced concerned ALA Policy Opposing Sweatshop Labor. Councilors questioned the definition of sweatshop and also whether or not this would be applied to the vendors at conferences. This resolution was passed.