I Love My Librarian Award

Carnegie Corporation of New York has awarded the American Library Association $489,000 to support the new Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award. Administered by the ALA's Public Information Office and Campaign for America's Libraries, the award will launch this year and will continue annually through 2013. The award encourages library users to recognize the accomplishments of librarians in public, school, college, community college and university libraries for their efforts to improve the lives of people in their community. Nominations for public librarians run from August 15 through October 1. Nominations for school and academic librarians begin September 2 and continue through October 15."In our democratic society, the library stands for hope, for learning, for progress, for literacy, for self-improvement and for civic engagement. The library is a symbol of opportunity, citizenship, equality, freedom of speech and freedom of thought, and hence, is a symbol for democracy itself," said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York."We're thrilled to be working with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the American Library Association to honor librarians who play such a vital role in our communities," said Scott Heekin-Canedy, president of The New York Times. "What began as a local Times initiative in New York City seven years ago has grown to a national awards program and now we are proud to be co-presenting the award with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the ALA.This award will continue to raise awareness of the valuable contributions of today's librarians and the ways they make a difference in people's lives and their communities, schools and campuses," said ALA President Jim Rettig. Up to 10 librarians in public, school and academic libraries will be selected each year and each will be honored at a ceremony and reception in New York at The Times Center, hosted by The New York Times. Each winner also will receive a $5,000 cash award, a plaque and a $500 travel stipend to attend the awards reception. In addition, a plaque will be given to each award winner's library. Nominees will be judged by a selection committee based on quality of service to library users, demonstrated knowledge of the library and its resources and commitment shown in helping library users. Each nominee must be a librarian with a master's degree from a program accredited by the ALA in library and information studies or a master's degree with a specialty in school library media from an educational unit accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. Nominees must be currently working in the United States in a public library, a library at an accredited two- or four-year college or university or at an accredited K-12 school.For more information, visit www.ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian.

Bundled (and therefore less expensive) Registration Coming!

And just to get a bit of a jump on things, the bundled registration for the 2009 Midwinter Meeting and 2009 Summer Conference will be open September 1 - 30.
Go to http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/midwinter/2009/home.cfm
for more information.

ALA Anaheim - A few More Photos

Couldn't leave out CAL's infamous leader, Martin Garnar, as well as a bunch of the State Library Crew, who came to the celebration in droves. Thanks all!

ALA Anaheim - Fun Times

I can hardly believe it's already been a month since annual. Annual was packed with lots of Council business, but we also managed to have some fun. Here are some photos of some of the folks who were able to make it to the Colorado get-together at the Council suite. Hope to see you in January in Denver. That will be here before we know it!

Picturing America

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), in cooperation with the ALA Public Programs Office, is now accepting applications for the second round of Picturing America. Online applications will be accepted through Oct. 31 at http://picturingamerica.neh.org.

Picturing America is a free educational resource that helps teach American history and culture by bringing some of our nation's greatest works of art directly to classrooms and libraries. At no cost, recipients will receive a set of high-quality reproductions of 40 pieces of great American art (each approximately 24 inches by 36 inches) and an illustrated teachers resource book with information about the artists and artwork and lesson ideas for all grade levels to facilitate the use of the reproductions in core subject areas. Delivery of these materials is scheduled for spring 2009. Additional educational resources are also available through the Picturing America Web site, http://picturingamerica.neh.gov. Resources to support public library programming will be added in the spring.

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.

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.