Council III

The last meeting of ALA Council during 2007 Annual was called to order at 8:00 a.m. on June 27th.

The Committee on Organization made its report to Council and had two action items:

(1) To revise the composition of the Chapter Relations Committee by requiring someone to be an ALA member who is also a member of an ALA Chapter or Division affiliate

(2) To recommend that Council adopt a report on e-participation, which asks for a formal task force charged with examining existing documents and developing recommendations to adapt association policy so as to help ALAmove forward with effective e-participation practices.

The Committee on Constitution & Bylaws made its report to Council with 4 action items.

(1) The Catholic Library Associate applied for ALA affiliate status, and this was granted.

(2) At Council III, the second item of the Constitution and Bylaws Committee was solely with regard to the order of the names on the ballot. It was to change the words "by lot" to "randomized", and to make it apply to all names on the ballot, not just the names of ALA Councilors. The preparation of the ballot was, is and remains under the oversight of the elections committee. This was passed.

(3) A change in wording to clarify the committee listings in the bylaws - this was passed.

(4) A request for councilors to comment on bylaws changes. Councilors have the responsibility to ask their constituents about the changes as well. Much discussion followed, and some even discussed whether or not a "Constitutional Convention" is necessary. Others felt that this is not necessary.

International Relations committee.

450 people from 87 countries were at ALA this year. The committee supports ALA having a full time person supporting international relations.

Intellectual Freedom Committee

There is a new toolkit on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender people. It is mounted on the OIF website. http://www.ala.org/template.cfm?Section=oif A resolution on the use and abuse of National Security Letters on the need for legislative reforms to assure the right to read free of government surveillance. This resolution passed unanimously.

Policy Monitoring Committee

Two action items: The first is an addition to the policy manual recommending a statement that supports Immigrant rights. This was passed. The 2nd item addressed the committee's recommendation that a policy on the role of libraries in providing e-government and emergency services be added to the policy manual. This was passed.

A resolution came forward from the ALA Division, ASCLA, on accessible digitization projects. This recommended that ALA encourage libraries engaged in digitization projects adopt Section 508 regulations to ensure that they are creating versions of materials that are accessible to persons using screen-reader or other assistive technologies. This was passed.

A resolution on Representation came forward from AASL Division Councilor, Sylvia Norton. It asks the Committee on Committees to clarify the processes of selecting committee members. This was passed.

Final announcements: For ALA D.C. figures are 21,466 registrants, 7, 169 vendors, for a grand total of 28,635, which is the largest conference ever in ALA history.

Emily Sheketoff from the Washington Office spoke on Legislative Day on the Hill. There were almost 2000 library supporters. There was tremendous attendance by Congressional staff and members of Congress. The most important thing was the introduction of school library legislation by a bipartisan House and Senate group that introduced the SKILLS acts, which will amend NCLB calling for a school library in every school headed by a state-certified Media Specialist.