ALA Midwinter Denver Highlights

ALA Midwinter meeting primarily focuses on ALA’s division and Roundtable business as opposed to training opportunities. As the host chapter, CAL was able to participate in a very active way holding a preconference, which over 70 people attended, sponsoring a booth, and holding a reception for upcoming ALA President Camila Alire at the Blair Caldwell Branch of the Denver Public Library. Although much of the Council business was routine, there was a great deal of discussion as newer librarians advocated for electronic participation and free Internet access.

Some specific areas of concern: (Thanks to Jonathan Betz-Zatz from the State of Washington.)

Intellectual Freedom:
The Freedom to Read Foundation reported some notable victories: The Child Online Protection Act was overturned after 10 years of effort; a National Security Letters case on gag orders without judicial review put burden of proof on government before enforcing them; and a Harmful to Minors literature sellers registration requirement in Indiana was struck down as too vague. Another harmful to minors case--Powell's books in Oregon—is still underway. FTRF says that the state law makes no provision for judging value of content, as federal law does. FTRF has joined the Valerie Plame Wilson case challenging redaction, saying that the government must demonstrate harm of information that is already in the public domain.
FTRF is monitoring two other important cases: the Miami_Dade School Board case on removing a book from classrooms and the North Central Regional Library District case on mandatory, non removable filtering. The last is an ACLU case; the Freedom to Read Foundation and ALA are not participating.
Intellectual Freedom Committee has published a festschrift for Gordon Conable and added a casebook on privacy and copyright issues to its annual series. They are planning to publish a new edition of the IF manual in 2010. They are also publicizing a national conversation on privacy called "Privacy Revolution" with door hangers and a website: www.privacyrevolution.org
Banned Books Week 2009 will be held Sept 27-October 4. Information: www.ala.org/bbooks.
Council adopted three revisions to the Intellectual Freedom Manual on “Challenged Material”, “Restricted Access to Library Materials” and “Services to Persons with Disabilities”.

National Legislation:
The Committee on Legislation encourages librarian participation in the legislative process through links on ALA’s website and through attending Library Legislative Day May 11-12. ALA’s Legislative Assembly is a good place for ALA units to be represented (for example, the Government Documents Round Table). Most importantly for CAL, they encourage chapters to involve themselves more deeply in legislation.
Council agreed to increase the committee membership to handle its expanded workload, encouraged ALA members to distribute listserv messages to other listservs, commended President Obama for his prompt action on Open Government, and supported reauthorization of the Library Services and Technology Act.
Meanwhile the Washington Office coordinated a massive effort to convince the Consumer Product Safety Commission to exempt libraries from having to examine all of their children’s materials for lead and other toxic substances. By the end of conference it was clear that both of the commissioners had heard from large numbers of concerned people and that favorable action could be expected soon. The WO also reported that the new stimulus programs will likely produce little sudden change at the local level. It’s very important for libraries to stay on the “radar screens” of their legislators—tell them what we are doing to serve their communities and create a better economy. Stimulus funding will probably go through the States in an effort to shore up major programs such as Medicare and rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure.

ALA also held a special members meeting to allow librarians to make statements that they wanted President Obama to hear and consider. The following notes by Councilor Jim Casey describe it well: “This extraordinary Membership Meeting, opened to all ALA Members and with a free access microphone, was hosted by ALA President Jim Rettig and the COL Chair Kendall Wiggin. The objective was to gather as many cogent ideas as possible to present before the new Obama Administration for improvement of service to patrons and to advance the cause of lifetime learning. Ken reminded us that most of the stimulus money will probably go to the states and to existing programs. He urged that we drive a connection in our own local media efforts between jobs and the work of libraries. ----- Dozens of members came forward to speak out; there were many excellent contributions to bring forward based upon what, for many, was a lifetime of labor in the field of serving our public. The link to my full report is available on the CAL Web site http://www.cal-webs.org