ALA-Philadelphia Council I
Information Sessions and Council I-Philadelphia
President-elect candidates had a forum on Saturday to give attendees a chance to hear their views.
Information sessions are held at the beginning of conference to cover budgets and report back to Council on directives from previous conferences, etc.
There is an information session for the ALA Council and for the ALA-APA Council.
Registrations as of Saturday were 9,956 members; 2,267 exhibitors for a total of 12,223 attendees. This is ahead of last midwinter.
The issues covered will be dealt with in detail during regular council sessions, so I won’t report on anything specific at this point.
Council I
Normal business started the meeting: approval of minutes, etc.
Candidates for Executive Board were nominated.
Loriene Roy, ALA President reported on the last 6 months.
Jim Rettig, President-elect gave his report.
Keith Michael Fiels, Executive Director gave his report.
An important part of his report was information about the redesign of the ALA website, something everyone agrees is a high priority and a Senior Usability Officer will be hired to keep this effort ongoing in the future.
A new report for Council is the Implementation Report on past council actions. This is helpful so that we can actually determine if something happened and if there is need for follow-up action.
Resolution on Member Access to Electronic Lists of the American Library Association
Whereas, Association Policy 7.4.4 states that “All meetings of the American Library Association and its units are open to all members…” and
Whereas, Policy 7.4.4 was created to ensure transparency and to protect and guarantee opportunities for member participation in Association activities, and
Whereas, electronic lists are increasingly important to the work of the Association, and
Whereas, many of these lists are currently closed to most members, and
Whereas, the maintained closure of these lists is not in keeping with the spirit of Policy 7.4.4 and
Whereas, excluding members from reading electronic lists inhibits member participation, and
Whereas, read-only access to the Association’s electronic Council list by non-Council members has been shown to allow member participation without negative impact upon the business of the Association,
Therefore, be it resolved that all electronic lists of the American Library Association shall henceforth be available for read-only access to all members of the Association. Closed lists may be established only for the discussion of matters affecting the privacy of individuals or institutions, and
Therefore, be it resolved that this resolution shall be implemented on ALA servers as soon as the ALA Executive Director deems it feasible.
It was moved that this resolution be referred to the Task Force on Electronic Member Participation.
There was a great deal of discussion. It appeared that everyone is in favor of openness in our communications, but a number of people were concerned about aspects of the original motion.
I voted for the motion to refer which passed.
Council I adjourned.
President-elect candidates had a forum on Saturday to give attendees a chance to hear their views.
Information sessions are held at the beginning of conference to cover budgets and report back to Council on directives from previous conferences, etc.
There is an information session for the ALA Council and for the ALA-APA Council.
Registrations as of Saturday were 9,956 members; 2,267 exhibitors for a total of 12,223 attendees. This is ahead of last midwinter.
The issues covered will be dealt with in detail during regular council sessions, so I won’t report on anything specific at this point.
Council I
Normal business started the meeting: approval of minutes, etc.
Candidates for Executive Board were nominated.
Loriene Roy, ALA President reported on the last 6 months.
Jim Rettig, President-elect gave his report.
Keith Michael Fiels, Executive Director gave his report.
An important part of his report was information about the redesign of the ALA website, something everyone agrees is a high priority and a Senior Usability Officer will be hired to keep this effort ongoing in the future.
A new report for Council is the Implementation Report on past council actions. This is helpful so that we can actually determine if something happened and if there is need for follow-up action.
Resolution on Member Access to Electronic Lists of the American Library Association
Whereas, Association Policy 7.4.4 states that “All meetings of the American Library Association and its units are open to all members…” and
Whereas, Policy 7.4.4 was created to ensure transparency and to protect and guarantee opportunities for member participation in Association activities, and
Whereas, electronic lists are increasingly important to the work of the Association, and
Whereas, many of these lists are currently closed to most members, and
Whereas, the maintained closure of these lists is not in keeping with the spirit of Policy 7.4.4 and
Whereas, excluding members from reading electronic lists inhibits member participation, and
Whereas, read-only access to the Association’s electronic Council list by non-Council members has been shown to allow member participation without negative impact upon the business of the Association,
Therefore, be it resolved that all electronic lists of the American Library Association shall henceforth be available for read-only access to all members of the Association. Closed lists may be established only for the discussion of matters affecting the privacy of individuals or institutions, and
Therefore, be it resolved that this resolution shall be implemented on ALA servers as soon as the ALA Executive Director deems it feasible.
It was moved that this resolution be referred to the Task Force on Electronic Member Participation.
There was a great deal of discussion. It appeared that everyone is in favor of openness in our communications, but a number of people were concerned about aspects of the original motion.
I voted for the motion to refer which passed.
Council I adjourned.