LJ Preview ALA Midwinter: Old Issues, New Battles

Consider public relations and library advocacy. Despite ALA's longstanding commitment and intense effort to train librarians to "take the message" to the people, when the Corning Public Library (NY) closed, some ALA Council members complained that ALA had failed to "get the message out."

Circling the wagons, ALA President Sarah Long replied to the critics that the Executive Board was working with a professional ad agency to develop "one external message" for all ALA members to use to advocate libraries. Almost immediately suspicions arose, and calls for debate and diversity in messages were seen on the Internet discussion lists. Part of the concern is a scheduled discussion in the Executive Board of what penalties ALA should impose if any of its units fail to abide by established policies regarding who speaks for ALA. Advocacy -- what is ALA's message and who is to deliver it -- is now a high Midwinter priority.

Before she left the turmoil at the El Paso Public Library (TX) to direct the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library, Mary Kaye Donahue-Hooker initiated discussions on outsourcing with library privatizer Library Systems and Services Inc. (LSSI). The idea was music to the ears of El Paso Mayor Carlos Ramirez, a recent convert to the Republican Party and a longtime fan of outsourcing. The El Paso PL, chronically underfunded, disrupted by administrative warfare, and now directorless, fits the profile of economic and political vulnerability of those few public libraries forced by tax-cutting politicians to turn to privatization. LSSI has made a business of taking over the management of such institutions. Should ALA look again at this scenario? That question will be on the Midwinter agenda.

At last year's Congress on Professional Education several task forces were established to follow up on issues. Two have generated hot debate. One is the Task Force on Independent Accreditation of LIS Education Programs, chaired by Sue Martin. It will meet at Midwinter, but no schedule has been released. Many fear that removing the accreditation process from ALA control will end any possibility of accountability to the practicing library profession, thus completing the flight of the library schools from the concept and word "library."

The Task Force on Core Values of Librarianship, chaired by Don Sager of Highsmith Press (spouse of President Long), plans an open hearing at Midwinter, although we couldn't find it on the preliminary schedule. While this editor believes there is broad agreement on the profession's "core values," debate on the Internet discussion lists ALACOUN, ALAOIF, PUBLIB, and others suggest that this may not be true. In any case it, too, is on the Midwinter agenda.

ALA lobbies for all sorts of things, from a "no strings attached" E-rate for library telephone connections to the Internet, to leaving facts and other content of databases in the public domain, instead of giving them the equivalent of copyright as pending legislation backed by a strong information industry lobby proposes.

Midwinter will be the first conference for Emily Sheketoff, the Washington pro who replaced Carol Henderson as head of the ALA Washington Office. Sheketoff is the first nonlibrarian to hold the post, and the question of nonlibrarians being appointed to ALA's top jobs is a hot one for this Midwinter Meeting. There is also concern about the impact of replacing a librarian with a Washington insider on ALA lobbying efforts.

Several other perennials are still on that crowded agenda, too. There's the endless flap about Internet access for kids, the argument over who should decide what web sites ALA recommends, and a host of other issues in the intellectual freedom arena. Check the meetings of the IF Committee and Round Table if you are interested in that debate.

If you are a social activist and feel that all economic, political, and social issues are library issues, you belong at the meetings of the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) as it discusses those issues and a new round of efforts coming from the Executive Board to muzzle the outspoken SRRT.

Finally, there is bound to be dissent over the Executive Board's recent vote to deep six the Fund for America's Libraries, the last vestige of the Elizabeth Martinez vision to haunt 50 E. Huron Street. The fund's two top staffers resigned before the board action, but the board of the fund itself still has to vote. Still, the deed is done, and ALA has pulled all its financial support.

These issues and more will be discussed and debated at the open meetings of the ALA Executive Board and Council. Get a taste of it all at a Council orientation at 9 a.m., Saturday, January 15. Go for more at the Executive Board, Council, Membership Information Session, where they review the agenda at 9:30 a.m., Sunday, January 16.

The regular meetings of Council are at 9-10:15 a.m., Monday, January 17; 8:30 a.m.-noon on both Tuesday, January 18, and Wednesday, January 19.

The board meets Friday, January 14, 2-5:30 p.m., Monday, January 17, 9-10:15 a.m. and Wednesday, January 19, 3-6:30 p.m. We don't recommend attending every meeting but don't know how to predict the high spots. One possibility is to get the board agenda in the ALA offices and select, but the schedule changes during the meeting. One thing is certain: only about 15 percent of the sessions result in hot debate or interesting discussion.

The only official program allowed at Midwinter is the ALA President's Program. This year, based on Sarah Long's theme "Libraries Build Community," acclaimed Latino playwright and film director Luis Valdez (La Bamba, The Cisco Kid, Zoot Suit), founder of the prestigious El Teatro Campesino, will speak on the role of the arts in depicting community experience and the role of libraries in promoting art.

Long also set up a special program on "Building International Library Communities" to bring librarians from Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States together. It begins at a Friday, January 14, orientation and reception and continues for two days more.

The Library Advocacy Subcommittee of the ALA Public Awareness Committee, in partnership with the Chapter Relations Committee, is planning a workshop to give usable answers to accursed questions surrounding kid's access to the Internet, e.g., "Why shouldn't libraries use filters?" or "Why do librarians let children view pornography online?" ALA's answers have not yet satisfied the Christian right, the politicians, or even a large segment of the profession. Each time it gets a bit better, so maybe this time (Sunday, January 16, 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.) we'll all get the effective answers we've been seeking.

Candidates for ALA President (John W. Berry and Claudia Sumler) and for ALA Treasurer (Liz Bishoff and Peter Young) will debate the issues at a Candidate's Forum, Monday, January 17, 4:30- 5:30 p.m.; also before the Chapter Relations Committee on Saturday, January 15, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Candidates for the ALA Executive Board, nominated from and elected by the Council, will make statements at a forum on Monday, January 17, 9:30-11 a.m.

Many vendors tell us they prefer the smaller crowds of "heavy hitters" at Midwinter to the masses at ALA annual conferences. ALA itself claims it is the "key meeting place for movers and shakers in the library world." According to the ALA hype, 88 percent of those attending have purchasing authority. The result is a very full exhibit show at the Henry Gonzalez Convention Center: Saturday and Sunday, January 15 and 16, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Monday, January 17, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

The exhibit area will also be the venue for the All Conference Reception, Saturday, January 15, 3-5 p.m.

A Chili Cook-off, Sunday, January 16, 6-7:30 p.m., at the San Antonio Public Library will feature four bowls of the stuff for $10. The profits will go to the Spectrum Scholarship Fund of both ALA and the Texas Library Association to recruit minorities to librarianship. "Texas-style" entertainment is promised.

Authors Joyce Carol Oates (Blonde), Stephen Harrigan (The Gates of the Alamo), plus archaeologist Lynda Robinson (Drinker of Blood) and author/composer Christopher Cerf, currently a producer of the children's literacy program "Between the Lions" on PBS, will speak at the Friends of Libraries Annual Author Breakfast, 8 a.m. on Monday, January 17. Tickets cost $16 in advance (FOLUSA Breakfast, 1420 Walnut St., Suite 450, Philadelphia, PA 19102-4017) or $20 at the door.

REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish Speaking, will host an evening of scholarship and entertainment titled "Libraries for a New World and Millennium/Bibliotecas Para El Mundo y Milenio Nuevo." It will be held at the San Antonio Public Library Central Library, Saturday, January 15, 5-8:30 p.m., in the San Antonio Auditorium, 600 Soledad, and will feature gifted poet, artist, and author Enedina Casarez Vasquez (Recuerdos de una niA±a) as master of ceremonies. Christine Miller Koontz and Dean K. Jue of Florida State University's Resources and Environmental Analysis Center will speak on "How Any Library Can Change To Meet the Needs of a Minority Population," followed by a traditional conjunto, salsa music, and a finger buffet of Mexican American antojitos. Admission is $5 for REFORMA members and $10 for nonmembers, with all profits used to promote library services to Spanish speakers and Latinos in libraries in the San Antonio area.

So, it is a full agenda, a lovely city, and a restive, if not as argumentative, ALA leadership that awaits us in San Antonio. What could be better?