ALA's Fiels on New Advocacy Efforts, Web Site, Leadership
-- Library Journal, 4/20/2007
The American Library Association (ALA) is moving ahead on efforts to more nimbly react to local library challenges and to harvest support from grassroots advocates. Coming in September, according to ALA executive director Keith Fiels, is a new Office of Library Advocacy, aimed to link with state and local advocates and provide advice on such things as arguing for budgets and millages, and to stave off closings. While the small office, with only two staffers, can't cover the map, Fiels said that it would develop a peer-to-peer network to link advocates and organize articles and tips regarding issues like lobbying tactics.
Also among the coming initiatives is the I Love Libraries site. It will be, in ALA president Leslie Burger's words, the MoveOn.org of libraries, and Fiels said it should get a sneak preview on Legislative Day, May 1. (Burger even donated the domain, as she explained in January). It will serve as a sort of clearinghouse for the general population who are interested in working on behalf of libraries through organizations such as Friends groups and more. Fiels also noted a need to better connect with trustees. Only 1200 trustees have joined ALTA, the Association for Library Trustees and Advocates, he said, and there needs to be a place, outside the ALA web site, to engage those who want to get involved with libraries.
Moving to the web
Fiels, visiting New YorkCity yesterday for a meeting with LJ staff, also said that ALA plans to add a web usability officer to provide a "public face" to respond to those who have concerns and comments about the ALA web experience. While ALA has established ALA Online Communities to provide an online meeting space for groups, he said the organization is moving toward using or adapting existing platforms, such as Facebook, that members already use. "ALA is not 66,000 people," he said. "It's the 24 people you've discovered who share your passion."
Fiels seemed wary of any push toward virtual meetings, noting that, while a conference call could be governed under parliamentary rules, it's murky how simultaneous chat could be corralled. Still, he said, ALA should be open to new ways of interaction among its members. "We haven't had a lot of luck with top-down planning," he said. "My goal is to support creativity." He acknowledged that membership meetings at Annual Conference attract a tiny fraction of the members and thus don't reflect association opinion. However, he said that a membership meeting could remain useful as a place to provide general overviews to members and an opportunity to meet ALA leadership.
The ALA role
He also reflected on the role of ALA in the news cycle. "ALA is good at crying wolf," he said, perhaps even "too good at getting the word out when libraries get closed." Instead, he recognized a need to get better at communicating the more subtle realities of public library funding, which, if done well , could head off such crises before they escalate.
In his five years on the job (as of the end of June), Fiels says he's grown comfortable working with a distinctly different march of ALA presidents. "My job is to exploit the president's energy as much as possible," he said. "My job is to be helpful." At a certain point in the past, he said, ALA presidential initiatives consumed a lot of institutional energy; now, he said, those initiatives are well-aligned with the goals of the organization.
