ALA Midwinter Preview 2008: Programs and Play

This year, as always, the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting will host more than 2000 meetings of task forces, committees, round tables, boards, some 200 discussion groups, and other bodies that govern and move ALA as it leads U.S. libraries through social, political, and economic change. While Midwinter is supposed to focus strictly on the business and governance of ALA and its minions, it is enriched by useful professional programs and just plain fun. This winning combination attracts thousands of library workers from all over America and the world. A small sampling of the best of the Philadelphia program follows here.

ALA president Loriene Roy has arranged for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to be the keynote speaker for her Midwinter President's Program (Sun., Jan. 13, 3:30–5:30 p.m.). The all-time leading scorer in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Abdul-Jabbar led UCLA to three consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association titles and the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers to six NBA championships. Also a prolific author (e.g., On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance; Giant Steps; and Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement), Abdul-Jabbar is expected to talk about the impact of the Harlem Renaissance on his life.

Following through on her emphasis on library workers' health, Roy's Workplace Wellness Task Force will hold a Wellness Fair on the exhibit floor (Sun., Jan. 13).

Lobbying for libraries may be the most important function of ALA, and the Midwinter ALA Washington Office Update Session (Sat., Jan. 12, 8–10 a.m.) brings the troops up to speed for the coming year's efforts. Featured in Philly is Bassem Youssef, the highest-ranking Arab American agent employed by the FBI. He will share his experience with the agency's counterterrorism surveillance activities, including the use of National Security Letters. Tom Susman, a partner at Ropes & Gray LLP, will discuss the effect of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on libraries. Two breakout sessions (10:30 a.m.–noon) will follow: All (Telecom) Politics Is Local: What the FCC Is Up to, and What It Has To Do with Your Library will be moderated by Alan Inouye, director of ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy. Then, the GODORT Update, the ALA Government Documents Round Table's session, will focus on government information, depository libraries, and dissemination of info from federal agencies.

Victors in ALA elections don't get much in the way of spoils. The ALA Council is a big, process-driven debating club. The Executive Board is more intimate, a clubbier club with an infinitely boring agenda.

Being president of ALA, however, looks good on your CV, gives you a small budget to play with, and provides the opportunity for a lot of travel around the nation and the world. For a librarian, it seems like a bully pulpit. At Midwinter, candidates begin to campaign.

Candidates for ALA president will describe what they stand for and be questioned about it at an hour-long Presidential Candidates Forum (Sat., Jan. 12, 11 a.m.). Running this year is Camila Alire, dean emerita at the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University, who teaches in LIS programs at San Jose State University and Simmons College. J. Linda Williams, another experienced ALA hand, opposes Alire. Williams is coordinator of library media services for Maryland's Anne Arundel County public schools, and she teaches LIS at the University of Maryland.

Just before the forum is the Council Orientation Session (Sat., Jan. 12, 8–10 a.m.) and a Chapter Orientation Session (9–10 a.m.), which you can observe, but we'd sleep in until the forum. That night, an easy-to-crash Council Reception (9–10 p.m.) might be fun.

The ALA Executive Board will meet three times (Fri., Jan. 11, 8:30 a.m.–noon; Mon., Jan. 14, 1:30–4:30 p.m.; Wed., Jan. 16, 2–5:30 p.m.) at the Philadelphia Marriott. Candidates for the board, which is elected by the Council from the Council, have an insufficient hour to campaign at the Executive Board Candidates Forum (Mon., Jan. 14, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.).

All ALA and ALA-APA Council meetings will be held in Ballroom B of the Philadelphia Convention Center. The membership of both Councils is identical but separated as a tax dodge for ALA.

The ALA Council/Executive Board/Membership Information Session (Sun., Jan. 13, 9–10 a.m.) and the ALA-APA Council Information Session (10–10:30 a.m.) are opportunities to find out what is on the ALA agenda and decide whether or not to go to ALA Council I (Sun., Jan. 13, 10:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m.), the ALA-APA Council (Mon., Jan. 14, 10:15–11:15 a.m.), ALA Council II (Tues., Jan. 15, 9:15 a.m.–12:45 p.m.), or ALA Council III (Wed., Jan. 16, 8 a.m.–12:30 p.m.).

The Advocacy Institute is one of a number of “advocacy” efforts available at Midwinter (Fri., Jan. 11, 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.). It will offer tools to become an effective advocate and breakout sessions on budget presentations, crisis communication, and passing bond issues/referenda. Core skills like message development and coalition building will be delivered along with a take-home action plan. All that and lunch, for $50 in advance or $75 on-site.

That same crowd of sponsors—ALA's new Office for Library Advocacy and the Advocacy Institute Task Force of the ALA Public Awareness Committee plus many others—will offer Creating Advocacy Leaders—An Advocacy Institute Train-the-Trainer Program (Sat., Jan. 12, time TBA) to build upon lessons learned at the Advocacy Institute with an eye toward developing leaders in all types of libraries to head advocacy programs.

Friends of Libraries USA (FOLUSA), a national organization of some 3500 Friends of Libraries, has for more than 25 years offered training, support, and ideas for library advocates and supporters around the country. Currently, FOLUSA is engaged in negotiations to become the managing agency for ALA's Association of Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA), a move widely supported despite some opposition from a few longstanding ALTA trustee members. This decision may be announced, or at least moved forward, at Midwinter.

As part of its mission, FOLUSA offers an annual Nuts and Bolts Workshop (Sat., Jan. 12, 10:30 a.m.–noon) where friends, trustees, and library staff share best practices and “experts” on membership, board development, fundraising, advocacy, and strategic planning hold forth.

The ribbon will be cut on the second-biggest show of library Exhibits on Earth at 5:15 p.m. (Fri., Jan. 11) at the Philadelphia Convention Center (the biggest is at the annual conference in June). This immediately precedes the Friday night Opening Reception on the exhibit floor, with food, drink, music, and 60 gift baskets (each worth $75 or more) raffled off by exhibitors. (Register for the baskets at exhibitor booths.) This kickoff ends at 7:30 p.m. The show is a must; it's a free education on new products, furnishings, services, and electronic hardware and software to convert your current library into Library 2.0. (Midwinter exhibit hours are Sat. & Sun., Jan. 12–13, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Mon., Jan. 14, 9 a.m.–2 p.m.)

The Best-Selling Author Forum (Fri., Jan. 11, 4–5:15 p.m.), just before the Opening Reception, will feature several hot writers. Geraldine Brooks, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal for 11 years in places like Bosnia, Somalia, and the Middle East, won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her second novel, March, which followed the acclaimed Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague (both Viking). She will share the stage with, among others, paleoanthropologist Mary Doria Russell, author of speculative novels including The Sparrow (Ballantine) and Children of God (Villard).

The FOLUSA Author Tea (Mon., Jan. 14, 2–4 p.m.), sponsored by ReferenceUSA, features blockbuster best-selling author Barbara Taylor Bradford (The Heir, St. Martin's); Russell Banks (The Reserve, HarperCollins); flight attendant–turned–award–winning novelist Ann Hood (Comfort: A Journey Through Grief, Norton); best-selling author Sue Miller (The Senator's Wife, Random); and award-winning author Meg Rosoff (What I Was, Penguin). For $35 in advance (at www.folusa.org or by phone at 800-936-5872) or $45 on-site (exhibit booth 611), hear and meet the authors, enjoy desserts and “finger” sandwiches (we prefer salami), and get books (some free, some at discounts) autographed.

Finally, jazz violinist Regina Carter will be featured at the Arthur Curley Lecture (Sat., Jan. 12, 1:30 p.m.). A renowned musician, Carter won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006, the same year as the release of her most recent of five albums, I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey.

So it's off to Philadelphia. See you there!