ALA Conference 2009: Budget Crisis, Privacy, Electronic Participation

ALA 2009: Council, Executive Board address variety of issues; Alire stresses advocacy

Norman Horrocks -- Library Journal, 07/21/2009

• ALA faces tightening budget
• Alire boosts front-line advocates
• Tapes of Council sessions will be provided

Budget issues facing libraries and the American Library Association (ALA) itself were an inevitable part of the annual conference that ended in Chicago last Wednesday.

The ALA Council passed a resolution calling for an action plan to alert legislators, stakeholders, and constituents regarding library budget cuts. The resolution includes an amendment calling on ALA to send a delegation of three people to meet with President Barack Obama.

While ALA revenues have been lower than expected, expenses have more than kept pace. Executive director Keith Fiels said five staff reductions were in Publishing where sales had diminished, one in Conference Services and two in Reprographics where their duties had been outsourced. In October, Book Links will become a quarterly supplement to Booklist. Additional savings had been made by staff taking a week's furlough. 

Council approved the FY 2010 budgetary ceiling of $64,432,034 as proposed by Treasurer Rod Hersberger.

Issues: Google and privacy
The Committee on Legislation (COL) expressed concern over the proposed Google Book Search Settlement and together with Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) urged the ALA President and the Executive Board to convene a representative group to make further recommendations for action by ALA and its members.

Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) staffers reported to the E-Board on the ALA's Privacy Revolution, which is backed by $250,000 from the Open Society Institute. The OIF is preparing a report to OSI and a further $100,000 is expected to be released. OIF is pursuing additional funding sources.

In 2010, the ALA will sponsor Choose Privacy Week from May 2 to May 8. Training programs for libraries will be offered at the Midwinter Meeting.

Electronic participation and accessibility
Following up on the resolution regarding expanded Council transparency passed at the 2008 Annual Conference, Council agreed to begin providing increased electronic access to its Midwinter 2010 proceedings, via recordings rather than more expensive streaming media.

Easily passed was a resolution in which ALA strongly recommends that all libraries purchasing electronic resources require vendors to guarantee that products comply with Section 508 regulation, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 or other appropriate standards, and that funding authorities provide adequate funding to comply with standards for people with disabilities.

Inaugural speech
Newly-installed ALA President Camila Alire, in her inaugural speech, promoted “a different type of advocacy which complements all the other advocacy efforts we have been doing and will continue to do. The advocacy I am referring to is frontline, member-driven advocacy…” 

Among those she invited to speak were 14-year-old library advocate Michael Kinane, the son of former E-board member Patricia Wong, and Conway Garlington III, a Chicago police officer studying for his library degree at Dominican University, aiming to work with young adults.

Alire also cited the Spectrum Presidential Initiative, which aims to raise $1 million for the Spectrum Scholarship Program. Past ALA president Betty Turock will serve as chair, with the help of immediate past-president Jim Rettig. President-elect Roberta Stevens will also assist. Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree and author Rudolfo Anaya also will lend their support. 

Committee on Legislation resolutions
The COL brought forward five resolutions all of which were adopted after little discussion : support for the U.S. Public Printer's budget to provide no-fee public access to government information; support for the Federal Research Public Access Act; supporting GPO's digitization of historical Federal publications; supporting the American Historical Records Act; and support for modifications to the USA PATRIOT Act.

Other resolutions
A Resolution on Libraries and the Continuing Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan called for ending the occupation of Iraq and the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan with resultant budgetary savings applied to vital domestic programs including libraries and to the reconstruction of libraries, museums, and other cultural resources in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While this resolution engendered more discussion than most on the Council agenda, most speakers were opposed and the motion was clearly defeated.

A resolution supporting single-payer universal health care adopted by ALA in June 2006 was amended. By a narrow margin, it was first amended to support affordable, universal health care and to endorse executive and legislative branch efforts for it, then amended unanimously to include the option of single-payer health care.

Sunday, October 4, 2009 will be promoted as Intergeneration Day Means Libraries, a project of the Intergeneration Foundation. The project is supported by Microsoft, among others.

The Intellectual Freedom Committee brought forward six resolutions all providing interpretations to the Library Bill of Rights. They dealt with digital information, the importance of education, labeling and rating systems, Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, and minors and the Internet. All were quickly adopted.

Organizational shifts
The Committee on Organization made two recommendations, both of which were accepted by Council. The name of the Continuing Library Education and Networking Exchange Round Table (CLENERT) was changed to the Learning Round Table (Learn). Backers hope this will make the Round Table’s role better-known and more effective. 

Also, the composition of the Round Table Coordinating Assembly (RTCA) was expanded in an effort to improve communication between Round Tables.