ALA Midwinter

Jan. 2007 – Seattle, WA

 

FRIDAY--Jan. 19

 

9:30 -12:30     Big Heads

 

PennTags – Penn State’s locally developed social tagging for its OPAC. Main page shows most frequently marked topics today. http://tags.library.upenn.edu/  Recent activity shows below the list at the top of most used tags. Users can subscribe for themselves, to what others are tagging, or a specific tag(2). The presenter has used it as a training tool – includes reference to it in emails or presentations. Users know they are giving up privacy because others are watching, although you can mark tags private if you wish. It is also about annotations – why they tagged it or what they think about it. The user can set up their own project. The tagging shows up in the OPAC below the bib record. The bib record is not changed, but tagging software operates in parallel and just displays in the OPAC as an add-on.  E.g. Hollywood as an industry can’t be done in LCSH.

 

What does this mean?  Vernacular is changing so quickly with many more terms than we typically use. Folksonomies supplements the OPAC by adding vernacular synonyms. What can we do the tags users add? How well do catalogers capture the essence of the book compared to what someone who read it got out of it? Should catalogers review tags and add to bib? Should we be adding or augmenting subject authority records?

 

It was developed by a team of public services, faculty, and techies. Can tag anything in electronic. Outsiders can view but not add. To be publicly announced soon.

 

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Change in tech services staff? Tech services work seems to be requiring higher level staff. When things are new you need people able to figure out how to do the new things, e.g. online journals, digitization, etc. It seems cyclical so for a time the work becomes routine. But new things are happening more quickly. Once high level staff figure out things out, the work can be given to “lower” staff but the staff you have need to be able to manage multiple tasks so they still need to be of higher competency than when we used in the traditional print order environment. Need to be able to be more nimble in the ability to move staff around within positions to address changing needs.

 

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Taiga Forum http://www.taigaforum.org/ Taiga 2 – staffing level issues. Discussed how staffing levels and organizational structure is changing. Used OpenSpace to create agenda and organize discussion topics. Learned that non-professional staff have similar concerns to professionals on issues the library needs to address.

 

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Cataloging reconsidered: Changing requirements for metadata to meet today’s user’s needs.

Peggy Johnson tried investigating what is “original” and “copy” cataloging and relation to classification of staff. Is it original cataloging to create a brief record with minimal but required data (e.g. author/title/pbr; 1 subject) vs. full records with extensive subjects, added entries, and description, and authority work. If you are using something like PromptCat now can your non-professionals do some original and do you have to have institutional approval? Would the staff enter some data and pass the materials on to professionals for certain activities, e.g. classification assignment and authority work. One opinion – high level staff with extensive training should be able to do most of the original work with oversight by professionals, whose role is more for planning projects, setting standards and procedures, cataloging <non-print> or new materials, provide training, etc. Professionals need to focus on bibliographic relationships. The better people are trained the faster and better they can do their work.

 

Where are we heading next? How do we avoid duplication of effort? One person’s concern is that we each have our separate ILS installations we also maintain. OCLC is proposing customized views of OCLC where you could see your changes but in their database. Local ILS would still exist for tech services but the OPAC would be via WorldCat. How would Acquisitions’ use of bibs be managed? We would still need HOL records for inventory, circulation, etc. so how would that be handled? Local tags don’t stay in the master record in OCLC. We would have to upgrade OCLC’s records more often. What about emerging trends to provide users with new features (tags) that may not be possible to provide from one source (WorldCat). [At the OCLC breakfast I asked Ms. Grabenstatter how many records would OCLC have to store if they had all of our separate records – 2 billion – it would be a lot!].  Do users really care about classification? Responses from the group felt it provides a necessary organization even though users may not go to the shelves to “browse”. Isn’t classification a subject tool, but is the perfect cuttering necessary? Again responses favor the classification – use it to drive electronic databases, RSS feeds, study collection development, gather statistics, etc.

 

4:00-6:00PM   SAC SWOT Subcommittee

 

Notes:

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.   http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm
http://www.netmba.com/strategy/swot/
http://www.businessballs.com/swotanalysisfreetemplate.htm

 

Charge

To analyze the future of subject cataloging, with emphasis on Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), through the use of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, taking into consideration both internal forces within the library community and the external environment. A preliminary report will be made at Midwinter 2008 with a final report and program made at Annual 2008.

 

We were divided into 4 groups. I am on Threats with Bill Kulp, Teresa Negrucci, Lois Mai Chan. Each group needs a team leader that will communicate with the other groups as needed. We will each make lists with examples.

 

Does LCSH adequately reflect subject access – is it still a good vehicle? Final report – it is still good, it needs changes this way, it should be abandoned in favor of …. Audience is administrators primarily, catalogers secondarily. Yes students use keyword searching, but without LCSH behind it would they correctly find material efficiently? Strength of subject strings (or not) to give to Beecher Wiggins – Lois & Daniel J had been asked to give a report to Barbara Tillett by next month. The ALCTS forum on future has a goal of Nov. for a report.

 

Need preliminary report by summer ALA. We need a final report or statement by the same Nov. deadline as the ALCTS forum deadline.

 

Goal is to have analysis done by Annual 2007, whether it is entirely backed up by research or not – maybe not. By June 1 we need to see every other group’s work.

 

Threats group is the one I was assigned to.

 

  • Google, Yahoo, etc – why do users prefer it?
  • Search interface – very simple keyword – is what OPACs present to users or users are used to it elsewhere; <it avoids the issue of controlled LCSH or any other subject headings>
  • Ignorance – users don’t understand controlled vocabulary <should they have to?>
  • Folksonomies
  • Tagging
  • Economic factors – more money to implement controlled vocabulary, LCSH in particular
    • Labor - staffing and training have a certain expense
    • Expense of sustaining the vocabulary (LSCH) in its database and in our local systems
  • Weakness/threat? - Confusion about precision – lots, close, precise - <wasted time, missed citations> – user expectation
  • Weakness/threat ? it’s a mystery to people, it isn’t relevant – it is just a librarian thing – how do you get dollars to support <something you have a hard  time proving you need>
  • Unsophisticated OPACs – poor use by vendors making use of subject vocabularies.
  • Commercial sector trying to keep private their programming and designs rather than working in a cooperative/sharing environment.
  • Commercialization of content
  • Tension between opposing forces happening simultaneously
    • some are trying to reduce subject headings for some materials <e.g. print>; others are adding very many subjects for things such as individual images, mp3 files, etc.
    • <sometimes these databases are not using controlled vocabularies, creating different presentation to users and catalogers are not always adding to LCSH; easier, faster>
  • Other thesauri development – a threat to LCSH?
  • The Catalog is not relevant at all. Students don’t perceive print materials to be relevant.
  • Lack of marketing by the library.
  • A threat exists when an administrator in the library science profession can’t defend the importance of subject access and it is too expensive. Internally, libraries are trying to do so much more (digitize, etc.) the administrative support is divided giving less for catalogers.
  • To create the OPAC that can propose other terms, similar words to what they searched etc the subject headings have to be present in the record – This is not obvious to users or administrators
  • “It can all be automated” – metadata extraction

 

-=-=-=-=-=-

 

To obtain supporting evidence:

Should we document the reduction of catalogers, reduction of subject headings being assigned, reduction of subject specialists? Should we check press releases or stories or articles about reduction in budgets? Do a survey of librarians?

 

Karen Markey article in D-Lib Magazine – v.13 no. 1-2 (Jan/Feb 2007)

 

 7:30-9:00PM  CCS FAST Subcommittee             

 

Qiang call the meeting to order.

 

1. She started with introductions.

 

2. Comments on the Fast Manual. Shannon mentioned a correction is needed to p.6 - “in” is there two times (Shannon). Ed said OCLC knows they need to do some editing. They plan another draft and then we should make comments.  Sherman Clarke mentioned the example on p.28 about Lincoln – limitation of the mapping is demonstrated because it didn’t switch to Civil War. Jimmie said she appreciated having the Manual to use with people starting to work with FAST. Sherman asked about leaving out United States in the hierarchy of places. Stephen asked, given the length and complexity, do you think we are ruining the “simplicity” of FAST. Ed said the first 30 pages are for the general user; the rest is for those who need to understand the structure. It also needs an introduction to explain that. Lois asked if the tables in the back are helpful, should there be more, less?  The geographic codes are listed do we need them because they are listed elsewhere?  The ones listed are at the first order and the ones in bold can be subdivided so it is a specific list. There is a list of abbreviations – no comments against it being given as is. There are a few things that are quite different, e.g. Uniform titles are in 630 with name following as a qualifier). The name is a separate entry by itself. Laws, etc. becomes at little unusual. A representative from AALL said they are considering abandoning use of Laws, etc.

 

3. Ed O’Neill: update on FAST development.

Events, titles, chronologicals are recently added headings to the database. Events came from topicals, $y with terms like Civil War, and meetings/groups often sporting events. Decided to keep separate but could be put in with topicals if that were the preference. Place and date are qualifiers for events. All of the titles are in the 130s. Form headings were set up. Stephen said if the point were to make a browsable list, the uniform titles would look very cluttered, but Ed said they didn’t anticipate a browse use. LC is not using form titles for literature (not including collected works and selections). LC assigns subjects. There is still some discussion going on about form headings.

 

 4. Arlene Taylor: FAST subjects created by subcommittee members

A question about usefulness – do you lose something? Shannon felt for items with straightforward or simple content like an image, FAST works well, but for works with complex content, they lose something. Perhaps we need to do a SWOT review of FAST.

Ed will send URL for a test database of library science materials. Stephen thought it would not be appropriate to try to test until it has been used.

 

Lynn and Pat reviewed analysis of subject logs and FAST assignment. Lynn said chronologicals are usually only used with historical headings whereas FAST doesn’t limit and has many more detailed dates. Qiang asked if there would be value to analyzing the document Lynn and Pat prepared compared to the compilation of the members’ assignment. Ed pointed out there were some problems that would be have been addressed by the facets they had not yet added to the database. Lynn will write up an analysis comparing the results. Ed said he would like to see a study of errors because one thought they had was that using FAST might reduce errors. Jimmie asked about environments like Endeca – OCLC has been working on that. Fiction Finder uses FAST and works well there. Laura (?? Ackerman) – thought untrained users would try to assign key words in the title or from parts of the work.

 

5. Future

Qiang will ask to extend the committee. Ed said the committee has provided very useful feedback. Qiang asked if we should review the last 3 new facets. We also need to write a final report. Ed would like a year to two. By annual they should have analyzed the database for conflicts, missing items but probably the committee should go for at least one more year or more. Shannon asked if music and literature could be included in the library science test database for our review. Laura asked if the principles of FAST would be applicable to other thesauri. Stephen thought it was interesting but not part of our charge. Lynn thought some geographicals should be included in our review because qualifiers are only included if needed to break a conflict whereas in LCSH states are given, or is starting with Pacific Ocean comprehensible to the user. Shannon thought we should look carefully at the manual while we look at the database. Kayla suggested FAST be included in ContentDM. They might have a problem with size of the file and their software hasn’t had a good structure for dealing with cross-references. Qiang said she would have the subcommittee extended for one year. A year from now we will review if another extension is needed.

 

CCS Executive

Session 1:  Friday, January 19, 2007, 7:30-9:30 PM

 

Friday nights is to review the state of CCS programming, mainly for the upcoming Annual, to see make sure that everything is on track, but also to hear of any new developments, or anything else we should know, from the representative to ALCTS Programming. We would also be talking about any plans for the subsequent Annual. It's at the Friday evening meeting at Annual that CCS Executive Board finalizes and approves proposals for 2008 programs and pre-conferences.

 

SATURDAY--Jan 20

 

8:00-12:30      ALCTS Program Committee -- Member

 

NOTES              I am the CCS representative.

                        CCS EXEC – each section will have program at Annual. There can also be a forum – does CCS Exec want? I would be a coordinator between Program Planning and CCS Exec if so. Need at least basic proposal between DC and Philadelphia. The forum needs a contact for the Programming Planning Committee. ALCTS takes care of arranging for the room. Need to know you want a room by Oct.

 

CRG (Council of Regional Groups) has begun discussing its role in educating librarians what is going on if LC relinquishes is role and a leader of best practices. The ALCTS report was referenced: ALCTS AND THE FUTURE OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC CONTROL: CHALLENGES, ACTIONS, AND VALUES

(For next meeting get schedule from ALCTS page)

 

A1 – Informing the Future of MARC: An Empirical ApproachTrack: ALCTS Program. -- Sally will probably include reference to a study of metadata where the research determined MARC was most suitable.

A2 – Workflow Analysis, Redesign, and Implementation: Integrating the Complexities of Electronic Resources in the Digital AgeTrack:  ALCTS pre-conference. – Friday pm – should be a set of concepts you can take back in plug in at your library. The planner has asked to podcast this and the Friday morning event because the equipment can be rented on a daily basis. He has also asked for papers that could be published in LRTS. May have money from Springer.

A3 –Comprehensive Series TrainingTrack: ALCTS pre-conference. --  Covers two full days,  Thurs – Fri. Decided not to use PCC in the title because people think PCC is LC – they are associated but separate. They are trying to avoid political or emotional issues. They want to train people to create series. PCC will be in the listserv ads but not in the title. This will be part of the Catalogers Learning Workshop (see LCs page) – these are sponsored by multiple entities, not just LC.

A4 – Bringing Order to Chaos: Managing Metadata for Digital CollectionsTrack: Digital Information & Technologies.  It is a case study type of program. How to mainstream metadata creation into regular tech services workflows. Intended for people with basic to intermediate knowledge.

A5 – Reflections on Cataloging Leadership  Track: Administration & Leadership. Subtrack: Leadership & Management. Five speakers – need a set of questions maybe to focus their comments. They have already been sent a list of questions; will try to focus on a specific aspect. Need to leave time for questions. There was concern about the use of the word “reflect” – make sure advertising doesn’t sound like reminiscences.

A6 Managing the Multigenerational Workplace: Practical Techniques – ALCTS Pre-Conference – Management Day.   This is a follow-up pre-conference. Reword the description in different order.

A7 – New Developments in Form/Genre Access: where we are, where are we heading, and where we want to be  -- Collection Management and technology. Subtrack: Cataloging. Will cover genre authorities. The committee asked if this is for librarians management and/or for patron use.  Looking for someone from the music community to speak.

A8 – What They Don’t Teach in Library School: Competencies, Education and Employer Expectations for a Career in Cataloging   -- -- Track: ALCTS Pre-conference.   There seem to be 2 descriptions but they feel the all day pre-conference covers both ideas. Why is it so hard recruit into the field and the challenges for the need of continuing education; also needs of employers. This will be a web-cast via LC. There will be 3 breakouts in AM and 3 in PM Will be seeking papers that might be published in from other people who could have been potential speakers but couldn’t be fit in – would be in ALISE’s journal. I pointed out that advertising should include follow-up work resulting from the breakout sessions.

            Discussion at 2nd meeting discussed the number of people the committee planned to have involved; it might be hard to orchestrate and there will be no special funds for extra people. Charles Wilt was concerned that attendance would be low.

A9 Digital Asset Management: Implications for PreservationTrack: Digital Information and Technologies.  There are 3 proposals regarding preservation but no track with that name even though this is really digital. Advertising together would be beneficial. Need to clarify the preservation decisions need to be made before you start.

A10 – Why Can’t Johnnie and Jane Get Published? Part 3, Research Survey Methods – Track: ALCTS program.  Description will be rewritten to 75 words or less. Perhaps include how to do it (get published) both right and wrong

A11 - Mentoring for Success: You Can Do It. ALCTS Can Help – Track: ALCTS Career Paths and Professional Development.   Focus is mentoring.

A12 – Ambient Findability: <add: librarians, >Libraries and the Internet of ThingsTrack: President’s Program. Planner said they still need to talk with speaker about tailoring to ALCTS and then add the word librarians to the title to make sure we understanding librarians are involved. This is the president’s (ALCTS) program.

A13 – Making the e-resources infrastructure work: Effective metadata exchange & exposureTrack: ALCTS Program. Will discuss OpenURL, DOIs, etc. 

A14 – Saving Sound 3:  Audio Digitization and Preservation  -- Track: Collection management & Technical Services . Covers digital preservation of audio.

A15 – Two Thumbs Up! A Preservation Film Festival  -- Track: ALCTS Program.  Film festival - a fun thing and outside the track times so it isn’t tracked unfortunate since the Program Committee approves it. They do serve food which is not allowed in an ALA program.

 

Strategic plan – Next step is to do short and long range planning from the strategic plan so we can plug things in and continuous planning. Is it more continuing education, committee members mentor program planners,

Each Section will have a new online tool to input action items (CCS) – I would need to work with David on this? What area of the strategic plan does a program proposal meet? The Section should determine that. They should know that they need to do programs or activities or pre-conferences to meet the strategic plan and they should enter the information and I would be encouraging that or putting in information if they don’t. What idea does CCS have to carry forth a goal or item beneath. You will be able to input a brief outcome about a program. The ALCTS forums probably also fit some where but the Program Committee chair would enter info for those in this database. 

 

B-1 – Cataloging Correctly for Kids: AV, E-books, and More!   -- Track:  Collection Management & Technical Services, Subtrack:  Cataloging.  The proposed description needed to be shortened. The presenter thought people who need this program will be eager to attend.

B-2 – Collecting for Institutional Repositories: All the news that's fit to keep – Track: Collection Management and Technology. Subtrack: Collection Development.

The focus is on collection development, not metadata or copyright issues. There is a conflict between author wishes or agreements and access open or limited.

B-3 - Fundamentals of Library of Congress Classification: An ALCTS/PCC Workshop. Track ALCTS Pre-conference.  This two-day pre-conference will present authoritative, standardized training in the principles and practices of Library of Congress Classification (LCC). They have 4 people confirmed to speak though not listed.

B-4 – Technical services 2.0 : using Social Software for collaboration – Digital Information and technologies --  Collaborative tools for technical services. Monday 1:30-3:30. Social software such as wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, are proving themselves on the public services side of libraries. This program will explore their application in technical services. <or some such >

 

Charles – authority for the committee. The committees are extensions of the ALCTS board and have authority to and should make decisions. An example is Cataloging Pre-conference – A-8 What they don’t teach – he is concerned that there will be poor attendance; goal is to have action items; is this an education thing or a strategic plan? We should have guided them to a narrower focus. Anaheim – thinking a large drive in attendance, staff catalogers (non-LCSH subjects?), Futurist, digital, California Digital Library (CDL), music or motion picture archiving, younger people, etc. We should always look at how we do our business. Would we work better with subcommittees where we could bring in people from outside the committee?  Chair makes appointment, lets Charles know and they are an official member as far as institutional support. This committee can do a pre-conference. We don’t want empty half days. ALCTS does have a budget for conference calls. If it is a small, Charles calls the people for up to 5 people. For more people, ALA has vendors for handling phone conference calls and you are given a number and a passcode. 

 

The Program Planning Committee decided to have two subcommittees: Pre-conference and Forum

 

Pre-conference: Chair and member plus 2-3 outside of the Committee.

Role is to guide or mentor the program planners or contact the main committee with concerns. Also a role would be to try to find programming. A pre-conference planner would HAVE to go through the subcommittee. Genevieve will need to write a charge.

 

Forum: Chair of Program Planning Committee will be responsible for ALCTS forums. Each committee member is to communicate with the Section they represent.

ALCTS level forums can occur at annual and MW. The committee member “shepherds” for section-level forums. In the forum subcommittee, the person with oversight for the ALCTS level forum would be the Chair of Program Committee (if needed). Therefore Shelby would contact CCS (David) and ask if they are planning a forum or would like to do one. In a year, the Section should do either program or forum – both are not needed.

 

Shepherding includes things like speaker names and therefore agreements and publicity. ALCTS has a time slot and room scheduled but we may not have anything.

 

 

1:30-6:00        ALCTS CCS CC:DA – Liaison     

 

1:30-6:00        RDA Forum    


Slides or Notes from the presentations at the RDA Update Forum at ALA Midwinter have been mounted on the JSC Web site: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/jsc/rda.html#presentations  

 

4:00-6:00          Fairmont Olympic Hotel – Senate Room

"The Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS): Bringing Vocabularies to the Web"
Saturday, January 20, 2006, 4:00-6:00 [Location TBA] -- controlled vocabularies and thesauri -- [1] http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/  [2] http://metadataregistry.org

 

7:00-10:00      Space needle    

Thomson reception - shuttles between convention center and Needle 6:30-10:00  

 

SUNDAY--Jan. 21

 

7:00-9:00        OCLC Breakfast   

 

WorldCat Identifiers in OCLC Research – check this out. Both this and Fiction Finder are using tagging.  WorldCat Selection allows you to order from multiple vendors and export bibs to local ILS for orders. Openly Informatics sets holdings, no charge, generates reports.

 

COMING SOON! The OCLC PromptCat service and Cataloging Partners program are being merged into one new, enhanced service—WorldCat Cataloging Partners.
http://www.oclc.org/catalogingpartners/wccp.htm

-=-=-=-

 

The presentation from the "Partnering with OCLC for Cataloging and Selection" session that was held at ALA is now available on the Web site.

You can access the presentation from the right side of the following pages (it is the same presentation on all 3 sites): 

 ** Cataloging Partners -- http://www.oclc.org/catalogingpartners/default.htm

 

8:00-10:00        ALCTS Future of cataloging and basic values  http://www.ala.org/ala/alctscontent/alctspubsbucket/bibcontrol/NextSteps2006.pdf

David Miller

  • Future – future encompasses the idea of.. and values of …
  • Future is not created by task forces
  • Future is the next moment of the present
  • It is created by what we do
  • It is created by what every cataloger does
  • What values do you believe in when you do what you do
  • For ALCTS to maintain a leadership role:
    • serves libraries of all types and sizes; libraries that are larger don’t define what all libraries do
    • serves diverse needs of users of all materials; upcoming digital resources does not make legacy data invaluable; not available materials are not necessarily without value
  • Reuse of metadata
  • Collaboration should be in place, not competition. Search engines and OPACS each have a value and  strength in their own ground; combinations and collaborations with mashups create richer access
  • Budgets. Budgets have moral and local implications. They should be creative and proactive; Workflows should be designed in a fiscally responsible manner
  • Cataloging is an international profession
  • The future is longer than the past; it is necessary to act on current needs but we are forming the future by our actions; remembering continuity exists should shape decisions

 

Sally Smith

            Likes the phrase, think globally act locally, to try to follow I trying to figure out ways to provide access to collections. We are about being information “gods” – providing access to information. Example: AquaBrowser uses the bibliographic record as it s base to create the OPAC. Technology at first appeared to be taking the library’s role away but it is now giving it back. < There is a new book out on the topic >

 

Ana Cristan

            Librarianship is an international profession. LC is very active internationally and has translations of many documents. They have worked to include non-Roman text in authority records, non-English elements in RDA; Arabic, Greek, and Chinese are being included in ClassWeb.

 

Mary Charles Lasater

            There are diverse needs – there are all kinds of users. There are no “transitional” users – we serve all users not respecting of their preference for digital or print or audio, etc. Check the OCLC document on perceptions, p. 6-8 – libraries are seen by information users as a single source solution, libraries are constant. So why are we being pressured to lower our standards? We should capitalize on our ability to be precise. We need to show each other respect in our discussions and change the tone. It is not about metadata versus cataloging or administrators vs. catalogers.

<< Had to leave >>

 

Related document: http://www.ala.org/ala/alctscontent/alctspubsbucket/bibcontrol/NextSteps2006.pdf

               

9:00-10:00      ALA Council I - Exec Board/Membership Information Session  

            Reports

                        Budget Analysis and Reivew (BARC).  Graduated dues study task force (#33.1). There will be recommendations at ALA Annual with update coming in 2008 at Midwinter.

                        Endowment Trustees report (#16). For the last 12 months our investments increased by $3.6 million. $1 million was in contributions and the rest by active management of the funds. Had a return of 10.9%. Funds are managed by three trustees. The committee decided to use Ariel Capital to manage the Socially Responsible Inventing (SRI) instead of PIMCO. They use a number of managers for various types of investments. Management costs are 0.71%. They encourage planned investment in ALA in your estate planning.

                        Nominating Committee report. (#26-26.1)

                        Diversity report. (#3) Three studies were done regarding employment in the profession, focusing on demographics, salaries and Census data analysis for the industry “library”. What changes are occuring. See: http://ww.ala.org/memberdemog, http://www.ala.org/ala/ors/reports/LibrarianSalaries1982-2003-091605.pdf, http://www.ala.org/ala/ors/diversitycounts/divcounts.htm  Found growth public and legal with net loss in academic and hospital. In age group 45-54 we had growth of 5.4% but employment growth overall in the US was 33% for that age group, so old people are staying in their library jobs. We are not attracting minorities into the profession. However the data being used is not really current because of census cycle. It shows the ALA Spectrum Scholars program was urgently needed. American Communities Survey by the Census Bureau is an annual survey. Last year’s data included very little information about the industry “library”.

 

10:00-10:30    ALA-APA Council Information meeting  (discussion)

 

            President’s Report (#9):  Discussed 3 salary reports. Median salary for a librarian is $56,259. The data will be posted and made available for a fee. Range was $22,000-$253,000. The western program covering states west of the Mississippi is different than the work underway on a certification for non-MLS training. The APA should be soon self-sustaining from the large amount of money held as an asset and from fees from certification and sales of the salary information. The APA needs to market itself and expand its certification program.

           

 

CCS Executive

Session 2:  Sunday, January 21, 2007, 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM

(All Section Executive Committee Meeting)

 

The purpose of my reporting would be 

The point would be to let CCS Exec. know of any new programming developments that have taken place since  

 

10:45-12:15    ALA - Council I

 

Minutes (#2) approved.

 

Nominations (#11) nominations to 2007 ALA Executive Board. Those elected will serve 3 years. Go to table 14 in ALA Office to vote if not at Tues meeting.

 

President’s report (#21) hope to have new web page available in early May.

 

Vice-president’s report (#29) –

·         Supporting LIS Education through Practice Task Force is working in collaboration with ALISE and ALA’s Committee on Education to continue the Education Forums to take place on Friday afternoons at ALA

·         Workplace Wellness Task Force has held a conference call and is planning a Wellness Fair for 2008 ALA in Anaheim

·         Circle of Literacy Task Force will participate in a conference call to work on supporting the “We Shall Remain” American Experience series – hoping to be able to offer community programming grants to libraries planning events around the series content

·         Making progress on calendar of events online to coincide with the anniversary of ALA events

·         Three taskforces are supported by circles of activity: Events Planning Circle, Student Action Circe, Envisioning Circle.

·         Events will be infused with both and international and indigenous presence.

 

Executive Director’s report (#23). Addressed EPA closing, LC decisions, new web page to be released soon, working on 2nd campaign for American libraries, his report will be sent out more broadly, including directly to division presidents and roundtables.

 

Reports (#15) and (#9) report on activities of the Executive Board. Hope to make some of their actions into news releases to show what libraries are doing.

 

Hot topic discussion:  Creating buzz about council

 

 

1:30-6:00        LITA/ALCTS - Authority Control in the Online Environment IG 

 

1:30-3:30        ALCTS/LITA/RUSA MARBI

 

ONIX Standard

            They have reached an agreement on resource categorization in RDA and ONIX. They were looking for something more compatible with FRBR and looked at the GMD and SMD problem. What they came up with is extensive. As long as the categories stay in place, the terminology the user sees can vary. They wanted to be comprehensive in describing different types of resources. Chapter 3 is now carrier and it will come out in March for review. Part of chapter 4 will also come out with the content in it. The framework needs a mechanism for maintaining and keeping it current.

            Storage medium format – what is there for objects? or “other” (this can’t be allowed; everything has to be defined)  In RDA there is a content designation that doesn’t have a carrier – e.g. a rock is a rock. This framework will exist in RDA and will refer to but not be stuck in it only. Its strength is that it first designates categories then attributes. RDA may need guidance in terminology to be used in the label in the record for users. Tom Delsey has been able to map most of the proposed categories to terms currently in use.

 

RDA

MARC mapping report. What changes may be needed? A number of fields were identified to exist in MARC21 but not in RDA. JSC is working on a proposal for adding these. RDA to MARC21 map is scheduled for Sept. 2008. They need to define: media type, content type, carrier type. Check the JSC web site for these types. What about things determined through the comparisons that are “out of scope”? John Attig thought “out of scope” referred to FRBR user needs. 561, 562, 541 he thought fell into rights management and the JSC didn’t want to address that at this time. Karen Coyle thought the approach of the document was backwards. It looks at MARC and sees if RDA can fill it in. Jennifer thought another document would be prepared maybe by next MW showing where RDA fits into the MARC21 format.

 

DP1

German. MAB was mapped to MARC21 to determine what didn’t fit. 1060 elements were identified as not mapping into MARC21.

Sect. 2.1 – a linking field (e.g. OCLC is linking from the BIB to the authority record internally; they just don’t display it; they actually store linking numbers at the subfield level); repeatability seems to be at different levels – multiple subfields or a single heading linking to a record in multiple authority systems. How would 100/240 work? Is it 2 links? << FAST is making a 130 qualified by the author >>

Sect. 2.2 – They link the series to the main set record. In the US we would probably rather link to an authority record (that LC isn’t creating any more) Can record IDs be self-describing. OCLC thought it is more like a linking entry field (or subfield) to distinguish between linking to bibs vs. linking to authorities. So something like $w to link to another bib and $0 to link to an authority record.

Sect ?? sequencing issue was hard to understand. Sherman Clarke – is this method of standardizing sorting

 

DP2007-03 linking ISSN.

The revision of the standard has been approved. It confirms that separate ISSN’s are assigned to separate medium versions. It established a linking ISSN-L to be used to be a collocating ISSN to bring mediums together.  It is a separate data element but not a separate identifier. There are 2 options in the paper: 1) use the same field as the 022 with the medium specific ISSN in a subfield $f; this would mean it is also in a field with invalid or cancelled ISSNs; or 2) define a second indicator to indicate in an additional 022 that this is the ISSN-L number. The cons to option 2 include the idea that 022 should not be repeatable and having 2 022s are confusing; option 1 is clear. OCLC, Virtua, NLM, NAL all support option 1. The British Library created a temporary field similar to option 2 approach and don’t understand the confusion. If you were to put it in an OPAC, would either option work with for a label. If an ISSN becomes invalid but the ISSN-L was created from it, it remains even though the original medium ISSN is now not to be used.

 

 

3:30-5:30        Ex Libris Group – Directors Reception 

Talked a bit with Carmit

 

4:00-6:00        PCC

Featured presenter, Lorcan Dempsey

For presentation Power Point, see PCC News: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/

 

PCC decided that series are still important and a task force in PCC will look at policies, etc. for series. The CONSER access record is now their standard. PCC is going to have educational sessions intended to stimulate thought. Hence Lorcan Dempsey was invited to speak.

 

Lorcan Dempsey – reflections

 

Re-using data we already have

In both these cases, they are just re-using data they already have. It is the same type of thing that can be done creating the next generation OPAC.

 

Examples of making data work harder. The structure of the data can be re-used. Example is Fiction Finder,  where they have used tagging, used FAST, and FRBR-ized to cluster works and manifestations. When the results come back they are ordered by holdings. In his example, The Shining is the result and it was FRBR-ized to cluster various editions. They have thought about checking holding libraries to predict an audience level. Once you have the list you can drill down through language. He tried another example with “mystery” and “Seattle”. The highest held is Pied Piper, then Disclosure, etc. You can access the data by a lot of different ideas.

 

WorldCat Identities (not yet released). This is about people who have written books. There are 18 million identities, including fictional characters. The response shows various forms of name, types of literature written, roles (e.g. adapter) These are first listed in groupings like Red Light/Green Light indicating there are many editions, or in languages, etc.; then you can drill down in the general area that appealed to you.

 

Description – we are describing books (information objects), but also licensing, databases, services, and more.

Stewardship – i.e. where we spend our time and money

 

high                                                                              low

Books/journals – recently more time on storage, digitization, resource sharing; ERM; Knowledge bases

Freely accessible web resources – will be ingested into local collections (OPAC)

Special collections, archives, theses, local history – recently this an area being digitized; curatorial responsibility is increasing; now we have to think about provenance, evidential integrity)

Research & learning materials (e-prints, research reports, courseware, learning objects); new behaviors and support for research and learning; the digital ‘record’ becomes more important (prospectus, course catalog, student records)

 

We are selectively trying to manage portions of the Web. We have many versions of a document to document, e.g. theses from draft to final degree. We are trying to manage movement of data and linking of data. Data flows in and out of people’s work space or being incorporated in work, etc.

 

Discover – gather --  share  -- create

RefWorks ELGG.net moodle myspace zotero librarything

 

An example of research: http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon/KM%20JStor%20Presentation.pps

 

Management corresponding to Stewardship

In the top left corner of the above grid we have a mature industry and cooperative structures to manage the books/journals we started with. We are still working on the ERM etc. In the other corners we are institutionally immature and it is therefore expensive to manage because we haven’t got it all figured out.

 

MARC, MODS, ONIX

???

DC, EAD, VRA

“vernacular” approaches (topic focused), DC, IEEE LOM

 

Instead of just MARC now we have EAD, ONIX, VRA, CCO, many controlled vocabularies, etc. – perhaps a lot of unnecessary complexity. Then there are many approaches or information models – FRBR, INDECS, CIDOC. If we think about mass digitization (GOOGLE digitizing libraries) - versions, rights, relationships, who will keep the last print copy, etc.

 

Discovery and disclosure

We have to make our experience more exciting

We need to bring information to the fore where users are

 

Discovery: Catalog

Next generation cataloging discussion

Combine access over local collections

NCSU, Primo, WorldCat

He gave Primo as an example making the user experience richer

 

Shared catalog discovery elements like OhioLink, WorldCat – bigger collections can meet users’ needs

 

Syndicated catalog discovery, either with data or services (API’s, course management, RSS)

 

Fourth type of discovery example

In Amazon you can be told your local library has the book you want based on ISBN. If not in the library, it goes to OCLC which will send all similar editions back to Amazon which will tell you a closely related edition is available at your library. Obviously, if not at the library, Amazon can sell you the book.

 

Futures

More acquisitions of data from vendors

More automated metadata creation

Common metadata creation environments (way too diverse now)

More structured data – more authorities to allow picking from lists

-          this does not so much discretion by catalogers/metadata creators but we have to take advantage of all the data we can and re-use it.

 

 

5:30-7:00        ALA - President’s Reception  

Met the Councilor from Iowa.

 

 

6:30-8:30        Ex Libris Reception -  Pacific Science Center

            Talked about timelines resulting from the buyout of Endeavor. I had talked with Gary Strawn, very active n development of software for Endeavor. He was told 2 years and there would be a new GUI. The Ex Libris rep said maybe as much as 5 years but there will be a whole new GUI.

 

MONDAY--Jan. 22

 

8:00-12:30      ALCTS CCS - CC:DA  -- Liaison

                         

SEE LITA REPORT

 

10:15-11:15    ALA-APA 

 

Minutes (APACD #2)

            Who is responsible for acting upon resolutions passed at APA? People in the Washington Office. Plan is to send to Congress.

 

Bylaws (APACD #6)

            Recommendation was to have a committee review policies regarding labor disputes and forward to appropriate body.

 

Committee on Organization (APACD #4)

            Proposed change: To provide training and information, recommend standards, suggest strategies, and undertake resarch to improve the salareis and status of all library employees and encourage career development for all library employees. To promote and advocate pay equity and equity in the workplace as it affects all library employees by: acting as a resource on the pay equity issue for the American Library Association; maintaining an active network and database of resources in support of these issues; and supporting equal employment for all library employees, all in support of and promoting the larger goals of the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association.

 

ALA-APA CPLA Certification Review Committee (APACD #10)

            Have attained trademark status for the CPLA designation. Now have 30 courses.

 

Committee on the Salaries and Status of Library Workers (APACD #8)

            Report was given

 

Treasurer’s report (APACD #4)

            APA provides national training for library workers, advocates for training and salary recommendations for library workers, and reports and analytical reports.

            Budget is net is negative $39,000. Had a loan from ALA, but plan to start paying it back in 2009. In 2006 they had a net revenue of $21,000 for the first time. In Sunday’s Cognotes on p. 16 is a reference to a test of the electronic version the Library Salary Database http://cs.ala.org/web-salary/salarysurvey/login/index.cfm  The full version will be available for subscription in the spring.

 

NEW BUSINESS

Resolution on nonbinding minimum salary for professional librarians (ALAPD #15)

Be it resolved:

That the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association endorses a minimum salary for professional librarians of not less than $40,000 per year;

That the details fo this endorsement shall be published and otherwise disseminated by the Director of the ALA Alllied Professional Association as appropriate.

Michael Gorman thought there should be a glossary term defining what we mean by “professional librarian” Issues brought up: not all are full-time, some areas could never reach the minimum, the dollar figure needs to revisited regularly.

 

11:30-12:30    ALA Council - Executive Board Candidates Forum  

             

Discussion

Nancy Zimmerman – ASL (school) member; interests: endowments, roundtable and chapter chapter contribution; as military spouse she experienced a variety of library experiences

Gladys Smiley Bell – served on a ALA nominating committee; section chair in ACRL and several other committee particularly conference of librarians of color; work with diverse cultures; reflect and articulate needs and services for members

Charles Kratz – LAMA; served on several Council committees; academic dean but does work at his public library; will purse agenda of common interest and represent interests of all types of libraries; need to proactive to address critical issues affecting our profession

Audra Kaplan – YALSA and now administrator; BARC member – financial experience; on Emerging Leader committee; committee for conference planning; of concern: diversity, financial stability, quality graduate education, broad experience and open minded

Larry Roman – experience in 3 goal areas – advocacy in public policy, membership, organization and collaboration; worked on advocacy commitees for 10 years; wants more voice for the membership; promote communicate between exec and council and between council and division, chapters and members at large; academic librarian but has done a little work with PLA; coalition building; was a Tennessee chapter councilor

Melora Ranney Norman – commitment to intellectual freedom; chair of the committee on organization; believes in the power of libraries; works with disenfranchised and set up website for them; “make a career of humanity”

 

Questions

What is your experience with your state chapter and how do chapters relate to ALA.

All relatively favorable.

 

1:30-3:30          ALCTS/SS - Continuing Resources Cataloging Committee Update Forum

new CONSER standard record - http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/conser.html

 

Reports

            Les Hawkins

                        ISSN standard has been approved. Separate ISSN numberrs will be assigned to different medium. ISSN-L is a collacating ISSN. ISSN office will assign ISSN-L retrospectively even if it only occurs once. MARBI discussion favored putting the linking ISSN in 022 $f and it will come back as a proposal.  NSDP will start assiging ISSNs to integrating resources once LC, etc. are ready.

                        ABA Directorate has now been merged with Acquisitions which also includes serials. ABA will be a “technical services” department with Cataloging, Acquisitions, and Serials.

                        CONSER – discussed proposed phased approach. Need to work with JSC, RDA, etc and it would not be feasible to begin phased approach beginning before RDA and JSC were informed and could provide feedback. The committee decided to implement recommendations all at once and as described depending on JSC response.

            Kevin Randall

                        CCDA – There will be a new rep to JSC from CCDA. The Committee on Principles is really in charge, whereas JSC is in charge of content. ALA had expressed concerns about the development process: top-down, timeline allowing for review, not using AACR as sole source of review, etc. Timeline: March-June for Chapter 3, July-Oct will cover Chapter 7, Dec-Mar 2008 will cover Pt. B, then review of complete draft. Goal to publish 1st quarter 2009. Paul, Diane, and Karen are independently writing up an alternative to RDA perhaps really to inform the development.

                        Title change doc – see LITA notes

                        CCDA concern with CONSER standard was with Uniform titles that some see important and others not.

                        MARBI 2007-01 $b j 041 – language if captioned was approved with revision

MARBI - authority format - $h approved with revision – check 

MARBI - 533  approved

                        CCDA - Music – redefined to be any printed music, not just parts

                        CCDA is setting up a communications task force

ALA annual Friday -1-5:30, Saturday - 1:30-5:30 8-10 and Monday 1:30-3:30 – NOTE THE CHANGE

 

CONSER TRAINING and an SCCTP

            Googlezon – cute

            Ability to find information according to a predictable scheme is what set libraries apart from Googlezon. LC spends $44 million on cataloging a year. We believe the future of cataloging is in controlled access points and subject analysis. The CONSER standard is to maximize expertize – to emphase the parts of the record that we can uniquely provide information.

            Goal: one standard record, less costly, compatible with standards, applicable to all formats. The problem has been too much decision making, composing involved notes, and having to use manuals take time without adding to the record. They were looking for a way to reduce redundancy and be less cluttered. (bibs built by experts, tested, revised, reviewed) They did a thorough review of FRBR user needs. From that they created a mandatory element set. Should be able to save 20% time for cataloging. Very few mandatory elements changed. More elements are now optional – some uniform tities, some notes, some places. It is okay at an institution to decide to use an optional element – it looks like on 008 for microform is to be mandatory but not for online << this will not work in ODIN >>. Uniform titles are only required for generic titles, monographic series, or where they serve as collocating titles (e.g. law titles) Distinguishing elements are already in the bib record so you don’t need a uniform title << this assumes your OPAC displays $h >>. All 362s are not formatted – all will be 362 1 Began with or Ceased with. Description based on and latest title consulted notes only if necessary – instead prefer links, display constants etc. to notes. They put 362 1 Began with and the source of title all in one note. Encoding level blank represents PCC/CONSER standards,  not 4. Documentation will be streamlined. You should be able to try to fill in the CONSER Standard Record for daily work and not need to consult the big manuals.

 

See PPT, ALA presentation, Jan. 2007 at: http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser

 

Although the report is final, all decisions about actual practice are not finalized. In a few cases MARBI needs to address the issues. Two differences so far is that for 008 22 “s” is not required  and 362 1 with “began with” and that doesn’t require a standard format for the numbering designation. See appendix A for decision-making guidance. No information currently in an existing CONSER record will be deleted. The only fields that are required to be maintained are those that are the mandatory elements. The presenter kept repeating the CONSER Standard “ is a floor, not a ceiling”. Authority records must exist for every access point (except 245). We will  always add a Description based on note. The CONSER standard record will be as full as is sufficient to identify and provide access points for user needs. Records may be a combination of old and new practices – that is OKAY.

 

See:  http://www.loc.gov/acq/conser/pdf/CheatSheetforCSR.pdf

 

LDR: Only 06 07 08 17 and 18 are mandatory

006: only first byte is required - m

007: only first 2 bytes – c & r (assumes online)

245: Record title

130: Uniform only for monographic series or generic (1 word, frequency); monographic still there so we can make links to autho record. Instead made 730/740

130/240: No uniformation title for translations of language editions – it will be an added entry IN ADDITION to 775 linking field

The reason we have been making uniform titles is to identify which of the identical titles you are looking for. The uniform title is being used in searching your own database, it is not printed on your journal (or online screen – unless of course, it is there) Therefore it is not right to put it in a 130. It is more right in a 730/740. The assumption here is that we are displaying the $h in the titles in lists and in the record display. <<  CHECK ODIN AND REQUEST CHANGE IF NOT DISPLAYED. >>

246: Parallel titles, abbreviations, initalisms will go in 246 – don’t put in 245. Also no subtitle (could be 500 note)

246: Variant titles – use only 246 3_ not 246 14 or 246 30 – the only one we should be picky about is variants of the title on the title page. Minor title change 246 1 $i, 246 31 parallel and 30 for acronyms

440: Do not use if authority record exists; use instead 830. If no authority, record 440 or 4901/830 If authority records exist the usage does not need to be in the bib; if no autho, then need usage. So we don’t have to fiddle with caption title or running title which often changes from issue to issue

260a: Place 1st one or if not there, use S.l.

260c: Not required to supply dates in 260 c however may be hepful in annual pubs that are pre or post publication

362: Always unformated 362 1; may use standard abbreviations, but not standard – it should be what is clearest i.e. what you see on the issue; try to do hierarchy in levels of enumeration. For a new series just add another 362 1 saying what you see about the new series – non of that v. 1 ; n.s. v. 1- Can use 515 to indicate the new series. New records will not have the formatted 362 but can continue formatting if updating existing record

500: Always include Desription based on first issue or Description based on __  Final issue consulted. 

550: No more 550 notes. Just add more 7XX fields as long as there are authority records for them

530: Pprefer lilnking fields so use 776 $i

538: Use only if other than Web

546: Put language here rather than much in 041 so only requiring 041 $a for language the journal IS IN; additional stuff like abstracts should be in 546

580: Prefer linking fields

730 and 740 not required if they duplicate linking fields (unless you use it in your system –UND DOES)

76X-78X: Use extensively to replace descriptive elements in the record << problem – these don’t display in ODIN >> 773/774 and 787 not required (can use in local system)

6XX: All records should have subject (except like Time magazine). If you don’t have subject headings with authority records, the Elvl is 7 even though everything follows the standard.

050-099: Classification not required, but input as usual when you do use it.

 

8:00-10:00        OCLC -  Enhance Users Group  

                        CONFLICT

                        Saved report OCLC-Enhance Sharing Session …

 

TUESDAY--Jan. 23

 

8:00-12:30      ALCTS - Program Committee  -- Member

 

See Notes for Saturday AM.

Forums, Strategic Plan, B1-B4, Charles on authority for the committee, subcommittees.  

 

CCS Executive

Session 3

Tuesday, January 23, 2007, 8:00 AM12:30  

Not scheduled to report at 2007 MW

 

9:15-12:45      ALA Council II  

Two Resolutions to be discussed: Resolution on Impeachment of President George E. Bush and Resolution to Advocate Ending the Funding for the Iraq War. Both were defeated. One regarding ASCLA and Boy Scouts of America was referred.

 

Attendance: 9222 registrants 12,196 total (including exhibitors, day visitors) – less than Boston, more than last MW

 

 

1:30-3:30        ALA CRC - Chapter Councilors Forum  

 

Membership and advocacy might be something chapters could help with the American Libraries campaign phase II. A committee will discuss at Annual. Chapter Relations Committee IS about making sure Chapter Councilors are a strong component of the ALA Council. Michael Golrick explained how to become involved with ALA Executive Board. If a chapter council is interested, begin Jan. the year before elections in the last year of your chapter term. Once you are on Executive Board you are to represent all of ALA but a person’s background is still going to influence the person’s decisions. ALA used to be primarily composed of chapter councilors, but not now. Most chapter councilors have term limits but members-at-large are unlimited and have a chance during Council to become known.

 

Chapter Councilors – CRC – chapters councilors only – there is a listserv for this but no one uses it

CRO – Chapter Relations - is councilors, board, etc. – I should automatically be on that list but I am not on Chapter Relations committee. Chapter Relations web page has a lot about Chapter Councilors

 

Orientation is very confusing. To get all appropriate information to new people, the new state chapter councilor name needs to go to both: 1) ALA Council Governance [dreisen ??]then to Lois-Ann Gregory plus 2) Chapter relations – Erika Johnson. The orientation at Annual is different than MW and you should attend both.

 

Discussed the several political resolutions ALA voted on at the Council II meeting. The opinion is that many academic librarians tend to be liberal whereas most school and small library librarians tend to be conservative. Representatives at Council tend to be from the academic or large libraries with a greater tendency to liberal views. So when we “vote our conscience” are we really representing all librarians?

 

4:30-6:00        ALA Council  Forum    

 

Discussed two proposed resolutions. One was on making sure libraries digitize materials so they are available to the visually impaired. The other was on serving immigrants – discussion varied in support of service to illegal aliens.

 

WEDNESDAY--Jan. 24

 

8:00-12:30      ALA Council III 

 

Reports

Election – Larry romans and Charles E. Kratz were elected.

Bylaws, Intellectual Freedom, Legislation, International relations, Committee on Organization, Parliamentarian reports were given

 

Committee on Organization (COO) (#25, #27) – discussing move to move electronic meetings while maintaining open-meetings. Both #27 and #25 address appearance of inpropriety in election nominations or appointments. COO requested of Bylaws to remove a sentence that is incorrect about election committee members right to be on a ballot this would be adjusted in by-laws #25 refered for better wording. #27 was approved to remove an invalid statement.

 

#19 intellectual Freedom Committee proposed that ALA sponsor a national conference on privacy “Taking Back American Values”

 

#20-20.3  Committee on Legislation. EPA staff met with many ALA committees GAO was also here. Tues. June 26 – ALA has the Gold Room set up in the Rayburn building so legislators can get their picture taken with their favorite book. Buses will take you there. It’s free but you need to register on your ALA registration form.

 

#20.1 Orphan works. “reasonably diligent good faith search” – it has legal precedent therefore allowing digitization of materials where inferred copyrighter cannot be found.

 

#20.2 Immigrants – not intended to determine whether legal or illegal; does “status” mean citizenship status? Assumes residency in a place yet seems to ignore taxing agencies that support public libraries and policies may have for residency. Michael Gorman proposed editing (and it was approved) to add: on the rights of anyone in the USA (Citizen or otherwise) rather than “immigrants rights” – resolution refers to an ALA policy 52.4.3 already supporting immigrant rights -- the sentiment was to favor serving all who come in the door, but recognizes residency needs to be established whether illegally or legally in the USA.

 

#18 International Relations Committee -- ALA will be nominating 40 people to serve on IFLA. IFLA asked for an ALA representative of the Blue Shield which supports protection of cultural property during armed conflict.

 

#10 Parliamentarian – there was much discussion about the decision to determine the resolution to impeach Bush was not germane.  His rating of Council effectiveness: D (dysfunctional) 0-50; M (mediocre) 51-70, E (effective) 71-90 [most show of hands], X (excellent) 91-100. Meeting evaluation: 1) good -  He asked us to be sure we have a sense of purpose; 2) weakest area – structure – ALA is thick with layers or organization; complexities of so many little democracies makes it difficult to move all forward; 3) good – culture of passion, striving for the best, appetite for learning – these are positives about ALA

 

(NDLA ALA Councilor report will appear in the Good Stuff)