02.10.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:39 am by Leonard Kniffel
You probably heard it for yourself, but last night President Barack Obama did it again. He said “libraries.” At his first prime-time press conference since taking office, he addressed a nervous nation about unemployment, emphasizing that “the single most important part of this Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is the fact that it will save or create up to 4 million jobs, because that’s what America needs most right now.”
More than 90% of the jobs created in the plan will be in the private sector, he said, and “they’re not going to be make-work jobs but jobs doing the work that America desperately needs done, jobs rebuilding our crumbling bridges, repairing our dangerously deficient dams and levees, so that we don’t face another Katrina.” And then he added, “They’ll be jobs creating the 21st-century classrooms, libraries, and labs for millions of children across America.”
“He hears us,” I thought to myself, and he hears ALA. His people are listening. Asked later in the press conference about bipartisanship, Obama took it back to education: “The suggestion is, why should the federal government be involved in school construction? Well. I visited a school down in South Carolina that was built in the 1850s. Kids are still learning in that school—as best they can…. It’s right next to a railroad, and when the train runs by the whole building shakes and the teacher has to top teaching for a while. The auditorium is completely broken down and they can’t use it. So why wouldn’t we want to build state-of-the-art schools with science labs that are teaching our kids the skills they need for the 21st century, that will enhance our economy and, by the way, right now will create jobs?”
Indeed, why wouldn’t we? Every once in a while, it’s good for all of us inside ALA to remind ourselves that we are a 501(c)3 organization—noprofit educational—and that we are in the knowledge business more than the information business. It’s going to take more than the dissemination of information to play a key role in the nation’s economic recovery. The new ALA Office for Library Advocacy and the Washington Office are redoubling their efforts to reach the new administration with our education message. It seems they are listening.
Permalink
01.28.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:48 am by Leonard Kniffel
The third and final Midwinter session of ALA Council commenced bright and early Wednesday morning and the agenda moved rapidly into resolutions presented by Ken Wiggin, chair of the Committee on Legislation. The Council passed a glowing resolution praising President Barack Obama for “recognizing the importance of openness, transparency, and accountability in government by signing an executive order on presidential records and presidential memoranda on the Freedom of Information Act and Transparency and Open Government on his first day in office.” The ALA governing body then passed a resolution urging the United States Congress to reauthorize the Library Services and Technology Act “in a timely manner.”
During the International Relations Committee report delivered by chair Beverly Lynch, Councilor Al Kagan urged that we cannot achieve peace and stop the destruction of libraries and cultural institutions in Gaza without changing the policies of the U.S. government. A resolution on the connection between the recent Gaza conflict and libraries was introduced and the perpetual debate ensued: Is it the Association’s role to insinuate itself into international affairs? Councilor Elaine Harger argued that peace is a library issue, just as civil rights was in the 1960s, and Executive Board member Larry Romans cited ALA policy related to the Association’s social responsibilities.
With limited opposition, the resolution then passed, calling for “the protection of libraries and archives in Gaza and Israel” and urging the U.S. government “to support the United States Committee of the Blue Shield in upholding the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.” It also “calls on the U.S. government to continue working for a permanent peace in the region.”
Ken Wiggin also announced that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has put a hold on applying the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 to libraries. The legislation was passed to protect children from lead in toys, but it also included children’s books among items that need to be screened for lead. While lead poisoning is a serious issue, the is no evidence that the ink in books poses any real danger. Librarians have been lobbying for exemption to the act—which attendees have been talking about throughout the Midwinter Meeting—because it would force libraries to either test every book in their collections or prohibit children from handling them.
Elected to the board: Patricia Hogan, Stephen Matthews, Courtney Young
Among other actions, the Council elected three of its members to serve three-year terms on the ALA Executive Board, beginning at the end of Annual Conference this summer: Patricia M. Hogan, Stephen L. Matthews, and Courtney L. Young.
Updated Midwinter attendance figures released January 26 show a grand total of 10,220 attendees, compared to 13,601 in Philadelphia in 2008. The figure is very close to attendance projections but in categories that will not meet revenue projections. People opted for lower-price-tag events and categories, such as exhibits-only, Deidre Ross, head of Conference Services told me. Denver is also a location that does not lend itself to drive-in attendance from nearby cities, the way Philadelphia does.
Permalink
01.25.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:15 am by Greg Landgraf
The full breadth of ALA’s membership was on display at the well-attended and generally upbeat Membership Town Hall Meeting sponsored by ALA’s Executive Board and Membership Meeting Committee. Dozens of members offered their voices on the topic “What Do Library Staff Want President Obama to Know?” Members asked ALA President Jim Rettig to remind the president of the needs of libraries of all types, from public, academic, and school libraries to those serving more specialized populations like military, tribal, or federal libraries.
Bernie Margolis, state librarian of New York, expressed his hope that the technology-friendly president would support the reading of books as well. “We’ve seen him with his Barackberry, we’ve seen him in front of computers. Can we create an opportunity for him to help us and us to help him build on the knowledge economy that is such an important part of moving this country forward?”
Sam Hastings declared “I think we should remind the Pres that the Institute of Museum and Library Services is up for reauthorization, the home of the Library Services and Technology Act, and that the research endeavors out of that institution are what lead us into future and better solutions.”
Arizona State Librarian Gladys Ann Wells suggested simply a thank-you, “Because [President Obama has] done more for public records in two days than many administrations did in 12 months.”
Permalink
12.03.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:42 am by Leonard Kniffel
“Forty-one states are likely to face budget shortfalls this year or next, forcing you to choose between reining in spending and raising taxes,” said President-elect Barack Obama at the National Governors Association meeting December 2 in Philadelphia. “Jobs are being cut. Programs for the needy are at risk. Libraries, parks, and historic sites are being closed,” he observed. “Right here in Philadelphia, over two hundred workers are being laid off, and hundreds more unfilled positions are being eliminated.”
Immediately, the ALA Council’s electronic list lit up with the news. “He said ‘libraries’!” everyone seemed to be saying. “He said libraries!” And, yes, it is a good thing that libraries are already on our new president’s radar. The governors meeting is intended to be a bipartisan delegation, and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden welcomed Alaska Governor and former election rival Sarah Palin by saying, “And Governor Palin, your being here today sends a powerful message that when campaigns end, we are all partners in progress. Thank you.”
It’s going to take all the bipartisanship the Obama team can muster for the new administration to reverse the cascading effect the economic meltdown of 2008, a cascade that threatens library funding across the nation. Obama told the governors, “We’re going to have to make hard choices in the months ahead about how to invest precious tax dollars and how to save them.” He asked for the governors’ cooperation in designing a recovery plan. “If we are listening to our governors, we’ll not only be doing what’s right for our states, we’ll be doing what’s right for our country.” And by implication, for our libraries.
Meanwhile, I think librarians need to take an different approach from those institutions standing in line with their hands out. We should concentrate on the myriad ways in which libraries are already a part of the solution to the economic crisis. I am composing an open letter to send to the president on Inauguration Day. So far, it goes something like this:
Dear President Obama,
As you become the 44th president of the United States of America, probably the last thing you need is more people telling you what they want you to do for them. From the Headquarters of the American Library Association in Chicago, it looks to me as if everybody is asking you for something, and librarians, of course, don’t want to miss the boat. But before we get in line with our demands, let me offer one modest suggestion for how to deal with this profession: Let us show you what we can do for you.
In 2005, before you keynoted the American Library Association’s Annual Conference here in Chicago, I sidled up to you in the green room with a tape recorder and asked you to talk about libraries. You focused thoughtfully on my questions, one of which was, “Can you tell us more about the effect libraries have had on you?” You answered that although people tend to think of libraries in terms of just being sources for reading material or research, it was a librarian at the New York Public Library in Manhattan who helped you find the community organizing job you were looking for. “I probably would not be in Chicago were it not for the Manhattan public library,” you said, adding that the librarian had identified lists of potential employers and, “I wrote to every organization; one of them wound up being an organization in Chicago that I got a job with.”
People all over the country are using libraries in larger numbers than ever before, partly for reading and research as they always have but also because libraries have become community solution centers where people are learning new skills, meeting their neighbors, and getting practical help with some of life’s essentials, such as managing their dwindling finances or, like you, finding a job.
Following our brief interview, you went on to deliver a keynote speech so clearly tailored to librarians that we immediately asked your staff for permission to adapt it as a cover story in the August 2005 issue of American Libraries. In it you said, “More than a building that houses books and data, the library represents a window to a larger world, the place where we’ve always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward….” Many of us walked away from that speech already saying, “Yes we can.”
We can continue to be the “sanctuaries of learning” that you remember. We can foster literacy, what you called “the most basic currency of the knowledge economy.” We can produce the highest achieving students when they attend schools with good library media centers. We can help parents prepare children for the workforce and for a lifetime of reading and learning. Libraries are central to community development, civic engagement, and scholarly excellence. Therefore, the librarians of this nation ask not what you can do for libraries but what libraries can do to help you solve the daunting problems we all face. We’re at your service.
Permalink
