Council Wrap-Up and a Taste of Taste

My conference experience ended with a half-finished cab ride in which a limo opened its door as our cab pulled up to one of my cab mate’s hotel. No one was hurt (at least the fistfight between the drivers had not yet broken out when I decided to head north on Michigan). I decided that I’d been given the first and only opportunity to see what Taste of Chicago was all about. For less than 10 bucks, I had pad thai, barbecue, turtle cheesecake and some cooling lemon ice. The third-rate reggae band was free, as was the resultant migraine.

While most folks are back home by Wednesday, Councilors are obliged to stay until the last Council session ends after noon Wednesday. Exec board has even more work to do after the last Counilor has grabbed a cab. Council III can be pretty calm and finish early, or like today, have a full agenda and some dramatic discussion. Here are some selected actions that came out of Council meetings, many the result of difficult and passionate discussion and compromise (the final text of these resolutions is not yet available):

• Resolution in Suport of Immigrants Rights to Free Public Library Access
• Resolution on Disinformation, Media Manipulation & the Destruction of Public Information
• Resolution on the Connection between the Iraq War and Libraries
• Resolution on Threats to Library Materials Related to Sex, Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation

The last resolution gave newer members the opportunity to hear some institutional history from veteran councilors who were with ALA during the civil rights era. Some chapter Councilors were concerned that this resolution would damage already tenuous relationships between some library communities and their local and state legislators. These Councilors said that they were working on this issue on a local level and would not be able to support the resolution. ALA veteran Mary Biblo recalled that the same argument was used in the sixties when several state chapters were segregated and ALA required them to integrate. Another Councilor added that “a threat anywhere is a threat everywhere” and said that it was important that this resolution come from ALA. Noted intellectual freedom advocate June Pinnell Stephens said that this resolution was rooted in ALA’s “bedrock principles,” and that “if you think they’ll make hay of this resolution, just think of the response if we failed to support it.” It was an informed, passionate discussion that reminded me why I choose to be involved in governance.

The highpoint, for me, came in Council II when Deborah Jacobs, Chair of the Public and Culture Programs Committee (and City Librarian, Seattle Public Library), created a teachable moment when she reported to Council the first-year activities of the PCP. Many Councilors were unaware of the work or, even, the existence of the committee, or of the impact that public programs can have on a library community. I was happy to be able to support Deb’s remarks with my own comments as an experienced programming librarian. Council and the CPC came through with $2500 in donations for the Cultural Communities Fund.

I came into this conference not sure of my ongoing commitment to Council, but left feeling sure that I will seek another term.