PLA Blog

I wasn’t planning on spending all my computer time at the convention center at the wireless location, and have found that the internet connectivity at the hotel (Doubletree Suites) is less than satisfactory.  I’m sitting in the lobby writing. Had to ask another laptop user which network she was using.  I love my little Apple and it generally connects without my even noticing.  Not here.My name is Melissa Malcolm. I have never blogged before but want to try it at the library so hope that this experience will help with that.    I’m a new library director in Gloucester, VA, which is on the “Middle Peninsula”.  It’s rural and beautiful and I love it.  I’m a bit discombobulated, though.  I woke up at 3 am yesterday for a very early flight.  Left my cell phone somewhere so got another one.  (We survived without cell phones at conferences years ago–could I do it again?  Didn’t even want to try.)  I’m walking around with a broken foot–don’t ask!–and have been  dozing since the walk to the public library yesterday.  Lying on my bed, but also through a program this afternoon. I wonder if anyone noticed?Last night I attended the FOLUSA author reception, which has become one of my favorite events at ALA and PLA conferences.   I have an autographed copy of a memoir (can’t remember the title–it’s up in the room) by a young Hmong woman.  Her brief talk was moving and enlightening.  Remember Garrison Keillor talking about the Hmong and Vietnamese young people in his library in St Paul?  The future of our country, I think he called them.My favorite program today was Susan Hill Pieper’s on library web pages.  I’ve heard her before and enjoy her common sense, her enthusiasm and her self-deprecating sense of humor.  I’ve seen web pages that are pretty and have little real content.  I prefer those that may not be the most sophisticated but that help library patrons find what they need to know.  Susan’s at Paulding County, Ohio is one of those.  The suggestion that I’m going to follow is to work on building a historical postcard collection.  Scan those cards and get them on the web.  Your genealogists and history buffs will love them.I’m enjoying my visits with the exhibitors too.  As my new library has an unfamiliar (to me) automation system and utilizes different methods of ordering materials, I’ve taken the time to look at the new (to me) products and procedures, and talk to former vendors and jobbers about setting up new accounts.  Not too soon, though.  I’ve seen a few pursed lips at suggestions I’ve made for changes in procedure and I don’t want to find out what they mean, exactly.Let’s hope that I have a better grip on this whole process tomorrow and can post without a struggle.    

If you want to see more of my time at PLA than I have posted here, you can check out my flickr photo set for more pictures and snippets!

I was a bit leery when I read the course description for this workshop. I just didn’t believe there was any way to get the children at my library off the computer and excited about reading. I thought I had tried it all.

I’m happy to say, I think I was wrong. The Global Reading Challenge is another of those “infectiously inspiring” nuggets that this conference seems to be full of this year. Who would have ever thought you could turn reading into a sport? Not me, that’s for sure! But that is exactly what the Global Reading Challenge has done.

Working within a core set of rules, but infinitely malleable, the Global Reading Challenge gives teams of children a set of books to read and then pits them against each other to answer questions pertaining to the stories. The highest scoring teams advance, culminating in a tournament for the Global Reading Challenge trophy.  And there is always cookies and juice.

I was gobsmacked by the videos of children clamoring to be involved.  One presenter even said that Global Reading Challenge was more popular than Summer Reading Program!  Many schools have even incorporated the Challenge into their curriculum — reading one or more of the selections in the classroom.

I’m extremely excited to get home and try and figure out how this program could work for us.  We are small, but we are mighty and I’m always up for a good game!

Please pardon my lack of posting yesterday; I couldn’t get my login to work. I promise to make up for it tonight with a series of posts about my first two days at PLA. I have to say, that I’m definitely filling the “way too excited about everything” niche.

Wednesday, after our Party Bus arrived, I stood amongst the other librarians milling about, wondering what I could expect and what anyone could possibly want to talk to me about for two and a half hours. Once we were finally allowed to funnel into the dark hall — why was it so dark, anyway? No house lights? — I began to feel flutters of anticipation, but I still had no idea what inspiration there was in store.

“He had me at hello” was made for men like Jon Wood. I swear, 5 minutes in to his presentation, I was all teary. And then I figured out why the room was so dark — so people like me could hide and not feel quite so goofy about the premature tears.

Room to Read is one of those monumental efforts that could be daunting, but is, instead, exhilarating. It was only 10 minutes in when I dug through my bag, searching for a notebook and pen.  I wrote down two things: the url for the Room to Read website, and “What can I do to help?” Because Mr. Wood shows you just how easy it can be.

Every year during Summer Reading Program, we have our children work on a service project to see the importance of giving back. It wasn’t 15 minutes before I knew that Room to Read would be our project this year. We have a wishing well that the children can put their pocket money in and I’m going to approach a few local businesses about matching the childrens’ donations. At $1 a book, I think even my small town can make an impact.

Not sure if I’m posting something everyone else already knew about, but if any blog readin’ librarians get a chance to escape the conference for an art show I have a suggestion.  Go over to the Weisman Art Museum, a phenomenal Frank Gehry creation that resembles a giant hobbit-hut from the year 3000, and see The Exquisite Book: The International Library by Helmut Löhr, et al

Here’s a little excerpt from the site:

The Exquisite Book features selections from Helmut Löhr’s ongoing project, The International Library. For this project, Löhr created a series of altered books with their torn pages on the outside and their covers on the inside, and sent them to a number of artist-collaborators around the globe who were charged with further transforming them and returning them to Löhr. The Exquisite Book features collaborations with such internationally renowned artists as Lawrence Weiner, Buzz Spector, and Doug Beube. Also featured are several Twin Cities-based artists including James Conaway, Harriet Bart, and Nancy Randall.

Greetings Everyone. It’s been a long ride, but I’m finally sitting here in Minneapolis in a hotel room the night before the PLA conference begins. My name is Nate Hill, I work at the Brooklyn Public Library, and I’m going to do my best to share bits and pieces of my favorite conference experiences on this blog.

It hasn’t been easy getting here, but its been an awful lot of fun. Myself and two colleagues, Emily Nichols and Molly Phelan drove all the way here from Brooklyn. Our voyage has been filled with adventure, so here it is in one long run-on sentence:

Start by picking up a car in Newark NJ at 6:00 AM, then driving through the snowy mountains in PA, stopping at cloned rest areas in Ohio (that looked an awful lot like libraries, don’t you think?), discussing bad tattoos with our waiter over tapas and saffron infused vodka in Ann Arbor MI, waking up with the flu but pressing on, looking for anything nice to say about the passage of I94 through Gary, Indiana, spending time in Chicago (I can’t speak to this part, unfortunately I was knocked out with the flu), driving on to Madison WI, visiting the House on the Rock (truly the wackiest place of all time), eating squeaky cheese curds, and then finally marveling at a setting sun as we approached St. Paul.

Can’t wait for the conference to get going! I’m going to do my best to tweet sort of regularly during this thing, so if you want to follow me on Twitter my name is natenatenate. See you all out there tomorrow!

The last day is the saddest. All the signs are gone. There are ALA Councilors here, some real governance geeks, and staff. It is almost like the rest never happened.

We begin at 8 am. Council III begins with Memorials and Tributes. Memorials are offered for those who have died since Annual. Tributes are for those people who are still alive, or for organizations.

The report of the Tellers reported that Joe Eagan (yay Joe), Em Claire Knowles, and a school librarian Diane Chen. (CD #12.1)

Rod Hershberger gave a great Treasurer’s Report, and there is a lot of detail included in the printed documents. (The CD #13 series)

Three were reports from COSWL (Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship) had a resolution on caregivers. (CD 41)

The Committee on Organization had three items. The first two passed quickly. The last had issues about candidates for office and their ability to speak or “appear to work” on behalf of their candidacy. This went down in flames. (CD #27)

Constitution and Bylaws approved two affiliate memberships, and then had proposed amendments which get a first reading here, and then a second reading at Annual. (CD #25)

Barbara Stripling reported for the Intellectual Freedom Committee since the chair, and my friend Kent Oliver, was unable to attend. This is a “motherhood and apple pie” part of Council, and conveys great deals of information. (CD #19)

The second “Motherhood and Apple Pie” report is the Committee on Legislation report. Camila Alire gave the report, and spent time talking about the various legislative issues which apply to libraries. There will be a virtual Legislative Day. There were six resolutions:

1. GPO appropriations for free access to electronic documents
2. Adding tribal college libraries to the library depository library program
3. Safeguarding Electronic Government Information and E- Government
4. Postal Rate increases for small circulation publications
5. Commending Whilstleblower on NSLs
6. Funding for the Federal Digital System

There was a very brief report from Blanche Woolls for the International Relations Committee (CD#18) which she made from the floor of Council rather than from the podium. There were no actions.

If you’re looking to learn how to:

• Link the budget process to the library’s strategic planning priorities.
• Assign budget responsibilities, identify typical budget categories, and prepare a program budget from a line-item budget.
• Complete a cost-benefit analysis, establish fiscal controls, and manage cash flow.

Sandra Nelson’s workshop on Budget and Finance for Public Libraries is the learning opportunity for you. Brought to you by PLA and the Peninsula Library System, this two-day workshop will be held at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose, CA. For details on the course and to register, visit the PLA web site.

Fundraising with June Garcia
January 29-30, 2008
Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, Georgia
Register Now

This two-day, in-depth, interactive program will provide public librarians with the practical skills and knowledge they need to develop and implement effective fundraising projects for their libraries. In this workshop you will learn how to:

• Make a case for library fundraising initiatives
• Build and nurture public-private partnerships
• Develop the fundraising infrastructure within the library
• Create a needs or case statement to support a fundraising effort
• Develop a plan to market the fundraising effort

Completion of this course can be used as credit toward the Certified Public Library Administrator (CPLA) program. This voluntary program is designed for post-MLS public librarians with at least three years of supervisory experience, but you do not need to be enrolled in the CPLA certification program to take advantage of PLA/CPLA courses. For more information about certification, visit the ALA-APA Web site.

Tuesday mornings in the Convention Center are always sad. We come to the Convention Center to find that all the registration booths are coming down. Signs are gone, exhibits closed, ALA Store gone. I always find it somewhat depressing.

Today’s agenda started (after the business items) with the report from Policy Monitoring Committee . Many of there items were housekeeping and merely involve deciding where past Council actions appear in the handbook. There was much discussion on the election guidelines. These are not policies, and therefore not in the Handbook. Should “officers” be allowed to endorse candidates? Should units? Is not allowing this stifling our first amendment rights? These were the topics covered. The Executive Board has been charged with (again) reviewing the guidelines, and I can expect that there will be more discussion.

Janet Swan Hill did a masterful job of presenting the report. Janet then continued to report on the E-Participation Task Force. (ALA CD#35)

The Council Orientation Committee (CD#40) had an item which got a surprising amount of discussion. There was discussion about shortening the length of conferences. BARC (the Budget Analysis and Review Committee) will review this issue and report at summer.

We heard more on the graduated dues. And there was yet more discussion. [editorial remarks] Some people just don’t get that we have “semi-graduated” dues already. They also don’t get that doing salary based dues are patently unfair if the same scale is used across the country. [end editorial]

The Committee on Accreditation report almost got referred to the Education Task Force. There was extended discussion of whether COA did a good job. <editorial, again> The report presented incredibly minor editorial changes where many of us want much more. <end editorial>

The Committee on Professional Ethics (CD#38) report was presented. There are several important additions. They were passed with some discussion.

Honorary Membership was voted for Peggy Sullivan, Effie Lee Morris, and Pat Mora.

Keith Michael Fiels read the petition candidates whose petitions had been received.

Attendance as of Monday 10,533 registrants with exhibitors total was 13,601 which was up 1,300 from last year at the same time.