ALA Participation Task Force
November 12, 2006 4:33 pm American Library AssociationALA president Leslie Burger appointed the ALA Participation Task Force last summer “to develop recommendations for expanding member opportunities, especially for the for the next generation of leaders, to participate in their association in meaningful ways.” Leslie and I began to discuss this issue a year ago and I volunteered to serve as chair of a task force charged to explore this issue and return recommendations at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.
Members of the Task Force are:
John W. Berry
Clara Nalli Bohrer
Sally Gibson
Romina Gutierrez
Kathy Schalk-Greene
Karen G. Schneider
Cal Shepard
Michael Stephens
This eclectic group includes a former ALA president, a trainer, a student, a library school faculty member, public librarians, academic librarians, and leading thinkers on information technology's role in information services. Jenny Levine was appointed to the task force; when she joined the ALA staff she transitioned into the very helpful and essential role of staff liaison to the task force. An academic librarian who accepted appointment concluded in October that she could not continue as a member.
The group has had a slow start due to the usual competitors for members' time and attention: summer vacations, start of the school year, travel to conferences, preparing conference presentations, managing a building renovation that has run longer than planned, etc. The group has finally gained some traction as members have responded to the following questions:
I am a Millennial librarian, in the profession a short time. Persuade me about the reason I should join ALA and get involved. (Or to recast that in a more favorable form rhetorically, what can I gain from joining ALA?)
What should/will ALA 2.0 look like?
We began working in ALA's online communities software but have recently concluded that, for a variety of reasons, we should move to an open venue. Jenny is working on making that happen. Meanwhile, Michael Stephens' and my responses are public in our blogs.
