Candidates for ALA Executive Board announced

December 4, 2007 American Library Association No Comments

Earlier this evening I posted the following to the ALA Council list:

On behalf of the Council Committee on Committees, I am pleased to inform you that the following Councilors have been slated as candidates for the upcoming 2008 Midwinter Council Executive Board Election:

Frances R. Roscello
Information Literacy Consultant
Roscello Associates
Rensselaer, NY

Diane R. Chen
Library Information Specialist
Hickman Elementary School
Nashville, TN

Thomas L. Wilding
Professor of Practice and
Associate Director for Academic Programs
School of Information Resources and Library Science
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

Dora T. Ho
Young Adult Librarian
Los Angeles Public Library
Los Angeles, CA

Pamela C. Sieving
Biomedical Librarian/Informationist
National Institutes of Health Library
Bethesda, MD

Em Claire Knowles
Assistant Dean for Student Administrative Services
Simmons College, GSLIS
Boston, MA

Thank you to these nominees for their willingness to be candidates and, if elected, to serve on the Executive Board!

Three (3) candidates will be elected to three-year terms on the ALA Executive Board; their terms will begin at the 2008 Annual Conference and will end at the 2011 Annual Conference. Additional nominations may be made from the Council floor. (See the ALA Bylaws, article III, sec. 6(c).)

Immediately following the ALA-APA Council meeting at the 2008 Midwinter Meeting, there will be an Executive Board Candidates Forum on Monday, January 14, 11:30 AM-12:30 PM, Pennsylvania Convention Center (PCC), Ballroom B. The forum gives Council members an opportunity to hear the views and to ask questions of the Executive Board candidates prior to voting. Please attend the forum!

Balloting will begin on Monday, January 14 at 5:30 PM and conclude on Tuesday, January 15 at 4:30 PM. Please participate in the election! The election results will be reported at Council III on Wednesday, January 16, 2007.

Five (5) councilors are needed to serve as tellers for the election. If you would like to volunteer to serve as a teller to count the ballots, please contact Lois Ann Gregory-Wood, ALA Council Secretariat, at lgregory@ala.org. The process should take about an hour or so. The ballots will be counted at 4:30 PM on Tuesday, January 15.

The other members of the Committee on Committees, elected by Council at the 2007 Annual Conference, are:

  • Joseph M. Eagan, Maryland Chapter Councilor
  • Dennis J. LeLoup, Councilor-at-Large
  • Ginny B. Moore, Councilor-at-Large
  • Gail A. Schlachter, Councilor-at-Large

    • My thanks to these colleagues for their excellent work in putting together this strong slate of candidates!

    Thank you,

    Jim Rettig,
    ALA President-Elect
    Chair, Committee on Committees

    My new Web site

    August 29, 2007 American Library Association No Comments

    Earlier this week my new Web site went live. The old site at rettigforala.org was decidedly an ALA presidential campaign site. The new one includes information from the old one, of course. But it has been designed for communication with ALA members and others about my work as ALA president-elect and, next year, as ALA president. The new site's URL is http://jimrettig.org.

    Town meetings in Virginia to generate ideas for ways members can participate in ALA

    August 6, 2007 American Library Association No Comments

    In my statement on the spring ALA ballot I wrote: “I will encourage bold experimentation in the ways ALA does its business. ALA best serves its members when it offers opportunities for each one to participate and contribute in meaningful ways. For some, that is committee service or elected office. For others it is working in groups that transcend organizational borders. A truly inclusive, vibrant ALA will be open to new approaches and will amplify members accomplishments, whether they blossom through time-tested structures or grassroots initiatives.”

    I would like to meet with interested ALA members and others to discuss this. I have scheduled meetings at several Virtginia libraries: the Richmond Public Library's West End branch (Aug. 10), the Virginia Beach Public Library's Bayside Special Services Library (Aug. 23), the Williamsburg Regional Library's Williamsburg location (Aug. 23) and the Fairfax County Public Library's Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library (Aug. 30).

    I hope to hear your ideas about new ways members can participate in ALA and your ideas on questions such as:

    What have your best, most rewarding experiences in ALA been? What made them the best? How can ALA offer opportunities for such experiences to all of its members?

    If ALA didn't exist today and we wanted to create a library association that would work on behalf of all types of libraries, all library users, and all library workers, what would it look like and how would it operate?

    Are there thing you would like to do in or through ALA that you can't do through ALA's current ways of operating? What could make the needed difference?

    If you can't get to a session at its start, come later. I'll be there the full scheduled time. And light refreshments will be served. Please come!

    Detailed schedule:

    Friday, August 10, 10:00-11:30 AM
    West End Library
    http://www.richmondpubliclibrary.org/branches/westend/westend.htm
    Richmond Public Library
    5420 Patterson Ave.
    Richmond, VA
    757-646-1877

    Thursday, August 23, 10:00-11:30 AM
    Bayside Special Services Library
    http://tinyurl.com/3de6wm
    936 Independence Blvd.
    Virginia Beach, VA
    (757) 385-2680
    Directions:     http://www.communitywalk.com/vblibraries#000423cN

    Thursday, August 23, 2:30-4:00 PM
    Schell Room
    Williamsburg Library
    http://www.wrl.org/
    515 Scotland Street
    Williamsburg, VA
    757-259-4050
    Directions:     http://www.wrl.org/info/directions.html

    Thursday, August 30, 2:00-3:30 PM
    Tysons-Pimmit Regional Library
    www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/ty/

    7584 Leesburg Pike
    Falls Church, VA
    703-790-8088
    Directions:         http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/ty/direct.htm

    ALA seeks candidates for 2008 election

    July 31, 2007 American Library Association No Comments

    I am sure that this email I received today from Loida A. Garcia-Febo has had wide distribution. It deserves the widest possible distribution. Please share this information with your colleagues. Consider submitting your name to be a candidate for the ALA Council. Serving on Council gives ALA members a unique view of the organization, including some of its foibles.

    The ALA 2008 Nominating Committee is soliciting nominees to run on the 2008 spring ballot for Councilor-at-large. The Councilors-at-large will serve three-year terms, beginning after the 2008 ALA Annual Conference and ending at the adjournment of the 2011 Annual Conference. Members who wish to make nominations should submit the followingi nformation:
    nominee name
    present position
    institution
    address
    telephone
    fax
    and e-mail address.

    Self-nominations are encouraged. All potential nominees must complete the Potential Candidate Biographical Form. Nominations and forms must be received no later than September 1, 2007. Nominations may be sent to any member of the 2008 Nominating Committee. Committee members are:

    W. Lee Hisle, Chair
    Vice President of Information Services & Librarian of College
    Connecticut College
    E-mail: wlhis@conncoll.edu

    Nancy Bolt
    Nancy Bolt & Associates
    Golden, CO
    E-mail: nancybolt@earthlink.net

    Tyrone Heath Cannon
    Library Dean
    University of San Francisco
    E-mail: cannont@usfca.edu

    Jon E. Cawthorne
    Associate Dean
    San Diego State University
    E-mail:jcawthor@rohan.sdsu.edu

    Alma Dawson
    Professor
    Louisiana State University
    E-mail: notaed@lsu.edu

    Karen E. Downing
    Foundation and Grants Librarian
    University of Michigan
    E-mail: kdown@umich.edu

    Loida A. Garcia-Febo
    Asst. Coordinator, Special Services
    Queens Library, Jamaica, NY
    E-mail: loida.garcia-febo@queenslibrary.org

    Dale H. Ross
    Trustee, Ames [IA] Public Library
    E-mail:dross24704@aol.com

    Jennifer A. Younger
    Edward H. Arnold Director of University Libraries
    University of Notre Dame, IN
    E-mail:Jennifer.A.Younger.1@nd.edu

    To encourage diversity and leadership development, the Committee will refrain from nominating current Councilors for election to another term. However, the Committee encourages all current Councilors who wish to continue their service to the Association to file as petition candidates. Petitions will be available from Lois Ann Gregory-Wood, Council Secretariat, ALA, 50 E. Huron, Chicago, IL 60611, Email: lgregory@ala.org, or during the 2008 Midwinter Meeting. Petitions require 25 signatures of current ALA members.

    Polls are closed, now the counting

    April 25, 2007 American Library Association No Comments

    Last night at 11:59 pm central daylight time the ALA polls closed. Now it is time to count the votes. On May 1 the ALA Election Committee will meet in Chicago and certify the results. Later that day ALA will make the results public. Watch the ALA Web site for the announcement.

    I want to thank all ALA members who participated in this year's election. On April 23 Mary Ghikas, ALA's Senior Associate Executive Director, reported the following:

    As of 2:58 pm 4/23/07
    Total Voted 14,449 (25.91%)
    That breaks down to 12,819 web ballots and 1,630 paper ballots

    Compared to 4/23/06
    Total Voted 13,992 (23.80%)
    That breaks down to 12,046 web ballots and 1,956 paper ballots

    The increase in participation, even though it is an increase of only 2.11%, is heartening. The more members who participate in our democratic process, the better! Again, I offer my thanks to every ALA member who voted in the election and I doubly thank all who voted for me for vice-president/president elect! Not until today did it occur to me that I might live a Chicago native's fantasy–to win an election in a Chicago-based organization…and an honest one at that!

    Rumors, family illness, and my ALA presidential candidacy

    April 8, 2007 American Library Association No Comments

    When I launched Twilight Librarian in July 2006 I wrote in my initial post:

    …I will share thoughts and ideas about professional issues and concerns…So you won't learn what I have eaten on a given day; our three children almost certainly don't want their lives discussed…my wife is a very private person and likes it that way; and you won't read about what kept me awake during a recent night unless it relates somehow to my professional concerns.

    In this post I am making an exception. Twilight Librarian has seen very little activity in the past month. That is because I have been very busy with family responsibilities. On March 7 my wife fell ill. Within two days she was in intensive care and doctors explained that her illness was life threatening. I knew I had to ask one additional question and I was fairly certain I wouldn't receive the answer I hoped for. I asked if I needed to tell our children they should come home to see their mother. The doctors unequivocally told me I should.

    In the weeks that followed, my wife was in two hospitals, four ICUs, and eight hospital rooms. She came home April 4, four weeks to the day since she was hospitalized. Most of that time I was away from work; my main responsibility was to be her advocate with the staff of a large teaching hospital. The care she received was excellent. Nevertheless, if you are sick enough to be in a large hospital, you better have someone well enough to be with you to make sure the bureaucracy does no harm (e.g., taking 24 hours to carry out a doctors order for change of diet) and to do simple care tasks (e.g., getting ice water, untangling an IV tube and resetting its relentlessly beeping pump). Nurses and their assistants can do these things, but not with the promptness a patient wants and appreciates. And being there when the doctors do their rounds is the best way to learn about the patient's condition and the medical team's thinking about their care plan. Thus have I spent most of the past month. I am now putting together a schedule of family and friends who can be with her at home during the day. I need to get back to my job. She will recover fully, but it will take time. A four-week hospital stay weakens any patient.

    Rumor Control
    I have heard that there are rumors that:

    • I have withdrawn from the American Library Association presidential race
    • If I am elected my wife's illness will prevent me from accepting the office
    • If I am elected I will accept the office but that my wife's illness will prevent me from carrying out my duties as vice-president/president-elect and, the following year, as president

    All of these rumors are false. Her doctors say she will return to the energy level, good health, and range of activities she enjoyed before this sudden acute illness befell her. It may take two months for her to regain all of that, but regain it she will. Nobody has been more constant than my wife in supporting my ALA candidacy. She would not approve of my sacrificing a long-term opportunity because of her short-term condition.

    Were my wife's illness chronic, then I would have had to determine whether or not my responsibilities to her would prevent me from carrying out my ALA responsibilities. Had I determined that meeting her care needs would preclude my meeting my ALA responsibilities, then I would have terminated my candidacy. I care too much about ALA to do otherwise.

    I remain a candidate in the ALA presidential election. I am committed to the race. If you have not voted yet, I ask for your vote.

    Because of my family responsibilities I have had to cancel planned campaign trips to several state and regional library association meetings. I would have enjoyed meeting in person ALA members and other library workers at those conferences. Because our older daughter and my wife's sister were with my wife, I was able to participate in the ACRL National conference in Baltimore last weekend. The program I planned on the future of reference drew a standing-room-only crowd in a room set up for 570. It was good to interact with colleagues and share ideas, just as it will be good to do while serving ALAs members as their vice president and president.

    I am grateful to my many colleagues who have expressed their concern for my wife and family. You have reminded me what a close-knit community the library world is and how deeply the care and commitment we have to those we serve in our libraries extends to those we serve with. My wife looks forward to meeting many of you in Washington in June. I am profoundly grateful that she will be there with me.

    ALA 2007 election begins

    March 15, 2007 American Library Association No Comments

    If you are a member of the American Library Association, you may already have received an email from the ALA ELection Cooridnator with the subject line “2007 election login information below.” If you haven't received it, it should arrive March 16 or 17.

    A major theme of my campaign for ALA president is expanding opportunities for member participation. Our election is every member's opportunity to participate in our association's democratic process. Please participate by voting!

    And while you are voting, please vote for Jim Rettig for ALA president!

    Listening to ALA members in Seattle

    February 1, 2007 American Library Association No Comments

    Fictional Seattle radio call-in psychiatrist Frazier Crane greeted his audience with “I'm listening, Seattle.” In Seattle during the recent ALA Midwinter Meeting I listened, not to questions about relationships gone awry or intimate secrets, but to ALA members speaking about their concerns about ALA and librarianship along with their hopes and aspirations for the association and our field. What did I hear while making the rounds of ALA groups campaigning for president?

    ALTA's exciting idea

    When I met with the board of ALTA (the Association of Library Trustees and Advocates) I heard about their plan to offer ALTA membership at a special price to entire library boards. What an innovative way to show more trustees the value of ALTA and ALA! I assured them that this is something I will talk about as ALA president so that more library boards will take advantage of this great opportunity.

    Sometimes feeling overlooked

    In my meetings with some of the Round Tables and some of the ethnic caucuses (AILA, APALA, BCALA, CALA, REFORMA), I heard two things: First I heard of valuable service they perform in giving their members opportunities to work with colleagues from every type of library on shared interests and passions. They have created needed organizational niches to meet their members' distinct needs. I also heard that they sometimes feel overlooked and underapreciated by ALA. As vice-president and as president I will definitely meet with the leadership of these groups and we will brainstorm about ways to make their contributions better known. In the process I imagine we will find opportunities for collaborations among some of these groups. The ethnic caucuses definitely showed the power of collaboration in their very successful Joint Conference of Librarians of Color in Dallas in October!

    Hopes that the ALA Web site will indeed improve

    When I was asked about the ALA Web site I was able to relate my experience as a participant in the December 18 Web retreat at ALA headquarters. The group reviewed results of a usability study of the current Web site. This was the launch pad for brainstorming about how the site should serve members and its broader audience. By the end of the day the group gave ALA staff clear direction on priorities for change. During the past year ALA has gone through an RFP process to adopt a new content management system. Conversion of the site to this new CMS will take time, as will implementation of the changes identified as priorities on December 18. ALA is listening. I will continue to listen to members and carry their concerns to ALA headquarters until we have the Web site that meets our needs.

    Concern about difficulty booking hotel rooms for Midwinter and the coming Annual Conference in Washington, DC

    I shared this concern with Mary Ghikas, ALA's Senior Associate Executive Director. She described coming procedural changes designed to improve the situation. She also described a phenomenon I had not heard of. In some cases when several members are going to share a room, each of them books a hotel room until they decide which booking to use. This takes rooms out of the pool for unknown lengths of time. I don't know how common this practice is. While understandable, it is problematic. As one of the many currently waitlisted for a hotel in Washington, I think that ALA needs to plan for the robust attendance we have seen at recent conferences (with the anomaly of New Orleans) and increase the pool of rooms and make all of them available at the start of registration. It is in ALA's interests to solve this problem. If members decide that it is just too hard to get lodging for a conference, they may decide not to attend. That will hurt revenues. Members who book multiple rooms for the same group of roommates should book just one. It will take trust between ALA and its members to solve this. We can create a win-win solution. If the problem persists when I am president, I will lead the Executive Board in working with staff to solve it then.


    My platform

    I also received a great deal of positive feedback about my platform. Thank you to all who listened to me in Seattle. I hope that after hearing me you decided that you will vote for me. Please do!

    ALA Midwinter 2007–a one-of-a-kind experience!

    January 25, 2007 American Library Association No Comments

    In Seattle my Midwinter Meeting experience was completely unlike any I have had in the nearly 30 years I have been participating in Midwinters! Being a candidate for president provides a special experience that few ALA members ever have.

    Between Friday and Tuesday I participated in the candidates forum and visited nearly 40 round table boards, division boards, and ALA committees. Some of these meetings were very brief; I was asked to speak for three to five minutes and then thanked for coming. Others allowed additional time for Q&A. After a while I had my “stump speech” down pat. Towards the end I was so familiar with it I sometimes wondered if I was repeating parts of it in the same presentation. (I don't think I did that!) Since I hadn't campaigned my way through a Midwinter before, I wasn't sure what to expect. It provided several very pleasant surprises:

    • I know ALA pretty well. Two years ago when I served on the ALA Budget Analysys and Review Committee (BARC), I learned even more about it through the lens of the various units' budgets. During Midwinter I learned more about ALA by listening to the questions and comments of members, especially those in divisions and round tables that I do not belong to. ALA members are passionate about their special areas of interest and areas of specialization. Their sincerity and enthusiasm for their work exhilarated me.
    • I heard concerns and a few complaints some members have about ALA. The difficulty, even on the day registration opens, of booking a hotel for the next conference has angered some members. (I am waitlisted for a hotel in DC for Annual Conference; so I can empathize.) One division feels frustrated that ALA doesn't allow divisions to award CEU credit for workshops, preconferences, etc. I was able to share these concerns with Mary Ghikas, ALA's Senior Associate Executive Director. She assured me that changes are in the works that should rectify the hotel situation and that ALA is in the process of obtaining authority to award CEU credit. What these experiences tell me is that like any large complex organization, communication is a perpetual challenge within ALA. It is, of course, everyone's responsibility. I'll continue to do my part, especially if I am elected. As a membership, member-driven organization ALA simply has to respond to its members' needs.
    • Finally I was very gratified by and even more grateful for all of the work my generous campaign volunteers did on my behalf. Interacting with members I hadn't met before, both one-to-one and in groups, offered wonderful opportunities to learn more about their concerns and our diverse association. Every time a member asked what she/he can do to help my campaign, my sense of responsibility to my supporters deepened. I don't intend to let them down!
    • It gets a little weird after a while to see your own name on hundreds of badge stickers and to see your own picture on hundreds and hundreds of campaign brochures! But one gets used to it and learns to focus on the faces and names of voters.

    It was incredibly exhilarating, adrenalin ever at my service from the beginning of Midwinter right through to its end. At that point exhilaration plummeted into temporary exhaustion. I fell asleep as soon as I took my seat on an 11:30 PM red-eye to Washington Dulles. I have a vague recollection of movement; that must have been the plane's acceleration and take-off.

    It was an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. I hope it is prelude to an even greater experience that I won't trade anything for!

    John N. Berry III and democracy in ALA

    January 9, 2007 American Library Association No Comments

    In his “Democracy in ALA,” John Berry notes that “A relatively small percentage of the total eligible members vote in ALA elections, even with the addition of email balloting, one of the few concessions to the democratizing potential of the electronic universe.” To accommodate various needs and preferences and to eliminate barriers to voting ALA offers members the choice of a paper or electronic ballot. Yet in the 2006 election only about 23 percent of the members voted. It is not clear what that signifies.

    ALA currently has about 61,600 personal members. Their reasons for joining, their reasons for renewing membership or dropping out, and the ways they choose to participate vary. As much as many of us dyed-in-the-wool ALA members wish all members would vote, that is unlikely. A more realistic goal might be to bring it up to the 55% turnout rate in the most recent U.S. presidential election.

    ALA best serves its members when it offers opportunities for each one to participate and contribute in meaningful ways. For some, that is committee service or elected office. For others it is working in groups that transcend organizational borders. Approximately 5,000 members, all of whom serve on committees or hold an elected office, are listed in ALA's Handbook of Organization. That means these modes of participation currently accommodate only about small fraction of the membership.

    Some library workers have found ways to contribute to the profession through blogs, by forming online groups, and even by producing online conferences. They are doing this outside of ALA structures. A truly inclusive, vibrant ALA–one serving all its members well–will be open to complementary approaches and will amplify members' accomplishments, whether they have been achieved through time-tested structures or grassroots initiatives.

    ALA needs to grow that 23 percent to 55 percent and on. I believe ALA can do that by developing additional meaningful ways library workers can participate in and contribute to ALA. We need to experiment boldly and be open to new ways of doing business and new uses of communication technologies. If members are involved and engaged in their association, they will almost certainly be more likely to vote in its elections. This is a key part of the platform I am running on for ALA president.

    If ALA takes risks and trusts in its members, it will become a more inclusive organization providing even more benefit to the profession and our society. Mr. Berry remembers “our pride in the receptiveness of association leaders to our actions.” A new generation of ALA leaders open to and encouraging member initiatives can once again renew the organization. By embracing new opportunities for meaningful participation, ALA will be able to serve each of its members in the way best suited to each one's needs and interests.

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