Take the ALA Membership Meeting agenda topics survey

The ALA Committee on Membership Meetings is asking members what topics they would like to see addressed during the 2012 Virtual Membership Meeting on June 6th.  Your opinion is important, and we invite you to reply to a short survey of agenda topics at http://american-library-association.vmm2012.sgizmo.com. In addition to the topics selected here, the Virtual Membership Meeting agenda will include presentations and question-and-answer sessions with ALA President Molly Raphael, Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels, and Budget Analysis and Review Committee (BARC) chair Clara Bohrer.  Members will be invited to submit resolutions after registration opens on May 7th.

The survey will be available through April 9^th, and all responses are anonymous.  Thank you for taking a moment to help set the agenda for this important ALA membership event.

Best,  

Loida Garcia-Febo 

Chair, ALA Committee on Membership Meetings

Library Thought Leaders Q&A

I am thrilled to be featured as part of the Library Thought Leaders Q&A on the Text A Librarian blog. I really enjoyed the opportunity to think about and respond to some great questions. Check it out, as well as the Q&A with some other great librarians.

Hack Library School: Advice from a hiring manager

On November 4, 2011, I had the opportunity to speak with MLIS student Ashley Wescott about my experience in academic libraries. One of the requirements for Ashley's Academic Libraries course was to interview an academic librarian. I'm very glad she picked me. We had a lively conversation via Skype that lasted almost two hours! It probably would have gone on longer had her dog not started giving her "the look".

In mid-December Ashley contacted me about writing a blog post for Hack Library School based on the job hunt portion of the interview. My response was "of course!" That post went live today. Ashley is a great writer and an enthusiastic University of North Texas MLIS candidate. My thanks to Ashley and the Hack Library School team for the opportunity, and I look forward to collaborating with Ashley again in the future.


Follow Ashley on Twitter @2TheLibrary and on her blog, which documents her journey through children’s and young adult literature.

Coming soon: ALA Elections

The ALA Governance Office has put together "Your Guide to the 2012 Elections". This guide is also available as a PDF. It includes information about this year's ALA Presidential candidates, the role of ALA Council, and a link to all the candidates for councilor-at-large.

I am one of the candidates for councilor-at-large, and hope you will consider voting for me.

The ALA polls open on Monday, March 19 at 9 a.m. Central time, and close Friday, April 27 at 11:59 p.m. Central time. All individuals with ALA memberships in good standing will be eligible to vote and should receive an email notification with a link to the ballot and a unique passcode.

I hope you will vote in this year's election.

Library Day in the Life: February 3

Friday! My calendar was pretty open, so I spent a lot of time working through the VHS collection spreadsheet my LIS intern has been putting together. A frustration of trying to format modernize the film collection at my library is the surprising number of titles that are not available in DVD or BluRay. I was amazed to discover that The Spirit of Crazy Horse is not available on DVD. Don't even get me started on recordings produced by local historical societies. It's an interesting process.

I also spent some time reading though tweets and blog postings by other Library Day in the Life participants. It's always fun to get a glimpse into other library professional's lives. It is inspiring and encouraging. Best of all, it's an opportunity to start a dialogue with others. I'm all about making connections, collaborating, and learning. This project provides me with a real opportunity to have that experience in a new way.

Library Day in the Life: February 2

This morning my full-time staff member and I met with University Libraries administration via conference call for our mid-year budget review. The meeting went well. Our agenda included the give back deadline (if we anticipated having any funds left over by the end of the budget year), additional resources needed, and "tactical initiatives as they relate to strategic plan and cost implications". We are on target with our budget although things might get a little tight to close out the year. We'll have a conference call sometime in late April to plan for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.

During the afternoon I did some ordering for the circulating collection at my campus as well as the Diversity collection for the University Libraries. I am the selector responsible for the diversity fund for materials that are primarily housed at the University Park campus. Those purchases are funded through the Paterno endowment.

I also worked on revising the form for circulating digital equipment. I revised the form for our (limited) circulating laptop collection. The old form had a lot going on which meant it was confusing and took a long time to complete. The revisions I made to make the form easier to complete and streamline the process were well received by my staff and users, so I decided to use it as the template for the digital equipment form. Hopefully it will be met with the same positive response.

Library Day in the Life: February 1

I don't have very much to report about my day. I did meet with my full-time staff member to plan for a budget update call tomorrow. We took a look at our budget and did some projections for the remainder of the year to make sure we stay on track financially. This is my second year going through this process and I'm happy to report it makes a lot more sense to me this year. Budgets are not as scary as you think.

I also participated in the ALA Committee on Legislation's (COL) monthly conference call. I am the ALA Executive Board liaison to COL, so I try to learn more about their work via their listserv, calls, and retreat. Today's agenda included discussing the Legislative Agenda, an overview and discussion of Midwinter, and any updates on legislation.