Candidate for ALA President

I am running for President of the American Library Association. The press release information is available from American Libraries. I am honored and excited for this opportunity. More information will be coming soon. If you are on Facebook, please be sure to like my fan page.

Stay tuned and vote for me!

ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim: Orange County

My ALA Annual Conference experience was definitely a whirlwind. I was constantly on the run but accomplished a lot. This was definitely a conference of getting things done.

I attended the Library Journal Movers & Shakers luncheon at The White House. The highlight of that event was seeing William Kamkwamba speak. He was engaging, informative, and funny. I look forward to reading my signed copy of his book The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.

I also had the opportunity to go on the Queen Mary with my Sage Reference colleagues. The 40 minute drive to Long Beach was definitely worth it. It was also the only sightseeing on my trip.



My two back-to-back presentations went extremely well. I was the keynote for the New Members Round Table President's Program. I had the pleasure of presenting at the RUSA MARS Virtual Reference Discussion Forum. I was asked to talk briefly about technologies that may have a future impact on virtual reference service. I particularly enjoyed the discussion following my ideas and generated from the round table discussions. A very positive write up of this session was posted by Library Journal.

On Sunday morning I introduced author Sapphire. That evening while at a reception hosted by Oxford a few people said hello to me and they recognized me from introducing Sapphire that morning. It was nice to meet new people and get positive feedback. I also ran into a bunch of people I know at Oxford's reception hosted at Bowers Museum. I'm always thrilled when that happens.

This conference also marked the conclusion of my term on the ALA Executive Board. It has been an absolutely wonderful experience. I am still incredibly grateful to the members of the board nominating committee and ALA Council for giving me the opportunity to serve the Association in this capacity. I have worked hard, taken this responsibility seriously, and had so much fun.

ALA Annual 2012 Preparations

I'm getting ready for the ALA Annual conference in Anaheim. It's hard to believe this will be my last conference as a member of the ALA Executive Board. My schedule is still shaping up, but here are some of the highlights for what will be a very busy (and hopefully very good) week. Note that I have back-to-back presentations on Saturday -- 1:30-3:30pm and 4-5:30pm!

Wednesday, June 20
PIT - ORD - SNA

Thursday, June 21
Special reception honoring Library Champions, Major Donors, and Legacy Society members
distribute executive board liaison talking points to ACRL, COL, COD, TOLD

Friday, June 22
ALA Executive Board I
ALA Opening Ceremony and ribbon cutting for Exhibits Opening

Saturday, June 23
ALA Council orientation
Visit the exhibits
Lunch - thanks EBSCO!
Lead Presenter: NMRT President's Program
Lead Presenter: RUSA MARS Virtual Reference Discussion Forum
Scholarship Bash
#ala12 After Hours / LibrarianWardrobe Walkoff Contest

Sunday, June 24
Breakfast - thanks ebrary!
ALA Council I
Introduction for Auditorium Speaker Series: Sapphire
Planning and Budget Assembly
Division Leaders/BARC joint meeting
executive board liaison visits:  CORS, Membership

Monday, June 25
ALA Council II
ALA Executive Board II
executive board liaison visits: OITP, LLAMA

Tuesday, June 26
ALA Council III
Closing General Session: JR Martinez
Inaugural Brunch
ALA Executive Board III

Wednesday, June 27 and Thursday, June 28
SNA - ORD - PIT

NMRT Annual Program: Professional Networking for New Librarians

The 2012 NMRT Annual Program took place online. Professional Networking for New Librarians covered the who, what, when, where, why, and how of networking. The session presenters included Ned Potter, Loida Garcia-Febo, JP Pocaro, Pat Hawthorne, and me. I covered "Professional Networking Tips for New Librarians: Where to Network". I learned a lot from my co-presenters. I am also happy I had the opportunity to think about this topic in a more organized way. Do check it out, and please let me or any of the presenters know if you have any questions.

Thanks again to NMRT and the committee for a useful, timely, and accessible program.

Empowering Diverse Voices

I was asked to participate in the video series for the "Empowering Diverse Voices" initiative. This is part of ALA President Molly Raphael's Diversity Leadership Initiative and "seeks to expand and enhance leadership development opportunities for our more diverse workforce, ensuring that the library leaders of tomorrow, at all levels and in all types of libraries, are as diverse as communities we serve." I encourage you to watch all the short videos in this series.

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

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 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.

Midwinter in Dallas: Day 2

I split my time today between the retreats of the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) and the Committee of Legislation (COL). While both of these groups do a fair amount between Midwinter and Annual, it's always nice to be a part of their face-to-face discussions. Interesting discussions I heard included:

digital inclusion versus digital divide: linguistic shift reflects getting access to the technology is only part of the process; skills needed also important

Molly Raphael visited the retreat and spoke about the Digital Content in Libraries Working Group. She noted the need for coordination across the issues and a big picture look. She also said there is a need to make whatever the decision is association policy, particularly as this is what the Association's President must speak to.

I gave the Executive Board liaison report. The main question had to do with ALA's budget. It was a nice opportunity for me to talk about the budget, the resources available from the Treasurer's website, and highlight the creation of the Financial Learning Series.

Midwinter Preparations 2012

It's that time again! Tomorrow I'm headed to the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Dallas. As usual, my calendar is pretty full. I'm actually looking forward to all of my meetings in addition to seeing many great colleagues and making new friends.

Highlights from my schedule include:

I'll be doing the introduction for the Special Masters Series: A Library occupies Occupy Wall Street.

I'll talk very briefly (5 minutes!) to the 2012 Emerging Leaders class about getting involved in round tables.

 Attending all meetings of the ALA Executive Board, ALA Council, and the Budget Analysis & Review Committee (BARC).

Liaison visits to a variety of ALA divisions and committees.

And, of course, talking to people in the hallway of the convention center and at social gatherings.

Ensure that every child in America has access to an effective school library program

Carl Harvey, 2011-2012 American Association of School Libraries president, has initiated a White House petition on school libraries, which specifically petitions the Obama administration to “ensure that every child in America has access to an effective school library program.” 25,000 signatures are required in order for this petition to be viewed by White House staff, no later than February 4, 2012.

Please take a few seconds to sign this petition, spread the word to your member groups, ask your colleagues and library supporters in your circles to sign on, and spread the word via Facebook, Twitter and other channels!

* We’ve heard that the petition software is temperamental. If you cannot sign in on your  first attempt, please log out and log back in. Or, try a different web browser, or as a last resort, try a different computer.

* White House petitions must be authored by individuals, not any association. Therefore, Carl has introduced this petition as an individual, not as a representative of AASL or ALA.

Thank you,

Marci Merola
Director
Office for Library Advocacy
American Library Association
800.545.2433, x2431
mmerola@ala.org

ALA Executive Board fall meeting 2011

After a full day of travel, also known as MRY-SFO-IAD-PIT-ORD, I arrived in Chicago for the ALA fall board meeting. Although I tried to limited telling my epic travel saga, I always ended it by making the point that I was still upright and smiling.

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Friday morning was the traditional board effectiveness session led by ALA's professional Parliamentarian Eli Mina. I always find this session useful and learn something new. I must admit it was kind of exciting to realize that I've learned a lot about being an effective board member and know what strategies we were talking about when. The first time the "two hats" idea was presented I was a bit confused, but I'm happy to say I now know it inside and out.

The afternoon was spent at the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel for the Joint Boards meeting. The boards/executive committees of the ALA Divisions and the ALA Executive Board have lunch and meet together, usually in a facilitated session. This time we worked through the transforming libraries goal area of the strategic plan. The goal statement is

ALA provides leadership in the transformation of libraries and library services in a dynamic and increasingly global digital information environment.

During the first breakout session, we focused "on what short-term and longer-term changes we see happening within libraries in order to respond to the external challenges and opportunities libraries are facing."
The areas we explored included:

• Physical space
  
• Virtual space
  
• Library workforce
  
• Service portfolio
  
• Customer expectations
  
• External relationships
  
• Library Leadership expectations

We were assigned groups and each group was to consider the following questions based on one goal area:

• What are the key factors influencing/driving change?
  
• How do you see your area (breakout topic) transforming libraries in the short-term (1-3 years)?
  
• How do you see your area (breakout topic) transforming libraries in the longer-term (4+ years)?

In our second breakout session we focused "on what we believe are the implications for future programs and services offered by ALA and its Divisions" and considered two questions:

• What are the implications for collective ALA's programs and services (membership, partnerships, advocacy agenda, education programs, support to Divisions, etc.
• What are the implications for Divisions (membership, education programs, partnerships, networking, etc.)?

I think we had a productive session and ALA Executive Board and Division leadership are getting a better handle on how to work towards transforming libraries and the Association. Hopefully the round tables will be folded into these conversations.

---

After the session was over I walked back to my hotel via Michigan Ave. I noticed that Lush products were being sold in Macy's, so I popped in for a bottle of The Olive Branch body wash. I also looked in various store windows and people watched.

That evening the majority of the board went to dinner together. I sat at the end of the table with Eli Mina and his lovely wife whom I'd met in D.C. in 2010. We enjoyed a good meal and lively conversation.

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Saturday and Sunday were packed meeting days. We had very full agendas, check them out here. We heard several informative reports and had really good discussion. I thought ALA President Molly Raphael did a really great job getting us through everything and keeping us effective as a board.

I had a late flight back to Pittsburgh. I picked up a bag of Garrett's popcorn at the airport. I'm not sure how I've not managed to buy some until now. It is delicious! I'm definitely picking up more the next time I head to Chicago.

Planning for long week of travel

I'm getting ready for back to back trips. The first is Internet Librarian in Monterey. I'll be there Sunday to Wednesday. Thursday to Sunday I'm back in Chicago for the fall ALA Executive Board meeting. If my flights go as planned, I'll spend about 13 hours at home Wednesday night/Thursday morning. If I miss my connection on the way home (I land there at 3:30 but the flight takes off at 4:04), then things get complicated. So I'm madly packing for two trips and leaving bag number 2 in my car just in case. Hopefully that will be an uneventful leg of my trip.

I'm looking forward to learning new things and building on a my knowledge at Internet Librarian. I'm also looking forward to spending time with colleagues, not to mention meeting new ones. I've read up on Bobbi Newman's tips for IL. Actually it was her post that got me excited about the conference.

The board meeting should also be good and productive. It will be nice to see some of the ALA crew again and see board members. I've heard we have a pretty packed agenda. From the looks of all the documents I've received, it's going to be busy and informative.

I better get back to packing!

ALA BARC fall meeting 2011

This was my third trip to Chicago this year. I was able to kick it off by having dinner with Peter Hepburn at Yoshi’s Café. Peter is more than a regular at Yoshi’s. If you’ve followed his food and travel blog and photos on Flickr, then you more than likely have experienced some food envy.


Me with my Wagyu Beef Berger with Wasabi Blue cheese

I attended the ALA BARC fall meeting. This is my second year on BARC, and with these fiscal oversight matters also in the purview of the Executive Board, I work with this information a lot. It means that I am really starting to feel like I know what is going on and how the ALA budget and budget process work.

There is always an orientation for new BARC members on the first day before the committee begins its work. I decided it would be a good idea for me to attend that meeting. I felt it would be helpful in reinforcing my knowledge and I knew I would learn something new. I want to do my best to be engaged fully in the process.

Our meeting agenda included a fiscal year 2011 budget review, a final fiscal year 2012 budget review, a new business development update (closed session), and ALA Council referrals. We also discussed and assigned liaison assignments. I'm pleased to be the liaison to the new Games and Gaming Round Table. We met for about forty-five minutes as ALA-APA BARC, now under the leadership of Lorelle Swader, to discuss the budget.

We also discussed moving forward with four BARC webinars. These will be available by the end of the year. I hope these create opportunities for increased member engagement around the ALA budget process. They are a step in the right direction for what I proposed at our spring 2011 meeting.

I had the good fortune to eat breakfast one morning with Trevor Dawes. He was at ALA HQ as a member of a search committee. Trevor is also becoming well known as Mr. August from the Men of the Stacks calendar. All proceeds for the sale of the calendar go towards the It Gets Better Project™ project.

ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans - Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler!

I had an amazing conference.

My flights to and from New Orleans were a bit stressful but successful. My flight from Pittsburgh not only boarded a bit late, but it was slow boarding. Once boarding is completed, we push back from the gate. Where we sit for about five minutes. Finally the captain announces over the intercom that there is a medical emergency on the flight and we have to go back to the gate where we'll be met by the paramedics. We return to the gate, the door is opened, and after 10 minutes a man is escorted off the plane by EMS staff.

As usual, my schedule was packed. Thankfully I was able to squeeze in three trips to Cafe Du Monde. Two times I walked there from the Hilton, so that made it okay in my mind.






I attended a lot of meetings. The Executive Board had three meetings. These were held on Friday morning, Monday afternoon, and Tuesday afternoon. We also had a [Thursday evening reception] and a joint reception with the American Booksellers of America board on Saturday afternoon. It was a nice group of people and we were even treated to an early evening rainbow.






The opening speaker was Dan Savage. I really enjoyed his presentation and the positive tone he set for the conference. I was fortunate enough to get a copy of "It Gets Better" signed and thank him for reminding me how important my role as an advocate continues to be as a librarian, a faculty member on campus, and a friend.

Personal highlights from the conference include attending the Library Journal Movers & Shakers recognition luncheon. It was exciting to meet others recognized this year and in previous years. It was humbling to be surrounded by so many good people who have made truly amazing contributions to the profession. I particularly cherished feeling that I was surrounded by friends, both old and new.




Sue Polanka Courtney Young, and Lisa Carlucci Thomas

I'm very proud that my mentor, colleague, and friend Susan Ware received the inaugural RUSA RSS Service Achievement Award. I didn't make it into the room to see her receive the award, but I did manage to congratulate and toast her at dinner with two colleagues.

The closing speaker was Molly Shannon. It was very exciting to meet and introduce her program. Shannon will publish her debut children's book Tilly the Trickster in September.

Courtney Young with Molly Shannon

The conference closed out with the Inaugural Banquet. The new division presidents and new members of the ALA Executive Board were introduced. Among there were my friend and colleague, RUSA president-elect Gary White.



Gary White, Courtney Young, Dan Mack

Roberta Stevens passed the torch to Molly Raphael. The ALA 2011-2012 year begins!

Annual Conference preview and early numbers

New Orleans will be library central in a couple of days. Librarians and staff, library school students, vendors, and their friends will fill the Morial Convention Center, hotels near and far, and the French Quarter. I suspect attendees are doing what I'm doing: frantically packing and planning for meetings, events, and socializing with friends and colleagues.

A few facts and figures from HQ as of June 20, 2011:

• Paid registration is at 10,007, compared to 11,163 for DC (2010) and 11,775 for Chicago (2009). The week-to-week gain in paid registration was 231.
• Total registration as of this morning is 11,273, compared to 12,967 for DC (2010) and 12,966 for Chicago (2009).
• There are 845 non-members registered, plus a couple of one-day registrations.
• There are 328 international registrants, including all categories (e.g. students, members, non-members.)

 Want to really dig into what's happening? Check out this fantastic document put together by Mary Ghikas.

ALA BARC spring meeting 2011

I attended the ALA BARC spring meeting. During this meeting we worked through the ALA budget and requests from all units (divisions, round tables, offices). A significant portion of this information I'd worked through during the ALA Executive Board's spring meeting two weeks ago. I'm glad it was somewhat fresh in my mind, This made what is still a somewhat new to me process a bit easier.

Another great part of being on this particular committee are the academic library leaders with whom I've had the privilege to serve. Committee members Winston Tabb, Joan Giescke, and ALA Treasurer Jim Neal are three of the most highly regarded deans in academic libraries. They really know their stuff.

I encouraged the committee to consider moving the Budget session to an online event. There is clearly a need for this type of training and refresher for all division and round table members with budget responsibilities. We noted some of the challenges included conflicts due to the compressed midwinter meeting schedule, a perceived lack of new information for experienced divisions/round table treasurers or budget administrators, and travel constraints (especially budgets and time) for members. As a result, I'm working with ALA Finance Office staff and the Treasurer to put together some modules we hope will be available by the fall. In my mind this supports the Association's 2015 strategic plan goal area of organizational excellence.

Join me for a YALSA Webinar

There's still time to register for "Job Hunting Simplified : Tips and Tricks to Finding Your Dream Job!"

Description from the YALSA monthly newsletter:

YALSA’s April Third Thursday webinar is free for all YALSA members! Tackling the job search process can be a daunting task so let YALSA help. Join Courtney Young at 2 p.m. Eastern on April 21 for a discussion of practical job hunting tips for new graduates and early career librarians. Courtney will walk participants through the job application process from start to finish. Participants will learn tips on where to look for job postings, how to write an effective cover letter and resume and how to choose suitable references. Participants will also learn how to use social media to help their job search and how to start building their professional network.

This webinar is free for YALSA members; if you are a YALSA member who would like to register, please contact Eve Gaus at egaus@ala.org or 1-800-545-2433 ext. 5293. Not a YALSA member? Register through ALA registration: $29 for student members who are not members of YALSA, $49 for all other individuals who are not members of YALSA.

ALA Executive Board Spring Meeting 2011

I had a whirlwind weekend at the ALA Executive Board meeting. Our meeting had a very different flow to it than in the past. By "in the past" I mean the one spring meeting I've experienced as a seated board member, and the year before as an observer.

Before all the board stuff started, I spent a little time with Jenny Levine on Thursday. We were on the same wavelength. I brought her two packages of Reeses white chocolate peanut butter eggs. However, she totally outdid me with this amazing star shaped brownie with gold. Not a bad way to start my trip!



Friday morning featured the ALA Staff Awards. This is always a nice event. There are a lot of people that get things done at ALA. It's nice to attend their breakfast and see them receive their employment milestone awards and the two staff achievement awards. Of note is Jenny Levine's five years at ALA recognition. Congrats Jenny!

After lunch, the meetings began. The agendas, as always, are on the Meeting Agendas site. I'll highlight some of the interesting discussions.

Our conversation related to social media and the executive board was interesting. From my perspective I think it barely scratched the surface. We are at a point professionally and technologically where we need to be engaged in dialogues where they're taking place. There is a time and a place for a press release and a unified response at the top, but other times it makes more sense to have a one-on-one interaction in whatever the appropriate venue might be.I understand that this takes a lot of time and there are so many hours in a day, but I think we owe it to our members (and to ourselves) to make every best effort to connect, collaborate, and communicate.

Sunday morning after our closed session was the strategic dialogue on transforming libraries. It was facilitated by Paul Meyer who has worked with ALA on a variety of projects. I think it was the good start of a dialogue. One of the items we talked about what we thought the library of the future looked like. My contribution to this part of the discussion was the notion that the future library, and librarian, would be completely new and reconceptualized. A number of the challenges and issues facing libraries are augmentations of what we might refer to as historical or traditional services, particularly lending materials, reference and instruction services. While we've made some really great modifications to how we provide these and other services, it's becoming clear that emerging and innovative services simply cannot be based on their traditional counterparts. If success breeds success, then change breeds change. Just imagine what we get with successful change.

Not all of these shifts are driven by changing technologies. Over the past five years I dramatically shifted my approach to providing reference and instruction services. The amount of one shot course related instruction I delivered went down, but my one-on-one or small group reference consultations spiked. The faculty I regularly worked with often felt their students were not as well prepared as in the past and needed every possible class to foster learning. At the same time, they valued research and what I brought to the table as a reference librarian. They found it useful to meet one-on-one with me, so perhaps their students would as well. My previous experience with their courses and my experience as a reference librarian gave me an opportunity to reinvent my approach to working with students and, in turn, information literacy. These successes led to these students coming to me for help with other coursework, and that sometimes led to referrals from peers. Were reference and course related instruction still major components of my job? Absolutely. The way in which those activities are carried out have shifted in response to the curricular, teaching, and learning needs of students and faculty.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are degrees of change. What may not look like much of a shift to some of us is a major departure from librarianship for others. There's room for both during this period of transition.

National Library Week 2011

It was my pleasure to be a part of two videos for National Library Week 2011.

Quotes about libraries.

What isn't great about libraries?

How are you celebrating?