IFRT Councilor’s Report, ALA Midwinter 2005

Carolyn Caywood, IFRT Councilor, ccaywood@vbgov.com

            Midwinter 2005 ALA Council meetings were swift and efficient, possibly because the ALA-Allied Professional Association (APA) finally got its own meeting. The Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) resolutions passed easily thanks to extensive groundwork and communication with the rest of ALA. They were the last three revisions of “Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights” (Labeling, Media Centers, Electronic Resources) to be considered before the publication of the next revision of ALA's Intellectual Freedom Manual and a resolution on RFID endorsing the work of Book Industry Study Group (BISG) in developing privacy principles. The IFC report echoed a Memorial resolution honoring Gordon Conable who will be truly missed both by Council and the IF community. The Committee on Legislation (COL) was equally successful with its action items which included opposition to drivers’ license standardization as a back-door approach to a national ID and endorsement of Stop Before You Click, an anti-UCITA (Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act) media & information campaign.

            In other business, Council agreed to reduce the minimum number of Council candidates the Nominating Committee must propose, approved Honorary Memberships despite an objection to one of those named, passed Melora Ranney Norman’s Resolution on Health Care, a resolution to add school library media centers to No Child Left Behind, the International Relations Committee’s proposal for tsunami relief, and a revised resolution on the closing of the Salinas, California public libraries. Nevertheless, a resolution to ban cell phones during ALA meetings failed, mostly out of a sense that not every infraction requires legislation. Newly elected Executive Board members are June Pinnell-Stevens, Francis Buckley, Pat Smith and Terri Kirk, the last being a nomination from the floor because the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) felt un-represented.

            Still to come, on the Spring Ballot is the question of whether to reduce the quorum for an ALA Membership Meeting to 75 people. Council passed this to make it possible for Membership Meetings to pass resolutions, though one of the prices was to strip the meetings of real power. I voted against it in Council because I think 75 trivializes the idea of “Membership” in an organization the size of ALA.

            The Resolution on Workplace Speech, which IFRT endorsed, was postponed to Annual Conference. Other possible resolutions at Annual are a condemnation of political grandstanders who want to excise GLBT authors from libraries and a condemnation of the practice of spreading disinformation.

            It’s probably time for IFRT members to start thinking about running for this position of IFRT councilor. My term expires after Annual 2006, so candidates should have made their decision by the end of this year. I’ll be glad to talk about my experience if anyone has questions. It is definitely plenty of work, but a very rewarding office.