Discussions from the Council email list of potential interest to IFRT

Carolyn Caywood, IFRT Councilor

The IRC is monitoring Turkmenistan, which has closed most of its libraries (along with other institutions of civilization).

The Resolution on Workplace Speech, which IFRT endorsed, was postponed for a review by IFC before Annual. IFC reports that the resolution puts ALA in the position of giving legally misleading advice. There has been considerable discussion on how to rewrite it to avoid this problem and I expect a revised version to be on the agenda.

While considerable debate followed the presentation of a citation to Laura Bush, the only Council action I expect may be a resolution requiring that such actions be brought to the Council for endorsement. That could mean only at conferences, thus delaying ALA’s responsiveness, or it could be by some phone/internet means that might violate our open meeting policy.

Privacy concerns were given a boost by the hijacking of part of ALA’s member list. Function creep and RFID chips for library cards were also discussed.

How to manage disruptive posters on ALA email lists also drew debate with the IF lists being cited as examples. I don’t expect any Council action, but it is interesting to know how widespread this issue is. And another form of Internet communication – blogs - generated debate back in March in the wake of an article by Michael Gorman.

Other resolution ideas floated at Midwinter were a condemnation of political grandstanders who want to excise GLBT authors from libraries, and a condemnation of the Administration practice of spreading disinformation. I have heard nothing further on these.

Council issues less directly related to IF include concerns about library closings and funding cuts that continue in the wake of Salinas. They may generate a resolution to create an ALA office to address this. Discussions of the financial stability of APA and of ALA’s partnerships also keep resurfacing. And, in the wake of the LJ article there is concern about newly graduated librarians who can’t find a professional job. There is a resolution pending about requesting an update of the US News ranking of library schools but discussion has been unfavorable. The administration of the second electronic ballot also drew discussion.

Finally, please note that the position of IFRT councilor will be on the 2006 ballot. I’ll be glad to share my experience with anyone considering running for the office.