American Library Association Conference 2006

The American Library Association conference took place in New Orleans from June 22-28. New Orleans was scheduled as the host site almost ten years ago. In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, ALA Board members and staff re-examined the viability of the city to host the event. After almost two months of investigation, ALA announced (in October 2005) that it would keep the conference in New Orleans as recovery efforts were well underway and the conference would help to provide the jobs and tax revenues needed to re-establish the city. Attendees totalled 16,964, which comprised over 12,000 delegates and nearly 5,000 exhibitors. This was rather less attendees than in the two previous years(27,434 in Chicago, 2005 and 19,575 in Orlando, 2004). Many delegates took advantage of the shuttle bus service, sponsored by Gale, that ran between the hotels and the Morial Convention Centre.

Prior to the formal start of the conference, 500 eager librarians poured out of the convention centre, dressed in bright yellow t-shirts, and boarded 14 buses heading for 19 project sites throughout the New Orleans area. These were Libraries Build Community participants, who had volunteered their time,skills and labour to New Orleans area libraries and community organisations needing help to recover from Katrina. Tasks varied from site-to-site, ranging from construction, painting and gardening to shelving, weeding and packing books. What a difference a few hours and a group of volunteers made. At Holy Cross High School in Orleans Parish, a site in the devastated ninth ward, 15 ALA volunteers along with a few community workers braved the heat and humidity to help librarian, Beth Patin, prepare for the school’s imminent move to another location. Everyone was amazed by the stacks of boxes filled with books and the nearly empty shelves by the end of the day. Further volunteers were welcomed to join the 400 previously signed up for the second day of work at the end of the conference. Several ALA exhibitors supported this effort, such as Highsmith and Bretford, who provided furnishing equipment and supplies.

The conference itself got off to a good start with the keynote opening address from former Secretary of State and bestselling author, Madeleine Albright. Madeleine Albright was the first woman to serve as US Secretary of State. In her new book The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America. God and World Affairs, she offers a provocative and personal look at the role of religion in America’s foreign policy. ALA President, Michael Gorman, welcomed Kevin Starr to talk about the enduring importance of reading and literacy. Kevin Starr is a noted scholar, librarian, and self-described evangelist for the central importance of reading and literacy to society and the life of the mind. Michael Gorman also held a forum on international library education. He joined an international panel of educators and practitioners for an in-depth discussion of issues in international library education. (Read about it in the articles of this issue of New Library World.)

The conference offered many programs, meetings and social events. However,the comprehensive conference program was designed to help delegates get the most from the conference. The program was broken down into nine tracks –“Authors, literature & cultural programming”, “Administration& leadership”, “Children and young adults”, “Collection management and technical services”, “Digital information &technologies”, “Issues & updates”, “Human resources& staff development”, “User services, reference and outreach”,and “Research” – most of which were broken down into sub-tracks. This was supplemented by a daily publication of Cognotes, the official conference newspaper, giving news on events, special features,additions and any changes. Clearly, there was plenty to choose from, and again it was hard to choose which conference sessions to attend – even if following a track, constantly there were interesting sessions running at the same time. For those international delegates new to ALA, there was a session right at the beginning of the conference “International Librarians’Orientation”. This provided information about the ALA, its annual conference and about New Orleans. This was a mix of how to get the most from the conference and exhibition, and also some tourist-type information and update about New Orleans.

When it came to which sessions to attend, I was spoilt for choice with so many sessions running at the same time. Rather than follow one particular track,I dipped into various tracks, as some topics arose in many tracks, for example“Best Practices”, “Hot Topics” and “Leadership”.

The following gives an indication only of the very different types of sessions throughout the conference.

The ALA Allied Professional Association (APA) hosted a number of sessions directly focused on participants. Amongst negotiation skills, pay equity training, improving communication skills for managers and managing libraries with unions, were a few highlights. “Better salaries and pay equity advocacy training” provided the latest advocacy techniques, told of successful salary/pay equity campaigns, and informed on how to create your own advocacy campaign theme. In “Getting even: how library staff can get paid fairly”, Evelyn Murphy, author of Getting Even: Why Women Don’t Get Paid Like Men and What to do About It, suggested how library employees can mobilize to get paid fairly. The “Getting what you’re worth salary workshop” was an interactive session which provided the opportunity to learn the principles of salary negotiation during interviews and promotion and to engage in mock negotiations.

RUSA (Reference and User Services Association) also offered a wide variety of programs. “Expanding the library, integrating library services into course management systems, portals and beyond” focused on the rapidly evolving information space where libraries are competing with free commercial entities to provide core services and where delivering library resources at the point of patron delivery has never been more crucial. This session explored how to drive library resources right through to users’ point of need through integration with course management systems (CMS), such as Blackboard and WebCT. A panel of five librarians talked about the ways in which they integrated library resources with online CMS, covering topics from planning integration of resources and developing relationships with CMS managers to implementing content integration and library tutorials within course management systems. “Quality on the fly: chat and IM reference” tabled conversations about quality and other current issues in virtual reference, including instant messaging versus integrated, web-based software suites, learning styles and communication, and transcript analysis as a tool for quality control, peer review, training, and performance appraisal.

AASL (The American Association of School Librarians) presented “The flattening of the web”. This comprised a discussion of the issues of the“flattening world”, why the internet has been dubbed “the great equalizer” and how it contributes to the flattening of the world, and what knowledge is necessary to prosper in the “flatter” environment. Recent developments in how we access, organise and publish web content, and how they contribute to this flatness and changing the shape of information were also addressed.

The New Orleans situation was very much to the fore throughout sessions. In“Outside the magic circle: library services and underserved users”,Journalist, Cynthia Tucker, observed that “it’s too easy to forget that there are people too poor to have a car, a credit card or a checking account, people stranded outside the magic circle”. She was speaking to the situation faced by 2005 hurricane evacuees, and to the realities of all individuals who are poor, isolated, displaced – people locked outside circles of privilege. This was a panel session, which brought together LIS literacy, and social services practitioners to share best practice. At “Preparedness matters planning for disaster”, attendees were given an overview of disaster and emergency preparedness. Speaker, Gayle Alston, said that “preparedness includes activities, programs and systems put together before an emergency or disaster, and the planning to support and enhance responses to those emergencies or disaster”. She described the four key parts to any disaster cycle as preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. Mitigation is in essence retrofitting the community. This task can be accomplished by reinforcing roof beams, joints or shingles or even just rearranging the way landscaping is done. By changing building codes and rethinking how a disaster occurs, mitigation can help lessen damage. “For every dollar spent in mitigation it can save four in cost effectiveness.” She suggested “Be prepared, get a disaster kit, check out the FEMA web site at: www.fema.org and don’t make assumptions that it won’t happen to you”. In “When bad things happen to nice libraries:building an emergency and disaster preparedness program”, it was noted that libraries have policies addressing many aspects of security, but formulating a response to a major disaster defies easy solution. Every library must plan for fire, flood, earthquake or other destructive event, both to protect staff and to preserve collections. In addition, the library’s fiduciary responsibility requires some policy to be in place. Speakers addressed the issues involved in drafting a policy and some actual catastrophic experiences.

Much was on offer at the exhibition area (known as The Stacks) – over 1,500 booths, which seemed constantly busy. Special features of the exhibit floor included:

• “Technology” – this area of the floor featured new technologies for librarians and their libraries;

• “University press” – this pavilion showcased the latest publications from the university ranks on a variety of subjects;

• “Graphic novel” – the largest and fasted growing pavilion brought together every major graphic novel publisher and distributor in an exciting display;

• “Communities of colour” – new in 2005, this pavilion celebrated the ethnic diversity of libraries, librarians and the communities of colour they serve;

• “International” – new books and periodicals from publishers around the world;

• “World religions” – this new pavilion brought together the diversity of today’s religions – one of the fastest-growing requests in libraries;

• “Association pavilion” – presented an opportunity to meet representatives and explore information from ALA divisions, offices,roundtables and other groups from within ALA;

• “Accessibility” – this pavilion featured products and services designed to make libraries more accessible and to educate librarians on how to deliver accessible services;

• “Small press” – this small press area allows attendees to get a first look at new and up-comers to the library market;

• “Library school and instruction” – from ALISE, this pavilion allows important library schools from around the country the opportunity to display information on their educational programs; and

• “DVD” – new in 2006, this pavilion featured exhibitors who could help bring DVD technology into the library.

As usual, there were many author signings continuing throughout the duration of the conference, and plenty of demonstrations. Again this year there was an “Exhibits Closing Reception” sponsored by ERT. Fun foods and beverages were on offer together with various prizes for various raffles including iPods, digital cameras and cash. However, this year the theme was“a day of giving”. Donations were taken for the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. A carnival ticket was given for every $10 donated, and carnival tickets could be exchanged for prizes at participating exhibitors. DEMCO donated all furnishings displayed and $1 for each visitor to their booth to assist a local library with their renovation needs.

The ALA/Proquest Scholarship Bash this year was held at the Morial Convention Center. This event is held to provide scholarships for graduate student s in Library and Information Studies, but this year proceeds were also donated to the“ALA Hurricane Katrina Library Relief Fund”.

As usual many vendors offered receptions. Emerald Group Publishing held a cocktail reception on board a riverboat with live jazz, which cruised the Mississippi. Ex Libris also held a cocktail party at the Wyndham Hotel. As usual, OCLC’s “President’s luncheon” was a well-attended event. These are just a taste of the many vendors’ receptions throughout the conference.

The reception for International Visitors was held at the Plimsoll Club at the top of the World Trade Center, with wonderful views of the Mississippi River. As well as regional cuisine, hors d’oeuvres and an open bar, it was a friendly occasion and a wonderful opportunity to network with information professionals from around the world.

As usual the ALA annual conference was a valuable opportunity to meet colleagues and exchange ideas. The ALA 2007 annual conference will be held in Washington DC from 21-27 June. Details are on the ALA web site, available at: www.ala.org

Linda Ashcroft