Art A Fair during ALA Annual 2008

D’you live in Southern Cali or are you going to ALA this summer?  The city of Laguna Beach is hosting Art-A-Fair, the city’s only international art festival.  On the Saturday & Sunday during ALA Annual, Art A Fair will have live Jazz and eclectic violin performers.  I’m sure you’re already busy, but hey, it’s Annual – go ahead and over-schedule yourself, I am…

ALA-APA at Annual 2008

Hm… two posts in a row with embedded gCals; maybe I’ll share the link this time for variety?

Lots of people wonder what ALA-APA (the ALA Allied Professional Association) is. Long story short, this is the group charged by ALA Council to “manage certification of individuals in specializations beyond the initial professional degree” and advocate for the “mutual professional interests of librarians and other library workers.”

Anyway, ALA-APA is sponsoring a bunch of events at Annual; hopefully some of which will interest many of you. Catch you in Anaheim, if you’re going…

ALA Council Events

People on several lists have asked for a calendar of Council related events at Annual 08. Here’s all the Council related events I found. (If I missed a few, please let me know in the comments & I’ll add them!)

 

My ALA Annual 08 Schedule

Where in the World is Aaron the Librarian?!

edit: btw the “**” means I **must** attend the meeting & “*” means I sorta oughta attend

ok, a beef with the “Agenda” view: Why does only one meeting with the same start time show up?! I know I’m double-booked for at least three “must attend” meetings, but only the alphabetically 1st one shows up 😦

wikified ALA Council Resolution proposals

In case you didn’t know, I’m an ALA Council junkie. Back when I wasn’t a Councilor (all of 6 months ago as well as years prior) I would still attend the Council sessions and listen in, occasionally comment from the peanut gallery, and sometimes stroll through the Councilors’ seats talking to people I know or would like to know based on their comments on issues in which I was/am interested.

One of the things I noticed (aside from the coffee, which I don’t drink – blech) was there’s no way for a member (who wasn’t at the Council session) to know what kinds of discussion and other considerations
took place before any votes. Parliamentary procedure requires an opportunity for discussion before a formal vote is taken. The Council minutes and Councilor voting histories (not on the web) are all well and good, but which Councilors made cogent points or shared a good story supporting one action or another? What story might have been shared? All that community interaction is currently lost.

While wearing my (soon to be doffed) LITA Web Coordinator for Committees hat, I got involved in a process to draft up a resolution from the ALA Website Advisory Committee (WAC) requesting the already retained “rough draft” transcripts of ALA Council sessions be posted to a members-only web page. A no-brainer, for me.

Knowing the hive-mind will come up with more ideas and catch errors, etc., I wikified the the text of a resolution Billie Peterson-Lugo, George Porter, and I worked up at the end of the WAC meeting at midwinter. And, lo, there was much activity after it was announced on the WAC and Council email lists.

Finally getting to my point… Please take a look at the proposed resolutions (1 for Council Transcripts & 1 for Council Session Recordings/Streaming) and share any insights you have on them.

Heck, while you’re at it, leave a comment here telling me this is something you want or what you’d rather have instead.

Virtual Library Day on the Hill

The ALA Washington Office will host Virtual Library Day on the Hill at the ALA Annual Conference.

Virtual Library Day on the Hill will take place on Tuesday, July 1 from 8 a.m. to noon. Conference attendees will have the chance to both email and fax their Members of Congress on important library issues and learn how they can register to vote, using computer terminals located on the exhibit floor.

If you’re familiar with CapWiz, ALA WO’s Legislative web tracking service, please consider volunteering to help new CapWiz users — details about this on the District Dispatch post above.

ALA Ambassadors

For folks who haven’t heard, ALA started and will be continuing the ALA Ambassadors program at Annual 2008.  I’ve been doing this since the last time we were in Chicago (2006?) and would encourage people interested in helping new conference attendees make the most of their first conference or two.

I’m squeaking in my two hour ALA Ambassador shift at the Membership Pavilion (on the Exhibits Floor) on Saturday right after Council I wraps up (~12:15).  I’m not yet sure who the new conference-goers are who I’ll be contacting – I should know in a week or so.

If you’re a new conference attendee, feel free to stop me in the halls — not that you’ll likely recognize me.

If you’re not a new conference attendee, please consider signing up as a potential ALA Ambassador next year.  I’m told 200+ conference-experienced people signed up for Anaheim & there is a waiting list already started…

See you in Anaheim!