Friday, March 16, 2012

ALA Midwinter 2012

As Oregon’s “chapter councilor” (aka OLA’s representative to the ALA Council), this past January I survived a trip to the Lone Star state for ALA Midwinter. While I did not eat any steak or acquire any cowboy/girl boots on the trip, I did learn about ALA’s current plans to work with publishers on the ebook crisis (the most up-to-date info is here, http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/e-content/ebook-talks-details) and voted (“yes”) on a wide array of resolutions, including the resolution on publishers and practices which discriminate against library users, the resolution on the loss of crucial government information, a resolution opposing PIPA and SOPA, a resolution opposing the Research Works Act, and a resolution against restriction of access to materials and open inquiry in Ethnic and Cultural Studies programs in Arizona. For more information about any of these resolutions, feel free to check in with me or got to the ALA Council documents site for a much more detailed description of the resolutions and the rationale behind them, http://www.ala.org/aboutala/council-documents-annualmidwinter-2012.

Perhaps the most useful thing I learned during this Midwinter conference (in terms of serving on the ALA Council) was a quote heard third hand – “the power of Council and the resolutions they pass is in speaking to the members.” With that said, please if you have questions or comments, feel free to follow up with me (hannah.rempel@oregonstate.edu). – Hannah Gascho Rempel