Campaign Reform!

I want everyone to know that during our campaign for ALA president, Linda Williams and I had a discussion about the need for major campaign reform for the ALA presidential and treasurer elections. As a result of that discussion, we submitted to Keith Fiels, ALA executive director, and Loriene Roy, ALA president, a memorandum before the election was decided. In that memo, Linda and I shared our concerns about the election campaign process and made some recommendations based on our experience. We hope to get some discussion started, and, hopefully, some changes made. We realize that all this will have to go through the proper channels for discussion and action.

The bottomline for the two of us is that we think the candidates for those to offices should “stand” for election (as opposed to “running/campaigning” for the offices) and be provided forums to discuss their vision etc. These forums will allow any ALA member a chance ” to meet” all the candidates without great expense (either to the member or to the candidates), and these forums could be in all types of formats such as, in-person, through podcasts, skype, newsletters, etc.

I want to thank Linda for collaborating with me on this effort. Stay tuned……

CAMILA

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

To all the folks who believe in me and supported me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  It was a grueling time these past 6 months traveling to various conferences to campaign and traveling to speak at various venues.  I am so relieved it is over.

I am so enthusiastic now that the election is over.  I look forward to working with ALA Council, Executive Board, and members to move ALA from good to great!

I also want to thank J. Linda Williams for running a stellar campaign.

CAMILA

What the Heck is Going On?

It appears that there is more movement than usual affecting the status of our profession.  As I understand it, there are libraries around the country that are experiencing reductions in services, changes in librarians’ professional status, closing of branches, etc.  In Wausau, WI, positions were eliminated and replaced with new job titles and less pay.  In Memphis, TN, the library director was dismissed by the major and a political appointee without the library degree or library management experience was appointed to the position.  In Dartmoth, MA, the library system has cut branch services and is looking at outsourcing some services.  What the heck is going on?

Having served as the top academic library administrator most of my career, I know that there are two sides to every story.  And, I haven’t been privvy to hearing both sides.  Nonetheless, there appears to be something wrong in each of the processes.

During my administrative career, my management teams and I did reorganize and affect change.  But, I can say that in doing that, we never lost sight of the original purpose of reorganization — to provide better services to our users.  We listened to user focus groups; we surveyed our users; we got input from library employees.  We were careful not to make arbitrary nor capricious decisions.  We never compromised the integrity of the process.

We also realized that IT allowed us to rethink and reinvent our library organizations.  But, in reorganizing, no one ever lost their jobs or suffered a reduction in salary.  And, when job duties were changed, we worked to re-tool and retrain folks.  Again, all this was done to better serve our users.

In the case of the Memphis mayor, I would suspect that there was not much integrity in his process.  I would suspect that he didn’t hold library patron focus groups, talk with staff, nor  survey folks.  I would also suspect that the person  that replaced the library director (albeit might be a fine manager in other circumstances) has no sense of the public library culture.

All this to say, we must be concerned about what is happening to our profession.  We have a component in place that you as members pay for — ALA APA — whose purpose is to deal with improving status of our profession (as well as improving salaries/benefits).  However, I would maintain that we have to deal with our status in order to improve our salaries.

I have pledged, as your ALA president, to work with ALA-APA to make it more effective for  members.  However, you all have to become engaged with ALA-APA.  It is your association and should be responding to your needs/concerns.  It’s only through more of your involvement that we can move forward.

Camila needs volunteers at TLA!

If you’re going to the Texas Library Association Annual Conference in April, or if you’re located in the Dallas area, Camila could use your help! We will have a campaign table there and need volunteers to stand nearby, hand out stickers and flyers, and describe to those who don’t know her the talented, amazing woman named Camila. You don’t even have to be registered for the conference to pitch in. To sign up, email Daniel. Thanks for your support!

Camila gets some play on YouTube; add your $0.02

I just uploaded a bunch of videos from our inspiring campaign kickoff to YouTube, where they are now searchable and available to everyone. Six of the videos are testimonials offered by some of Camila’s most avid supporters that I recorded at the kickoff.

Six testimonials on YouTube is great, and more would be even better! We invite you to record and post your own on the site. Just make sure to tag it with Camila’s name, and you can publicly express your support for our favorite ALA presidential candidate. If you need any help using YouTube, try their help page or post your questions here and I’ll respond.

To whet your appetite, here’s the testimonial from Sarah Long, a former ALA president…

Spreading the Roots from Spokane!

I use the term grassroots particularly when I refer to library advocacy. But, I never knew the origin of the term. I assumed, correctly, that it had to something to do with grass and its roots. That was about all the assumptions I could make. So, I went online to find more about the origins of the term. Voila`, I found what I was looking for. On Answers.com, grassroots is described as getting beneath the grass and its soil to the roots which are vital in keeping the grass alive, thriving, and green.

This made perfectly good sense to me and fits into the whole concept of grassroots library advocacy. The grassroots effort goes beyond our organized political system. It starts back home. I call it back home advocacy. Case in point is the growing grassroots movement in Spokane, Washington, where three mothers refused to accept the cutting of certified school librarians from the school libraries in the Spokane school district due to budget cuts.

These three moms started the Washington Coalition for School Libraries and Information Technology – WSLit (www.fundourfuturewashington.org ) They are the roots embedded in the soil of their children’s educational success. This group of women, joined by others, have lobbied their state legislators for the introduction of Senate Bill 6380 (House Bill 2773) which would provide Washington school districts with the funding for certified school librarians based on the size of the school districts as one of the components of legislation. Sound familiar? This is somewhat similar to the SKILLS Act that we in ALA have been lobbying for with our U.S. Congress. (The two bills also include allocating $12 per student for school library materials budget.)

This past Friday, the Coalition held a summit – the Washington School Library Media Program Summit – and rally in Olympia, Washington’s state capitol. ALA was well-represented by President Loriene Roy, AASL President Sara Johns, and AASL Executive Director Julie Walker. The event was to garner more support for their grassroots efforts on behalf of school libraries.

As an ALA presidential candidate, I maintain that grassroots library advocacy goes hand-in-hand with back home advocacy. My back home advocacy has two purposes. The first is to engage library supporters at the grassroots level to raise the awareness of the value of libraries and library employees. These roots include parents, patrons, trustees, students, faculty, frontline librarians/library staff, and library administrators. The second purpose is to implement a nationwide Back Home Advocacy Day at the local level in August when both our state and federal legislators are “back home” in their legislative districts.

Let the Washington Coalition’s roots spread to other states to get organized in efforts to put certified school librarians back in school libraries and to fund school library materials budgets more responsibly. As your ALA president, I would not only support the spreading of the roots for support of school libraries, but I would also use this grassroots effort as an excellent model for organizing and implementing a systematic Back Home Advocacy Day.

 

Camila and the School Libraries Question

I posted the following question on the “Your Ideas” section of the website. After reading Camila’s response, I thought it should be posted on the blog - in case some of you don’t get around to reading the “Ideas” portion. As a follow up to Camila’s response, I agree that more advocacy needs to be done. I am a member of my state’s advocacy committee, as well as the AASL Legislation committee. I hope that ALL librarians would help each other out in this area of advocacy, not just those in school libraries. The more voices heard by our congressmen and women, the better.

Thus, I hope if you’re working in a public or academic library, whether or not you have children in the school system, and whether or not your school system has a school librarian, that you’ll take the time to contact your representatives about the SKILLs Act and get involved in advocacy for school libraries. I feel that it takes ALL of us in the various areas of librarianship within ALA to unite together to help school librarians across the country. Thanks for seeing the “vision,” Camila.

My first Post:

Hola Camila. As a future school librarian (I just graduated with my MLS), I am interested in how you will help school libraries across the country who are closing by the hundreds, with many school librarians losing their jobs. In my state, there is a HUGE gap between the rich and the poor neighborhoods, as the state requires they be funded by individual communities. Thus, poor parents do not have the money to pay more in taxes for a school librarian, and their schools do not have them. However, in the richer communities where parents pay the extra taxes, they have school librarians. This is because my state (MA) does not require school librarians (except for high school.)

As a result, poor/middle class students are not learning information literacy skills to prepare them for higher education, while the rich are getting these skills and more through their school librarians. I have often wished that ALA would step into the picture and help this issue. We always hear about the problems public librarians face, but no one talks about the problems school librarians face. Do you have any ideas for how these issues could be addressed? I see it as a diversity issue with the poorer communities being mostly Latino & African American being denied their education. How could ALA help to reverse this very bad trend? –Alma

Camila’s Response:

Greetings, Alma –
First of all — good for your for your commitment to school libraries! I have a soft spot and a lot of respect for school librarians as that is how I started my career. Thank you for posting your question and sharing your concerns about the lack of funding to cover school librarian salaries in your district/state; this is a widespread problem across the country. I would agree that there needs to be strong advocacy for school libraries nationwide and as ALA president I would be strongly supporting better funding for school libraries and the hiring of school librarians.

Right now we are really pushing the SKILLS ACT which is co-sponsored by Rep. Raul Grijalva [D-AZ] which would work towards having a school librarian in every school. I chair ALA’s Committee on Legislation and realized when getting ready to make appointments that there were hardly any school librarians on the COL subcommittees especially in grassroots advocacy. I appointed 2 of them to that committee. Additionally, I have been an advocacy trainer for years and hope to continue to train more people in grassroots advocacy. I have been really pushing for more “grassroots” advocacy — which means everyone getting involved in advocating for libraries [not just library administrators]. There needs to be more advocacy training for “frontline” folks [just like what you will be] to take away the mystery of and intimidation concerning advocacy. We need to be able to “tell our story” well and convincingly. We have to be able to use the power of persuasion to let decision-makers/legislators/policy-makers/school boards/… and the list could go on and on….know how important school libraries are to the welfare of our children and our communities.

I would also agree that there is a real difference between schools that are better funded and, consequently, can afford to hire school librarians and those that can’t. Unfortunately, those that can’t afford to do this widens the gap between children who are information-rich and those who are information-poor. And, unfortunately, this tends to happen more in schools that serve our minority children. If elected, I plan to put together an action task force dealing with school libraries and youth services. I have not forgotten that those of you school librarians prepare the students we deal with in academic and public libraries.
CAMILA

Resolution #1: Help Camila get elected

Happy new year, everyone! In the spirit of resolutions, I’d like to share with you the 7 Things You Can Do to Support Camila’s Candidacy for ALA President:

1. Communicate to ALA friends and colleagues to build support for Camila. Share our flyer and our website URL, camilaalire.com, to get the word out.

2. Tell Camila what ALA can do for you! Add your ideas for ALA to our blog.

3. Endorse Camila by adding a comment to our endorsements page, and by adding similar commentary to other library-related websites, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, etc.

4. Volunteer your time on the campaign. We are currently seeking help to staff Camila’s booth at Midwinter.

5. Contribute cash or in-kind goods to the campaign.

6. Vote and help get out the vote!!! You need to be a member of good standing by January 30 to vote.

7. Blog for us. If you are following the campaign and would like to share your insights and thoughts with others, email Camila to become an author on this blog.

We’re so grateful for anything you can do to help make Camila’s campaign a success! And you can expect some great payback once she’s president…

UPS and ALA…..

** Greetings from enchanting New Mexico! I have left Colorado’s winter wonderland for a few days of sunny, but unusually cold, New Mexico. Here’s hoping that all of you have had a wonderful holiday, and I wish you all a very good and prosperous 2008!**

I want to share an observation I had over the holidays. I am sharing this because it has some ALA and library implication. The observation occurred when I was listening to (rarely do I have time to sit down and “watch”) ABC’s Good Morning, America or was it CBS’ Sunday Morning? Anyway, they were doing a story on UPS and how it was working hard to recruit younger drivers because, like many corporate environments, they are experiencing the graying of their workforce. What UPS found was that the training programs that they had been using for years were insufficient. It was not so much the content of the training programs per se that was the issue; it was the methodology. For many of us, training programs usually consisted of the trainers talking and the participants taking notes. If we were lucky, the programs might have some interactive exercises built in.

The young UPS trainees said that this was not enough. They wanted a training program that utilized the benefits of technology; they expected computer simulation exercises et cetera to enhance their training. This was an eye-opener for UPS. And, UPS adjusted accordingly….

As I was listening to this program segment, I immediately thought of what we face in all of our libraries and within ALA– not only the graying of our profession but also, like the UPS trainees, two generations of librarians (GenXers and Millenials) coupled with library users who expect a lot more technology in libraries and a lot more technological-savvy library staff.

I decided to share my thoughts with you all because of two other things that happened — at an ALA-related national meeting, a young ALA leader remarked about the generational differences in attitude of those of us around the table. If I recall correctly, it was about process versus action. Then I recently read about the “rejuvenation” of staff in the Washington D.C. Public Library system. This rejuvenation required retirement financial incentives and some firing of long-time staff because DCPL wanted tech-savvy librarians who come into the system bringing much-needed technology skills sets and who can embrace change demanded by the implementation of technology. The bottomline for DCPL was providing better services to their users using state-of-the-art technology as well as attracting their underserved, but tech-savvy, young adults.

All of this has implications for ALA leaders - not only the ALA president but also division presidents/division boards, ALA Council, and ALA Executive Board. At no other time in my professional career have I witnessed how information technology is driving how people work with others, relate to others, and/or help serve others. Also, more than ever before, we have major generational differences within our profession and within ALA. We can’t ignore this. The new generation of emerging leaders think very differently than we Boomers. We (Boomers) need to embrace these differences and think differently/creatively about how we get and keep them involved in ALA. It can’t be business as usual anymore.

As ALA president, I would bring experience as a change agent. I don’t necessarily have the “how-to-do-it” answers right now. But, I recognize that as an association, we need to work hard to engage the new generation of librarians and library staff. Like UPS, we need to do it using the “methodologies” that resonate with our new generation of librarians. I don’t think it needs to be an “either/or” situation — that is, forsake my fellow ALA Boomers for the newer generation. But we do have to be more inclusive and understand that change is definitely due. I am more than willing to listen to ALA members of all generations to see how we can advance ALA to being a vibrant and relevant association for all of us.

CAMILA

Want to help out? Camila needs volunteers at Midwinter!

Are you looking forward to seeing Camila as president of ALA? You can help make that happen by volunteering! We are currently seeking volunteers for Camila’s campaign booth at ALA Midwinter on January 11-14th, 2008.

You can sign yourself up for a convenient time by going to the volunteer schedule online on the ALA Diversity wiki. To sign up, login with username “volunteer,” and password “camila4prez,” and add your name and email address next to the time(s) for which you would like to volunteer.

If you prefer not to sign up on the wiki, please email our volunteer coordinator, Xima Avalos, with the times you would like to volunteer.

Feel free to volunteer for as many hours as you are able, and don’t worry about putting your name in a timeslot that already has volunteers - the more the merrier.

Happy holidays, and see you soon in Philadelphia!