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please do take note of the date; but too good not to share. bobbie From: Charles Wilt
[mailto:cwilt@xxxxxxx] Dear ALCTS Leaders, Friends, and Colleagues, I thought a reminder of things that are yet to come would be
worthwhile to start with. We have a series of webinars on Institutional
Repositories beginning next Wednesday, April 8th, and running once a month into
June. The E-forum continues to be popular. As you've seen, Lisa
German will be leading a discussion on April 6th and 7th on budget reductions
and what that means. More are in the works. Although not official, it looks like ALA will announce that
the opening general session for ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC in 2010
will feature a debate format presentation featuring Sean Hannity and Rachel
Maddow. Resolved: Libraries? The American Girl Company has a new doll coming out just in
time for the ALA Annual Conference. The new doll called Marian will be
the first American Girl of the 21st Century. Born into an Iowa family of
librarians, Marian's adventures show the inevitable conflict between stereotype
and reality in the world of information pursuit. Big crowds are expected
at the new north Michigan Avenue store in Water Tower Place. Discount
coupons will be printed in the ALA Program book given to all attendees. Since the ALA Annual Conference will happen after the Taste
of Chicago held in Grant Park, in its place, ALA will be hosting the first and
maybe last conference wide pot luck dinner. Lists of what people can bring
will be posted to the conference webpage in a few weeks, so look for that and
plan on digging out that cranberry apple crumb cake recipe you got from your
Aunt Louise years ago. The Obama adminstration has expressed concerns over the
impact of the economy on university endowments this past year. To help
bolster the need for Wall Street to continue to hire new MBA's from Harvard,
the administration has given Harvard $1B to replenish its endowment to support
the training of future Treasury Department officials. Ever vigilant in acquiring funding, ALA has provided the
Obama administration a list of "shovel ready" projects. First
and foremost on the list is the completion and implementation of the RDA
project. In addition to the current model being developed by ALA
Publishing, the funding request also includes Xbox and Wii versions. Speaking of RDA, the Joint Steering Committee for the
Development of RDA met a couple weeks ago. There was a huge crowd that
gathered to witness the event. However, after seeing its shadow, we
should expect at least 52 more weeks until RDA comes. A couple of notes about ALA finances and the economics
downturn. Over the last few months, the ALA management team has been
looking closely at the impact of the economy on the ALA budget for this fiscal
year. Taking one idea from the current administration, ALA management and
BARC have agreed to implement a new dues strategy for members currently earning
over $250,000. Those members would see an immediate doubling of their
dues to $260 from the current $130. Middle income members will not be
affected. The increase is estimated to bring in a few thousands of
dollars over the next ten years. In another effort to deal with the projected deficit this
year, the ALA budget team is looking at ALA travel for cost savings.
Under intense scrutiny are upcoming trips to Caribbean Library Association
meeting in Aruba, the French Library Association meeting in Cannes, and the
Mexican Library Association meeting in Los Cabos. In the tradition of bow tie day during the ALA Council
Meetings at Annual Conference, this year's Council Meeting will include a
"Sleeveless Day". Citing the precedent set by Michelle Obama,
Executive Director Keith Fiels stated "it may not be pretty but we felt
that we needed to support the First Lady's initiatives". There is no truth to the rumor that the federal government
will force a merger of ALA with AALL, MLA and SLA over a perceived notion that
the current associations have failed to produce a viable association model that
potential Gen X and Millenial members will actually join. Due to the financial crises facing GM and Chrysler, work on
ALA’s Data Dashboard is being suspended. The Obama administration has not revealed whether it will
accept ALCTS’ re-structuring plan as presented. Administration officials
are unhappy with the handling of the hundreds of dollars of pay increases and
bonuses given the staff. Further discussions are being held. I pleased to announce upcoming continuing events for ALCTS
for the rest of the Spring. Here is just a sampling to whet your CE
appetite. Look for E-forums on:
Adapting work flow to the new AACR2
Collection analysis issues management in small research library environments
Preservation of Sumerian stone tablets A new Webinar Series will debut in June on "Collecting
and Cataloging Facebook Posts of Honors Students in Mid-sized State Related
Institutions in the Upper Midwest". Look for more information later
in the Spring Our publishing manager, Christine Taylor, will soon announce
a new set of CMDS Sudden Selectors Guides. The new guides will
cover: Parapsychology and Paranormal Science; Highly Classified
Governments Documents; and Conservative Political Economic Theory in Dickensian
England. The makers of the very popular Wii are in the development
stage of two exciting new products that might be attractive to the library
community:
Cataloger’s Desktop Hop - an exercise program for the sedentary cataloger amongst
us.
Worldcat Workout - similar to CDH but for the public
audience And the last item I have for you. I am very happy to
report that book publishers are releasing several new titles in honor of
National Library Week:
Library on the Corner of Print and E
A friendship develops between a retiring print cataloger and an aspiring
e-resources serialist.
The Last Dewey
A recent discovery of a lost Dewey revision to his classification system
results in murder and intrigue in mid-1930's America.
The Associate University Librarian
An idealistic new AUL takes a job at a major reseach library only to find out
that nepotism and corruption abound.
Preservation Road
Catastrophic events push a young preservationist to the edge.
The Blogger
A student assistant falls in love with his supervisor, a beautiful young
librarian. As
normal as I get, Charles Charles
Wilt Executive
Director ALCTS |