My third day representing Vermont at the ALA conference in Washington, DC was busy and fun. I began the morning early at the Sunrise Speaker session featuring Dennis Lehane. He gave an interesting presentation about books to film and the writing life. He seemed like the kind of guy you would like to have a beer with; witty and self-deprecating. Because I had to attend my second council meeting a friend stood in line at the exhibit hall to score me an advanced reading copy of his new Partick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro mystery!
At our second council meeting we passed a resolution to Ensure Equitable Access to All Formats of Electronic Content Through Libraries. We also passed a resolution on Ensuring Summer Reading Programs for All Children and Teens. I did consider voting against this motion because of the narrow scope. Summer reading programs are just one aspect of the literacy programming libraries do and are not always the best program for small, understaffed, seldom open rural libraries. I did vote for the resolution but with reservations.
Following this meeting the Vermont Librarians met for lunch to discuss our meetings with legislators for Library Advocacy Day. We will head down to the Capitol for meeting and a rally on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, I have conflicts for all of our legislative meetings, but I know Marti Fiske and Marty Reid will do a fine job!
In the afternoon I went to a Human Resource Development and Recruitment (HRDR) meeting. I have served on this advisory committee for four years and enjoy hearing the reports about the work of the Chicago office. Please contact me if you have any questions about the work this office does.
Following the HRDR meeting I facilitated a meeting of the Chapter Councilors forum. This is an opportunity for councilors for every state and territory to discuss their questions and concerns about ALA. Much of the meeting was taken up with discussion of the difficulty of having library legislative day during the conference and with discussion of communication, or lack of communication, between the ALA Chapter Relations office and state chapters.
Late in the evening I attended an all council forum where we discussed two resolutions that will be taken up at the final council meeting on Tuesday morning.
Nancy Wilson
Vermont Chapter Councilor