AGENDA for
ALCTS Membership Committee Meeting on
Sunday, June 29, 2008
1:30 PM-3:30 PM
Wonder Executive Board Room
ALA Annual 2008, Anaheim, CA
Members present: Beth Bernhardt, Julian Clark (intern), Karen Darling, Sean Fitzpatrick (for Gina Minks), Lia Hemphill, Cindy Hepfer, Cheryl Kern-Simirenko (ALCTS board liaison), Rhonda Marker, Charles McElroy, Valentine Muyumba, Deidre Routt, Becky Ryder, Deborah Ryszka (intern), Natalie Sommerville (chair), Lynda Wright, Ann Vidor.
I. Preliminary (10 min.)
A. Membership Changes
****Those in attendance introduced themselves. See list above for those in attendance.
B. Approval of minutes
****The minutes from the 2008 Midwinter meeting in Philadelphia were approved.
C. Visitors
a. Manuel Urrizola
b. Pamela Bluh and Dina Giambi (?)
****P. Bluh, ALCTS President, was a visitor to the meeting. She thanked N. Sommerville for her work as chair of the ALCTS Membership Committee. P. Bluh mentioned the ALCTS e-forum discussion that is emerging in the division and wondered if membership in ALCTS could be a topic on a future e-forum, which typically runs 2-3 days. P. Bluh and D. Giambi, incoming ALCTS president, are managing the e-forum currently and are open to topics for the forum.
Christine Taylor from ALCTS was a visitor.
II. Old Business (50 min.)
A. ALCTS 101 and mini-101—Christine, Charles, others who attended.
****Several of the Committee members who attended this year’s ALCTS 101 on Friday, June 27th gave their impressions of the event. Publishing was the topic of this year’s ALCTS 101 and many ALCTS members involved in publishing were on hand to speak with attendees.
Several Committee members remarked that this event was at an awkward time—Friday evening from 7:00-8:30 p.m. in the Anaheim Convention Center. Despite the time and lack of activity in the convention center, the event drew ca. 30 attendees. Next year at the 2009 Midwinter and Annual Conferences, the exhibits will be opening at 5:30 p.m. on the Friday of the conferences. The convention centers won’t seem so deserted to conference goers and this may help with attendance at the ALCTS 101 event.
P. Bluh wondered if ALCTS 101 could be combined with the ALCTS Volunteer Forum, held each midwinter conference. She thought that ALCTS 101 and the Volunteer Forum could be packaged together as an event.
C. Kern-Simirenko suggested that a special gathering spot at the Volunteer Forum or the ALCTS reception could be created to welcome new attendees and new members. Information about ALCTS and its activities could be distributed at this event. The ALCTS reception is typically on Sunday night of a conference and that may be too late in the conference to offer an introduction and information to new attendees and new members.
R. Marker suggested that the write-up and publicity for the ALCTS New Members reception should include information for and about new members. She asked if J. Chrastka or C. Taylor could pull data out of our membership numbers that would help us identify first-time attendees who are also ALCTS members. With this data, we could reach out to new members at the ALCTS New Members Reception at Midwinter in Denver.
Many thought that having a specific topic at an ALCTS 101 event is a good idea. Having testimonials from librarians with knowledge of the specific topic could promote interest in the work of ALCTS, its committees, etc.
C. Taylor thought that ALCTS 101 and the mini 101s could be publicized more. She would be pleased if the Membership Committee would take over this responsibility. ALCTS could continue to have ALCTS 101 in the convention center during any specific convention. The Committee could consider having ALCTS 101 at an earlier time during the Friday of a convention, maybe having it from 5:30-7:00 p.m., instead of 7:00-8:30 p.m. R. Marker suggested that maybe we could consider having an “eating” event or a dine-around after the 101 event.
C. McElroy and N. Sommerville had comments on the ALCTS mini 101s that took place during the conference. They agreed to submit their comments for inclusion in these minutes.
Contacted after the conference, C. McElroy reported that he intended to help with the mini 101s, but was told his services weren’t needed. N. Sommerville added that she thought that the turnout at the mini 101 was small. She suggested that ALCTS or C. Taylor might need to publicize the event more widely to increase attendance. She noted that ALCTS volunteers could be on hand at the ALCTS booth while the mini 101s were taking place. The volunteers could talk to those attending the mini sessions; they could distribute relevant ALCTS documentation to those requesting additional information. P. Bluh and M.B. Weber were featured speakers at this year’s mini 101 sessions. N. Sommerville thought that the ALCTS president and a presenter from the ALCTS 101 program should continue to speak at the mini 101 sessions.
B. Outreach to library schools and other professional groups
****L. Wright prepared a document that can help ALCTS members prepare for visits to library schools. The document gives guidelines on how to prepare for a visit, which topics to discuss while on the visit, materials to bring to the visit, etc. L. Wright suggested that a Power Point presentation might be needed to accompany this document. The Power Point presentation could contain information about ALCTS mined from AUTOCAT discussions or taken from the ALCTS brochure that was passed out at the beginning of this Committee meeting. Additionally, she recommended having a supply of ALCTS brochures to distribute while on the visit.
R. Marker asked if ALISE had a distance education component, section, or division. She wanted to know if there was a mechanism in place for doing outreach to library school students on a one-by-one basis. N. Sommerville agreed to consult with M. Urrizola and S. Smyth to see if they have a list of library schools and library school contacts that this Committee could use for outreach purposes. R. Marker noted that there is a list of ALA accredited library schools on the ALA web site.
L. Wright wondered if there were any reporting or notifying mechanisms in place within ALCTS for reporting that members had done a visit to a library school. Section IV of her draft document has a part on reporting and recording the specific library school visit. L. Wright wasn’t certain where to send a specific report or to whom.
a. Reports from school visits
****D. Ryszka reported on a visit that she and D. Giambi made to the career fair at the University of Maryland’s iSchool on April 3, 2008. Their visit was successful; they spoke with many students about the benefits of membership in ALCTS.
C. ALCTS Division Committee Chairs—Natalie
****N. Sommerville attended this meeting and provided information to the Membership Committee on what was reported and discussed at this meeting.
Of interest from this meeting:
The Division’s planning data base was discussed (see http://www.ala.org/cfapps/alcts/planning/plan_home.cfm). Committee minutes do not belong in the planning data base, but information and reports on visits to library schools could be included. Any type of planning or working document should be in this data base. This Committee could work on getting our drafts and working documents included in this data base.
P. Bluh reported on the ALCTS e-forum, a 2-3 day discussion on a specific topic. Our Committee could use the e-forum as a way to promote our work and our mission. N. Sommerville suggested that the Committee could think about participating in a future e-forum. One possible topic that the Committee could participate in and/or sponsor: succession planning. C. Kern-Simirenko added that the second topic in the e-forum discussion was well-received and had numerous submissions. This specific discussion—the second one on the e-forum-- could have lasted more than the scheduled 2-3 day time period. Programs, ideas, or topics that do not have time for full or complete discussion at conferences could continue on the e-forum. Currently, P. Bluh and D. Giambi are the leaders and moderators of the e-forum; others in the Division may be asked to step forward to lead future discussions.
The ALCTS budget appears to be in better shape for 2009. ALCTS will not hold any institutes during fiscal ’09. Institutes will be sent out to local venues because the overhead there is much lower.
Efforts are being made to keep Division interest groups alive and active. Near the expiration date of an interest group, the chair of the group will be contacted, the charge of the group will be re-examined, and a name change will be proposed, if needed.
At the upcoming conference in Denver, all units in ALA will split their meetings between a.m. and p.m. time slots on the Saturday and Sunday of the conference. ALA is looking closely at these two big times slots and at what should happen during them. All ALCTS division-level committees will meet during one of the 1:00-5:30 pm time slots (either Saturday or Sunday). They will meet together in one large meeting or ball room. CRG and PARS have used this meeting model successfully.
ALCTS has accepted nine manuscripts for publication during the next fiscal year.
D. Sage Support Staff Travel Grant report from mentors—Debbie, Lia, Rhonda, Valentine
****L. Hemphill, R. Marker, and D. Ryszka reported on their interactions with their Sage Support Staff Travel Grant winners. L. Hemphill was the mentor for Israel Yanez; R. Marker for Gary Beer; V. Muyumba for Angela Slaughter; D. Ryszka for Angela Hand. Each Committee member had e-mail contact with their mentee before the conference; they discussed topics relative to ALA and conference-going. A few of the mentors met their mentees at the ALCTS 101 event on Friday, June 27th.
E. Report from the Spectrum Professional Options Fair—Manuel
****N. Sommerville will contact M. Urrizola about a report from the Spectrum Professional Options Fair.
F. ALCTS and public libraries survey
****N. Sommerville provided the Committee with a status report on the survey. The survey is up on the ALCTS web site with responses still being accepted.
R. Marker suggested that the Committee send messages to AUTOCAT, Publib, Acq-net, etc., letting people know that there is a survey and that we would appreciate their responses. D. Routt agreed to contact J. Reese at ALCTS about an end date for the survey.
G. Outreach to library schools and other professional organizations
a. AALL, MLA, SLA, etc.
****R. Marker attended the NMRT new leadership orientation on Sunday, June 29th. D. Routt attended the new members orientation. Both Committee members talked about the benefits of membership in ALCTS to their audiences.
Attending orientations, presentations, meetings, etc. is an excellent way for the Committee to reach out to potential ALCTS members and to publicize the work of our Division.
N. Sommerville noted that we are making progress on making visits to library schools, career fairs, etc. and that we should continue and/or expand these efforts. She suggested that the Committee could use the outreach activities that we are using for making contact with library schools and career fairs as a model for reaching out to other professional organizations, such as AALL, MLA, SLA, etc. next year. This discussion was tabled for now, but could be re-visited at the Annual Conference in Chicago.
b. Reports from library school visits
H. Internal and external publicity
a. Article for Wikipedia
b. Article for ANO Attachment #1
****C. Hepfer drafted an article about ALCTS for ANO. The Committee thought the article would be ready for submission to ANO, if some data on ALCTS membership and dues could be obtained from C. Taylor or C. Wilts for inclusion in the article. C. Hepfer agreed to contact them to get the necessary information. Once she has worked this data into her draft, she will re-distribute it to the Committee.
C. Hepfer investigated ALCTS presence on Wikipedia and reported that she didn’t find a specific entry for ALCTS in Wikipedia. The Committee thought that her ANO article could be re-purposed for a Wikipedia entry.
Several member of the Committee asked if ALCTS needed a presence on Facebook. Having an entry on Facebook would be a good way to promote ALCTS membership and to announce ALCTS events. ALCTS does have a Facebook entry; it was started by L. German of Penn State.
III. New Business (30 min.)
A. ALCTS content and messaging—Christine Attachment #2
****C. Taylor reported on ALCTS content and messaging. She noted that ALA is looking at the way they are messaging and presenting their information to themselves and to others. Now is the time to re-design the ALCTS web page. C. Taylor agreed to work on the back end of the ALCTS home page. She asked the Committee for input on what type of information should be included in the web page re-design.
Many on the Committee suggested that the web page should have better organization; topics should be easier to locate. Information on the web site should be prioritized; important and relevant information should be displayed well and should be easy to find. B. Ryder suggested that several Committee members convene in Chicago with C. Taylor to brainstorm web content and design. C. Taylor indicated that there could be funding to support such a meeting.
C. Taylor would also like to develop a message template for continuing members, dropped members, and new members. These messages, sent primarily by e-mail, would be sent to targeted members at specific intervals during their memberships. All three groups of members should receive information-rich messages from ALCTS on a regular basis.
She urged the Committee to consider reaching out to foreign library schools. She wondered if there was some way for ALCTS to work collaboratively with its international counterparts and/or with international library school programs. ALCTS staff at ALA headquarters in Chicago has no mechanisms or procedures in place to handle inquiries from international communities.
B. Other
9/19/2008