San Antonio Was Not All Roses
ALA's midwinter meeting had its share of hits and misses
Staff -- School Library Journal, 2/1/2000
Numbers don't lie. And that's bad news for the American Library Association's most-recent midwinter meeting (January 14-19) in San Antonio, TX. Although the Lone Star State's summery weather could not have been nicer, this year's midwinter meeting attracted a disappointing crowd of 10,601--or 2,000 fewer participants than the year before--when the meeting was held in then-frigid Philadelphia. And although many librarians gave the meeting an enthusiastic thumbs up, the yeas failed to drown out the nays. Simply put, librarians were heard grumbling about the schedule of meetings, stacked one on top of the other, like the straw that finally broke the camel's back. But if ALA's midwinter meeting failed to be an out-and-out crowd-pleaser, it did offer its share of uncontested bright spots.
On a day when the nation paused to honor the legacy of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., another African American made some history of his own. On Monday, January 17, Christopher Paul Curtis became the first African-American man to win the Newbery Medal, for his novel, Bud, Not Buddy (Delacorte, 1999), and the first author to capture two of the most prestigious prizes in children's literature, the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award, in a single year. The announcement that the 46-year-old former factory worker had won the Newbery sent members of the King selection committee--who, moments before, had crowned Curtis as its own winner--leaping into the aisles, cheering ebulliently. And as the standing-room-only crush of librarians, publishers, journalists, and TV production crews (including one from a Japanese show for young readers) grasped the magnitude of Curtis's accomplishment, a ripple of electricity buzzed through the auditorium.
The awards ceremony also featured the announcement of the first-ever winner of the Michael L. Printz Award, named in memory of the late, Topeka, KS, school librarian. Monster (HarperCollins, 1999), a novel by Walter Dean Myers, won the award, which recognizes excellence in young adult literature. It is sponsored by Booklist and administered by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).
Early morning risers attending a breakfast sponsored by School Library Journal and the Gale Group were pleased to hear that the two organizations have joined forces to offer the new Giant Step Award. The annual award, which carries a $10,000 prize, will honor a school library--or a public library working with a school library--that has made significant improvements in service to students. "We're looking for libraries that have been underperformers in the past, but have turned themselves around," says Renee Olson, SLJ's editor-in-chief. Guidelines will soon be available on SLJ's Web site (www.SLJ.com/giantstep) and the Gale Group's site (www.galegroup.com/schools), or by calling the Gale Group at (800) 877-4253. Nominations must be received by SLJ by May 31. The inaugural winner will be announced in September.
Conference-goers also were briefed on the state of federal legislative proposals for Internet filtering. Shying away from making bold predictions about what legislators might do in the remaining 100 days of the 106th Congress, staffers from ALA's Washington, D.C., office say that 2000 will likely be a complicated year. "We'll call this the year of living dangerously," says Leslie Harris, an ALA Washington office consultant. While the presidential campaign may bring attention to filtering legislation--Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has mentioned his bill in his speeches--the fact that Republicans want to retain control of the House of Representatives may make them cautious about passing legislation that's overly complicated, says Elyse Wasch, legislative assistant for Senator Jack Reed (D-RI).
What's most likely to happen, says Harris, is that lawmakers will seek a middle ground and move away from McCain's bill, which would allow only those schools and libraries using filtering software to receive e-rate funding. A more moderate bill, Harris suggests, has a better chance of passing, such as the one introduced by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA). Santorum's bill (S. 1545) gives schools and libraries two options: "to install systems or implement policies for blocking or filtering Internet access to matter inappropriate for minors."
As for other Web-related developments, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) may soon have a new revenue source. The AASL board of directors discussed the possibility of charging fees to use some of its programs on ICONnect (www.ala.org/ICONN), an online resource that teaches library media specialists how to navigate cyberspace. The fees would apply solely to interactive programs that AASL would develop in the future--not programs already posted on its ICONnect site.
And, lastly, ALA's Washington, D.C.-based Office for Information Technology Policy has taken pity on librarians who are copyright weary. Carrie Russell, ALA's copyright specialist, says that ALA's Web site now has a copyright education program (copyright.ala.org) that addresses basic copyright principles and frequently asked questions.
The biggest technology news at the midwinter meeting was the announcement (in one case) and non-announcement (in the other) of two important corporate changes. The automation software companies Winnebago and Sagebrush have merged. But the long-rumored announcement of the new Net spin-off company that would bring together Infonautics' Electric Library and Bell + Howell's K-12 unit, best known for its ProQuest database services, did not occur until after Midwinter attendees had gone home.
Sagebrush Corporation, known for its Athena library circulation software, and Winnebago Software Company announced their merger on January 14. The new company will operate under the Sagebrush name and be headquartered in Burnsville, MN. It will continue to sell and support both companies' products, which include books with library bindings, cataloging services, and Internet products. Winnebago founder and CEO Jeb Griffiths is leaving the company, while Jay Stead of Sagebrush will become president and CEO of the new firm. For more information, visit www.sagebrush-corp.com.
Not until a week later did the public learn about bigchalk.com (yes, it's lowercase), the new home of Electric Library and ProQuest. Besides including the two database services, bigchalk.com will include other Net education services, including WebEd, an Internet-based continuing-education supplier for educators. In the week before the announcement, bigchalk.com sent letters to current Electric Library and ProQuest subscribers, telling them they would "continue to have access to the research products that you need. You can continue to license either one or both of our reference products, and when new products are introduced in the coming months, you may choose the one that is most appropriate for you."
NetLibrary of Boulder, CO, (www.netlibrary.com), which has recently made great strides in bringing Web-accessible electronic books, or "e-books," into academic libraries, announced a program to allow users of "the 100 top public libraries" in the U.S. free access to collections of up to 1,500 e-books for six months. Once the six months are up, the participating libraries will evaluate the program and decide whether or not to purchase NetLibrary's services. The company also recently added seven ABC-CLIO reference titles and the Rosen Publishing Group's YA-targeted Coping and Careers series to its e-book offerings, the first NetLibrary titles specifically aimed at the K-12 market. More K-12 nonfiction titles, say company reps, will follow soon. K-12 fiction titles, however, "are coming, but are still a way off."
CARL Corporation (www.carl.org) of Denver, CO, presented the latest iteration of its children's library catalog interface, the Kid's Catalog Web, which includes about 5,000 child-appropriate Web sites. When young people enter a search from the Kid's Catalog Web search screen, an "I found Web pages!" button appears onscreen alongside the list of print materials. The company's WebBuilder program is designed to allow quick additions and deletions of Web sites to Kid's Catalog.
