Funding, Advocacy, Technology Take Center Stage at ALA's Midwinter Meeting

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Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 2/1/2006

Funding for school libraries, advocacy, and technology were key topics at the American Library Association's (ALA) midwinter meeting in San Antonio, TX, January 20–25.

Almost everyone was talking about the '65 percent solution,' a movement being led by the group First Class Education to ensure that every school district spends at least 65 percent of its operating budget on "in-classroom instruction." The only problem is that school librarians don't fall under the definition of classroom instruction and risk losing crucial funding. The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) took action against the '65 percent solution,' calling on the National Center for Education Statistics to classify school librarians as instructional staff and to recognize the impact of certified media specialists on student achievement.

AASL also hosted a question-and-answer session with Irene Harwarth, team leader of the U.S. Department of Education's Improving Literacy Through School Libraries program. The focus was on the government's new application procedures for federal education grants, which are now available at www.grants.gov.

Meanwhile, the Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC) unveiled a new advocacy program, "KIDS!@ your library," to encourage kids, parents, and caregivers to use the public library. The program will provide helpful tips, downloadable art, and tools to help local libraries reach out to this group.

ALSC's annual National Institute, a professional development program, will take place September 14–16, 2006, at the Hilton Pittsburgh. This year's three-day event, "Children's Services Today and Tomorrow," will focus on new technology, ways to raise the public's awareness of library services, and how to arrange author/illustrator visits.

For those serving teens, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is offering an online course called "New Technologies and New Literacies for Teens" from February 6 to March 6. The four-week course will introduce librarians to the tools and techniques teens use to communicate online and offer advice on how technology can be used to improve literacy skills. The cost is $135 for YALSA members and $175 for ALA members.

YALSA also launched a new blog at midwinter to make the annual midwinter gathering more accessible to its members. The blog will continue to operate with news and information of interest to young adult librarians and is available from YALSA's homepage at www.ala.org/yalsa.

Young adult librarians discussed teens and technology, including instant messaging, blogs, and wikis as part of the San Antonio Northside Independent School District's Library Media Best Practices Institute. Participants explored how teen gamers seek information using technology; the ethics of teens and technology in the library; and how librarians can better incorporate technology into their services and programs.

Total attendance at this year's meeting was 11,084, including 2,758 exhibitors. That number was slightly down from last year's gathering in Boston, in which 13,232 people attended, including 3,204 exhibitors.

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