Sunday at the 2009 ALA Midwinter (ALAMW) Meeting January 25, 2009

Today, I will try to post several blog updates, providing you with information as it unfolds at the Meeting.

I’ve been asked by a number of people how this MW is faring for me, now that I am serving as the Immediate Past President of ALA, having completed a year as ALA President Elect and a year as President. This year my MW calendar is still busy but I now can stay a bit longer at many events. People say that I am smiling more, but they are quick to add that I did smile a lot last year!

After five and a half hours of sleep, my Sunday at MW started with attendance at the breakfast held for the leadership of the ALA divisions. I was there long enough to eat a few slices of grapefruit, some lite yogurt, and Cheerios. And I heard ALA Staffer, Lorelle Swader, give an update on ALA’s Emerging Leaders program.  Each year about 100 ALA members apply to be included in Emerging Leaders.  Each year about 30 units or affiliates sponsor these ELs and about 25 projects are offered to the ELs.  In summary, there continues to be interest among newer members of the Association and ALA units to support this program.

I then rushed next door to the Convention Center to introduce the speakers at the Sunrise Speaker Series. This morning two authors were featured at the Sunrise Speaker event:  Dom Testa (radio broadcast veteran, children’s  literacy advocate, science fiction author) and Kevin J. Anderson (science fiction author).  That task completed, I caught a few minutes of the author talks at the Association of American Publishers Trade Libraries.

ALA and ALA-APA Councils gather formally for the first time on the Sunday morning of the ALA MW. The first meetings scheduled are informational. We started with reports about ALA’s budget and endowment. Given the challenging economic condition, our ALA budget committees, staff, and trustees are keeping up informed and proceeding with care, caution, and intelligence. We also heard about the work of diligent committees, including the Nominating Committee that prepares the slate for ALA President-Elect and ALA Councilors. This year, we also saw the world premiere of a short video on the importance of serving on Council, featuring many of the current councilors.  Keith Michael Fiels, ALA Executive Director, gave  an update on MW registration as of Saturday, January24:  7690 registrants, 2061 exhibitors for a total of 9,850.  This compared with 12,223 at the 2008 MW last January in Philadelphia. The largest difference is in the number of onsite registrations.