Both ALA Presedential Candidates have answered your questions.
Carla Hayden is up first, since H comes before S. Her answers are below.
Thanks again to both candidates for participating this year, and thanks to all of you for the great questions.
Both ALA Presedential Candidates have answered your questions.
Carla Hayden is up first, since H comes before S. Her answers are below.
Thanks again to both candidates for participating this year, and thanks to all of you for the great questions.Why should I vote for you?
With over 23 years as a member of ALA, I have had the opportunity to
gain experiences personally and professionally that prepare me to be an
effective and responsive ALA President. I have been a children’s librarian,
young adult services coordinator, science museum library administrator,
assistant professor and currently adjunct professor in graduate library
schools, and director of an urban library system.
I was the Chair of ALA’s Spectrum Initiative to recruit underrepresented
groups to the profession, chair of the Committee on Accreditation, and
a member of numerous ALA committees and task forces.
My commitment to libraries and our profession has been a guiding force
throughout my career and I would be honored to represent you to ensure
their viability in the future. Please visit my website for further biographical
and philosophical information as well as email me at [email protected].
What are the biggest problems facing librarians in the next five
years?
Libraries and librarians of all types share many areas of concerns that
do more to unite rather than divide us. Information industry competition,
expensive electronic resources, recruitment and retention, funding challenges,
and the need for training, cross training, and retraining are concerns
that will be at the forefront during the next few years. Academic, public,
school, special, and other libraries will have to address these issues
in varying degrees in their particular environments.
In the past, ALA has not been as forceful as it should be in protecting
librarian’s interests in job protection, salaries, training and other fields.
Will you be a spokesperson for the librarians you represent or for the
institutions of libraries or librarianship to help us in these areas? Will
ALA try to certify individual librarians, or under your watch will it continue
to only accredit the different library schools?
ALA is a membership organization, made up of individuals from many different
institutions and working in various roles. As president, my primary responsibility
would be to represent the membership with the policies determined by the
elected Council and the Executive Board. We should also try to build coalitions
with other organizations and institutions to support those policies whenever
possible and productive to us, without compromising our positions.
In reference to all the controversy surrounding last year’s conference
at the Marriott in SF. I’d like to know if you honored the boycott or entered
the Marriott Hotel. I would like you to justify your position and discuss
how they would have handled the matter if they had been in a position to
make the decisions about conference logistics at the time.
Although I did not attend the conference in San Francisco and am not
acquainted with the specifics, I did become aware of the situation later.
As a result, it is difficult to second guess the decisions made at the
time. It is important not to place ALA in difficult “11th hour” decision
situations with huge fiscal and philosophical implications without adequate
access to the organization’s elected representatives.
I quit ALA several years ago because of the ever-increasing cost
of membership. What can be done to bring down the cost? I can’t justify
the cost currently because I find it is a case of diminishing returns.
I get more out of joining and participating heavily in regional and state
organizations. The ALA conferences are also extremely expensive to attend
when compared to other national and regional conferences. I would actually
like the option to join ACRL or LITA without joining ALA.
I would be very interested in pursuing your question regarding the cost
of membership with the Council and Executive Board. Although there are
definite cost avoidance benefits, such as the fact that ALA’s Washington
office protects all libraries, we can examine what the membership costs
are made of and determine what could be reduced or eliminated. We may be
able to investigate alternates like a “sliding scale based on salary
level with business plan and multi-year cost projections. I would welcome
ideas from you and members on cost cutting ideas. I am sure the ALA
office staff will also have thoughts on this issue.
How did you stand on ALA’s decision to enter an amicus brief of
freelance author in the Tasini case?
I believe that new rulings on copyright and the new interpretations
of author and users rights need the attention of ALA. Fair use of resources
has always been an important value of our profession and needs to be protected.
What can we at ALA do to improve our image in the eyes of those
citizens who have been told, by Dr. Laura, that we promote child pornography,
and etc? I would like to see ALA take a leadership role in countering the
negative impact of Dr. Laura’s views and voice. Do you have any ideas?
Fortunately, ALA has done many things already including appearances
on national television and materials for local distribution. We can all
counter this negativity by providing excellence and professionalism in
our work for our communities, and ALA can do even more to enhance our image
in the national media as well. My interests lie in taking our national
efforts to a higher marketing level, with particular emphasis on more mass
media activities.
Anonymous library cards (backed by a cash deposit) could permit
library users to check out materials without fearing that intrusive “fishing
expeditions” will subject them to scrutiny for what they read. On the other
hand, providing this service could make libraries unpopular with those
who support law and order above all else. What’s your take? Is it worth
risking the ire of Homeland Security to provide true privacy to our patrons?
We all have governing bodies, jurisdictions, or community boards. We
are part of society and will continue to balance privacy and legislation
carefully as an organization and as individuals. In doing so we need to
make sure that we explain our role carefully.
What will you do as ALA president to fight for fair use in an
increasingly online world where content owners are fighting to destroy
fair use to increase profits?
I would make sure that ALA is “at the table” when discussions are held.
ALA can be more proactive in seeking out opportunities to have representation
at meetings, conferences, and other arenas where these issues are addressed.
Do you think that ALA should meet with and work with the publishers
to reduce the chaos and disorganization in the acquisitions and archiving
of electronic journal, especially among noted publishers?
Most definitely yes, especially along with experts in the subdivisions
and affiliates.
Are the proprietary interests of library automation vendors essential
to libraries’ long-term success? Which ecology of software do you think
would most benefit libraries: the Microsoft model, where source code is
proprietary, or the Linuz model, where source code is available? What,
if anything, should ALA do to encourage the development of free library
automation projects like Koha?
Standards of interoperability are critical as our global information
world shrinks. Library systems make decisions on software and hardware
based on many factors including local government requirements. ALA should
encourage standards, not specific vendors.
In 1999 the intellectual freedom office of IFLA issued a call
for library associations around the world to condemn the campaign of persecution
being waged against volunteer librarians in Cuba. What is your attitude
toward the Latin American subcommittee of the ALA International Relations
Committee, which ignored this appeal to condemn this systematic violation
freedom in Cuba? How do you feel about the ALA investigative team which
visited Cuba in 2001 and could find no evidence whatsoever of censorship
of censorship in that country?
Although I am not aware of these specific events, fighting censorship
is of course another core value of librarianship. As ALA President, I would
closely follow and participate in discussions on this topic with IFLA and
others.
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