President-Elect Courtney Louise Young

From Don Wood, ALA Chapter Relations Office:

Courtney Louise Young, head librarian at the Penn State Greater Allegheny has been elected president-elect of the American Library Association, defeating. Barbara Froling Immroth, professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information.

Young received 5,391 votes, while Immroth received 5,029 votes.

As ALA president, Young will be the chief elected officer for the oldest and largest library association in the world.

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/ala/young-wins-ala-presidency

More information on ALA elections can be found at

http://www.ala.org/aboutala/governance/alaelection

Virtual Library Legislative Day May 8

Advocate for libraries on a national level by participating in Virtual Library Legislative Day on May 8

PHILADELPHIA – Virtual Library Legislative Day is part of the American Library Association’s (ALA) National Library Legislative Day on May 8, when hundreds of library advocates will descend on Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress and their staffs. Library advocates who cannot make it to Capitol Hill for the event can still be a part of the effort by calling and/or emailing their elected officials on May 8, or anytime the week of May 6-10.
To take action for libraries during this week, visit http://capwiz.com/ala/home. Find your elected officials by ZIP code, and use the talking points and contact information provided to call or email your representatives.
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is offering a way to advocate for teen library services with just two clicks: the “Tweet Your U.S. Senator and U.S. Representatives” maps, developed by YALSA’s legislative committee. To participate, log into Twitter, then visit the U.S. Senator map at http://tinyurl.com/NLLDmap and the U.S. Representative Map at http://tinyurl.com/NLLDreps. Find your state, then click on the marker for your senator/representatives and click the “Tweet Me!” link that pops up under their name.
United for Libraries, the ALA Washington Office, ALA’s Chapter Relations Office, and the ALA Office for Library Advocacy are leading Virtual Library Legislative Day, an opportunity for all library advocates to make their voices heard on a national level.
National Library Legislative Day began in 1976. In 2003, Friends of Libraries U.S.A. began a virtual component to engage Friends of the Library groups, library advocates and supporters around the country who could not travel to Washington, D.C., for the main event. Now in its 11th year, the virtual campaign continues to support the efforts of those who attend this important day in Washington, D.C., and meet with their elected officials in person.
Talking points, links, and more resources are available at www.ala.org/united/advocacy/virtuallegday. In addition, the website features bookmarks and posters for library advocates to print, email or post on their websites to help spread the word in their communities.
More information about National Library Legislative Day, including a list of events for those who plan to participate in Washington, D.C., can be found at www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/nlld.
United for Libraries: The Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations, is a division of the American Library Association that supports citizens who govern, promote, advocate, and fundraise for libraries. United for Libraries brings together library trustees, advocates, friends, and foundations into a partnership that creates a powerful force for libraries in the 21st century. For more information or to join United for Libraries, visit the United for Libraries website or contact Jillian Kalonick at (312) 280-2161 or jkalonick@ala.org.

ALA Budget Information

(From May 2, 2013 e-mail to ALA Council members)

 

Over the last two weeks, the ALA Executive Board and BARC have met to review the status of the Fiscal Year 2013 ALA budget and to approve a preliminary budget for the 2014 fiscal year that begins on September 1, 2013.

While the Association as a whole is financially stable, the impact of the recession on libraries and lower than projected revenues this year and next year will necessitate some budget reductions, resulting in a leaner and in the process a more focused Association.

The General fund portion of the budget - which accounts for about half the overall budget - encompasses Publishing, Conference Services, membership and the ALA Offices and support units. Within the General Fund, membership is just slightly lower than projected – by about $175,000 - and conferences are currently projected to be very close to budget.  Within publishing, however, we are now expecting significantly lower – by about 22% - than projected revenues for RDA and for the three ALA Editions units. Overall, we are now projecting that General Fund year end revenue will be approximately $1.8 million less than originally budgeted.

During the past month, management has been working with the Executive Board and BARC to put expense savings in place to close this gap. These steps have included holding on the filling of 10 positions in Publishing and the Offices and support units. They have also included a voluntary 10 per cent salary reduction on the part of ALA senior management for the remainder of the year, holding on  planned staff compensation increases, and approximately $750,000 in other expense reductions across all of the ALA General Fund departments. Through these efforts, we are now projecting a balanced budget for 2013.

The picture for Fiscal Year 2014 is even tighter. While publishing is expected to show some improvement, our revenue expectations for Annual Conference next year in Las Vegas are approximately $1 million less than those for Chicago, which is always a record breaker for the Association. This means that the Fiscal Year 2014 budget will require further reductions in departmental budgets for the General Fund units.

Department heads and unit managers in the General Fund units will be working over the next four months to develop plans for managing these reductions, which will include some additional reductions in staffing levels. Given the fact that the General Fund units have now been cut by over 15 per cent since the beginning of the recession, we are asking all units, and the member groups that they closely work with, to look at all of the programs and services they are currently providing, so that we can focus on those that are most essential, and those that further our strategic priorities as an Association.

Given that the reductions will affect all ALA departments, we will need your help to make sure that we focus our efforts on what is most important.  Like the many libraries that have had to reduce their budgets since the beginning of the recession, we will need to make careful decisions about where we concentrate our efforts, and will need the support of councilors and members as we do so.

Last, because of the impact of the budget shortfalls on ALA staff compensation, and because we all recognize the extraordinary service and support provided by ALA staff to the membership and the profession, the Executive Board, in concert with BARC, has established staff compensation increases as the highest priority,  both this year and in FY 2014, pending final budget results.  

We will be keeping Councilors and the membership apprised of our progress over the next several months, and we will be providing more detailed reports as part of our presentations at Annual Conference. In the meantime, please let us know if there are any questions.

Maureen Sullivan                   James Neal                              Keith Michael Fiels

ALA president                          ALA Treasurer                         ALA Executive Director