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by Linda Bixler
It's Your Library: Teaching, Learning, Advancing, the theme of Annual Conference 2000, focused on the integral relationship between libraries and their communities. From storytelling to electronic journals, programs offered librarians a broad range of tools to help them learn about the latest services and resources. Programs, such as those focused on diversity awareness, advocacy, and community-oriented projects, exemplified the importance of libraries as local institutions.
This year's featured speakers addressed the broader context of education and social reform. Juan Williams, Marian Wright Edelman, and Carmen Tafolla shared their insights as they revealed experiences drawn from their lives and work. They all spoke about the impact of education on social change and progress. Juan Williams, one of the foremost political analysts in America and author of Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965, discussed his biography of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Williams recounted the transformation of a young man interested primarily in sports to one of the greatest social advocates of the 20th century. Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, explored the role of communities in nurturing children. Ms. Edelman is the author of Stand for the Children, Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change and emphasized the correlation between the security of children and national prosperity. Carmen Tafolla's moving performance of barrio voices made an eloquent comment to close Annual Conference. Her message was simple: value people. As her interpretation of a school librarian demonstrated, librarians are on the front line of public service; and we are in the position to see and recognize the potential of our community members.
Seeing the transformation that takes place on the exhibit floor is incredible. From boxes to booths is truly an amazing transition. It seems as if someone waves a magic wand and the world's third largest library tradeshow is assembled literally overnight. With more than 750 booths and 450 companies from which to choose, the exhibit hall offered glimpses of the latest advances in library management systems, computer assisted instruction, and other technologies and services. Librarians also had the chance to visit with their favorite publishers, jobbers, and authors. The exhibit hall experiencefor it is more than just a placeprovided librarians with needed information and the point of contact for managing their library's needs.
Here's just a taste of some of the wonderful programs from conference 2000!
From preconferences to the closing luncheon, conference offered a dazzling array of 200 programs and special sessions, catering to every type of library and a broad range of interests. Preconferences included "Leading on Your Campus," during which Robert Wedgeworth, Clifford Lynch, Althea Jenkins, and Julie Todaro gave hands-on advice for and shared their experience in providing leadership at academic campuses. Other preconferences explored differences in learning styles, community and school advocacy, authority control, and genealogy.
ACRL Librarian of the Year Sharon Hogan shared her insights on the "Changing Organizational Structure" of libraries. She emphasized the importance of evaluating services, staffing, and needs on a regular basis. Flexibility and responsiveness, she maintained, result from knowing the progress of your institution and assessing the effectiveness of your organization. Without a consistent stream of status information, libraries are unable to determine what steps they need to make to achieve service and performance targets.
"To filter or not to filter" sparked a lively debate on the validity of Internet filtering in public libraries. Hank Long and Jamie LaRue, two Colorado public library directors, emphasized that community dialog is an essential element of dealing with filtering challenges. Whatever position libraries take or policies they implement, they must work with their constituents to find solutions together.
As demographics continue to change in our state, libraries face increasing pressure to provide services to all constituent groups. So often, librarians become overwhelmed with issues, such as collection development and literacy programming, that they overlook the most elemental part of serving patrons: communicating effectively with them. "Basic Spanish for Librarians," now in its third year, once again drew large crowds. The nuts and bolts presentation gave librarians a starting point for talking with their Spanish-speaking patrons. The program offered a quick lesson in common vocabulary as well as typical reference situations. See TLA's website for access to the program handouts.
ALA Washington Office head Emily Sheketoff challenged friends and trustees to advocate libraries from "City Hall to Capitol Hill." Sheketoff advised her audience that public officials respond most avidly to the perspectives of their local constituents. Often, friends and trustees play a pivotal role in their communities and are therefore in the best position to make contact with leaders and to motivate action from other citizens as well.
Managing libraries is difficult under the best of circumstances. Dealing with problem employees represents one management responsibility that is taxing for managers and staff alike. Abigail Hubbard shared key concepts and methods for handling these difficult situations. She talked about developing and practicing objective procedures that enable managers and staff to review progress and make adjustments based on productive goals. She further described how employee separation can best be handled and what steps library managers can take to minimize disruption of work and decline in staff morale.
Two nationally recognized copyright experts spoke at TLA about the impact of copyright laws on libraries. Laura Gasaway, director of the law library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, addressed the ramifications of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on libraries and gave an overview of a library's responsibility in delivering access to electronic information. Georgia Harper, manager of the Intellectual Property Section of the General Counsel of The University of Texas, focused on the use by interlibrary loan departments of full text databases. She offered recent cases addressing authors' rights and use agreements. Both specialists pointed to the need for maintaining a balance between the rights of the creators and users of informationa balance that is harder to achieve for electronic information.
Special events are always a highlight of TLA conferences. The Welcome Party at the Museum of Fine Arts featured several outstanding exhibits including "The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology." Attendees were also treated to a unique collection of African artifacts and the MFAH's famed permanent collection.
Conference 2000 featured a first-ever Community Library Festival in a celebration of libraries, reading, and the power of communities. Adults and children joined librarians in an evening that provided a fun and casual setting to explore the connection between communities and their libraries.
Evening with the Authors offered, once again, a memorable experience. Popular science fiction writer R.A. Salvatore moderated the evening and delighted attendees with his wit and warm personality. Authors Stephen Harrigan, David Lindsey, Mary Willis Walker, and Lionel Garcia read to an entranced audience as we all made that special connection between the printed words of our most favorite books and the voices of those who created them.
Only four days after the first preconference, attendees boarded the shuttle buses with a year's worth of memories and surprisingly heavy book bags. Having gone through days of exciting programs and events, librarians across the state renewed old friendships, made new ones, and learned about the latest developments in the field. Though we all left Houston with our own impressions and plans for the upcoming year, most librarians departed with one common goal: attending TLA's Annual Conference in San Antonio in 2001.