[WEB4LIB] RE: New Directions

[Sloan, Bernie]

There appears to be at least one ALA division that's trying to deal with
the "virtual meeting" issue. ACRL has a "Virtual Meetings Task Force".
(Caveat: I know nothing about this task force, how far along they might
be in the process, what they are discussing, etc...I only ran across a
reference to it the other day).

The charge to the task force is:

The Virtual Meeting Task Force (VMTF) is charged with recommending how
to implement ALA policy and guidelines on virtual (open electronic)
meetings into ACRL's section and committee meeting policies and
practices.  Specifically, the VMTF should:

* Recommend any changes needed to current ACRL policies, procedures, or
documents; 
* Create ACRL meeting guidelines for virtual meetings that comply with
approved ALA policy and procedures, with particular attention to the
following:

  * VM announcement policies and procedures; 
  * Methods for keeping the meetings open and accessible to members and
non-members (without fiscal support); 
  * Mechanisms for reporting and archiving; 
  * If actions taken during a virtual meeting need to be ratified,
methods for ratifying actions; 
  * Compile from ACRL Section's experience, lessons learned for making
virtual meetings successful, for example, when a virtual meeting is an
appropriate substitute for a face-to-face (F2F) meeting.

The Task Force should familiarize itself with virtual electronic meeting
activities within ACRL and actively incorporate evolving ALA policy and
procedures in their planning and recommendations.

Bernie Sloan

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Drew, Bill
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 8:47 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] RE: New Directions

Karen is right on target with her critique of the ALA penchant to keep
to old ways of doing business.
Currently I am chair of the SUNY ALEPH Users Group.  Except for our
annual conference, all business is conducted via e-mail and if necessary
telephone conference calls.  I have also served as president of the SUNY
Librarians Association (late 1990s) and will again serve as president in
2005-2006 academic year.  Large amounts of business are conducted via
e-mail.  I am currently a virtual member of one LITA interest group and
of one LITA committee.  I am one of those members of ALA that can not
afford to attend the national conferences because of extremely tight
budgets in our library.

Other groups of librarians also work mostly by e-mail.  The North
American Aleph Users Group conducts its annual review of proposed
changes and upgrades to the Ex Libris ALEPH system via well run e-mail
exchanges using listserv or bistro.  

I have been trying to sign up for the ALA Members Forum for several
months now and have yet to have my subscription approved.  Evidently it
is not a high priority to look at such requests at ALA headquarters.  It
would be nice if at least the council and the executive moved into the
late Twentieth Century instead of being in the late nineteenth.

To make this about webs for libraries, the organization of the ALA
website is improving but is still difficult to navigate or to search.

Bill Drew
drewwe at morrisville.edu