email etc.

[Karen G. Schneider]

>>an e-mail to their congressperson. We should ask the ALA what their
position is on this 
>>issue ....[etc.]
>
>These days I am a writer and consultant, not a public or 
>academic librarian (although I have been both), so I can only 
>step into the fray so far. But I couldn't let Brenda's comments 
>about ALA stand unchallenged.
>ALA isn't 'they.' ALA is us. 

Here, here!  I am a writer, a consultant, *and* a front-line public
librarian and administrator.  AND an ALA Councilor.  And most ALA
Councilors (including GraceAnne) have a lot of library experience.  As far
as ALA's priorities being suspect...  I assume you're an ALA member--take a
look in the Handbook of Organization (it comes annually with your
subscription) and see what you think of ALA policies.  See one you don't
like? Work to get it changed.  Don't think Council represents you well?
Most ALA members don't vote in ALA elections--that's one problem.  If you
don't vote, start voting.  If you do vote, get your friends to vote, too.
Of course, you could RUN for Council.  Council can use some new blood, and
you might learn something from spending five days at conference twice a
year.  

Regarding email and library access to same... while I don't always agree
with another library's approach to managing Internet access, I certainly
feel their pain.  Decisions about what we can and can't offer are often
driven by forces larger than one's own personal desires.  The mandates of
library boards, who set policy, as well as the constrictions of local
budgets, may force many decisions.  I can also understand why some
libraries limit interactive services; libraries traditionally haven't
offered these, and at least the library is attempting to be consistent.
Does that mean I'd attempt to implement a similar policy?  No, but I do
know where they are coming from. 

As for a point Shirl Kennedy raised... increasingly, libraries are limiting
services to nonresidents.  Painful, yes, but as America sinks farther into
a "less is more, tax the poor" mentality, we are forced to decide just who
we are serving first.  As an example, my library has a painfully barebones
budget, and I recently realized that we mail  over 500 newsletters to
borrowers who do not live in our chartered area, do not contribute tot he
library and are not volunteers.  Not any more we don't... they can pick up
their newsletters in the library.  Although in a broad sense visitors and
residents of nearby towns may "contribute to the economy," the town doesn't
see it that way.  What butters our bread is tax dollars, which come from
local property owners, and as hard as it is to get tax dollars from these
folks, I am reluctant to spend the bucks on people from elsewhere...
particularly people from tax districts that won't share services with *us.*
 (We recently received two legislative gifts that will underwrite our
automation efforts, but again, these are local pols.) The present reality
is that we aren't limiting access to the Internet by residency, but I bet
we will, eventually.  It would be nice to be more generous with our
services, but the reality is our chartered users come first.  
_________________________________________________________
Karen G. Schneider |  kgs at bluehighways.com http://www.bluehighways.com
Author: A Practical Guide to Internet Filters, Neal Schuman, 1997 
Director, Garfield Library of Brunswick, NY  garfield at crisny.org
Garfield on the Web: http://www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/garfield
Information is hard work
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