International Relations Meeting Highlights

ALA Annual Conference 2006, New Orleans, LA

Submitted by: Lorraine Jackson

Kathleen welcomed the committee members.   She asked the members to review the committee charge, and there were no changes or additions to be made.   She also reported on her and Wayne’s attempts to continue to get the word “international” included in the PLA Strategic Plan.  It currently does not appear.   

The PLA/IRC reception was very well attended at PLA in Boston on March 22.  Donna Lauffer did a wonderful job organizing the packets.  All 250 packets were distributed, and the greeters and visitors alike agreed a good time was had by all.  It was suggested that we have attendees wear a sticker with their country’s flag to help identify where they’re from.  We hope it will be a permanent part of future PLA Conferences.

We reviewed the program proposal for Washington, D.C., “Innovative Public Library Programs Around the Globe”.  The program committee will be notifying us shortly in regards to this proposal.  We discussed the difficulties of locking in international speakers because of the lack of funding to pay their way to our conferences.  We hope to get some other groups to co-sponsor our programs and feel that that will give us a larger audience and assure more support for our presentations.  (Lorraine agreed to speak with Claudia Sumler, the Programs Chair, to see what we can do to get on the Program listing.  We need more feedback from that committee in order to be more successful!) 

We do hope to work in greater cooperation with other International Committees of other divisions and with ALA/IRC in particular.   It would be particularly nice to have a liaison with that committee.  Lorraine is on their African Subcommittee and will speak to those members about co-sponsoring a conference program with us for the near future.  IFLA (the International Federation of Library Associations) will be held in Durban, South Africa next year, and it would be great to do a follow-up on what occurred there in 2008. 

We agreed to come together at Midwinter with other program ideas and support groups for the PLA 2008 conference in Minneapolis and the annual 2008 conference. 

Wayne encouraged everyone to watch for the ALA-World list service.   Kathleen reminded everyone of the IRRT Librarians Reception.  We extended special congratulations to Sylvia Manoogian, who will receive the Humphry Award at the reception. 

The Committee moved, seconded, and voted that Kathleen Imhoff and Lorraine Jackson be nominated as ALA representatives to the Metropolitan Libraries Committee and the Public Libraries Committee respectively to those IFLA sections.     

Kathleen handed out Certificates of Appreciation for those whose terms were completed on the committee and asked for suggestions for new members.   She will ask Donna Lauffer if she would be willing the Chair the committee next year.    She thanked everyone for their participation.  The meeting was adjourned. 

Members present:  Kathleen Imhoff, Wayne Crawford, Sylvia Manoogian , Lorraine Jackson, James Keller

ALA Annual Conference 2004, Orlando, FL

Mary Sherman, Chair
6/27/04 and 6/28/04

Mary asked the committee to look over the current ALA International Relations Planning Document and to give input for its revisions. The ALA/IRC is asking all Divisions to give input into the new document. It is hoped that some of major goals from the document will be incorporated into the new ALA Strategic Plan which will be revised this fall. Mary attended on Friday a meeting of all Division IRC Chairs.

The Division IRC Chairs had suggested trying to get the IRC planning document reduced to ten major points. However, the PLA Committee thought this was not possible after looking over the document. Further input will be given to Mary who is a member of the ALA/IRC.

2005 Annual Program Update

The committee is waiting to hear whether their program, “Crossing International Borders,” was accepted by the PLA Conference Committee. Is so, further contact will be made with speakers, etc. If not, the committee will talk with ALA President Carol Brey who has indicated her support of the program through her Presidential activities.

2006 National Conference Program and other ideas for the Conference

1. The committee decide to submit a proposal to the National Conference Program Committee for a program, “How to make any librarian’s job an international one.” The title needs some tweaking. The idea is that all of us at our libraries are affected internationally through technology, products, global happenings, and international visitors and customers. Donna Lauffer and Sylvia Manoogian will take the leas in submitting the proposal, which has a deadline of November 30. A panel of at least three speakers from three sizes of libraries was suggested. Best practices would be shared and a checklist could be given to each attendee. Barbara Ford has a checklist that can be revised for PLA. Another aspect would be “How to get resources” to help the libraries and librarians. A welcome bookmark in many languages would be given to each attendee. The committee’s annual project of International Greetings sent during National Library Week would also be presented and each attendee would be encouraged to participate. Speakers would also asked to talk about other groups in their communities that have an effect on international aspect of the library such as ESL programs if the library does not have one, Rotary International Group Study and Youth Exchanges, Sister Cities programs, etc.

A possible speaker was the Mayor of Lansing, MI who is Hispanic. Both Lansing, Mi and Des Moines, IA have many Bosnian refugees. Glendale, CA has a huge multicultural population and the library there has many services for its diverse population. Jan Sanders spoke of a project in Spokane and it was gel there were many resources to draw on for the program.

1. This led to the idea that it would be good to have an International slot on the PLA Web Site. The committee will work on this in the coming year with specific suggestions for the slot to be made before the idea is presented to the PLA Board. The committee would also take responsibility for the material on the site.
2. It was also suggested the Kathleen Imhoff, the incoming Committee Chair, work with the PLA National Conference Program Chair, the PLA President Elect, and the PLA staff to send a welcome letter to each international registrant. The committee would like to have mentoring program for the international participants and a small reception of some kind for them. The mentoring program would be carried out by the committee and it would be similar to the ALA Mentoring Program at Annual Conference. The mentoring program and reception would be included in the litter. It was also suggested that Kathleen work with Bernie Margolis, Director of the Boston Public Library, and current member of the IFLA Public Library Committee in helping with a reception maybe at BPL. Bernie might also have some other idea on how to make our International Visitors welcome.

IFLA Committee Nomination

The committee has agreed to support Barbara Gubbin, Director of the Houston Public Library, as the PLA nominee to the IFLA Standing Committee on Public Libraries. The PLA Board will consider submitting Barbara’s name to the ALA/IFC. Jan Sanders, member of the PLA Board, will submit the nomination to PLA from our committee. All Division nominee’s names and vitas go through the ALA/IRC and then to the ALA Executive Board in the Fall of 2004 before being submitted to IFLA. The election will be held in the spring of 2005. Bernie Margolis’ second term on the IFLA Public Library Standing Committee ends in August of 2005 and he is not eligible for re-election. Mary Sherman, is the other member of the IFLA Committee and her second term will end in 2007.

Articles for “Public Libraries” and other publications

Glen Holt will become Editor of the Haworth Library Quarterly in 2005 and asked the committee for ideas for articles and to consider submitting articles. In the past the committee has talked about submitting articles to “Public Libraries” Topics mentioned included something on each of the winners of the Gates International Library Prize and their winning programs, an overall article from Gates on the International prize, something from the Carnegie Corporation on its work with public libraries in Africa, guidelines on hosting international visitors at your library, experiences from libraries that have hosted international visitors including Johnson County, KS and McAlester, OK (both hosted Russian Librarians) as well as other community related groups where libraries have been involved such as Sister Cities, Rotary, and trade Delegations.

Article suggestions and authors are to be sent to Glen Holt at leholt@aol.com for the Haworth Quarterly, and articles for public libraries should be sent to the PLA Advisory Publication Committee. The committee would like to look over the articles being submitted to PLA before submission.

Wrap Up

All of the members present except the chair, Mary Sherman, will be continuing on the committee. Mary has completed two terms as Chair and was thanked by those present for her work on the committee. The group looks forward to working with Kathleen Imhoff, the new Chair and Director of the Lexington, KY Public Library.  Each member present was asked to forward ideas to Donna Lauffer and Sylvia by October 1 for the PLA Program Proposal and to work on all of the other ideas talked about before the mid winter meeting in Boston.  An update with names and e-mail addresses if the committee members for 2004/2005 needs to be sent to everyone as soon as possible.

ALA Midwinter Conference, San Diego, CA

Mary Sherman, Chair
1/11/04, 1/12/04

Members present: Mary Sherman, Chair, Joel Bangilan, Barbara Ford, Charles Hanson, Donna Lauffer, Kay Runge, Syvla Manoogian

Members absent: Arlene K. St. Aubin, Glen Holt, Eileen Palmer, Nancy Bujold, Deborah Brightwell, Maria Champlin

Visitors: Lorraine Jackson, Jan Sanders

The International Friendship Greetings project will be continued during NLW. The committee is working on the wording for the PLA web site to encourage colleagues to send greetings to international librarians. Two programs & possible presenters for 2005 Annual were discussed. "Best Practice of Libraries that work with international customers and colleagues" will be an ongoing committee project and a possible program. The other program is "Crossing International Borders" and the impact on libraries of so many moving into the U.S. 

The committee will be working this spring & at Annual on an article for "Public Libraries" on "How to treat and be comfortable with International Visitor's to one's library". The nomination process & criteria for the IFLA Public Library Standing Committee was discussed. Rookaya Bawa, Carnegie Corporation will be asked to speak to the committee in Orlando on Model Libraries in Africa. The committee is co-sponsoring with ALLIC the program, "In Search of Our Armenian Roots" in Orlando. Committee member, Sylvia Manoogian, is chair of the program.

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