Recruitment of Public Librarians Meeting Highlights

Conference Call

Larry Neal, Chair
April 22, 2005

Members present: Florence Simkins Brown (PLA Issues and Concerns Cluster liaison), Carol Johnsone, Charles Jones, Mary Jordan, Barb Macikas (PLA staff liaison), Tamiye Meehan, Larry Neal (Chair)

Members excused: Judith Castiano, Allan Kleiman, Monique Le Congee, Hedra Packman, Pam Smith

*Denotes electronic member.

1. The committee formally welcomed new member Mary Jordan. She is a former public library director, and is currently a doctoral student at UNC-Chapel Hill studying public library management.

2. Meeting Highlights from the 3/25/05 conference call were approved as presented.

3. Per Monique, the PLA Preconference proposal for the 2006 National Conference was not accepted. We will need to work on other ways to involve the 5 PLA SPECTRUM Scholars in the conference.

4. Barb, Carol, Charles, Larry, Mary, and Tamiye summarized their findings on the coding of the open-ended questions for the Per the PLA Survey of U.S. Public Librarians. Larry will integrate them into the final survey report and back into the raw data so that further analysis can be done on the survey. A special note of thanks to Mary, who coded three questions with a total of over 2,000 responses! Members still finishing coding of questions are encouraged to send their worksheets to Larry as soon as possible. The results will be used for a Public Libraries article as well as to write the Recruitment and Retention Plan for PLA.

5. Mary and Charles will work with Juliet Machie from the PLA Systems Committee with their proposal on "Mobilizing as Ambassadors: A Grassroots Training to Help Public Librarians in the Recruitment of Future Public Librarians." Larry suggested that they review the 2006 PLA National Conference Preconference proposal for topic and speaker ideas.

6. The PLA reception for SPECTRUM scholars at ALA Annual Conference will be held Friday, June 24, 5:30-6:30 p.m. in McCormick Place North, Room 138. PLA President Clara Bohrer has agreed to speak. Wendy from the SPECTRUM office has notified the 60 students via an e-mail message. Barb will send a draft of the paper invitation that will be mailed for review. We will divide the list of 60 up in order for our committee members that are going to attend to personally contact a couple of students each (probably by e-mail; maybe by phone). Barb is working on getting a special ribbon/pin for the scholars. We will finalize details in May.

7. Feedback regarding LibraryCareers.org was positive. Larry will send out a draft of a possible PLA Welcome page.

8. Our next conference call is Friday, May 13, 3:30 p.m. (EST). Our meeting at ALA Annual will be Sunday, June 26, 9:30-11 a.m., Hyatt Grand Ballroom A-D North.

Conference Call

Larry Neal, Chair
March 25, 2005

Members present: Judith Castiano, Carol Johnson, Charles Jones, Allan Kleiman, Barb Macikas (PLA staff liaison), Tamiye Meehan, Larry Neal, Pam Smith

Members excused: Florence Simkins Brown (PLA Issues and Concerns Cluster liaison), Mary Jordan, Monique Le Conge, Hedra Packman

1. Meeting Highlights from the 2/18/05 conference call were approved as presented.

2. Our PLA Survey of U.S. Public Librarians garnered 1,894 responses! Larry has compiled the preliminary results and will distribute to the committee. There are 12 open-ended questions that need to be "coded". Each member of the committee will receive one question to code by April 20, along with directions and a sample.
   
   Carol, Monique and Larry will submit an article for the January/February 2006 issue of Public Libraries, which will focus on recruitment and retention. The deadline is July 15. Barb will contact Renee and Kathleen to see if there are any particular topic areas that would be helpful to focus on.

3. Monique has not received any further indication about the status of our pre-conference proposal, "Recipes for Growing Your Own: Librarians on the Vine" for PLA 2006.
   
   Hedra’s "Recruiting Public Librarians for the 21st Century: Lesson Learn from New IMLS Grantees" program proposal for PLA 2006 was approved.
   
   We will further discuss how to make the 2006 National Conference a memorable one for the scholars once we learn the status of the preconference.
   
   There is interest in co-sponsoring the PLA System Committee’s proposal for ALA Annual 2006, "Mobilizing as Ambassadors: A Grassroots Training to Help Public Librarians in the Recruitment of Future Public Librarians." However there are concerns; Larry will send out a message to the Recruitment Committee to clarify and will then discuss with Juliet Machie. The deadline is May 1, so we will make our final decision on 4/22.

4. The PLA reception for SPECTRUM scholars at ALA Annual Conference will be held Friday, June 24, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Location has not been confirmed; it has been requested to be in McCormick Place so the PLA Board may attend after their meeting. PLA President Clara Bohrer has been asked to speak. Barb will send a draft invitation for the students, which will be hand addressed and mailed to the 60 students. Members of this committee attending ALA Annual will personally contact the students about a week before the conference, either via phone or e-mail. Barb will look into creating a button with a special ribbon that will be given to each student, and to help people recognize them. An announcement will be sent out to public librarians attending ALA Annual; wording was revised earlier via e-mail. Barb is handling refreshments. We will create a PowerPoint slide show highlighting recruitment initiatives and possibly quotes from our recent survey as to what people enjoy most about being a librarian or why they would recommend the profession. Barb will Connie Paul to see if we can adapt their brochure to have available in the room. We will also have forms available so that people can sign up to become mentors and for the students to request mentors.

5. We need to wait to hear back from Clara Bohrer about what the PLA Board decides per going forward on the PLA Institution Grant program.

6. We will begin the process of finding mentors at ALA Annual.

7. Barb indicated that ALA is in the process of working with its contract vendor on the ALA Online Community tool in terms of the number of test groups. They know we are interested, and will let us know if we are accepted.

8. Per other ongoing projects, Allan reported he is working with a student from Rutgers on the review of public library-related courses offered by ALA-accredited institutions, and that her paper will be completed next week. Larry will send out a link to a draft working site of the LibraryCareers.org project in the next week or two. Carol is continuing work on the review of state association activities, and Allan will contact IMLS for more information about their grant awards. Review of the PLA website and brochure, as well as the draft of the PLA Recruitment and Retention Plan were tabled until after our survey compilation is completed.

9. Our next conference call is Friday, April 22, 3:30 p.m. (EST).

Spring Conference Call

Larry Neal, Chair
February 18, 2005

Members present: Florence Simkins Brown (PLA Issues and Concerns Cluster liaison), Carol Johnsone, Charles Jones, Allan Kleiman, Monique Le Congee, Tamiye Meehan, Larry Neal

Members excused: Judith Castiano, Mary Jordan, Barb Macikas (PLA staff liaison), Hedra Packman, Pam Smith

1. Mary Jordan, a doctoral student at UNC-Chapel Hill, studying library management, will be joining our committee.

2. Our PLA Survey of U.S. Public Librarians will close 2/28. So far, we have over 1,400 responses! A few states have lower than expected responses. Committee members are encouraged to publicize this as they can on a state level. Carol is willing to help analyze the results; Larry will see if Mary is also interested. Carol, Monique and Larry are interested in publishing an article about the results.

3. Programming

   • Hedra’s ALA program, "Recruiting Public Librarians for the 21st Century: Lessons Learned from New IMLS Grantee" will be held on Sunday, June 26 at 1:30 p.m. (Note: She has also submitted this proposal for PLA).

   • No news on the PLA preconference proposal.

   • The committee wishes to wait to get more information about the proposal for ALA 2006 that we were approached about co-sponsoring with the PLA Systems Committee.

4. Charles, Florence, Tamiye, Larry and Barb will work on planning the PLA reception for SPECTRUM scholars at ALA Annual Conference, Friday, June 24, 5:30 p.m.

5. Larry will contact the SPECTRUM Advisory Committee to find out how quickly we will be able to obtain the names of the PLA SPECTRUM scholars in order to begin working on matching up mentors. He will also ask that they verify that students awarded the PLA scholarships will be able to attend the 2006 National Conference in Boston.

6. Larry will contact Greta Southard to discuss her memo about the "PLA Nation-wide Institutional Scholarship" program. The committee is concerned that allowing institutions to award scholarships in any amount waters down the program (would prefer to keep it at $6,500 or minimally $3,000 per person); there are concerns about complicating the process by requiring institutions to act as fiscal agents; and concerns that the current budget only covers the cost of 5 recipients to attend the PLA National Conference. Allan and Hedra volunteered to work with Larry on developing this program. Judith was "volunteered" to help.

7. Everyone will review the mentoring components of the PLA SPECTRUM Scholar program document. We need to find 5 mentors for the PLA SPECTRUM scholars as well as for any interested current SPECTRUM scholar.

8. Everyone was interested in becoming a test group for the ALA Online Community tool.

ALA Midwinter Meeting

Larry Neal, Chair
January 16, 2005

Members present: Florence Simkins Brown (PLA Issues and Concerns Cluster liaison), Charles Jones, Allan Kleiman, Monique Le Conge, Barb Macikas (PLA staff liaison), Tamiye Meehan, Larry Neal, Hedra Packman, Pam Smith

Members excused: Carol Johnson, Judith Castiano

Visitors: Stephanie Clark (IMLS Program Officer), Carla Magenheimer (Simmons College LIS student), Marshall Shore (Phoenix Public Library)

1. ALA Recruitment Assembly activities

   • Allan, Larry and Monique attended the Recruitment Forum held on 1/14. About 100 people attended the event with a good exchange of information about current activities.

   • Larry has started to solicit feedback about the proposed design for the LibraryCareers.org Web site. Response has been very positive; he will begin to seek feedback from current LIS students and possibly undergraduates.

2. PLA National Conference 2006 preconference proposal

   • Monique reported that Carla Hayden has agreed to speak if the proposal is approved.

3. Mentoring Program/SPECTRUM Scholarship

   • The SPECTRUM Advisory Committee approved (with applause), the PLA Spectrum Scholar Mentoring program at their meeting on 1/14/05. Two members of the committee expressed an interest in serving as mentors.

   • The Budget & Finance Committee requested a modification in the proposal for scholarships. There is a strong interest from the PLA Board for a PLA Scholarship program to be developed that would involve institutions applying to in turn fund staff members currently employed in a public library to obtain an MLS (this also better meets one of PLA’s strategic objectives to create a program). They will recommend funding 5 SPECTRUM and 5 of the new institution grants at the same level as requested for the original proposal. They will also recommend funding the reception at ALA Annual with a slight modification that it be open to all PLA members. These proposals will go to the full PLA Board on 1/17 for final approval.

   • Barb will look for existing programs to use as a model for the PLA program. Suggestions included California, Illinois and Miami-Dade. Questions were raised as to the implications of how funds were to be distributed, ways to ensure that scholarship recipients end up working in a public library, continue through an LIS program, etc. Our committee will develop a program that takes these issues into account; further approval is not required. Barb will contact Tracie Hall to learn more about how the SPECTRUM program distributes funds.

   • Barb will draft a press release announcing the new scholarship programs.

   • Per matching of mentors to SPECTRUM scholars, there was a general preference to find mentors who lived in the same area of the scholars. Since scholarships aren’t announced until ALA Annual, the committee may target locating members who live in the same general area as the scholars rather than doing a nationwide search.

   • Planning for the reception at ALA Annual will begin immediately. Barb will talk to Tracie to find out if Thursday or Friday is better for maximum attendance by the scholars and PLA members and then apply for meeting space through ALA.

4. Resource gathering

   • Allan will have the list of ALA-accredited schools public library courses and instructors completed by ALA Annual 2005. He will also speak to the incoming ALISE president to gain assistance to ensure that the information he compiles accurately reflects each school’s offerings.

   • Larry reported that Carol is continuing to work on compiling the list of state association activities.

   • Stephanie will send Allan a summary of IMLS-funded grants that are going to library schools.

   • The PLA Survey of U.S. Public Librarians was posted on PLA’s Web site on 1/11/05 and already has had 400 responses. Barb will investigate sending an e-mail to all PLA members as well as to all of the state chapters. She will also send a blurb to Library Hotline.

   • Barb will attempt to tackle coding of 15 of the open-ended questions when the survey closes 2/28.

5. Future meetings

   • Conference calls were set for the following Fridays at 3:30 p.m. (EST): 2/18, 3/25, 4/22, and 5/13. The meeting at ALA Annual will likely be Sunday, June 26, at 9:30 a.m.

6. Unfinished business

   • Review of the draft of the PLA Recruitment and Retention Plan.

   • Review of the PLA Web site recruitment area.

   • Review of the current PLA recruitment brochure.

   • Interest by the committee to being a test group for the ALA Online Community tool.

   • Is the committee interested in co-sponsoring a proposal for ALA Annual 2006 with the PLA Systems Committee on "training, retention and recruitment of library employees" (proposed by Juliet Machie from the Detroit Public Library).
     

A “Hurricane-Free” Afternoon Conference Call

Larry Neal, Chair
November 5, 2004

Members present: Judith Castiano, Carol Johnson, Charles Jones, Allan Kleiman, Monique Le Congee, Tamiye Meehan, Larry Neal, Hedra Packman, Pam Smith

Visitors: Tracie Hall (Director, Office for Diversity and the Spectrum Initiative), Barb Macikas (PLA staff liaison)

eDenotes electronic member.

1. Mentoring Program/SPECTRUM Scholarship
   
   At the fall meeting the PLA Executive Committee approved in concept, pending review and recommendation from the Budget & Finance Committee at the 2005 Midwinter Meeting, the Recruitment Committee’s proposals. The first proposal was to fund 10 PLA Spectrum Scholarships (which also include additional housing at ALA annual, and travel, lodging and attendance at the PLA National Conference 2006). The second proposal was to hold a reception at ALA Annual 2005 for all Spectrum scholars as an opportunity to promote public librarianship as a career choice.
   
   Tamiye and Pam will work with Barb to create promotional materials for the scholarships and mentoring program to begin after formal approval at Midwinter. Ideally it can be treated as a “newsworthy event” to be included in Public Libraries, Cognotes, and on a variety of list-serves. The scholarship promotion component is time sensitive with the application deadline of March 15. Scholarship awards occur just before ALA Annual.
   
   Judith provided an outline for the PLA Mentoring program. Tracie provided a template based from the Spectrum Mentoring Workgroups, which has been working with ACRL. Judith, Charles and Larry will prepare a combination of the two documents to be reviewed via e-mail by this committee in order to submit it to Spectrum at ALA Midwinter. Upon Tracie’s recommendation, the mentoring plan will be designed to offer mentors beyond the 10 PLA Spectrum scholars. There was also discussion about providing incentives for mentors, such as a dinner, waiver/discount of conference fees, etc., possibly for the PLA National Conference. A recommendation will be included in the plan.

2. ALA-Wide Recruitment/Retention actitivies

   • Larry will send the group a preview of the new site design.

   • Allan and Monique volunteered to represent PLA at a talk table for the ALA Recruitment Forum in Boston on January 14, 2-4 p.m.

3. PLA National Conference 2006 Proposals

   • Monique will serve as program organizer for a PLA National 2006 preconference proposal. A proposed title was, “Recipes for Growing Your Own: Librarians on the Vine.” Tamiye will send Monique contact information for Miriam Pollock who will have a book published in 2005 by Scarecrow Press about mentoring. The program will emphasize how to take ideas home to apply in their own libraries. It will cover how to change the organization’s culture to encourage mentoring, cross-generational issues, and how to sell the profession to people on staff. Other topics to consider include how to start an internship program, options for obtaining degrees, and a good level of involvement by current students or recent graduates.

   • Hedra will wait to see if her program proposal should be melded into the preconference, or if it should remain a separate program. The deadline for submission is November 30.

4. Resource Gathering

   • Allan will complete his report about public library courses offered in LIS programs by early December 2004. He is considering writing and article for Public Libraries.

   • Carol will complete her review of all 50 state association sites including a few others by December 31.

   • Allan will complete his summary of IMLS-funded grants by ALA Midwinter.

   • Larry will have the Word version of the online survey ready for Melissa at the PLA office, with the goal of starting the survey December 1.

5. LA Web site recruitment information -- All members of the committee will review the PLA Web site recruitment information and send comments to Larry no later than 12:59 p.m., Friday, December 31, 2004.

6. Draft recruitment plan

   • Larry has started the plan and will send a draft to the committee by December 31, 2004.

7. Midwinter Meeting

   • The meeting will be held Sunday, January 16, 9:30-11 a.m. Please allow for an extra half an hour given the amount of work to cover.

A Mid-Summer’s Afternoon Conference Call

Larry Neal, Chair
August 13, 2004

Members present: Judith Castiano, Carol Johnson, Allan Kleiman, Monique Le Congee, Tamiye Meehan, Larry Neal

Members absent: Charles Jones, Pam Smith

Visitors: Florence Brown (Issues & Concerns Cluster liaison), Barb Macikas (PLA staff liaison)

1. SPECTRUM scholarship

   • In 1998, 60% of SPECTRUM scholars indicated public libraries as an interest for career choice. In 2003 it was 23%. Thirty-four percent of past scholars are employed in public libraries. Only 10% of past scholars are currently members of PLA. Scholarships awarded:

   Year	Applicants	Awarded
   1998	200	50
   1999	200	50
   2000	200	50
   2001	200	52
   2002	200	26
   2003	240	28
   2004	270	22
   2005	60	(35 IMLS, 25 ALA)
   2006	60	“ ”
   2007	60	“ ”

    

   • There are 56 schools offering ALA-accredited degrees, scholars have come from 45 of the schools.

   • PLA offers support for scholarship winners to attend conferences. Might consider a reception for future PLA scholars and mentors.

   • PLA can request an award designated as a “PLA Spectrum Scholar” intended for a student interested in becoming a public librarian. This is for new monies. The previous $100,000 and $50,000 gifts were given to the SPECTRUM Endowment fund.

   • PLA may assign a mentor to each PLA Spectrum scholar. However, we may consider looking at funding a mentorship program in addition to or instead of scholarships. Florence “the Hurricane Slayer” will contact ACRL for permission for PLA to adopt its own mentoring program based on their existing program. Florence will also find out more about how the $32,000 of ACRL funding has been allocated. Judith will contact Tammy Echavarria about a very successful mentoring program she conducted over a number of years at University of California—San Diego.

   • The committee will formulate a proposal for the PLA Executive Board by October 1 including a funding request for mentorships and/or scholarships.

2. Carol will serve as liaison to Hedra Peterman for her PLA National Conference 2006 proposal “Recruiting Public Librarians for the 21st Century: Lessons Learned from New IMLS Grantees.”
   
   Monique will submit a “growing your own” recruitment and mentoring program proposal for PLA NC2006. Tamiye will help. The second proposal will compliment Hedra’s program, and will also offer ideas that can be implemented in smaller libraries.

3. Drafts are well under way for a set of Web resources for ALA, including an independent site “LibraryCareers.org” to be maintained by ALA. Feedback should be sent to Larry about the following: http://www.cmpl.org/ala. Time was not allocated for discussion; this is organizationally an ALA Recruitment Assembly project.
   
   Pam’s career site listing project will be tabled for the 9/17 meeting due to Hurricane Charlie.
   
4. Allan will build a list of ALA-accredited schools to include: courses that deal with public libraries, instructor names, e-mail addresses. He will contact deans directly of schools who do not to appear to offer such courses to ensure he has accurate information. This contact list may be used as a communication point between PLA and library schools to encourage dialog on how we can better help each other promote public libraries as a career choice. May consider as an ALISE 2006 conference program. Allan will report on his progress on 9/17.
   
   Carol will conduct a survey of state associations to formulate a picture of recruitment activities at that level.
   
   Allan will compile a list of the IMLS grants going to library schools and summarize their expected outcomes.
   
5. Larry will design a draft survey for review at our 9/17 conference call identifying what information will be useful in building a recruitment plan for PLA.
   
6. Larry will contact Pam about her Harvard student group questions and report back via e-mail.
   
7. Tamiye will coordinate the marketing portion of the PLA Recruitment/Retainment Plan after the survey is conducted.
   
8. Larry will write a draft outline of the PLA Recruitment/Retainment Plan by 9/17.
   
9. Next conference call will be Friday, September 17, 4-5 p.m. (EST). A couple of members reported conflicts; Larry will poll group about changing to Friday, September 24, 4-5 p.m. (EST). A possible third call may be set for Friday, November 5, 4-5 p.m. (EST). Barb will set up the calls with ALA.

ALA Annual Conference 2004, Orlando

Larry Neal, Chair
6/27/04

Members present: Charles Jones, Tamiye Meehan, Larry Neal, Robb Morss, Hedra Packman, Pam Smith

Members absent: Diane Bills, Judith Castiano, Monique Le Conge, Bill Stack, Cornelia Van Aken

Visitors: Florence Brown (Issues & Concerns Cluster liaison), Luis Herrera (PLA President), Allan Kleiman (PLA Member), Barb Macikas (PLA staff liaison)

• Hedra reported that the 2004 PLA National Conference program, “Recruitment through Coaching: Involving the Community in Public Library Staff Recruitment” went very well and had about 50 attendees. It was in the last program slot in the conference.

• No members present attended the “First Year Librarianship” program, although Larry had heard comments to the effect that many new entrants to the profession were dissatisfied with their first job, pointing out a need to also focus the efforts of this committee on mentoring and retainment within the profession.

• Hedra Packman has submitted a program proposal for ALA 2005 Annual for a program about recruitment best practices and strategies. She will submit the same program for the PLA National Conference in Boston 2006. Funding will be requested for travel and lodging for two of the student scholarship recipients who will speak at the program. Interest was also expressed in submitting a second program proposal on “growing your own,” in particular focusing on how libraries has developed their own scholarships and other methods of encouraging and accommodating their current staff members to obtain their MLS degrees. A volunteer from this committee is needed to serve as program organizer.

• Luis Herrera stopped by to offer his encouragement and support of the work of this committee, indicating it is an issue of critical importance to the future of public libraries. He is extremely interested in the development of a recruitment plan for PLA, as well as a recommendation for PLA’s further participation in the Spectrum Initiative.

• The committee reviewed a draft of the Membership Profile Larry is working on for the ALA Web site. This profile would be completed by current ALA members in order to create a publicly searchable directory for potential MLS candidates, as well as for people already in the profession who are seeking mentors for career changes and advancement. Larry wants to ensure that PLA is well positioned to take advantage of both this tool and the forthcoming ALA Recruitment/Career Advancement site that is being developed. Larry will investigate the cost of creating and distributing a bookmark or other promotional materials to public libraries across the country, promoting the new librarycareers.org Web site with an emphasis on directing people to the public library section of the site. A PDF or other modifiable version of the publication will be available for co-marketing by other organizations, such as state library associations. Pam will compile a list of target career Web sites where the new site should be registered, e.g., Monster.com.
  
  Larry will update the committee with progress made at the ALA Recruitment Assembly meeting on Monday (follows):

  • The ALA Executive Board has approved the allocation of $10,000 to develop a prospectus Web site (librarycareers.org), which will be a new site with a highly polished marketing tone and appearance. Development will begin over the summer, with the goal of having a draft working site ready by ALA Midwinter 2005. Extensive feedback will be solicited from all ALA divisions, with a major emphasis on NextGen librarians, recent graduates, and high target prospective candidates. The second component is a Recruitment Clearinghouse area on the current ALA Web site, including the member profile. This project will provide resources to help with recruitment, mentoring, and retainment efforts. Work on this resource will begin in parallel with the prospectus site. It will integrate with the current ALA site.

  • The ALA Recruitment Assembly will be sponsoring the “ALA Recruitment Forum” on Friday, January 14, from 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., at ALA Midwinter in Boston. It is intended for a broad audience of people interested in recruitment, and will include a showcase of best practices, panel of current students, and speakers, including Carla Hayden and Carol Brey. Attendance will be limited to 150 people by invitation.

• The Spectrum Scholarship report was discussed. PLA has funded $150,000 in scholarships. A disappointing 10% of the scholars (22) have been members of PLA. Roughly 34% (51) are current employed in public libraries. Scholarships are $5,000 towards tuition and $1,000 to cover participation in a leadership program. Florence will contact Traci Hall and the PLA office to provide a report back to the committee with the following information:

  1. Can PLA request an award designated as a “PLA Spectrum Scholar” intended for a student interested in becoming a public librarian?

  2. Can PLA assign a mentor to each PLA Spectrum scholar?

  3. Can PLA supplement the basic scholarship offering a 3-year membership free of charge to each PLA Spectrum scholar?

  4. How many $6,000 scholarships would we like to see PLA award for 2004 at their fall board meeting? On an annual basis?

  5. How many applicants have there been each year? How many awards?

  6. Have all ALA-accredited institutions had at least one Spectrum Scholar?

• Larry will contact the Issues & Concerns Cluster chair to see if Allan Kleiman can be added to the committee.

• Allan will compile a list of the ALA-accredited schools with MLS programs and review their course offerings that relate to public libraries. The general perception is that public libraries are not as well represented as they should be. There is strong interest in creating a dialog directly with the library schools on this issue, as well as to listen to their suggestions for promoting public librarianship.

• Pam is working with a student group from Harvard that is analyzing library issues. She will distribute a list of the questions being asked; there is still time to have questions added for the groups, which will be conducted in August. Florence is willing to conduct groups based on the questions finalized for Pam’s groups.

• Tamiye, Pam and Florence will draft a marketing campaign component of the larger Recruitment Plan. Recommendations will be made for ways to promote careers in public libraries. The list will be general at first in order to be tailored to the findings of the proposed survey (see next item).

• Larry will contact Kathleen de la Peña Cook to see if she is interested in partnering with PLA for a 2005 IMLS grant to compile statistical information about public librarians. Questions of interest include:

  • What is the prediction of the need for MLS-degreed librarians in the future? Does the Occupational Outlook paint an accurate picture?

  • What are the capacity issues as relate to library schools, e.g., trend of school closings, graduates completing the program with no intention of working in libraries? If we deliver on increasing the number of applicants to LIS programs, are the schools prepared to accommodate the additional students?

  • What is the best way to reach minority students?

  • Are there geographic patterns, e.g., some libraries have no shortages, while others have serious shortages. Is distance learning help overcome the geographic barriers? Should we promote funding for students in rural areas?

  • How do students entering college perceive public librarianship as a career choice? What attributes of the career are most appealing? What attributes need to be better promoted?

  • How does the current LIS student population compare ethnically to the general U.S. population?

  • What is the median age of the current LIS student population?

  • What is the median number of years to retirement of current members of the profession?
    
    Dean Camila Alire at the University of New Mexico was mentioned as another person who may be interested.

• Larry will write a draft of a recruitment plan addressing the PLA Strategic Plan and other issues identified by the committee as well as the PLA 2000 Recruitment Report by ALA Midwinter 2005.

• Conference calls have been set for Friday, August 13, 4-5 p.m. (EST) and Friday, September 17, 4-5 p.m. (EST). A possible third call may be set for Friday, November 5, 4-5 p.m. (EST). Barb will set up the calls with ALA.

ALA Midwinter Meeting, January 11, 2004

Larry Neal, Chair

Everything is set for the 2004 PLA National Conference program, "Recruitment through Coaching: Involving the Community in Public Library Staff Recruitment." The program will be held on Saturday, February 27, at 10:15 a.m. The speakers will be Ray Santiago (Miami-Dade Public Library), Hedra Peterman (Free Library of Philadelphia) and Stacey Aldrich (Maryland State Department of Education, Division of Library Development).

Stephanie Clark, Program Officer, Office of Library Services from the IMLS attended and encouraged the committee to apply for grant funding. Proposals are due January 15; new guidelines will be out in October for the 2005 funding year. Since no large changes are anticipated, the committee should prepare an application in advance and make minor adjustments in order to make the 2005 deadline. The committee needs to develop ideas for funding.

Hedra Packman and Rorr Morss will submit a program proposal for ALA 2005 Annual for a program about recruitment best practices and strategies.

Larry Neal will attend ALA's Recruitment Assembly and report back to the committee. The committee wishes to work with ALA to avoid duplicating efforts, maximize marketing opportunities, and share ideas. He is interested in adding a "willingness to mentor/discuss career opportunities" option in ALA members' profiles to create a searchable database.

There are a few models that PLA shoudl look to for ideas. Examples include the New Jersey Library Association (Super Librarian campaign, becomealibrarian.org), Alliance Library System (IL) materials, and the American Society of Civil Engineers (Pam shared materials that market engineering as a fun and exciting career choice to young people).

Concern was expressed about the perceieved lack of representation of public libraries in MLS programs. Rebecca Pernell, a UNC-Chapel Hill library student offered to compile a list of percentages of students working towards a library degree in 10-12 MLS programs.

Pam, Florence and Larry expressed an interest in conducting focus groups with MLS students to learn more about their needs and interests in considering becoming a public librarian. Others expressed interest in surveying new librarians to learn if the profession is what they expected, how do we retain them, do they need resources about changing jobs if they are not satisfied.

Larry will schedule a conference call to be held in late March to keep the committee's momentum going.

Members present: Judith Castiano, Stephanie Clark, Charles Jones, Larry Neal, Robb Morss, Hedra Packman, Pam Smith

Members absent: Diane Bills (electronic member), Monique Le Conge (electronic member), Tamiye Trejo Meehan, Bill Stack, Comelia van Aken

Visitors: Florence Brown (Issue & Concerns Cluster liasison), Allan Kleiman (Westfield Memorial Library), Barb Macikas (PLA staff liasion) Rebecca Pernell (UNC-Chapel Hill library student), Jo Ann Schindler (Hawaii State Public Library System)

ALA Midwinter Meeting, January 26, 2003

K. Lynn Wheeler, Chair

1. Discussion of existing "Consider the Possibilities" PLA recruitment brochure.
   
   We need to consider who uses the brochure. Design needs more color and a fun theme to appeal to a younger age group. Needs less text and more photos. Should be culturally diverse. Look at ALA Spectrum materials, use Spectrum photos. Also consider "what's in it for you" Peace Corp materials. Brochure should be shorter in length. Consider a card or sticker. Brochure should be part of a larger marketing campaign that includes a packet for libraries that takes the best thinking on recruitment and librarianship. Barb will review, revise brochure. Committee should begin to help develop components of marketing campaign. PLA also needs to jazz up language on web page.

2. Committee should develop a list of job fair conferences and paraprofessionals conferences to make available to members. PLA should create a traveling booth for librarians to use at these fairs. PLA or ALA should produce CD for job fairs and videos.
   
   Special libraries have done a great job of being on-campus at colleges. Perhaps use this model?

3. Pam Smith discussed program in partnership with civil engineers. Targeted to middle (high?) schoolers; a systemic plan in which we help kids think about being a librarian in a cool way. She would be happy to work on this. She will get sample of series, plan from civic engineers.

4. Committee discussed the "MLS problem." Most libraries are not recruiting MLS-degreed people. Recruitment efforts should not emphasize MLS. Recruitment of MLS is lib school's job. PLA should be recruiting for public library workers. Bring in grassroots staff to help sell conceptàe.g., children's staff, circ staff. Public libraries are re-defining what librarians are. Public libraries have had to grow their own, get them in the door and immediately emphasize training programs. This begins at high school level.

5. Research needs to be pulled together on how people are training library staff. How are libraries growing their staff? Collect models like Miami-Dade, share these best practices.

6. Should also share best practices on mentoring programs that would include tips for mentoring-training sessions on how to mentor. Hedra will work on this; work with her state on sample mentoring manual. Bill Ptacek of KCLS and Bill Stack also might have information. NOTE: "mentoring" may not be best word. Use the word coaching?

7. Committee will submit proposal for program at NC04 in Seattle. Ray Santiago will be invited to speak. Tentative program title: Grow your own library staff. Objective will be to make people aware of successful training and recruitment efforts. Will discuss job fairs and other initiatives and the importance of coaching and how to do it well. Lynn will submit proposal by deadline. Suggestion. Ask former ALA president Sarah Long to talk about the North Suburban Library System's use of state grant funds to encourage system libraries to hire staff with needed language skills.

8. Committee discussed scholarship idea per the PLA Strategic Plan. Determined that it should be a full scholarship for non-MLS staff working in library toward a bachelor's degree (or 2 year degree?), not MLS. This is the first step in the career path for support staff.

9. Next committee meeting at ALA in Toronto on Sunday, 6/22, 9:30 am-11:00 am. As the meeting will probably run long, it was decided to continue it through lunch. Lynn will find restaurant and let committee know.

Members Present: K. Lynn Wheeler, Chair; Bill Stack; Tamiye Trejo Meehan; Pamela Sandlian Smith; Hedra Peterman; Robb Morss; Lawrence Grieco

Absent: Judith Castiano; Jan Hayes; Cornelia Van Aken

Visitors: Barb Macikas, Staff Liaison; Florence Brown, PLA Board liaison

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