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ALA Midwinter Meeting Advances LiteracyRecognizing that literacy in the next century will require not only the ability to read and write but also the skills to tap the electronic storehouses in which information will be organized, some 11,000 library advocates gathered at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans January 10-12 and moved 21st-century literacy to the top of the Association's agenda. Along with literacy, ALA members advanced four other top priorities--intellectual freedom, lifelong learning, equity of access, and diversity--in over 1,200 committee meetings and other forums through which that agenda on behalf of American libraries makes its way into the public arena. ALA President Barbara J. Ford presided over the meeting's Council and Executive Board sessions until she was called to New York City to appear on the January 13 Today show, where she joined the 1998 winners of ALA's Newbery and Caldecott Medals, Karen Hesse and Paul Zelinsky, whose awards were revealed in New Orleans. Ford's emphasis is on the "global reach" provided by the "local touch" of community library service, and she pointed to the awards and the Association's "700 Great Web Sites for Kids" as ways librarians connect young readers with a world of reading. Ford's January 11 President's Program gathered four international librarians to discuss the role of libraries in the global village. Also among the conference hot topics was outsourcing, and a special task force held its first meeting to begin the process of formulating a position on the issue as it relates to library services. A full report on the Midwinter Meeting is scheduled for the March issue of American Libraries. Posted January 19, 1998. |
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