Outsourcing Debate Dominates
ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia
Debate over the recommendations of the American Library Association's Outsourcing Task Force dominated the Council agenda at the Association's Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia January 29–February 3. Grappling with what constitutes acceptable contracting and what approaches privatization and threatens intellectual freedom, the ALA governing body stopped short of issuing a statement of opposition to outsourcing but concluded that a formal study of its impact on library services and management was in order.
ALA President Ann Symons and 550 guests celebrated the 30th anniversary of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom with a gala in the historic Wanamaker Building, where Symons honored more than 200 anticensorship champions. Speaker Susan Isaacs, author of Red, White and Blue, lauded the work of librarians and assured them that “anytime the freedom to read is curtailed, your liberty is threatened.”
Some 13,500 librarians, exhibitors, and library advocates attended the Midwinter Meeting. A full report will appear in a forthcoming American Libraries Online and the March issue of American Libraries.
Posted February 8, 1999.
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