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Library & Information Technology Association |
LIBRARY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION (LITA)
Board of Directors Meeting
American Library Association 2002 Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA
First Session, Saturday, June 15, 2002, 9:30-12:00
- President Flo Wilson called the meeting to order at 9:30am. Wilson welcomed guests Patrick Mullin and Thomas Wilson, thanked LITA member Mark Beatty for producing a PDA-ready LITA schedule for the ALA Annual Conference, asked all Board members to thank LITA sponsors in person when possible, noted that the program to recognize outgoing committee and interest group chairs is going well, and reported that a student intern is working with LITA at this conference.
Additions to the agenda: Discussion about the demise of the LITA/Geac Scholarship and suggestions on what company may sponsor a new LITA scholarship; institutionalizing advocacy; who will provide oversight of the online LITA Manual.
By CONSENT, the Board approved the Consent Agenda to confirm; e-mail vote to approve the January 2002 Minutes from the LITA Board meeting at the 2002 ALA Midwinter Meeting, e-mail vote to approve the merger of the Leadership Development and Membership Committees into the new Membership Development Committee, e-mail vote to approve the abolishment of the Technology Standards for Library Automation Committee (TESLA), e-mail vote to merge the Technical Issues of Digital Data and the Intelligent and Knowledge-Based Systems Interest Groups into the new Digital Library Technologies Interest Group, e-mail vote to approve the 10% increase in the subscription rates for ITAL, and e-mail vote against the retention of the LITA Research Committee.
- Heard LITA President’s report from Flo Wilson. Having sent her Annual Report to all Board members prior to the Annual Conference, Wilson addressed other items that arose during the year:
- ALA Committee appointments are the responsibility of the ALA President-Elect. Although the process may vary from year to year, at some point in the process ALA divisions are usually asked to identify people to serve on ALA Committees. To be better prepared for this in the future, LITA will institute a review of a list of all ALA Committees at each Annual Conference. All Board members are asked to think about LITA members who might serve well as ALA Committee members and to share those thoughts with all LITA Board members. Wilson distributed the list of ALA committees.
- There have been discussions regarding the Board members’ and officers’ roles and the need for clearer definitions. In the past the LITA President Elect has represented LITA on ALA’s Planning and Budget Assembly (PBA). After some exploration of this role, it has been determined that LITA Past-President, who is also LITA’s Budget Committee Chair, will serve as LITA’s PBA representative.
- The President paused her report to recognize Camile Alire, the ALA Executive Board liaison to LITA. Alire reported that ALA is pleased to have won the CIPA case but expects to continue the fight as the case is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. ALA will continue fundraising efforts to raise money to pay CIPA legal fees. The ALA Allied Professional Association (ALA/APA) has been created; it will take two to three years for the transition to be complete. ALA is loaning ALA/APA money to operate for three years. The 2nd Core Values Task Force is training facilitators to conduct discussions to ensure input from ALA members, and a task force is being created to study the core competencies issue, Mary Ghikas and Camile Alire will participate in that task force. The Electronic Meeting Task Force that is investigating the feasibility of conducting electronic meetings, reported that Sturgis’ The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure states that electronic communications are not meetings.
- The President completed her report by bringing the Board up to date regarding the Division Leadership and ALA Executive Committee joint meeting as well as the Library of Congress Action Plan for Bibliographic Control of Electronic Resources.
- Heard President-Elect’s report from Pat Ensor. Ensor attended the ALA Planning and Budgeting Meeting where the ALA/APA was discussed. The ALA/APA is not an individual membership organization, it is a service organization for ALA. The focus of the ALA/APA is certification, LITA should start planning for this if it wants to propose a process. The ALA Education Committee is in the process of developing the certification process.
- The President-Elect paused in her report to allow the President to recognize the LITA Nominating Committee Chair, Michael Gorman. The Board accepted the Nominating Committee Report. Candidates for Vice-President, President-Elect are Susan Logue and Colby Riggs. Candidates for Director at Large are Kristin Antelman, Mark Beatty, Sybil Boutilier, Elizabeth Cowell, Fred Gertler, Dean Jue, and Jennie McKee.
It was VOTED to accept the slate of candidates.
- The President-Elect continued her report. Ensor has been working with the Interest Group and Committee Chair Coordinators to develop position descriptions; she worked with Board members Kennedy and Riggs to establish a Web site for Board member orientation information; Ensor scheduled a lunch at this Annual Conference with the recently elected Board members; LITA committee appointments are nearly completed and committee rosters were mailed to all committee chairpersons prior to this Annual Conference; new LITA Forum Committees’ terms will start immediately after the ALA Midwinter Meeting that is approximately twenty months before the corresponding Forum.
- Heard a report from LITA Executive Director, Mary Taylor regarding LITA membership (4,708 members) and LITA publications. LITA has two new publications for sale, Open Source Software for Libraries and Simplify Web Site Management with Server-Side Includes, Cascading Style Sheets, and Perl, bringing the total number of available LITA titles to nine. LITA has two new Regional Institutes that are available for scheduling, “XML and Libraries” and “eBooks: After Hype and Death, What Really Works.”
- Heard a report from Barbra Higginbotham on an Information Commons Workshop that she attended. Higginbotham will forward a paper by David Bollier about the subject.
- The demise of the LITA/Geac Scholarship was discussed and possible new scholarship sponsors were identified.
- Discussed document from ALA on institutionalizing advocacy at ALA.
- The question of who will provide oversight of the online LITA Manual was discussed. Susan Jacobson suggests that LITA devise ways to archive the Manual.
- The Board REQUESTED the Bylaws and Organization Committee to draft a statement about the LITA Manual to define what the Manual is and to recommend a process for making changes.
Meeting adjourned until Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 1:00p.m.
Second Session, Tuesday, June 18, 2002, 1:00pm - 4:30pm
- President Flo Wilson called the meeting to order at 1:00pm
- Wilson attended and reported on a Sunday meeting on the Status of the LC Action Plan for Bibliographic Control of Web Resources. Wilson will follow up with Status Report’s author to clarify and identify a time frame that the action items will be carried out and will work with the LITA Board to identify areas for further LITA involvement as needed
- It was reported by Mary Taylor and Karen Cook that Sirsi Corporation has agreed to sponsor the LITA scholarship formerly sponsored by Geac. The scholarship will continue as a yearly $2,500 award.
- Heard LITA Publications Committee Report from Publications Committee Chair Tom Wilson who asked that the Board give the Publications Committee directives on how to operate the LITA Best Practices initiative. Pat Ensor will appoint a task force to review the issues involved with LITA Best Practices and will ask that task force to deliver a progress report at the LITA Board Meetings at the 2003 ALA Midwinter Meeting and to deliver a recommendation to the Board at the 2003 ALA Annual Conference. At the request of the Board, the Publications Committee reviewed the Acquisition Editor position. A subcommittee was established. The Subcommittee has clarified the editor’s responsibilities and has recommended that the editor establish an editorial board.
- Accepted LITA Program Planning Committee report from Chair John Forys. Forys requested that LITA look into the feasibility of providing high speed internet connections via wireless connections for future programs and asked the Board for guidance about how to assign time slots for LITA programs at ALA Annual Conferences.
MOVED by Sara Randall and seconded by Pat Ensor, it was VOTED that the Program Planning Committee determine the final scheduling for LITA programs based on the best distribution of topics and to better fit in the ALA track designations.
- Heard report from Emily Sheketoff, Executive Director of the ALA Washington Office, regarding key ALA legislative issues. Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) update, ALA’s Office of Information Technology Policy (OITP) asks everyone to answer questions put forth by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/press/2002/cipa_6032002.htm, to evaluate whether currently available Internet blocking or filtering technology measures adequately address the needs of educational institutions and to evaluate the effectiveness of children's Internet safety policies; anecdotal evidence is needed by August 27 and should be sent via e-mail to ntia-study@alawash.org (please copy the ALA Washington Office on your messages). The Neighborhood Children’s Internet Protection Act (NCIPA) states that libraries must have acceptable use policies and must provide opportunites for public input from their patrons. ALA continues to be concerned about modern copyright issues and fair use; the Washington Office is putting together a packet of information about the issues. UCITA has not been a problem lately but librarians and ALA should still remain alert to UCITA legislation.
- Heard Executive Committee Meeting report from Flo Wilson regarding the planning for the LITA National Forums. The maximum registration of 500 participants was reaffirmed. Wilson asked Pat Ensor to report on the Web Coordinator appointment. Two excellent candidates were interviewed earlier in the conference. Ensor will follow up on this appointment and will report back to the Board when it is final.
- Heard Budget Review Committee report from Sara Randall. Reviewed the fiscal year 2002 budget and approved the fiscal year 2003 budget request.
- Heard Barbra Higginbotham’s report on the following ALA Council issues: ALA will serve as a member of the National Center on Women and Aging Council of Cooperating Organizations; ALA budget for Fiscal Year 2003; ALA/APA; ALA and electronic meetings issue; and, virtual members of ALA committees.
- Heard Bylaws and Organization Committee report from Susan Jacobson.
MOVED by Jacobson that an electronic petition form be implemented for renewal of Interest Groups listing the names with ALA membership numbers and eliminating the requirement for signatures. Motion passed with one abstention, Thomas Dowling and one absence, Pat Ensor.
MOVED by Jacobson that revised charges be accepted for the Education, International Relations, and Membership Development Committees. Motion passed.
MOVED by Jacobson that the Bylaw revisions be distributed to the membership for vote via the spring ballot. Motion passed.
Expressed thanks to the Bylaws Committee.
- Recognized Rebecca Felkner’s many contributions to LITA during her tenure on staff.
- Discussed the Membership Committee report regarding the establishment of LITA members-only Web services. MOVED by Pat Ensor, seconded by James Kennedy to accept the Membership Committee report and endorse the development of members-only content. Charge the Web Coordinating Committee with investigating and reporting on the technical capabilities of the ALA Web Server in this regard with assistance from the LITA Office. This report is to be made no later than Annual Conference 2003. Motion passed.
- Elected Scott Muir the Director-at-Large representative to the Executive Committee by acclimation and thanked Colby Riggs for her service this past year.
- Recognized George Machovec and Joan Kuklinski (in absentia) for their service to LITA as members of the Board of Directors with certificates and tokens of appreciation. Recognized Sara Randall for her service as President-Elect, President and Past-President with a gift from President-Elect Pat Ensor, a certificate, and other tokens.
- Flo Wilson presented the gavel to Pat Ensor.
The meeting adjourned at 4:30pm.
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