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 About LITA The Organization, Policies and Procedures Board of Directors AC 2005 LITA Board Minutes
LITA Board of Directors Saturday, June 25, 2005 Minutes Present: Colby Riggs, President; Pat Mullin, President-Elect; Tom Wilson, Past-President; Karen Schneider, Councilor; Directors-at-Large Kristen Antelman, Mark Beatty, Jenny McKee, Andrew Pace, Bonnie Postlethwaite, Flo Wilson; Colleen Cuddy, Ex Officio (Bylaws & Organization); Mary Taylor, Ex Officio (LITA Executive Director) Absent: David Dorman Guests: Linda Friend, RUSA-MARS liaison; Sara Randall, for the Nominating Committee; Janet Swan Hill, ALA Executive Board laiason; Michelle Frisque, Web Coordinating Committee Chair; Nancy Colyar, Publications Committee Staff: Rob Carlson, Valerie Edmonds-Merritt
Call to Order: President Riggs called the meeting to order at 9:33 a.m. Introduction of Guests: Riggs introduced guests Linda Friend and Michelle Frisque. Other guests would arrive throughout the meeting. Announcements: 1) Riggs encouraged all present to attend the LITA Open House from 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon at Le Meridien hotel. 2) She pointed out proposed skeleton schedules in everyone's folders for ALA Midwinter and Annual Conference meetings and reminded everyone that the second LITA Board meeting at Midwinter has been moved to Monday afternoon. Meeting Agenda: There were no changes or additions to the agenda. Riggs suggested the Strategic Plan and Objectives discussion should start about 10:30 a.m. Consent Agenda: Mullin made one addition to his Vice-President's Report, that a LITA liaison to the Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) has been established and Tom Wilson has agreed to serve in that capacity. The consent agenda was approved 10-Aye, 0-Nay, 0-Abstain,1-Absent. FY06 Budget: Tom Wilson introduced the FY06 budget by noting how difficult it had been in FY05 to peg the impact of the recent dues increase in light of variable renewal dates. ACRL and RUSA are increasing their dues in FY06. The Budget Review Committee therefore opted to plan on a 15% drop in membership for the coming year. Some of the salary savings resulting from the vacant Administrative Assistant position will be used to promote membership. Antelman asked if revenues and expenses for regional institutes could be made more accurate, given that attendance at RIs has not been reaching projections. The group asked Tom Wilson and Mary Taylor to look at the numbers during the break and bring the budget back to the group for approval. 2005 Forum Update: As neither Janet Swan Hill nor Sara Randall had arrived yet, Riggs decided to move her Forum update up from Tuesday's meeting. She reported that registration was open and that about 30 people had already registered. The Forum Committee was planning to meet twice in Chicago (they in fact met only once, having concluded their agenda at the first meeting). Mullin reported that the 2006 Forum Committee was meeting for the first time at this Annual Conference. Taylor pointed out how helpful it had been for promotional efforts to have preconference and keynote speakers decided early on. Slate for Spring 2006 Election: Sara Randall, representing the 2006 Nominating Committee, arrived at 9:55. She presented the slate of candidates for the 2006 election. They are: for Vice-President, Mark Beatty and Dan Marmion; for Directors-at-Large, Deb Shapiro, Lorre Smith, Elizabeth (Zoe) Stewart-Marshall, and David Ward. Mullin thanked the Nominating Committee for its good work. The motion from the Nominating Committee to approve the slate passed 10-Aye, 0-Nay, 0-Abstain,1-Absent. Executive Committee Update: Riggs gave an update of the previous day's Executive Committee (EC) meeting. She had had discussions with the Ontario Library & Information Technology Association (OLITA) about possible partnerships. They were unable to meet at this conference, but talks would continue. The EC agreed to create a Standards Coordinator position within LITA, including a stipend. They also discussed the creation of a sponsorship task force that would look into coordinating our approach to vendors. Riggs reported that the LITA blog was going well, and appears to have brought some new blood into the organization. Flo Wilson suggested the creation of the Standards Coordinator position be approved by the board. The draft position description was distributed to the Board. Schneider moved and Pace seconded a motion to approve the creation of a LITA Standards Coordinator position. The motion passed 10-Aye, 0-Nay, 0-Abstain,1-Absent. Mullin ended the EC update by announcing that he would be looking to fill the Web Coordinator position being vacated by Michelle Frisque at Midwinter in San Antonio. ALA Executive Liaison to LITA: Janet Swan Hill reported that Council is poised to approve the goals and objectives listed in the ALA strategic plan (ALA Ahead 2010). Riggs reported that the LITA Board had worked extensively on the strategic plan at the previous Midwinter Meeting, and is working to incorporate it at the division level. Flo Wilson asked about the status of the operating agreement between ALA and its divisions. Hill reported that, despite rumors, there are no plans to reopen the operating agreement. There is to be a division representative on the Budget and Review Committee (BARC), and BARC is continually monitoring the operating agreement. She encouraged participation in the Division Presidents breakfast held annually. Strategic Plan Objectives and Publications: After a short break, the board welcomed Michelle Frisque and Nancy Colyar to the table to discuss the LITA Strategic Plan in relation to our various publishing activities. Many hailed the blog as a publishing tool with many uses. It can serve as a proving ground for potential authors, it brings new voices (and possible authors) to the organization, it allows like-minded people to find each other and possibly collaborate on publications, etc. The trend in the publishing industry seems to be that people are less and less willing to write long and complex books. Short pieces, however, are more and more popular. The blog can be seen as a series of short pieces, and this may be a model for other publications as well. Deb Shapiro's LITA Guide on eScholarship was cited as a good example of this. There need to be as many channels (like the blog) open to potential authors as the organization can support. The group then turned to possible electronic channels for distributing LITA publications. There is much interest in this at the ALA level, which LITA will be able to tap into. We should also look at blogs and wikis as possible "ongoing" publications, which foster a sense of community at the same time. The group encouraged Riggs and Mullin to discuss some of these ideas with the acquisitions editor. Until now, the acquisitions editor has always focused on obtaining monographs to publish; we should be looking for more collaborative publications. The topics found on the blog could be a valuable source for topics and collaborators. The group also encouraged the creation of short, one-topic serial publications that could be subscribed to electronically. Several members of the board pointed out that the previous "publish or perish" model is losing favor in academic libraries. Community involvement is often as important as publications in career advancement. LITA would do well to develop ways for librarians to contribute to community and publish at the same time. Some suggestions arising out of the discussion were:
Other issues raised were:
FY06 Budget: Taylor and Tom Wilson reported on their discussion of regional institutes budgeting, and would like to review the history before making any changes to next year's budget. They had added $1000 for the Standards Coordinator stipend. Antelman then moved and Tom Wilson seconded a motion to approve the budget . It passed 10-Aye, 0-Nay, 0-Abstain,1-Absent. The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 p.m.
LITA Board of Directors Tuesday, June 28, 2005 Minutes Present: Colby Riggs, President; Pat Mullin, President-Elect; Tom Wilson, Past-President; Karen Schneider (arr. 3:25), Councilor; Directors-at-Large Kristen Antelman, Mark Beatty, Jenny McKee, Andrew Pace, Bonnie Postlethwaite, Flo Wilson; Colleen Cuddy, Ex Officio (Bylaws & Organization); Mary Taylor, Ex Officio (LITA Executive Director) Absent: David Dorman Guests: Maribeth Manoff, incoming chair of Bylaws & Organization; Zoe Stewart-Marshall, Web Policy Task Force; Michelle Frisque, Web Coordinating Committee Chair Staff: Rob Carlson, Valerie Edmonds-Merritt
President Riggs called the meeting to order at 1:07 p.m. Bylaws & Organization: Cuddy presented the recommended actions from the Bylaws & Organization Committee (B&O).
Cuddy announced that B&O members have been trained on the use of the ALA CMS and will begin making changes to the Manual. Director-at-Large to Serve on Executive Committee: Mullin nominated Mark Beatty to serve on the Executive Committee for the coming year. The recommendation was approved 8-Aye, 0-Nay, 1-Abstain, 2-Absent. Board Liaisons' Reports Education Committee (Riggs): The Education Committee will propose a program for New Orleans (2006). Awards (Antleman): no report. Membership Development (Flo Wilson): A written report would be submitted by email after the meeting. Riggs mentioned that the Membership Development Committee might want to talk about the Open House, and the possibility of having a discussion of publishing in LITA, or having the IG Coordinator come and talk, etc. The idea is to use the Open House to focus on an issue or priority we want to get the word out about. Program Planning (Mullin): Three preconferences have been slated for New Orleans: New Light on Licensing (LITA/ALCTS E-Resource Management IG); Simplifying Complex Projects using Dotproject (Open Source Systems IG); and Greenstone Implementation and Customization (Open Source Systems IG). Eight other programs have also been proposed. Publications (Pace): Teresa Koltzenburg from ALA TechSource met with the Publications Committee to discuss opportunities for cooperation with ALA Publishing. Mullin added that there had been discussion at the Division President's Breakfast about creating a task force to look at epublishing at ALA. Regional Institutes (Antleman): The Regional Institutes Committee looked at statistics on the history of attendance at regional institutes, preconferences (both Annual Conference and Forum), Midwinter Workshops, etc., and noted that the trendlines since 1998 have been down no matter how the data were sliced. They will be looking into getting involved in web-enabled instruction. They will touch base with the Education Committee to coordinate efforts. Technology & Access (McKee): A report would be emailed after the conference. Top Technology Trends (Beatty): Beatty complimented Jennifer Ward for her handling of the TTT program for the first time at this conference. Everyone felt the suite of TTT, reception, and the President's Program worked very well. There was considerable discussion of the format, style, and layout of, and distinctions between, Midwinter and Annual meetings of the TTT committee. Some feel the meeting at Midwinter should be more of a planning session for Annual, with limited audience involvement. Some feel the Annual program should be more of a discussion, with more interaction among the experts themselves, as well as the audience. Beatty agreed to take the board's concerns to the TTT committee. Web Coordinating Committee (Postlethwaite): Michelle Frisque joined the board for a discussion of online committee rosters and the proposed online LITA membership directory. Concerns have been expressed about members' privacy if their contact information is put up on the website. It is less of a concern with committee rosters, because serving on a committee or IG implies being contacted about the group's area of concern. As for the online membership roster, the board agreed that personal entries should include only name, job title, place of employment, work phone, and email. Anyone who does not want their information included should contact the Web Coordinator or office and their information will be removed immediately. Zoe Stewart-Marshall then joined the group to report that the Web Policy Task Force has decided its work is done. They will present a report by email shortly after conference. Riggs thanked the task force for its work. Frisque announced the ALA is now capable of supporting RSS feeds from the website. The WCC will propose content on the LITA website suitable for RSS feeds. Work continues on the LITA web style guide. If board members had questions or comments on the Event Planner on the Conference Services website, they should forward them to Michelle. Frisque and Sherri Vanyek and Mary Ghikas had all talked about the complaints they had been receiving about the Event Planner, and will work with Deidre Ross to get improvements implemented. Frisque also noted that RUSA was about to approve a policy on challenges to web content, and that it could serve as a model for the entire association. Also, there is now a joint task force working with the ALA Membership Committee on policies concerning members-only content. There is little consistency across units. International Relations Committee: Tom Wilson reported that the IRC was making progress on drafting policies and procedures for bringing an international guest to the Forum. As previously reported, eBrary had agreed to provide the necessary funding. The IRC had an action item for the board: to approve a stipend of $500 for Larry Woods to attend IFLA in Oslo, Norway, as LITA's representative. Woods had applied for the stipend in accordance with the recently-approved procedure for doing so. The board discussed the timing of the request, coming as it did a month before the end of the fiscal year, and whether or not a precedent was being set. In the end, the board decided to offer a stipend of $250, with a vote of 9-Aye, 0-Nay, 1-Abstain, 1-Absent. Wilson further reported that the Engaging Public Librarians Task Force would submit a report after conference. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten of the Office for Information Technology Policy addressed the board. He welcomed Tom Wilson as the first-ever LITA liaison to the OITP Advisory Committee. He told of events being planned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the creation of the OITP. He expects the fight over libraries and other municipal agencies providing community wireless internet access to intensify in the upcoming legislative session. The Washington Office released the results of a survey that showed there had been significant incidents where law enforcement agents have sought patron data from libraries without a warrant. There is a study of public library connectivity on the OITP website. It was sponsored by the Gates Foundation and indicates that the "digital divide" is not so much rich vs. poor as it is urban vs. rural. Weingarten felt the Grokster decision had been a victory for ALA because it supported the "Sony decision" that hold that if there are significant other uses for a particular technology, it cannot be banned just because someone might use it to violate copyright. The former E-Books task force has now become part of the Open eBooks Forum, and international trade organization that is currently focusing on standards. Sheketoff announced that the Intellectual Freedom Committee had decided not to proceed with a controversial biometrics resolution. She urged the LITA board to support the broadband resolution, at least in principle. Sen. John McCain has introduced a bill in the Senate that would block legislation against open community wireless access provided by cities, libraries, etc. Schneider pointed out that this resolution could have been sent to Council much earlier, giving councilors time to discuss it with their constituents. As it was, it was presented to Council a little more than 24 hours before the final Council session, by which time many division boards had finished their meetings. Sheketoff agreed to take Schneider's concerns to the Committee on Legislation. ALA Council: Councilor Schneider reported on Council activities of interest to the board. She encouraged the board to express its support for the broadband resolution. A motion of support, in principle, was passed 10-Aye, 0-Nay, 0-Abstain, 1-Absent. Schneider thought the biometrics resolution could have benefited from LITA oversight, and pointed out to Council LITA's areas of responsibility included emerging technologies. The group thanked Schneider for defending LITA's interests and for keeping the board informed. Recognition of Departing Board Members: President Riggs thanked Tom Wilson, Flo Wilson, and Colleen Cuddy for their service and presented them with certificates and tokens of her appreciation. Mullin then presented Tom Wilson with a clock and thanked him for his three years of service. As her final act as President, Riggs presented Mullin with a gavel, and thanked everyone for their hard work and support during her presidential year. The meeting adjourned at 4:35 p.m. |
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