ALA releases 2008-09 Annual Report that highlights the presidency of James Rettig

Contact: Mark Gould
Director,
ALA Public Information Office
(312) 280-1546
mgould@ala.org

NEWS
For Immediate Release
May 3, 2010

CHICAGO - ALA President James Rettig focused his presidential activities around “Creating Connections” and addressed three critical issues: advocacy, diversity, and member participation. These initiatives and other highlights are featured in the just released American Library Association Annual Report that covers 2008-09.

The report says Rettig organized a panel discussion at the 2009 Midwinter Meeting entitled “Building Statewide Coalitions for All Libraries During a Tough Economy,” which focused on the value of building statewide advocacy coalitions in times of economic downturn, as well as the concept of the “library ecosystem,” or how libraries of all types are interdependent.

Also at Annual Conference, 10 juried Grassroots Programs selected from 118 proposals submitted by members addressed topics such as creating a library job center, discovering and preserving local history, public art in public libraries, preparing libraries for Web 3.0, libraries and the Obama administration’s information policy, African American male librarians and career choice and pushing digital content to users. In addition, Chicago-area college students were provided with scholarships to spend the day at the conference and learn about the range of career opportunities in the library field.

The fiscal year began with widespread media coverage of the increase in library usage during tough economic times. The coverage appeared on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” NBC’s Today Show and Nightly News, the CBS Evening News, CNN, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the Associated Press and dozens of other media groups and news websites.

Coverage positioned libraries as trusted and valuable community resources and focused on how libraries assist job-seekers and help families save money, as well as how they are changing to meet the demands of the communities they serve

Many other accomplishments of the American Library Association can be viewed at: http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/annualreport/index.cfm