LibrarianActivist.org

Lisa Spieker, a librarian at Rasmussen College, won a Pathfinder Award a couple of weeks ago for her work on the college’s Diversity Committe, and her work to educate staff and students on campus via panels and open discussions about diversity.

The local newspaper in Minnesota, where the award was presented, quoted Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Board members as saying that “Lisa sets an air and expectation of tolerance and respect from staff and students [....] (She) has created a culture where people can ask questions, respect and be respected, and learn from each other.”

Awarded in Mankato, Minnesota, the Pathfinder Awards are intended to recognise people who or organisations that “exemplify the ideas of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”

(Via).

Two undergraduate students are pitching their tents inside the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre @ UBC for the next 10 days as part of a national campaign to raise support, awareness and funds for global literacy, according to UBC Public Affairs. Check out the Live-In for Literacy site (with live webcam!). Other participating libraries include Queen’s University, University of Toronto, Concordia University, McMaster University, Laurentian University and Memorial University.

The CLA has put together an Election Kit that pulls together a series of issues of importance to the library community and how to bring those to the attention of the candidates. These include copyright, net neutrality, public library infrastructure, etc.

In the meantime, the CCPA has just come out with a free online book called The Harper Record.

This book gives a detailed account of the laws, policies, regulations, and initiatives of the Conservative minority government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper during its 32-month term from January 2006 to September 2008.

Of interest to libraries, the section entitled “Telecommunications on the Free(Market) Way“, by Marita Moll and Leslie Regan Shade.

You may not have known that ALA has a policy (Policy 61) about library services to the poor. Similarly, you may not know that the Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) has a task force called the Homelessness, Hunger, and Poverty Task Force (HHPTF).

That was a lot of background, all to say that the HHPTF recently addressed Policy 61 in its survey report, now online. The ALA charged the HHPTF to survey ALA members about their knowledge of the policy, identify key issues and trends, and make recommendations. The report concluded that member respondents identified poor people using various manners, didn’t collaborate to provide programs or services to the poor because there was no official policy within ALA to do so, and felt that there was a lack of professional guidance from ALA regarding library services to the poor. 85% of respondents advocated training staff to sensitize them to issues affecting the poor and barriers hindering library use.

The report recommended that ALA “clarify why library service to the poor is integral to our profession [...] and not a fringe issue” (4). They suggested a number of specific ideas for ALA to this end, including a regular column in American Libraries, a dedicated ALA staff member, a toolkit for libraries interested in serving the poor, an ALA distinguished service award for libraries that successfully serve the poor, and an advocacy campaign similar to @ Your Library. They also suggested that, within libraries themselves, administrators include poor people and poverty-focused organisations in library decision-making (4).

Libraries who serve the poor are also asked to post resources to the Library Success Wiki.

As though the American government didn’t learn from the EPA library closure fiasco and outrage, according to Library Journal, the National Agricultural Library FY09 budget proposal includes a $3 million reduction. An excellent letter of concern was sent by the United States Agricultural Information Network to Washington. Here is a portion of the letter:

The President’s FY 2009 Budget Estimate includes $18 million for the USDA National Agricultural Library, a $4 million reduction from the FY 2008 Budget estimate, and $6 million less than the FY 2007 actual budget for the Library.

Significant changes proposed by ARS include redirecting $993,000 in AWIC funds to support NAL participation in a new digital portal for veterinary medicine; eliminating funding for the National Agricultural Law Center, the nation’s leading source for agricultural and food law research and information, which complements and works with NAL, which does not cover these areas; and most importantly, reducing funding for non-digital content/document delivery/Special Collections by $3,000,000.

As a national library, the print collection is core to researchers and the agricultural history of the nation. It is this reduction of $3,000,000 for the print collections that is of immediate concern. In FY 2007, NAL document delivery services filled 29,000 requests from the NAL collection for materials which were available in print-only-not available electronically. In FY 20009, such requests for print-only materials would not be filled.

The ramifications of the proposed reductions or redirections of NAL funding include not only the inability for NAL to fill requests for materials available only in print, but the complete cessation of book and journal purchases, and the inability to catalog and make available print materials already acquired. In addition, cancellation of the receipt of free publications from the U.S. and other countries would have a major impact. In recent years the USDA required all USDA-authored publications to be delivered to the NAL; but what good is this if there no money to catalog them and make them findable?