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San Antonio Meeting Spotlights Education for LibrarianshipAmerican Library Association President Michael Gorman kicked off the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, January 20–25, with a half-day forum on education for librarianship. Extending that theme into his President’s Program, Gorman welcomed author and National Public Radio commentator Andrei Codrescu, ostensibly to engage in a dialogue about the future of the profession. Codrescu, however, threw Gorman a curve by using much of his time to scold the Association for what he perceived as its failure to condemn censorship in Cuba and its treatment of dissidents.Codrescu, a native of Romania who now lives in Louisiana, also expressed skepticism about the cultural recovery of his part-time home, New Orleans, scheduled site of ALA’s Annual Conference in June. ALA will host the first major conference in New Orleans since the city’s devastation by Hurricane Katrina last year, and Midwinter attendees in many venues expressed their concerns. Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels assured members of the Exhibits Round Table that the city would be ready, that hotels and restaurants would be able to handle the crowd, and that no health risks have been identified. Representatives from New Orleans Public Library and the city’s visitors and convention bureau assured exhibitors that central New Orleans will look completely normal by June, since the worst devastation occurred in far-flung neighborhoods that would not ordinarily be on a visitor’s itinerary. Attending to the business of governing the Association, the ALA Council voted to place a dues increase on the spring ballot for a vote of the entire membership, in support of the ALAhead to 2010 strategic plan. The Association has not raised dues in 10 years; if passed, the dues increase would take the price of regular membership from $100 to $130 in $10 increments over three years. The Council also voted to oppose the appointment of Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court, based on a recommendation of the Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship, which concluded that his judicial record on women’s issues was abysmal. Highlights of the Midwinter Meeting also included the Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture, this year a concert of classical ragtime music by pianist Reginald R. Robinson; and the Best-Selling Authors Forum, featuring novelists Ron McLarty, Mark Gimenez, and Joni Rodgers. Preliminary attendance figures in San Antonio as of January 24 were: 8,326 registrants and 2,758 exhibitors for a total of 11,084 attendees. A full Midwinter Meeting report is scheduled for the March issue of American Libraries. Posted January 24, 2006. |
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