Tag Archives: ALA

VLA Statement Condemning Increased Violence and Racism Towards Black Americans and People of Color

The Executive Board of the Vermont Library Association (VLA) stands in solidarity with the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) and in endorsement of the Executive Board of the American Library Association’s (ALA) June 1 statement in condemning violence and racism toward black people and all people of color.

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/ala-executive-board-stands-bcala/

The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis, MN police officers is the most recent in a long line of events in the United States reminding us that racism is not a thing of the past.  The Executive Board of VLA urges our members to use your spheres of influence to respond to these events in your communities, to continue to advocate for all people regardless of race, to uphold fairness and justice in your policies and in your day to day operations and to continue to stand firm against “acts of prejudice and threats of violence”.

Sincerely,

Amy Olsen, President
Kevin Unrath,  President Elect
Cindy Weber, Past President
Marie Schmukal, Secretary
Susan Smolinsky, Treasurer

Cindy Weber to represent VLA at Career Development Facilitator Program

The Vermont Library Association Board is pleased to announce the selection of Cindy Weber, director of the Stowe Free Library, as Vermont’s representative to a Career Development Facilitator (CDF) training offered by the American Library Association and the National Career Development Association. Vermont is one of 22 states selected to participate based on an application outlining our plans for implementing the program statewide. Participants from each state will become certified Career Development Facilitators, with an emphasis on guiding other librarians in providing career and job-seeking help to their communities as well as assisting librarians with their own career development needs.
VLA and Cindy Weber will be working together to identify a cohort of librarians in the state to help share this material widely. The VLA Board is looking forward to being able to help our members serve this function in their communities more confidently and to contribute to the economic vitality of our local families and communities. The training includes such topics as development and maintenance of a career resource center, labor market information, career planning processes, basic helping and facilitation skills, informal and formal assessments, program promotion, ethical and scope-of-practice issues, professional portfolios, and up-to-date job search resources.
The training consists of two days of workshops in Chicago in January 2015 prior to the ALA Midwinter Conference and then an online course for 14 weeks. See the ALA press release on the selection of participants here. Look for future announcements on the VTLibraries mailing list or contact Cindy Weber for more information or to express interest in future trainings: cweber@stowelibrary.org or (802) 253-6145.

Banned Books Week – Vermont Edition

It’s Banned Books Week!

Libraries around the state have Banned Books Displays. Take a picture and send it to us at vermontlibrarieswebmaster@gmail.com or share on facebook or twitter!

We created a video for the 50 State Salute – 50 State Salute-Vermont Librarians

Rockingham Free  produced an hour long special for cable access – A Talk About Banned Books

We’ve asked as many VT politicians as we could find to tweet about their favorite banned book. Check out #VTLibraries and/or #bannedbook to see the replies!

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World Book Night 2013 – VT Libraries Sought for Participation!

WORLD BOOK NIGHT 2013 LIBRARY PARTICIPANT APPLICATION

http://connect.ala.org/node/183788

(Form is attachment in this link to World Book Night Group in ALA Connect (New to ALA Connect? Instructions for accessing ALA Connect are below; also attached is a list of participants! Join these participants by October 1!)

WORLD BOOK NIGHT 2013 is a celebration of literacy by publishers, bookstores, libraries and individuals who love books and reading.  On WORLD BOOK NIGHT 2013, 25,000 “book givers” will each give away 20 copies of a specially-printed, not-for-resale WBN edition of book they have read and loved (from a list of 25-30 titles selected by librarians and booksellers) to complete strangers – people who may never have owned a book of their own.  To promote this literacy event, libraries and bookstores – as organizational participants in the event – form a nationwide advocacy and distribution network.

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Turning the Page 2.0 Statewide Kickoff!

If you, your staff, your trustees and friends have not yet done so, please consider joining us for the Fall session of Turning the Page 2.0, the 6-week free online course in advocacy from the Public Library Association and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who know the importance of these skills. Many Vermont librarians and trustees have taken this course and used what they learned to help their library.

Whether you have a capital campaign starting up, want to prepare each year for Town Meeting, hope to add staff or programming, or simply want to get a well-focused and well-honed message out to your community with a strong, coordinated voice, this training is tremendous.

Meanwhile, registration is OPEN at: http://www.ala.org/pla/education/turningthepage and closes September 12.

And please register with me to join us in-person or online on September 12 in Berlin, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm. You can write (christine.friese@state.vt.us) or phone me (802-828-2714) to register or to ask questions.

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New Advocacy Tool – Mobile Commons

ALA has now made it easy for all of us  to respond to  email alerts that are sent out asking us to call our legislator on behalf of the most recent bill or action..  Text!

Here’s what to do:

Text “library” to 877877. You will receive a message back asking for your address. Send that info back.  From now on, when there’s a legislative alert from ALA relating to library and information issues they will send you a text.

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ALA Councilor's Report

Hello from sunny Anaheim! I am happy to again be reporting from annual conference. At the first Council meeting we heard reports of task forces and committees. One report of particular interest was presented by the Digital Content & Libraries Working Group. This is the group that is working with ebook publishers. The group had an initial meeting with publishers in the spring and are now working to create business models and licensing agreements and to find ways to communicate the issues to the library community and the general public. ALA leaders have met with publishers twice more. They will continue to work to increase good access to e-resources.
I was lucky enough to score tickets for the first ever Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction Award presentation. Nominees for the award included Anne Enright, Karen Russell, Russell Banks, James Gleik, Robert Massie, and Manning Marable. Anne Enright won for her new book The Forgotten Waltz and Robert Massie won for Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. ALA hopes this award will become the adult Newbery.
At our second Council meeting we passed a resolution encouraging support for school librarians.
It has been a great pleasure representing Vermont at ALA conferences for the past six years.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Wilson

Turning the Page 2.0

Turning the Page 2.0 is a unique opportunity for free, in-depth, interactive, online education in public library advocacy. Register for this six week course and get one-on-one attention from professional facilitators as you build a customized Advocacy Work Plan for your library.

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