ALA Council

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Wow!

  • 1.  Wow!

    Posted 18 days ago
    President Donald Trump’s budget office on Monday ordered all federal agencies to temporarily block disbursement of grants and loans — other than for Social Security, Medicare and other programs providing direct aid to individuals.

    The memo says the temporary pause, effective starting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, is intended to ensure agencies are complying with Trump’s executive orders to root out “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies” from programs within their purview.




    Jim Neal
    University Librarian Emeritus
    Columbia University
    ALA President 2017-18
    ALA Honorary Member
    jneal0@columbia.edu
    http://www.columbia.edu/~jneal


  • 2.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 18 days ago
    After having spent the last 4 days trying to figure out what to do about ARL's upcoming DEI Institute (funded by a 3-year IMLS grant), I forgot that, as my mother used to say, things are never so bad that they can't get worse. 

    Here are some helpful resources from COGR and the National Council of Nonprofits

    -Andrew
    --

    Andrew K. Pace

    ALA   ·  Councilor-at-large

    ARL·  Executive Director

    T +1-202-296-2296 · M +1-614-787-4273 · Twitter: @andrewkpace






  • 3.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 18 days ago
    It's a surreal world we're living in. The clerk at Starbucks as I was leaving the hotel this morning said "you have to laugh or you will cry," but I disagree - it's time to be outraged and to strategize.





  • 4.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 18 days ago
    We need: Passion, Protest, Plan of Action. 


    Jim Neal
    University Librarian Emeritus 
    Columbia University
    ALA President 2017-18
    ALA Honorary Member
    http://www.columbia.edu/~jneal








  • 5.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 17 days ago





  • 6.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 17 days ago

    Yay for the speedy responses. We aren't going down like this!

     

     

    Deb Sica Seek-ah (she/lei)

    Acting County Librarian | Library Administration

    Main Library Phone: 510-745-1500
    Direct Line: 510-745-1510

    aclibrary.org | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter  

     
    Mission: We Grow Learners, Break Barriers, Build Futures
    Vision: Kind, Connected Humans 

    Values: Authenticity, Integrity, Creativity, Curiosity, Empathy 






  • 7.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 17 days ago

    EEEYY! Good for them. Is that SAGE as in the academic publisher or a different SAGE on the list of the parties to the lawsuit? And do we know if ALA is part of the lawsuit under the umbrella of the National Council of Nonprofits?



    ------------------------------
    Kestrel Ward MSI/MA
    they/them
    Digital Services and OER Specialist
    Florida Virtual Campus Library Services
    https://libraries.flvc.org/
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 17 days ago
    The filing notes, "Plaintiff SAGE is a New York nonprofit corporation. SAGE is dedicated
    to improving the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults." Their address as listed in Google aligns with what's in the filing. SAGE's primary focus is LGBTQIA+ elders. (I've been around long enough to know that SAGE originally stood for Senior Action in a Gay Environment.) The filing also describes how loss of federal funding will directly affect services SAGE was planning to deliver to LGBTQIA+ elders.

    I don't have the answer for the other question about ALA and the Council of Nonprofits.

    Karen G. Schneider





  • 9.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 17 days ago

    Thanks Karen, I did see that about SAGE further down in the filing. I'd never heard of them before! 

    I remain very curious if ALA is part of the Nonprofit Council. I tried to see if I could find a list of the member non-profits but couldn't find one on their website, only each state's non-profit contact org (and I wasn't sure if ALA would be under Illinois or DC, or perhaps somewhere else?)



    ------------------------------
    Kestrel Ward MSI/MA
    they/them
    Digital Services and OER Specialist
    Florida Virtual Campus Library Services
    https://libraries.flvc.org/
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 17 days ago
    Heat Meiser Blocks Mr. Snow

    editorial note. 3000 people came to the ACE update on this issue before Zoom locked out additional attendees. That means that at least 3000 people spent 8 hours today worrying about this. That's 24,000 hours or 000 daor 11.5 work-years. We wasted over a decade of effort doing things other than the work that the administration hates us doing. You could say their mission was partly accomplished. 

    What if we spent 10 work years (that's only 1 work day for 3000 people) deciding what we WANTED to happen rather than how we will react to something bad happening to us...defining our position of strength rather than crying in our position of weakness. Maybe we could change the world :)

    -Andrew





  • 11.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 17 days ago
    Sica, Deb, Library reacted to your message:





  • 12.  RE: Wow!

    Posted 18 days ago

    Not to be dramatic, but this is going to kill people. It is already stopping research trials of life-saving medications for terminal illnesses, leaving people un-medicated. It also was not very clear in its language about which programs exactly will be affected, leaving people concerned about TANF/food stamp benefits being cut off, leaving children and adults all over the country to starve. And of course, it's cutting off important programs in libraries (I am part of a working group at my Pride center library benefiting from an NIH grant administered through the local university library. We will presumably get no more money from the grant to fund the programs we had already been planning as part of the grant. Thankfully we had already spent the greater part of the grant money on books which have arrived). 

    It also seems, from what I  can tell, that this is all extremely illegal. That the President doesn't have the power to countermand Congress once Congress has already approved money to be spent. However, unless Congress stands up to him, he will just get away with this and other crimes. Urge your congress-critters to stand against this serious over-reach of their power. Even GOP congress critters should be reminded that whatever power they cede to a Republican president can also be used by a Democratic president to stop their agendas as well.

    Anyway, yes we need a plan, and we're not currently getting one from Democratic leadership. But community organizers and civil rights organizations are already working tirelessly on executing plans, so I urge everyone to be involved in their local community if they can and find the organizers already doing the work to keep people alive & safe. 



    ------------------------------
    Kestrel Ward MSI/MA
    they/them
    Digital Services and OER Specialist
    Florida Virtual Campus Library Services
    https://libraries.flvc.org/
    ------------------------------