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Notes from the March Virtual Meeting of the ALA Council

  • 1.  Notes from the March Virtual Meeting of the ALA Council

    Posted Mar 31, 2021 03:49 PM
    Hi folks!  ALA Council had a virtual meeting today -- information items only, so no votes were taken.  Here are my notes:

    This was an information-only meeting, so no votes were taken (but we still waited to have a quorum to begin). After the meeting logistics were reviewed, Amy Lappin, chair of the Chapter Relations Committee and Justin De La Cruz, chair of the Committee on Library Advocacy, presented the report from the Vaccine Working Group. I'll highlight the main conclusion of the report:

    The Vaccine Working Group members strongly support the importance of library workers being vaccinated. The working group believes that an ALA statement asking the CDC to include library workers in vaccine phase 1b will have unintentional and potentially adverse consequences on state and local advocacy efforts in the future. It is the choice of the state chapter whether to invoke the existing federal phase 1c designation and/or pursue a change in state/local vaccination priorities given their specific knowledge about those vaccination plans, phases, and the local political climate.

    The report includes information from states and localities about their advocacy efforts regarding vaccination of library workers, and the report will be updated as new information is received from states and localities not currently listed.

    Jack Martin and Christina Rodrigues, co-chairs of the Forward Together Resolutions Working Group, gave their update report on the group's activities. The group is meeting every other week. Six subgroups have been formed to develop the resolutions, which will be presented to Council at the June meeting. There will be two information sessions in April & May to provide updates on the resolutions' progress. There's not much to report at this point.

    We then took an informal poll on our preferences for Council meetings at the new January LibLearnX event that's replacing Midwinter (virtual, in-person, or hybrid). Hybrid was the first choice, followed by virtual and then in-person. This feedback will be considered by the Executive Board as they make the final decision. We were encouraged to register for the ALA Annual Conference and the meeting was adjourned early.



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    Martin Garnar
    Director, Amherst College
    He/Him/His
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