By Will Reed, ASCLA Representative to the ALA Web Advisory Council

As ASCLA Representative to the ALA Web Advisory Council (WAC), I wanted to take this opportunity to encourage members to use and perhaps even introduce members to ALA Connect. The following statement was drafted by the WAC as a recommendation about the use of ALA Connect.

In Spring 2009, ALA introduced ALA Connect, a new section of the ALA website.
ALA Connect replaces the Online Communities service that ALA previously offered as a virtual, collaborative, workspace online. ALA Connect is a centralized space where official ALA “groups” can work together online. In addition, any member can create new “communities” (unofficial ALA groups) without any staff assistance, so the site will combine association work with communities of interest in one place.

Every active ALA “group” already has a space in Connect automatically, pre-populated with data from the ALA membership database, so Connect will always know which committees you are on and which other official ALA groups you are a part of. Members are also free to join other “communities” that interest them.

Whether you participate in a “group” for an official committee, roundtable, section or divisional activity, or whether you engage with one of the other unofficial “communities” that become available, you have a number of tools with which to work together. By default, each one has blog posts, online documents (like wiki pages), a calendar, polls, a chat room, a discussion board, and images (logos, pictures, etc.). The group can use any or all of the tools it finds valuable.

The Web Advisory Committee is committed to using the new Connect space to carry on the work of our committee and our task-oriented subgroups. Collaboration on this statement has been done using ALA Connect.

Fulfilling our mission of advising the ALA on website issues, the Web Advisory Committee strongly urges all ALA organized groups and ALA members to take advantage of the ALA Connect service.

Streamline your communication, share documents (privately or publicly) and centralize your ALA workflow by posting announcements, loading files, collaborating on documents and socializing with your colleagues.

ALA Connect should be your primary workspace for committee work, for information and for networking within the ALA organization.

All committees and groups have a page in ALA connect.  To visit yours go to connect.ala.org and log in with your ALA website username and password.

You can learn more about ALA Connect at http://connect.ala.org/about.

There are video tutorials available at http://connect.ala.org/taxonomy/term/9427.

If you have questions, you can get help at http://connect.ala.org/help.

To receive e-mail notifications from your committees and groups visit http://connect.ala.org/email-help.

We look forward to seeing you soon on ALA Connect!

Members can learn more about the role of the Web Advisory Committee at http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/itts/website.cfm.

The Web Advisory Committee of the American Library Association is a standing committee with a number of purposes. One key purpose is to advise the association on priorities and strategies that promote utilization and continued development of the ALA website.