Dear ASCLA Members,

I invite you to volunteer for one of ASCLA’s committees or interest groups.

If you are already a committee or interest group volunteer, thank you for your service: you are so much appreciated!  Because of your contributions, our division accomplishes much. ASCLA, through its volunteers, has provided:

•Member expertise on accessibility and diversity for ALA committees and work groups, such as the Advocacy Coordinating Group and the Working Group on Digital Content and Libraries

•Standards and guidelines, such as those for libraries serving the blind and physically handicapped and for state library agencies

•Outstanding conference programming

•A great member newsletter

•Assistance vetting online learning opportunities of value to ASCLA members

•Special recognition of people and library services such as awards for specialized library services for people with disabilities or the homebound.

This is just a small sampling of what our volunteers plan and take part in, and what makes ASCLA a terrific place for opportunities for service, your professional growth, and networking with colleagues.

If you are not yet a member of any of our committees or interest groups, please join:

Committees: All current members may volunteer for ASCLA committees here: http://www.ala.org/cfapps/committee/volunteerform (you will be asked to login using your ALA login).

Second, write to the ASCLA vice-president, Sara Laughlin (mailto://saraglaughlin@gmail.com), our ASCLA president-elect, who will appoint the committees for 2014.  Tell her about your experience and why you can be of help to these groups.

Interest Groups: To join a free interest group, all current ASCLA members may call MACS (ALA’s member services department) at the following number: 1-800-545-2433, x5 and request to have the interest group added to their membership; or send an email to membership@ala.org with your request to be added to the interest group with subject line: ASCLA free interest groups.

Second, write to the specific interest group leader.  You will find a list of Interest Groups and their leaders in the Interest Groups section of Interface. Tell the leader about your experience and how you can be of help to the group.

Thank you again to all our current, past and future volunteers – you are truly what makes ASCLA such a wonderful, and fun, place to be!

Best Wishes,

Susan Hornung, ASCLA Executive Director, shornung@ala.org

Contributed by ASCLA Member and BRAVE Conference Program Planner Ray James

Far be it for me to discourage anyone determined to take their stress level up a few notches but read my testimony carefully before you decide to plan and execute two events at one annual conference. I have to grant that the thrill of pulling it off is some compensation but plan a couple weeks of post-conference “R and R” to recover, more if you present as well!

Program planners share a conviction that the program they want to guide from idea seed to conference flowering plant is meaningful and will benefit ALA, ASCLA, and those we serve. That was so for me.

The seeds of the two presentations I helped nurture into life at Anaheim 2012 (Writing a Way Out: Writing Programs in Correctional Settings, a program, and The Nuts and Bolts of Building a Public Library/Jail/Prison Partnership, a pre-conference) were harvested much earlier. “Writing” resulted from a conversation around the Prisoners’ Forum table at Annual in Washington, DC in 2010 and “Nuts and Bolts” from a similar gathering at Midwinter in San Diego in 2011.  A third seed planted in San Diego “Bibliotherapy in Correctional Settings” has yet to germinate.

Without a gardener (program planner, but let’s keep the metaphor going), these seeds would have not produced. But I believed in all three and when the opportunity came to plant the seeds I took it. Then ASCLA President Diana Reese held a virtual meeting in March 2011 on pre-conferences and programs. The three seeds went onto what I hope was fertile soil. While such virtual program planning meetings may not happen every year those carrying precious program ideas can always contact the program committee (see the ASCLA website for a current list) or contact folks at the ASCLA office in Chicago who can guide a potential program planner to the right contact.

Generally the ASCLA board will make a decision on programs for the following Midwinter and Annual Conference during board meetings at each Annual Conference. In 2011, I had to wait for a firm decision but the Annual Conference in New Orleans provided a fine time to query potential presenters. Although a program planner may look for certainty before gathering presenters and starting the planning process, early work, without knowing for sure the program gets approval, will make for a better crop!

Once the board approved my programs (thank goodness it was not all three!) the serious work started. Working on ALA Connect all program planners follow deadlines set by ALA. To guide them through they get a new best friend, Liz Markel, Marketing and Programs Manager for ASCLA. While thinking about an event that will take place 11 months down the road is not easy, the more early thought the better the program will be.

Liz started an ALA Connect page for program planners in August 2011 and if I had cottoned onto it sooner it would have been easier to complete the programs. My vision of the pre-conference and program were too elaborate but with Liz’s help I pared back my grandiose designs. The big multi-media show with sights and sounds to astound the eyes and ears morphed into a couple of microphones, a projector, and plans to bring my own computer to link it all together. The costs of hotel or conference center room rental and equipment are astounding, so less expense means more income for ASCLA in the case of pre-conferences. Programs that are simpler and more personal seem to work well.

Looking back after the conference, I could see that planning the audio-visual should have been a higher priority but, hey, 11 months is a long time right? That seemed like plenty of time to plan and re-plan. It was not.

In September, program titles had to be completed and program descriptions for the preliminary ALA Annual Conference program book were finalized and submitted. What I did not do at this point was get commitments from presenters and get their input on program descriptions. That means that the presenters must match a program description they did not write. Also in September, pre-conference chairs had to complete a budget information request form online. A budget does not mean one has unlimited money to spend, what it really means is “how little money can you get by on spending.”

Wait, did you forget I was doing a program and a pre-conference? Planning and deadlines for each ongoing at the same time. Catering. Yes! Uh, no. In late September Liz posted the proposed budgets. By mid-October the pre-conference budgets, titles, and description were done. All that remained for me was to get commitments from presenters and move the program and pre-conference from draft to final version. In an ideal world that process would be finished by January. We do not live in an ideal world. The last element of the pre-conference (assembly of notebooks) happened an hour before the start of the pre-conference. The final PowerPoint slide for the program was wrapped up 15 minutes before the program started!

In mid-October pre-conference budgets, titles and descriptions were finalized. I knew what I had to work with.

At the end January program and pre-conference speakers were supposed to be locked in with confirmation letters sent and links to an online waiver form (no form, no speak) also sent (will these deadlines and demands never cease?) and the A/V equipment, catering, and other special requests submitted. Wait, wasn’t that done in September last year?

Waiver forms had to be completed for all Annual programs and pre-conferences by mid-February as well as sponsor commitments confirmed for all Annual conference events. I offer now some advice to potential program planners. If you think a person has even the tiniest chance to speak at your program, get them to submit a waiver. A waiver is not a commitment but it is a license to speak. Line up as many commitments as soon as you can.

Then I was informed that February 15 was the final deadline for updating my program descriptions for the final conference program book. Is it too late to change the program altogether? Yes.

In April the room assignments came out so I could tell the speakers where we going to present. I was overjoyed to discover the pre-conference was in the Anaheim Hilton and I was staying in the Anaheim Hilton! It turned out I did not have to schlep a computer, notebooks, papers, and what all from hotel to conference, only down one floor in the elevator. Such mercies mount up to joy.

Since I was handing all the handout printing, I ignored the May 1 deadline to post such to Connect as well as the mid-May deadline to get large items to ALA in Chicago to ship in their trunks to the conference.

In June Liz (I told you she was to be your best friend) posted an “At Conference” checklist that proved invaluable to help me remember all the details I needed to consider to make it through the conference.

The “Nuts and Bolts” pre-conference drew sixteen paid attendees. I hoped for thirty. The student assisting with the program stayed for the entire presentation when she could have departed earlier. Most of the feedback forms reflected positive feelings and the less positive offered useful criticism that will make subsequent use of the material (a Webinar?) stronger and more useful.

We started the “Writing” program with twenty-two in the audience and ended with forty-two. Post program conversations lingered until the next program’s leaders demanded we clear the room. I heard “… best program I’ve attended …” and librarians from all over asking presenters for contact information so they could explore creating writing programs through their libraries or in their correctional institutions. Now that’s validation!

Someone who had attended both the pre-conference and the program asked what I was planning for future presentations. With a laugh I said I was done with program planning. Now I am thinking that “Bibliotherapy in Correctional Settings” might work well as a program for Las Vegas 2014.

Do you want to become more active in ASCLA? It’s easy to do! Just show up at the ASCLA All Committee Meeting during the Annual Conference and join in.

If you have never attended one of these in the past, it could be quite daunting. You will enter a large room with about a dozen round tables. At most of these, there will be five or six people chatting away. Don’t let this deter you! Walk up to a table, and ask which committee is meeting there. Most committees will grab you faster than you can imagine! Help is needed in all areas.

The ASCLA All Committee meeting will be on Sunday, June 24, 2012, from 4:00 p.m. until about 5:30 p.m. Check the program booklet or the online planner for the exact location. This is your year to become more involved!

During the Annual Conference this summer, ASCLA President Diana Reese had the honor of making the presentation of the ASCLA Awards Ceremony held during the ASCLA/COSLA Reception on Sunday evening.  This year, the event took place at the Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter of New Orleans.  The recipient of the 2011 Century Scholarship was Samantha Lee Wickman, a graduate student at Simmons College.

The application period for the 2012 ASCLA Century Scholarship is opening soon.  This annual scholarship of up to $2,500 funds services or accommodation for a library school student(s) with disabilities admitted to an ALA-accredited library school. The scholarship will fund services or accommodations that are either not provided by law or otherwise by the university that will enable the student or students to successfully complete the course of study for a Master’s or Doctorate in Library Science and become a library or information studies professional.  For more information on applying  for 2012 visit: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/ascla/asclaawards/default.cfm

The initial funding for the scholarship was made by an anonymous donor. Since its inception in 2000, numerous other donors have provided funding.  Donations to the Century Scholarship fund may be sent to ASCLA, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611, ATTN: Century Scholarship Donation. All donations are tax-deductible. 

Previous scholarship recipients* include:

• 2009   Amy Lynn Sonnie, San Jose State University
• 2008   Lela Ellison, University of Texas, Austin
• 2007   Cynthia Nugent, University of Southern Mississippi
• 2006   Avery Deane Olmstead IV, University of South Carolina, Columbia
• 2005   Ivan Murillo, San Jose State Universiy
• 2004   Jeffrey Thompson, University of California at Los Angeles
• 2003   Sara Lynn Hyder, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• 2002   Christine Anne Baynes, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
• 2001   Simon Healey, University of Pittsburgh
• 2000   Rebecca Van Scyoc, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

* No scholarship was granted in 2010.

The 2011 Century Scholarship Committee was chaired by Barbara T. Mates and included Kathleen Hegarty, Ruth Nussbaum,  and Katherine Schneider, Ph.D.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this issue of Interface.  At the Annual Conference in June, the Publications Committee of ASCLA met and talked about different directions we could take with this publication.  We could continue to announce ASCLA news and events . . . we could make this a way to encourage members to be more active . . . we could publish special articles of interest to the membership.  It’s all exciting stuff, but we will not be going in ANY direction unless we see more submissions from the membership!  Are you doing something exciting in your agency?  Send it to Interface!  Do you have questions for other libraries like yours?  Ask them in Interface!  Would you just like to get yourself published—have I got a deal for you!

The next issue will be the pre-Midwinter Issue.  This usually gets out by late December.  But, why wait?   Send us your ideas now.  The official deadline is December 15^th.  Let’s help ASCLA continue to inform and educate all of us.

Anne K. Abate

Editor, ASCLA Interface