[Libs-Or] Report from the Oregon Library Association meeting & PLA conference

[Diedre Conkling]

Report from the Oregon Library Association meeting & PLA
conference<http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=933>
Posted on April 8th, 2010 by Barbara Jones

*Oregon Library Association meeting*

The historic Kells Irish Pub was the festive setting for the Oregon Library
Association <http://www.olaweb.org/> meeting in Portland last month.

I was honored to give a brief talk about my new position as the Director of
the Office for Intellectual Freedom.  I reiterated OIF’s commitment to
working closely with such state organizations as the Intellectual Freedom
Clearinghouse <http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/LD/intellectual.shtml> in Oregon.
I listened with great interest to the descriptions of the work done by the
various award-winners.  It was gratifying to hear from Myrna Williams, who
received OLA Honorary Lifetime membership for her work in libraries and for
the state of Oregon.  Ms. Williams began her career as a community college
student at Portland Community College, went on to serve on the Board for the
Oregon State Library until her retirement last year, and has worked
tirelessly to save library funding during the Great Recession.  It was also
interesting to hear about the political scene from another award winner,
Margaret Carter, who has been a state representative from Portland for
multiple terms.  Both of these women are African-Americans.

It was also wonderful to see intellectual freedom stalwart Candy Morgan
recognized for her recent well-deserved E.B. McNaughton Civil Liberties
Award from the ACLU of Oregon <http://www.aclu-or.org/>!

I left feeling totally inspired and energized by what one state is doing for
the cause of libraries—in spite of all the bad economic news.  OLA has
formed a tight coalition with lobbyists, politicians, librarians, and the
general public to advocate for libraries for lifelong learning and as
community information centers.  As Oregon’s “Librarian of the Year”
award-winner Mary Ginnane said in her acceptance speech:  “After all, it’s
all about the user, isn’t it?”

*Public Library Association conference*

OIF staff and member leaders participated in a terrific session on privacy
at the PLA <http://www.pla.org/> conference, also in Portland.* *Joan
Airoldi spoke of her experience at Whatcom County Library System when the
FBI came to visit; Carolyn Caywood spoke of the terrific possibilities for
libraries as locations in their communities of deliberative forums involving
privacy (and other issues) — there’s a free upcoming online
workshop<http://moderatingprivacy.eventbrite.com/?ref=ebtn>for
moderating such an event; and OIF staff discussed the legal state of
privacy in libraries and resources for libraries to participate in the
upcoming Choose Privacy Week <http://www.privacyrevolution.org/>, May 2-8,
2010.

Other highlights of the PLA conference included a session on social software
policy pitfalls, including ensuring First Amendment compliance; a number of
programs on sustaining libraries during difficult financial times; and the
closing general session featuring the delightful Sarah Vowell.  Her take, as
a popular historian, on the Texas textbook situation was interesting — she
noted that the great thing about libraries is that they provide information
from all perspectives.  Despite the whims of political bodies or advocates
of all political stripes, Vowell said, libraries are where you can go to
discover what *really *happened.

Portland itself proved to be a fantastic host.  Kudos to PLA for a job well
done!

http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=933

-- 
Diedre Conkling
Lincoln County Library District
P.O. Box 2027
Newport, OR  97365
Work phone & fax:  541-265-3066
Work email:  diedre at beachbooks.org
Home email:  diedre08 at gmail.com
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