Thursday, August 21, 2008

Minnesota Coalition for Intellectual Freedom Annual Dinner


Register now for the Minnesota Coalition for Intellectual Freedom Annual Dinner featuring speaker Jane Kirtley.




Limited seating available Register Now!


More than seven years after 9/11, the government continues to curtail speech, assembly and access to information in the name of national security with hardly a complaint from the general public. Meanwhile, satire in "The New Yorker" and the film "Tropic Thunder" generates plenty of protests. Have Americans lost their sense of humor -- and their sense of outrage about attacks on our fundamental rights? Join us for this thought provoking Presentation!

Jane Kirtley has been the Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota since August 1999. Jane also is an attorney and a member of the New York, District of Columbia, and Virginia bars.

Monday, August 18, 2008

July Board Minutes

Minnesota Library Association
Board Meeting Minutes

Friday, July 18, 2008
9:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Sheraton-Bloomington
7800 Normandale Blvd.
Vista Room 2202


Present: Ken Behringer (President-Elect), Melissa Brechon (ALA Chapter Councilor), Robin Chaney (Treasurer), Robin Ewing (ARLD Chair), Anne Friederichs (PLD Chair), Heidi Hoks (Past-President), Ben Trapskin (IFC Chair/Member at Large), Carla Urban (Secretary), Wendy Wendt (President)
Absent: Cindy Ahrens (MLTA Chair), Mike Bloomberg (Legislative Chair)
Also Present: Suzanne Miller (State Librarian), Lyndi Finifrock (MILE), Alison Schaub (MLA Office Staff)

Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 9:49 a.m.
Welcome and Introductions (Wendt)
Adoption of Agenda with revisions Motion: To approve agenda as revised. Behringer/Brechon/carried
Approval of June 20, 2008 Minutes Motion: To approve minutes. Behringer/Friederichs/carried
Financial Report (Chaney)
5.1 Monthly Reports - Our position this year compared to last is much more solvent. Our situation, even if conference only breaks even, will be good. Motion: To approve financial reports. Hoks/Friederichs/carried.
5.2 Budget & Finance Committee Report – Met last week to look ahead at staffing possibilities in relation to conference and budget scenarios. It is likely that we wouldn’t be prepared to hire a full-time Executive Director until at least 2nd quarter of 2009. The group is looking at a variety of options. Some approaches would be dependent upon outcomes of the Visioning process, in that the type of leader desired would be dependent on the desired future direction of the organization. Action Item: Brechon will send information to the Committee about other state library organizations that contract with management companies for support and management services.
5.3 Audit Update – Auditors didn’t have everything they needed. Chaney is working with them to complete the process.
Update on Activities
6.1 Pending Action Items:
6.1.1 Brechon – Contact MELSA about distributing CYP bookmarks. Done.
6.1.2 Wendt – Contact Emily Mamun about Communication Committee description. In-process
6.1.3 Wendt – Ask Committee Chairs to send out welcome to interested members. Action Item: Schaub will send copies of sub-group membership lists to the group chairs.
6.1.4 Hoks, Urban, Trapskin – Evaluate RFI responses re online registration. Presented information gathered on various services. Miller mentioned that WebJunction has a registration module. Urban will evaluate that service. Motion: That MLA subscribe to the RegOnline service for annual conference registration and 2008 membership renewal unless the WebJunction option provides equivalent functionality at a better price. Urban/Freiderichs/carried Action item: Schaub will put out a renewal reminder to members from last 3 years who have not yet renewed this year, including info about the upcoming conference. Action Item: Conference Committee and online registration group will work together to prepare the online form.
6.1.5 Wendt – Invite Alison Schaub to next Board meeting. Done.
6.1.6 Wendt, Urban – Set up regular conference call schedule with Schaub. Regular contact will be established.
6.1.7 Wendt – Contact Iowa Library Association re flood assistance. Done. A message was sent out to the list with contact info for each of the affected libraries.
6.1.8 Wendt – Contact Ruth Solie re Nominating Committee. Solie declined, but Anne Walker-Smalley has agreed to chair the Committee.
6.2 Interim Director’s Update (Schaub)
6.2.1 Schaub has been culling through the files and reacquainting herself with the files, etc. Recommends we purchase a back-up server for appr. $200. Motion: That MLA purchase a back-up server and data be backed up at least bi-weekly. Behringer/Brechon/carried.
6.2.2 E-mail addresses: There are a number of e-mail addresses that forward to the blog. Dicsussion of whether we need these. Action Item: Schaub will check to see how these are functioning, with the probable outcome of eliminating them, since they haven’t been used. Action Item: That we distribute a message to the subgroup lists stating that because of concern about the timeliness of communication, we’re eliminating the moderator function. Moderator function will be continued for the membership list.
6.2.3 MLA computers: MOTION: That we approve the purchase of a new battery for the MLA laptop. Chaney/Brechon/carried. All data has been moved from the old desktop. It is extremely slow. Motion: That the old desktop computer be decommissioned. Behringer/Trapskin/carried. Action Item: Schaub will clean the hard drive, send out a message to the MLA llistserv offering a chance to win it, requiring that they pick it up.
6.2.4 Office space: MLA is paying for space we’re not currently using. We will inquire of MELSA whether our rent will stay the same or increase in the next year. The outcome of the Visioning process will have an impact on our space needs.
6.2.5 Web Site: Needs to be cleaned up and punched up, even on a transitional basis. Schaub and Trapskin will do some basic work and develop a mock-up for our approval.
Reports
7.1 MLA Institute for Leadership Excellence (Finifrock) – MILE 2009 Planning. Have had one meeting. Had been trying to partner with MEMO, but MEMO decided it wouldn’t work out this year. Will be held in April, probably at a retreat center near St. Cloud. Applications will be ready by October. Presented the planning information, subcommittees, etc. Requested guidance on dealys in communications via the listserv and budgeting/funding process. Miller encouraged MILE to apply to State Library Services for funding. As with other MLA events, the event is required to budget to break even, but MILE can contact the Foundation and other organizations as possible sponsors.
7.2 ALA Councilor Report (Brechon) She distributed her report in advance. Anaheim was a lovely conference site. ALA is thinking about shortening the conference for elected councilors, who currently stay until Wed. afternoon.
7.3 MLA 2008 Conference Report (Brechon/Hoks)
a. Conference Sessions & Brochure – Preconferences and sessions have been determined. Ginny Erbe is working on the conference brochure. The conference planning committee will take charge of welcoming each presenter and checking on room and equipment set-up, since assigning that to the Program Committee didn’t work last year.
b. We have room for 45 vendors and have booked half of those spots already. Action Item: Brechon will send out a list of vendors all ready signed up to the Board, and a list of previous vendors to Schaub. We should all think about other vendors to possibly contact.
c. Schaub will post conference sessions and such to the Web site to being promoting.
d. Action Item: Wendt will draw up talking points about issues related to the conference (food included, change in date, etc.) and Schaub will pull together a save the date and highlights announcement.
7.4 Legislative Committee Report (Behringer) Legislative Forum went well; 3 legislators showed up, 45 attendees; 6 or 7 possible platform issues were developed.
7.5 Minnesota Library Foundation (Wendt & Trapskin) The MLF has not met since our last meeting.
7.6 ARLD Day 2009 (Ewing) ARLD is starting planning early. The date is set for May 1, 2009, at the Arboretum. Keynote speaker is almost finalized. Board was impressed with the advanced planning!
7.7 MLA 2009 Conference Update (Brechon) Contract for 2009 conference in St. Cloud has been signed: Oct. 14-16. Working on Rochester for Oct. 5-8, 2010, and Duluth for Oct 19-21, 2011.
7.8 Visioning task Force (Wendt) Met July 9 to review what other state library associations are doing; tweak the survey to be sent out to MLA members and non-members with a goal of sending it out in August or September with results back in time for the conference.
7.9 State Library Services (Miller) The Department of Education, within which State Library Services resides, is doing some reorganization. They might be out of contact Aug. 6-7. Budgets are not yet out. Guidelines for federal money have changed which puts a crimp on how the funds can be used in an environment where they’re desperately needed. LSTA grant awards paperwork has just been completed. Construction grant application window is open and they’re due Oct. 24. The Advisory Council will not meet in August.
Discussion Items
8.1 Web Site Task Force Update (Trapskin) – Wendt has a few changes to make to the contract and has requested a Word version of the contract. We will include a statement requesting that we strive toward ADA compliance as much as possible. Once the contract has been signed, Dan Moriarty will prepare 2 mock-ups for us to respond to. Timeline is approximately 3 months.
8.2 Library School Graduates – We have occasionally offered a free one-year membership to library school graduates. Are we interested in reinstituting that practice? A general new member packet is a higher priority. It could then be modified for library school grads. We should also consider attending some of the St. Kate’s graduate events.
Adjournment 12:19 p.m.

Next meeting: Friday, August 15, 2008, MLA Conference Room

Respectfully submitted,

Carla Urban
MLA Board Secretary

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Annual Conference Update

Hello, MLA members, colleagues and friends! Plans are being finalized for MLA's 2008 Annual Conference, which will be held at the Sheraton Bloomington on November 19, 20 and 21, 2008. I hope you will be sure to come to what promises to be yet another incredible conference!

Reserve your hotel room today! Please go to: http://www.starwoodmeeting.com/StarGroupsWeb/booking/reservation?id=08072522
03&key=17DDD
. Or Call 866-837-4278 for reservations.

As you may have noticed, the MLA 2008 Annual Conference falls a bit later in the year than usual. After much discussion and cooperation between MLA and the Sheraton-Bloomington, this was a win/win compromise that was reached in an effort to negotiate a previously signed contract which would have placed an unrealistic financial burden on MLA.

In the process of working out a mutually-acceptable conference alternative, every attempt was made to avoid holidays, date conflicts with other library-related conferences, and the most hectic time of the year for academic libraries.

We appreciate the Sheraton-Bloomington's flexibility in working with us on this and hope that you will be able to take advantage of this schedule shift to do some holiday shopping or to attend a holiday event in the metro area. The Sheraton Bloomington will be offering special overnight packages for those conference attendees that may want to extend their time before or after the conference.

During the conference, the accommodations at the Sheraton-Bloomington enable attendees to stay in the same location as that in which conference sessions and events will be held. This offers participants greater convenience and ease of access. We have had to be a bit creative in the layout of our conference, but we are confident that you will find it

You may notice that the registration cost for the conference has increased. This was necessary because most meals, with the exception of the awards banquet, are included in the registration fee. Having the all-inclusive fee has been very popular with the majority of our members and we have been encouraged to continue with this practice. Unfortunately, due to the cost of food and other rising prices, the increase was unavoidable. However, I firmly believe this conference is well worth the registration fee and hope you will agree.

I look forward to seeing you in November where we will have the opportunity.To Explore. To Evolve. To Excel. Together.

~Wendy Wendt, MLA President