ALA’s 128th Annual Conference was held July 9–15, 2009, in Chicago. Approximately 28,941 librarians, library support staff, exhibitors, writers, educators, publishers, and special guests attended the conference. Ed. note: Thanks to the ACRL members who summarized programs to make this report possible.
Advocacy in today’s environment
Now, more than ever, advocacy is a critical skill for all librarians and was the theme of Erika Linke’s ACRL presidency. At the 2009 ACRL President’s Program, “Advocacy in Today’s Environment,” Stephanie Vance and other experts in advocacy—Prue Adler (associate executive director of the Association of Research Libraries), Emily Sheketoff (ALA associate . . .
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to draw attention to one specific upper-level government policy document in which a discourse of perpetual innovation and customer service is promoted, and the kinds of questions such discursive interventions raise for the future of work in public libraries; and second, to demonstrate the explanatory potential of the concept of immaterial labour for questions relating to emerging labour processes in libraries. The concepts of “prosumer” and Web 2.0 are included as discursive resources of relevance to any discussion of immaterial labour.
Design/methodology/approach
– This paper presents a critical discourse analysis of a public policy visioning document for public libraries in Ontario, Canada, with reflections on related literatures.
Findings
– The concept of immaterial labour provides an additional analytic tool suitable for questions of relevance to public librarians and library scholars. Within the government text under review which deals specifically with the future of the public library to 2020, the identity of the public librarian is alarmingly absent. Conversely, the library patron as a producer and consumer is privileged.
Research limitations/implications
– Failure to attend to the broader policy arena within which the public library resides creates dangerous blind spots for public library professionals, educators and researchers.
Practical implications
– This paper demonstrates the value of a discourse analysis for uncovering the ideological dimensions of policy documents, while simultaneously modelling the method using the kind of policy text commonly produced in governments around the world.
Social implications
– This paper shows how failure to attend to the broader policy arena within which the public library resides creates dangerous blind spots for the public library community.
Originality/value
– This paper contextualizes the immaterial and volunteer labour of the public library user as producer/consumer in the context of the future of the frontline professional and waged librarian.
All personnel in libraries are key to good service. The visibility of library support staff and their important positions of initial contact with library users make their efforts especially crucial. Training programs for support staff often include discussion of the library mission, how library resources connect with users, how to communicate with library users, and how library service can be enjoyable. When managers plan staff training and continuing education programs for support staff, readers' advisory is a very good topic.
This chapter details Regina's years in Normal, Illinois; and then shifts to her return to Chicago and her college experiences at Wilberforce University. It was in Normal that she attended school with the future Illinois governor and presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson II. In terms of her experiences in Normal, Regina later credited an understanding librarian as a guiding influence in her early life and training which has brought success in her chosen field. Meanwhile, Regina's experiences at the Chicago Public Library were mostly negative. However, she later said she was influenced by Vivian G. Harsh—Chicago Public Library's head librarian. The current Vivian G. Harsh Collection of Afro-American History and Literature at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library is named after her.
Library support for emergency management during the time of natural disasters: Through the lens of public library Twitter data
