ALAO Newsletter

Sue Polanka, Wright State University

Congratulations to ALAO – we are now an official tax exempt organization! On June 30, 2012 we received a letter from the IRS informing us of our new status. It took over two years to complete the entire exemption process. Not only did ALAO have to work through the IRS, they also had to be incorporated in the State of Ohio.
According to Rocki Strader, ALAO President in 2010/11, “Rob Withers started pushing the idea during his presidency back in 2009 and the board agreed to pursue it at the 2010 retreat.” Strader signed off on the IRS form that initiated the federal part of the process. That was the easy part. Incorporation in the State of Ohio is required by the IRS for tax exempt status, and that is where the ALAO Board spent a great deal of time and effort.
Strader, along with Gaynelle Predmore (Treasurer at the time), and Alison Ricker (former Secretary), agreed to be listed as trustees for ALAO, which is required by the state. The most time consuming part of the state-level process, according to Strader, was converting the ALAO constitution into by-laws – another state requirement. The Board worked with Anne Abate of Library Discount Network who provided the initial converted draft. They then edited and adjusted the new by-laws, got all of the required fees, form, and signatures, and sat back and waited. ALAO received State of Ohio Incorporation status in August of 2011. Nearly a year later, the entire process was complete.

It has been a long road to tax exempt status. A huge thank you to everyone involved for pushing it through.

Would you like to make an impact on library funding and legislation? Want to mingle with legislators and ALA Execs? How does an all expenses trip to Washington, D.C. in May 2013 sound?
ALAO is looking to fill a vacant position on our Executive Board for a Government Relations Liaison. Might you be interested in serving in this capacity? The function and activities required of this position are listed below. I also encourage you to read the Library Legislative Day report written by Alison Ricker, who attended LLD in April of 2012. This position gives you the opportunity to work with fellow Ohio colleagues, network with librarians around the country, and keep up-to-date on important legislative and government developments. Please consider joining us in this very important role. Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Regards,
Sue Polanka
ALAO President

Betsy Blankenship, OSU Marion with contributions from Eboni Johnson, Oberlin College

I attended the ALA webinar “Introducing Grassroots Library Advocacy” on August 2 and thought I would share some of what I learned in the session. The panelists were Lauren Comito, Outreach Librarian for Queens Library; Aliqae Geraci, Industrial and Labor Relations Research Librarian at Cornell University and Christian Zabriskie, Assistant Coordinator of Young Adult Services for Queens Library. They founded Save NYC Libraries (savenyclibraries.org) and are the leadership for Urban Librarians Unite. Over 245 attended the webinar at some point; they came from all over the United States and beyond; ALAO member Eboni Johnson from Oberlin attended, too.
The message was largely geared toward public library funding situations and I found it somewhat challenging to see how it would apply in an academic library setting. I did record some of their ideas and processes and thought someone might be interested in them.
Many funding problems usually result from an economic change, with services and staffing often becoming the first areas to be cut or reduced in a library budget. Library workers who desire to preserve services and staff or minimize cuts often develop some sort of advocacy campaign to gather support and get the message out. In order to be an effective advocate and run a successful campaign, one should consider the following:

• Strategy: Outthink your opponents, make the best use of your available resources, remember your end goals, understand key stakeholders and decision-makers, know your budget structure (i.e. who assigns your budget monies) and think of your target audience(s) – who influences them and who can you mobilize to help you.
• Message: What do you need to say? How do you need to say it? What tone to use? What tools to use? Once you get your message, repeat it over and over. Consider your organization’s unique politics as you decide on the tone of your message, and be willing to change the tone, to match your audiences (i.e., the tone of the message going out to library patrons and supporters may be different from the tone used to reach government officials).
• Tools: Use any tools you can, both social and traditional. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, websites, blogs, etc. as well as email, newsletters, a professional marketing service, etc. Also, think about using radio and television outlets if you can (more on this below). Use the tools to corral support, provide information to supporters and volunteers, and document what you are doing.
• Getting People on Board: Put out the call. Once you have volunteers, give them something to do – make it real and fun. You will help build leaders by sharing the important tasks. Play nice when dealing with conflict; how you deal will the conflict will influence your ability to attract & retain volunteers. Think of who could be a volunteer and/ or a supporter – library workers, community, schools, PTA’s, clubs, organizations, etc. Be aware of pre-existing institutional campaigns – don’t compete. Also, understand people limitations – some cannot advocate at work, some may not be able to work at certain times, etc. Be sure to give the volunteers the resources they need to be most effective for your cause.
• Internet Outreach: Again, it is useful to inform, recognize, provide, etc. for media, volunteers and the general public. Make sure you have a website and it has a media page on it. Use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc . Live stream events if possible and post them (use the tools that your community uses — if they use Twitter more than Facebook, then concentrate more there).
• Building & Maintaining External Relationships: Who are your allies, who can be your partners? State groups and organizations, special groups such as Law associations, the State Library, anything with library in their name might be a possibility. Think of multilingual groups, churches, etc. To get their support, be clear in what you want them to do for you – provide volunteers, do interviews, give testimonies, donate money, etc. And remember, to get support, you should consider supporting their activities if at all possible.
• Getting the Message Out: Don’t forget the traditional media – newspapers, radio, television, etc. Write up press releases and send to your media contacts; cultivate relationships with people on staff who have supported or written about libraries in the past. Do something unusual to get noticed – big attention grabbing actions let you be heard over the “noise” of other city activities.
• Tried and True Methods: Be official; be prepared – cross your T’s and dot your I’s. If you are planning an event, be sure to keep it legal and safe. Get the proper permits needed; check with the local authorities, check local laws, etc. It’s about respect and building a culture of respect with the community.
• Getting Funded: Funding might come from various avenues; be clear about what you are asking money for and make it easy for folks to donate.

Eboni shared some of her thoughts with me about the webinar, too. She agreed that it was difficult to see how these ideas would work in an academic library setting. “What I did like, though, was Save NYC Libraries’ book seeding campaign to get your message out to supporters who may not be frequent library users but who might still be affected by budget cuts or whatever is the issue at stake.” The book seeding campaign was essentially a distribution of about 1,500 free books around the city, each of which had a large sticker on the cover stating the issue and included a QR code to an online petition that people could sign. This campaign was meant to raise awareness in the community about budget cuts and how the libraries would be affected. Here’s what the books look like:

Eboni was also “glad that the presenters mentioned the importance of doing your homework and understanding stakeholders and decision-makers when planning a campaign, and then crafting your message accordingly. That step takes work and time but will be incredibly valuable in helping library advocates create the right message with the right tone … and making sure it’s directed to the right people.” We both feel that there were some good ideas discussed and hope that someone can benefit from the information.
If you enjoyed this advocacy article, ALAO is looking for an awesome person to join our board and head up our Government Relations team! If you are passionate about libraries, have a desire to represent libraries and library interests and inform your colleagues about government legislation and activities that could affect them, then we need you!! For more information or to volunteer, contact ALAO President Sue Polanka at sue.polanka@wright.edu.

Jen Waller, Miami University

Registration is open for the 2012 LITA Forum (LITA is the Library and Information Technology section of ALA). The Forum is a small conference (registration is capped at 500) that features a broad range of technology-oriented programs on topics like digital collections, mobile websites and project management. It also provides great opportunities to interact in meaningful ways with other library professionals who focus on technology during beak times and networking dinners.
This year’s Forum will be held in Columbus, Ohio from October 4th – 7th. If you are making the trip to Columbus, consider staying for the free, post-conference OCLC event Innovation in Libraries 2012: http://www.oclc.org/innovation/.

Hope to see you there!

Miami University
Librarians at Miami voted to pass an Open Access. The policy, based on Harvard University’s Model Policy, will increase access to librarians’ scholarly articles. Librarians will begin depositing their scholarly output in the Scholarly Commons, Miami’s institutional repository.

Ohio State Marion- Marion Technical College Library
Pat Wood, Library Services Coordinator, graduated August 11 with her MLIS from Kent State University.

Deanna Bachtell, Evening/Weekend Supervisor, joined the library staff in January. Deanna holds Bachelor degrees in both English and Psychology from The Ohio State University. Deanna previously worked for our library as a student assistant and most recently worked at Findley Public Library.

University of Akron
Ian McCullough began work July 2, 2012 as the Physical Sciences Librarian in the Science & Technology Library. Ian is new to librarianship having obtained his Master of Science degree in Information Science from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 2011. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Reed College, a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Portland State University and a Master of Science degree in forensic science from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Wright State University
Sue Polanka’s book, No Shelf Required, was recently featured in a resource list about ebook lending in libraries compiled at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. For the complete resource list see http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/publications/2012/ebooks_in_libraries

Wright State University

Erica Clay, Humanities Librarian, has left WSUL to become the Director of Education and Community Engagement with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

Riley Stoermer has been hired as a Digital Initiatives Librarian. Riley is is 2012 graduate of the Kent State Library and Information Science program.

Sue Polanka was invited to present at the XVII Seminário Nacional de Bibliotecas Universitárias – (SNBU) in Gramado, Brazil this September.

Wright State University
Erica Clay, Humanities Librarian, has left WSUL to become the Director of Education and Community Engagement with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

Riley Stoermer has been hired as a Digital Initiatives Librarian. Riley is is 2012 graduate of the Kent State Library and Information Science program.

Sue Polanka was invited to present at the XVII Seminário Nacional de Bibliotecas Universitárias – (SNBU) in Gramado, Brazil this September.
Sue Polanka’s book, No Shelf Required, was recently featured in a resource list about ebook lending in libraries compiled at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. For the complete resource list see http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/publications/2012/ebooks_in_libraries

Youngstown State University
Ash and Smoke: The Holocaust in Salonika, a documentary directed,co-written and co-produced by Robert D. Ault, Microforms/Information Services Librarian will premiere on Toledo’s PBS station WGTE and return to Western Reserve Public Media stations during the 2012-13 television season. The film will also premiere on September 13 as an entry in the 10th Annual Youngstown Area Jewish Film Festival sponsored by YSU’s Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies.

Jeffrey Trimble has been named as the Associate Director and Head, Information Services at YSU’s William F. Maag Library. He most recently served as Interim Head of Information Services and Interim Head of Technical Services while still performing his duties as Systems Librarian. Jeff has been instrumental in the implementation of DSpace software in YSU and active in OhioLINK’s various committees. He has served in positions at Northern Kentucky University, The University of Alabama, and also worked in InformationServices at Allegheny Health and Education Research Foundation (AHERF).

Bange, Stephanie. (2012). The Forgotten Characters of Childhood. Children & Libraries: The Journal Of The Association For Library Service To Children, 10(1), 23-24.

Cudnik Michelle L., McEwen Heather A., Kasmer, Richard J. (2012, July) Interdisciplinary Faculty Involvement in Interprofessional Evidence-based Medicine Courses. Presentation at American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Annual Meeting. Kissimmee, FL.

Lenox, Cynthia. (2013). New Professions, New Opportunities: Collection Development in Support of Interdisciplinary Programs. In S. Holder (Ed.), Library Collection Development for Professional Programs: Trends and Best Practices. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

Singer, Carol. (2012). Fundamentals of Managing Reference Collections. Chicago: American Library Association.