So — what’s the situation? At this point (May 6th), we show 7992 sold or committed rooms on Friday night, rising to 8212 on Saturday night, with 8025 on Sunday night. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the “peak nights” — the nights when there are the highest numbers of sleeping rooms being used by people attending the ALA Annual Conference. Those figures put us right in our normal range — in a conference campus with lots of hotels. It’s still possible to get a “pending” message from the ALA’s housing bureau. (As of May 6th, there are 40 “pending” reservations.) Why? Usually it relates to the specifics of a given request — a particular arrival or departure date, a specific room type or configuration. Historically, the record is good — like 100% — on clearing any “pending” requests.

Why would rooms become available late in the advance registration period? Starting at the end of this week, ALA will confirm blocks of rooms committed to exhibitors. If, for instance, an exhibitor anticipated taking 6 staff members to Annual Conference and is actually taking 5, that 6th room goes back into “inventory” — and becomes available to someone else. Typically, exhibitors will reserve rooms for the maximum number of staff they would take — on the reasonable theory that it’s easier to cancel than to get a block of rooms later. Similarly, if two conference attendees plan to room together — but each made a separate reservation — the “extra” room reservation will eventually (usually a month before conference) be cancelled and that room also will go back into inventory. Repeat those scenarios many times — and, yes, there are rooms.

So, here are some key dates to know.

• Friday, May 16, is that last day for pre-registration for the 2008 Annual Conference.
• Wednesday, May 28, we close the housing reservations.

What do you do if you are unexpectedly able to attend? Register. Then, call us (800-974-9833) and we’ll do our best to get you a hotel room within the block. (How that is handled varies with the specific conference site.) But do come. The lineup of speakers is great, the exhibit floor will be bustling, and there will be a wealth of connections and conversations. See you there.

Preparing to contribute to a couple of panel discussions on online communities and social networking at DigitalNow, I realized my current sense of the volume of social network and online community activity at ALA was “lots” and “more” — generally correct, but hardly specific. So, I went in search of some data. Here’s what I found — and it represents an impressive contribution from both members and staff. As of about April 22, 2008, ALA’s “footprint” in the worlds of social networking and online communities looked like this:

There were 2,671 participants in ALA’s Facebook group as of April 18 — with about 15 more joining the group every day. Four divisions and four round tables had groups in Facebook. There are ALA Students Chapters in Facebook, as is the Office for Intellectual Freedom. The Freedom to Read Foundation has a group in Facebook — with 146 members after one month — and is beginning to raise money in Facebook.

In Second Life, ALA’s National Library Week 2008 events attracted 2800 visits from around the globe (plus staff visits). ALA president Loriene Roy spoke in Second Life. AASL’s Doug Johnson gave a presentation, as did Jenny Levine (on gaming in libraries). YALSA streamed podcasts. The many contributions of Lori Bell (Alliance Library System) to ALA in Second Life were recognized. After the Banned Books Week events in Second Life, ALA had 89 people in its ALA SL Notification group; that number is now 245. (And there’s also an ALA Member Initiative Group: Virtual Communities and Libraries — which held its first face-to-face meeting at the Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia.) To teleport to the ALA Island/ALA Main Stage, go to: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ALA%20Island/128/107/29/ . Also, Valerie Hawkins in the ALA Library has prepared an extensive guide to SL, at http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php/Second_Life .

On Ning, current statistics show 357 members (most, but not all, ALA members) in an ALA-labeled group in Ning. See http://alamembers.ning.com . YALSA also has a Ning site for student members. There are other library-related, but not ALA-specific, groups in Ning, too — e.g. Second Life Librarians.

About a year ago, I asked how many blogs and wikis had been developed in “ALA space.” The answer then? More than 30 of each — and growing. The answer now? There are 70 blogs and 125 wikis that we know of — and still growing. Most of these can be accessed through the ReadWriteConnect link on the ALA home page.

Looking at “old” social networking technology, ALA has 948 active email discussion lists on Sympa (1095, counting inactive lists with available archives). There is no up-to-date count on the number of ALA email lists (lists using the name of ALA or one of its component groups) on external servers, such as campus servers. How many people participate on those lists? That, I don’t know — but we’ll add it to the list of “counting” tasks.

Several years ago, ALA implemented an Online Communities platform using DotNetNuke. There are 281 “online communities” currently. Implementation of a range of new online community/social networking features (”ALA Connect”) using Drupal, an open source platform, is underway — but that’s a future post.

Looking at social media, American Libraries‘ series of short videos for National Library Week 2008 received 78,400 views. The single most popular video in the series (The Reference Desk) received 23,530 views. These statistics do not include the views through various external blogs and websites in which they were embedded. We have no count on embeds. Comments appeared on AL Focus, Blip and YouTube. In case you missed them, catch the fun at http://alfocus.ala.org/categories/national-library-week and http://youtube.com/AmLibraryAssociation .

There are other indicators of the changes in the conversational mix. At the 2007 Annual Conference, a LITA Interest Group (BIGWIG) held an “unconference,” using a variety of social networking tools, including Twitter. As of last week, there were 45 people signed up to follow the 2008 Annual Conference on Twitter (http://twitter.com/alaannual) — and there’s a short thread there from the 2007 Annual Conference. YALSA is also on Twitter.

ALA has a 100-seat (divisible) classroom/meeting room in OPAL, an online meeting/conferencing facility for libraries, which uses a blend of VOIP and text chat. ALA president-elect Jim Rettig has met with his advisory committee in OPAL. Units can reserve space through staff in Outlook.

I know there’s more — and still more coming. If I take another “snapshot” a year from now, how much will have changed? I’m not sure I know how it will have changed — or how much — but I’m sure I’ll see change and that the path will not have been boring.

Thanks to ALA staff colleagues Matt Ivaliotes, Donavan Vicha, Tina Coleman, John Chrastka, Jenny Levine, Don Wood and Beth Yoke who did the counting and provided all the information.

If you’re at all involved with ALA, you’ve probably met or talked with the 40-year folks at least once. Neida de la Torre is in our Member and Customer Service unit, and very easily could be the person who helped you join ALA, or helped to untangle a conference registration glitch, or maybe corrected your membership record the last time you moved. Lois Ann Gregory-Wood receives boisterous applause from the ALA Council members she serves. Bob Hershman, publishing operations manager, oversees the ALA Store at both Midwinter and Annual–and is often at the checkout desk, selling you a serious professional book … or maybe just a conference souvenir for your kids.

Going back through the years, there’s Jimmie Bowens who runs the mailroom (35); Doris McKelvin in accounting (30); Cathleen Bourdon, Communications and Members Relations (but formerly ASCLA/RUSA, and even before then, ACRL) and Betty Morrissey in Reprographics (both 25); Darlena Davis, currently in HRDR, but formerly in LAMA and ACRL, Leonard Kniffel, American Libraries editor, and Pat May in the Washington Office (all 20); and Evelyn Butts-Elam in the CHOICE office in Connecticut (15).

After the service awards, two special Staff Achievement Awards for specific exemplary service were presented: to John Chrastka, Director of Membership, for his work on the Membership Pavilion at last year’s conference, and to George Eberhart, for his work on the weekly AL Direct. And finally, the Betty Obey Award, which enables a staff member with more than five years of service, but who has not attended a conference, to attend the Annual Conference; watch for Angela Smith when you’re in Anaheim!

Its my pleasure to work with these and all the other ALA staff! Their dedication, knowledge, good humor, and corporate memory contribute to our workday “quality of life.” Thanks, all.

As with any large scale conversion, there remain a few problems … and probably with just the page you were looking for, right?

Here are a few tips for self-help:

1. Check the URL you are using, especially if it’s a bookmark. If it ends in .htm rather than .cfm, you may be pointing to the old page. The old pages are supposed to be redirected to the new ones, but the paths are not always perfect.

2. Try going to www.ala.org, refreshing your page a couple of times, then navigating to the page you’re looking for. For example, if you want the ALCTS Duplicates Exchange Union, go to “Our Association”, then “Divisions” then “ALCTS” where you’ll find the link under “Resources” in the right navigation column. Or, use the shortcuts to the units found at the page created by ALA’s Reference Specialist, Val Hawkins.

3. Try using the search within the ALA website (the search box at the right end of the blue bars, or the search box on the error page). Pick the result with the .cfm in it … or try the cached version of the .htm page if you just need to check some information. If you want to cite the page, don’t use the .htm page, but wait until you locate the .cfm version so as not to pass on the obsolete reference.

4. Try an Internet search limiting results to the ALA website, e.g., < “FBI in your library” site:ala.org > and, again, pick the result that matches and also has the .cfm in it.

If all else fails, e-mail the ALA Library. We’ll find the page, or connect you to the unit responsible for the page.

The frequency of problems is already dropping off as the new pages are picked up with the various search engines, as we fix the reported problems, and as we run various diagnostics to find the others. With a site with well over 50,000 pages, though, there is bound to be one page, somewhere–and just the one someone needs, of course–that isn’t right.

By the memory game

Book Stage at Sunrise

Besides wanting to publicly thank Jeremy Kemp, Bernd Becker, Daniel Brunk, Susie Quinn, and Robin Williams for all of their great work and SJSU SLIS for giving their time to us, I also want to note that we’ll be advertising SL events soon for National Library Week. In the meantime, please be sure to stop by and play around with some of the more fun things on our island. More to come in the future.

ALALibraryVal Miles poses beside the 2008 National Library Week Kiosk, wearing the free t-shirt available.

ALALibraryVal Miles accesses and wears the free National Library Workers Day t-shirt from the 2008 National Library Week Kiosk

What do I mean by that? “ALA resources” would include any use of ALA titles (like councilor, chair of…, president of...); ALA discussion lists, blogs or wikis (including those of ALA divisions, round tables and other groups that are part of ALA); stationery; publications or websites; headquarters or conference meeting rooms; or, staff time. And, what kinds of activities might be included in “political speech”? The law is broad — and the threshold for “political speech” is relatively low. “Political speech” includes activities such as soliciting or making campaign contributions, providing a forum for a candidate (in print or at a conference, for instance), expressing “support for or opposition to” a candidate or political party — even if that candidate is a librarian, even if that candidate is a member.

Finally, “political speech” happens within an election year — which starts January 1 of the year in which the election will be held. That’s why members often say to me, “but we had him/her speak just a few years ago.” True. Not this year, though.

The absolute prohibition on “political speech” by associations like ALA is serious — and the “zero tolerance” enforcement policy of the IRS has been upheld by the courts. It is important that the law be observed. It is also important, though, to understand that “political speech” is different from “lobbying,” which seeks to influence legislation or regulation. Even during an election year, ALA continues to lobby for legislation and regulation that will benefit libraries and the public. For instance, during recent months, you have received requests from the ALA Washington Office to contact legislators regarding appropriations, legislation in support of school libraries and other issues. There are regulations and limitations on lobbying by organizations like ALA, of course — and ALA works within the applicable laws.

Many ALA members may not be comfortable with these rules, may see them as infringements on their personal free speech. I understand that. ALA’s intent is not to limit what any individual may do personally in the public arena — but to be clear that the resources of an organization like ALA, an association tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, may not be used for that purpose. The consequence is revocation of tax exempt status. There are no “intermediate” or “warning” consequences.

Judith Krug, the long-time director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, points out that the law imposes many restrictions on speech — and these laws are one example. We — ALA staff and members — are required to comply with these laws until such time as Congress may choose to change them. In doing so, we protect the interests of the American Library Association and its members, present and future, and ALA’s ability to advocate aggressively on behalf of libraries and the public.

Want more details? Over the past several years, a number of background documents have been developed to guide ALA leaders and staff through a complex legal environment. Four such documents are available here (PDFs): ALA Legal Framework, Election Year Rules, Election Year Rules - Additional Notes, and Lobbying and ALA: Fact Sheet.

Still more? Call or email me. I may not know the answer — but I do know where and how to find out.

The American Library Association has participated in electronic dissemination of information since the mid-1980s when the Association introduced an e-mail service, ALANET, to its members. Beginning in 1985, the ALA Washington Office has published its e-newsletter, ALAWON, migrating the service from ALANET to other e-mail services over the decades.

ALA began its “new” electronic era in the 1988-89 fiscal year, when several staff were provided “bitnet” accounts, courtesy of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). On May 13, 1991, the first subscription-based electronic list–ALCTS Network News (AN2)–was launched. More accounts and many more e-lists followed.

ALA launched its Gopher, using the server at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in July 1994 (the March 1995 American Libraries has a review of the Gopher). In April 1995, ALA moved to the web, also through UIC, and its own domain name, www.ala.org.

The basis for the home page was a fact sheet from our Public Information Office about ALA, with links out to (mostly) gopher directories. That first “homely page” was scrawny and text heavy, but it worked.

On March 21, 1996, ALA moved to its own server, and began the process of migrating the material on the Gopher to the web site, www.ala.org. All units were provided “space” on the Gopher … and the web. Thus, the first representation of the Association on the web was as a reflection of our organization, with its central policy body Council, an array of committees, eleven divisions, round tables, affiliates, and chapters.

From the start, each of the units has been responsible for its own space, resulting different ways of presenting parallel information (such as the committee volunteer process), different types of material, etc. The spaces have become increasingly sophisticated as units have gained expertise in web presentation of material of interest to our members, prospective members, and others who have an interest in the mission of the ALA.

The ALA web server, software, and support is funded by the general ALA budget, with much of the developmental support coming from individual unit funds (for the staff involved in preparing the web pages or for outside contractors hired). In some cases, members directly support the web development as part of their volunteer work for the Association when they prepare pages–or even maintain whole linked websites. The ALA website–with its 60,000+ pages–is continuously updated by the 100+ content developers.

The ALA Website Advisory Committee has general oversight responsibility for ALA’s web presence, there is an internal staff team to do major developmental work and technical maintenance, and a staff Website Editorial Board to work with units on some overarching content issues. In general, though, content maintenance is the responsibility of all those diverse web developers, many on staff, others volunteers from among our membership.

Over the past year or so, we’ve been migrating from one content management system to another, unit by unit. Beginning March 10, there will be the final push to complete the conversion–and resolve broken links, missing files, etc. Some of the pages in this final push are the top level pages–contact the ALA Library (library@ala.org) if you need help with something during this transition.

Also, beginning in the summer of 2006, we’ve been conducting a usability analysis with numerous surveys, focus groups, and other forms of data gathering. During the Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia, we gathered input on the graphic design, and right now there’s a survey sent to a random sample of the ALA membership to gather data on the information architecture for the site . We’re hoping the next generation of the ALA web site will be in place before we meet in Anaheim!

Karen