All Sessions

Updates from the Washington Office

IFLA representatives will provide updates on the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) and its Annual Conference.

With the 2012 elections right around the corner, listen to the “Advocacy Guru” Stephanie Vance explain ways to use the elections as an opportunity to advocate for libraries. The session will cover getting politicians in your library, ways to engage the public, creating your own advocacy strategy during election season and much more.

In January the Association of Research Libraries issued a pathbreaking new document, the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries, which provides new insight into the ways that librarians can apply fair use to meet important copyright challenges. Now it's time to hear from the community: what fair use challenges or success stories can you share, and how has the Code worked for you? Panelists will include a member of the Code facilitation team as well as members of the library and copyright law community who are making and implementing fair use policy.

Join Mary Beth Tinker who, as a junior high school student in 1965 wore a black arm band to school in order to protest America's involvement in Vietnam. That action set in motion a court case that ended up before the Supreme Court. The court ruled that students do have First Amendment rights in school settings. Here from Mary Beth about that and her continuing experiences working on youth access.

As libraries continue to acquire digital content (books, films, websites, and other media), they face an increasing demand both to adhere to relevant intellectual property laws, and to open up materials for teaching and research purposes. This session will feature a panel of professors, lawyers, and librarians to discuss how librarians can assert fair use rights and understand the complex range of issues concerning intellectual property rights over new media materials.

This panel discussion will address issues - including the potential conflict between security concerns and the requirements of transparency, democracy, free press, and the protection of whistle blowers - related to the release of classified U.S. documents by WikiLeaks. Speakers will include Emma Cape, organizer for the Bradley Manning Support Network.

This panel will explore the diverse roles of librarians in supporting the NIH Public Access Policy. Participants will recap the NIHPA policy, PubMedCentral submissions, and bibliographic management tools developed to help identify articles requiring PMC submission. They will also discuss the benefits of this dramatic increase in PMC?s freely available health science articles to researchers and libraries since 2008, alongside counter attempts by opponents hoping to derail the NIH Public Access Policy.

This program is co-sponsored by the American Indian Library Association, The Committee on Archives, Libraries and Museums, and the Joint Conference for Librarians of Color . This session will provide a basic introduction of traditional cultural expressions from American Indian communities. Some challenges faced by American Indian communities in consideration of their traditional cultural expressions will be discussed. The speakers will address indigenous protocols and common access issues for public institutions. Q & A session will follow.

What is the role of public library Trustees in dealing with and advocating for intellectual freedom issues? Often the first contact Trustees have with intellectual freedom as an issue is when there is a challenge against some item on the shelf or some other controversy arises. Once this crisis emerges they are scrambling to understand the issues and respond to their constituents. Another important role for Trustees is to be advocates for intellectual freedom. This session is intended to help Trustees understand the issues and their role in defending intellectual freedom.

Social movements depend on the efficient and effective sharing of information. What role have libraries played in the 2011 protests and revolutions that swept through Arab countries? Program is sponsored by the Near East and South Asia Subcommittee and the Africa Subcommittee of ALA’s International Relations Committee.

A lecture on library history. Speakers:

Karen Cook, "Breaking the Chains: Freedom Libraries in the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project"
Cheryl Knott, "Questions of Access: The Institutionalization of Racial Segregation in Public Libraries in the First Half of the Twentieth Century"
Steven Harris, "Preserving the Union: ALA and Its Southern Chapters during the Civil Rights Movement"
Renate Chancellor, Respondent

The fundamental tenets of copyright are under fire, making it even more difficult for librarians to make reasonable copyright decisions. Learn about significant policy developments that negatively affect balanced copyright law. Copyright legal experts will also discuss the application of fair use in progressive ways and how library exceptions might still be useful for library digital activities, followed by Q&A.

Article IV of ALA’s Code of Ethics states, “We respect intellectual property rights and advocate balance between the interests of information users and rights holders.” This program – part of COPE’s “Ethics in a Digital World” series – will address practical solutions to ethical dilemmas that libraries of all types face in regard to copyright. A panel of experts will address issues in public, academic, and school libraries, empowering librarians to help people do what’s right – moving from copyright police to sources of creative support. This program is cosponsored by ALA Editions.

A panel of presentations on library history.
This year’s theme: LHRT Research Forum is Intellectual Freedom and Libraries in America and Abroad: Historical Perspectives.

Eric Novotny, "From Inferno to Freedom: Expanding Access in the Chicago Public Library, 1910-1936";
Doug Campbell, "Re-examining the Origins of the Adoption of ALA’s Bill of Rights";
Lim Peng Han, "The Japanese occupation of Singapore and the forgotten libraries at the civilian goals at Changi and Sime Road Camp, 1942-1945";
Joyce Latham, "Heat, Humility, and Hubris: the Conundrum of the Fiske Report".

Fan created works, from fan fiction to fan comics, are an increasingly visible and a richly rewarding way for fans to interact with their favorite stories from books, movies, and TV shows. At the same time, fan works raise a variety of sticky questions concerning copyright, the place of transformative work in literature, authorship, and what it means to be a writer and a reader. The ability to rewrite, recast, or redo a story or character has dramatically shifted the way readers process, share, and connect with works, authors, and other fans.

Writers, artists, and editors who have started out in the fandom world are making the transition to more traditional publishing. Is fan culture a boon to creators? A transgression against the original author’s intent and intellectual ownership? Is it hovering somewhere in between? Join a panel of authors, artists, librarians, and yes, fans, to explore the impact participatory fan culture has had and will continue to have on reading, literature, and how we encounter stories.

Presented by the Graphic Novels and Comics in Libraries MIG

This program considers the Library's role in campus copyright education and copyright management support, advocacy and leadership. Presentations will focus on two different Library-based copyright services which operate without a university sanctioned copyright office staffed by an attorney. The policies, practices, service philosophies, training issues, benefits and challenges involved in each model will be discussed and compared. Program format will include overview presentations from each campus followed by a facilitated question and answer session.

Session to discuss Intellectual Freedom issues of the day.

The composition of world economic powers have changed or re-grouped in past decades. While U.S. and other developed countries continue to hold their positions, the emerging economies around the world have attracted much attention. What has happened to the libraries in these emerging economies? Has the library development kept pace with economic growth? Do library users benefit from new economies? What are the library policies and practices in these emerging economies? The ALA’s International Relations Committee presents this program with well-known speakers from Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC) and other countries for these questions.

Carol Brey-Casiano, Information Resource Officer serving in the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, former Director of Libraries for the City of El Paso, Texas and Past President of ALA will deliver the 2012 Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture. This lecture honors the first director of the ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services for her leadership in focusing the Association's attention on issues affecting the traditionally underserved and under-represented in libraries. Sponsored by the OLOS Advisory Committee.