I regret that I have not updated this blog as often as I would have liked. Part of it is that I fear that I would essentially be mirroring and sampling news from other already established library blogs. Then again, I would be mixing in my opinion and that is pretty much what blogging is all about. Now that I have turned blogging into the hokey-pokey, let's get started.

ALA voting starts today! During these past few weeks, I should have been blogging incessantly in order to convince ALA members to vote for me for Councilor at Large. If anything, this is a learning experience for me. Even though I used to dream of being the first woman president, I haven't ever really attempted to break into politics other than the 4th grade student council representative position, an election that I lost. The lesson learned there was that if you give people candy, people will vote for you. While I'm not apt to give bribes hopes of a vote, I will give my opinion on the upcoming elections in ALA.
I'm really excited about Jim Rettig's campaign for ALA President and would be excited to work with him on the issues facing libraries, expanding our membership and looking to the future as new and exciting tools for information access and retrieval are being created. I definitely plan on voting for Jim Rettig and would encourage others to do so as well.
As for my own areas of concern that I would like to address as a Councilor, I would endeavor to bridge the gap of those that see social networking tools as frivolous pursuits versus those that see them as useful means for intellectual gains.
As I stated in my statement of professional concerns, I would like to see more members at Council sessions. For those that are unable to attend Midwinter and Annual, it would be great if the ALA were to have streaming video and later have it available in a downloadable format.
The mentoring programs are very and I strongly commend Leslie Burger's leadership initiatives. I would like to see assistance within ALA to foster local leadership programs as well as state initiatives.
As a member of the Intellectual Freedom Round Table, I would like to further embolden and strengthen those libraries being challenged by outside groups that would prevent access to information.
I would like to propose that all ALA accredited institutions are required to have practicum programs in place for all MLS/MLIS students. Too many graduates are being churned out of programs without any experience. I would propose that this would be a requirement to graduate at any ALA accredited institution. This program would be requirement as part of the ALA accreditation process.
I am also an ALA-APA committee member and would like to see ways that the ALA could create a program that would highlight what library workers do in order to demystify and enhance the status of libraries. While the ALA cannot work/lobby for library workers, stressing the importance of the people behind the libraries would hopefully help elevate what we do.

I am very approachable and open to questions. If anyone does have any questions or comments, feel free to ask. I look forward to hearing from you and I look forward to serving you as a Councilor at Large.