The American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference was held from June 21-26 in California. The event saw a unanimous resolution in support of the value of school libraries passed by ALA Council, as well as discussions about e-books, privacy, library advocacy and other issues.
A report titled ‘Libraries, Patrons, and E-books’ from the Pew Internet and American life project was released in the conference. Following the release, Penguin announced that it would re-start e-book sales to libraries. Two New York City public library systems are set to get Penguin e-books as part of a one-year pilot programme.
Pew's Lee Rainie discussed the survey findings in a session entitled ‘The Rise of E-reading,’ and then on a panel on ‘Access to Digital Content: Diverse Approaches.’
The ALA’s Washington Office, in its update, introduced a new advocacy tool called Mobile Commons, and paired it with presentations from speakers representing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the OpenGovernment.org.
ALA also announced the first recipients of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, funded by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York and sponsored by RUSA and Booklist. The conference also acknowledged the key role played by school libraries, as the School Library Task Force introduced a resolution to the ALA Council that stated that school libraries and librarians were critical to educational success.
Rebecca MacKinnon, author of Consent of the Networked, who works on global Internet policy as a Schwartz Senior Fellow, was the keynote speaker at the Opening General Session on Friday.
