I've just returned from attending the 2009 ALA Midwinter meeting in Denver, CO.  It was an eventful week filled with meetings, networking, and a lot of conversations about the needs of small libraries and electronic access to professional participation. 

A theme that ran throughout the meeting, for me, this time was a focus on electronic member participation in ALA activities.  I'm a member of the Task Force on electronic member participation (TFOEMP) and a report with our recommendations (16 of them) developed over the past 18 months was submitted to the ALA council for consideration.  The recommendations were all accepted by Council and, as a next step, referred to ALA's Executive Board to address any next steps. Next steps will include the appointment of a new Task Force to more clearly identify how to implement some of the recommendations and to determine the financial ramifications of doing so. What that means is, now that we've identified the "What" we want to try, it's time to think about "How" to make it happen.

My notes from the ALA and the ALA-APA Council meetings are available at http://www.idaholibraries.org/node/507. 

There (and attached to this post) you will also find a PDF with some highlights of programs, initiatives, and information that I thought Idaho libraries would be particularly interested in hearing about.

It is always a pleasure to represent Idaho to the ALA Council. The needs and interests of small and rural libraries are not always understood by all, but I can tell you that, across the board, we have more in common with the libraries in other states than we have differences.  Additionally, I find most everyone I encounter to be very interested to learn more about Idaho and the great things our libraries do for users.