1990

March

• It was recommended that the ALA Executive Council approve establishment of an Armed Forces Library Round Table to allow better representation of this population.
• Recommended that the ALA Executive Council enhance the availability of interpreters for the deaf at the ALA conference.
• Recommended that the council adopt a resolution opposing discriminatory practices by recruiting agencies.
• Minority Fellowship in a division office is being offered. This Fellowship is designed to give the recipient to acquire association management experience and to analyze current library issues.

May

• Re-evaluation of ALA's "Strategic Long-Range Plan" whose mission statement was "to provide leadership for development, promotion, and improvement of librarianship in order to ehhance learning and ensure access to information for all." They have found this planning process to be "evolutionary".
• From this long-range plan, ALA now has a clear statement of what its diverse elements view as common purpose.

June

ALA/World Book plan contest for Library Card Sign-Up month. The intention of the campaign is to sign up every child in America for a library card.

July/August

Resolutions Passed:
Poor people's services: Removal of all barriers that are created by a combination of limitations, which include illiteracy, illness, social isolation, and homelessness.

Bell Atlantic/ALA Family Literacy Project: Created fact sheet called "How to Recruit Participants Using Non-Print Media" to be handed out to public libraries. The purpose of the fact sheet is to encourage public libraries to create or enhance library based family literacy programs.

1991

May

ALA president Richard Dougherty wrote an eight-page letter to the office of Management and Budget on May 3 discussing the following: strategies for information dissemination, avoidance of monopolistic practices, limiting of user charges, and the relationship between federal and nonfederal dissemination of government information. He stressed "federal information policy must firmly recognize the necessity of equal, equitable, and ready public access to government information as a key to our democratic society."

On May 23, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) opened a hearing at the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs stating that libraries are essential to the vitality of all communities, adding that they are especially essential in Indian communities, where information is scarce.

June

In June the ALA stated that it never affirmatively supported a book boycott of South Africa because it clearly violated ALA policy.

In the June, 1991 American Libraries Bruce Flanders, contributing editor, discussed the establishment of the National Research and Education Network (NREN) and its importance for information dissemination in digital format.

July/August

Marilyn Miller, ALA president-elect, calls for improved delivery of distance library education in the July/August American Libraries.

In her inaugural address, ALA President Patricia Glass Schuman asked members to protect the future of the American people's right to know.

September

President Patricia Glass Schumann announced ALA's "Right to Know" campaign, which aimed at informing the public about the value of librarians, according to the September, 1991 American Libraries.

Sources

American Libraries. Vols. 20 and 21 (1990 and 1991).