The Berkeley (Calif.) Board of Library Trustees named Donna Corbeil director of library services at the Berkeley Public Library December 6. Corbeil is currently deputy director of Solano County (Calif.) Library. She will start at Berkeley January 8 . . .
The board of the Bay County (Mich.) Library voted December 4 to close two of the system’s branches, reduce hours at the remaining three branches, and cut 120 positions. The move follows the defeat of a 1.2-mill tax renewal in November, which reduced . . .
American Library Association President Leslie Burger is gathering some 40 policy and decision-makers at the ALA Washington Office December 10--11 for a National Library Agenda Summit. One of the summit’s major agenda items is building a case for . . .
In the wake of increasing sectarian violence that resulted in the deaths of several staff members, Iraq’s National Library and Archive in Baghdad, which houses the country’s largest depository of books and documents, closed indefinitely . . .
The Environmental Protection Agency faces escalating resistance to its cost-saving plan to replace printed library materials with online resources. The transition is part of the agency’s response to President Bush’s proposed $2-million budget . . .
Plans for a new central library on the site of the District of Columbia’s old convention center hit a snag November 21 when a city council committee voted 3--2 to table the proposal.
At the meeting of the council’s Committee on Education, . . .
Despite its reluctance to do so in the past, the U.S. Copyright Office November 22 granted six exemptions to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In the government’s triennial
. . .
The House Leadership and Open Government Act (H.R. 4682), which Democrats intend to pass after taking majority control in 2007, includes a section that would require the disclosure of all donations to a presidential library of $100 or more. Currently . . .
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has called for librarians, educators, health and recreation officials, and parents to join him in a “call to action to ensure Chicago’s future.” During an all-day conference titled “Creating a City . . .
The Freedom to Read Foundation has joined the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and other groups in filing an amicus brief in the lawsuit against the Miami--Dade County School Board for ordering in June the removal of the children’s . . .
The board of the Rogers (Ark.) Public Library decided November 22 to retain in the collection the director’s cut of Basic Instinct but to place an adult-content warning label on the video case. The decision came six weeks after complainant Nieves . . .
The board of the Cape May County (N.J.) Library voted unanimously November 15 to accept the recommendation of Director Andrew Martin to retain three books about adolescent issues that had been challenged by a patron:
Real Girl/Real World: Tools . . .
An Illinois man charged with setting off an explosive device at the Salt Lake City Public Library September 15 said in the November 30 Salt Lake City Deseret News that federal authorities have the wrong man. Tom Zajac, 53, of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, . . .
Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Public Library trustees avoided a vote to close the LaSalle branch at their November 29 meeting, despite reports in the media that the board president had enough votes to close the branch due to budget constraints and concerns about . . .
A University of California at Los Angeles student was repeatedly stunned with an electronic Taser by campus police officers November 14 at the UCLA Powell Library. The incident, which was partly captured on video by another student and
. . .
Three individuals and the Second Amendment Foundation, a pro-firearm nonprofit group, have engaged the American Civil Liberties Union to represent them in a lawsuit against the internet filtering policy of the North Central Regional Library, headquartered . . .
Although it has recovered 34 antique maps that were stolen by convicted map thief E. Forbes Smiley III, the Boston Public Library reports that some of its cartographic treasures are still missing. The 36 maps the library is still looking for were all . . .
A 20-year-old man was shot in the shoulder November 15 at Chicago Public Library’s Marshall Square branch while he stood near the circulation counter. Chicago Police Officer Kelly Liakopoulos said in the November 15 Chicago Tribune that the assailant . . .
ALA-APA and Unions
American
Library Association-Allied Professional Association: the Organization
for the Advancement of Library Employees (ALA-APA) advocates for and
supports library employees in seeking equitable compensation, but
negotiating wages and other compensation must be done at the
institutional level.
ALA-APA cannot do collective
bargaining, so its power to improve wages and benefits is limited. By
being part of a union, library workers gain local allies who can help
to achieve pay equity and better salaries. This is especially important
in public libraries where the union brings greater power to win budget
increases from local governments. Unions are one of many ways library
workers may improve salaries.
Library Workers Collective Bargaining Sponsors
In a move to gain collective bargaining rights for all library workers across Maryland, Local 1994, with the help of Delegate Tom Hucker, is introducing legislation in the 2010 state legislative session that will legislate such rights.
The primary sponsor of the bill in the House is Del. Tom Hucker. The Senate's sponsor is Sen. Nancy King.
In the Md. House of Representatives, Co-sponsors are:
