Statement from Jim Neal, ALA President-Elect

http://lists.ala.org/sympa/arc/alacoun/2016-11/msg00049.html

From: James G. Neal <jneal0@columbia.edu>
Date: Tue, Nov 22, 2016 at 3:58 PM
Subject: [alacoun] Message to ALA Council
To: "alacoun@lists.ala.org" <alacoun@lists.ala.org>

Council Colleagues: I want to share with you the following message in the context of recent conversations about press releases distributed by the Association. These remarks are based on my presentation and my responses to questions at a program on Thursday, November 17 organized by ALA and the Internet Association, and on comments I made earlier that day at a meeting of association and national library representatives. Please share this message.

Libraries, 120,000 of all types, public, school, academic, government, corporate, are an essential component of the national information infrastructure, and are critical leaders in their communities.  We stand for freedom, learning, collaboration, productivity and accessibility.  We are trusted, helping to address community concerns and championing our core values, including democracy, diversity, intellectual freedom and social responsibility.

By bringing together access to technology, access to Internet services, providing a wide range of information resources, community knowledge, and expert information professionals, 21st century libraries transform communities and lives, promote economic development, and bridge the digital divide in this country, committed to equity of access.

Libraries are centers for research and development. Libraries support literacy, in all of its elements. Libraries are spaces for convening, collaborating and creating. Libraries help people find training and jobs. Libraries are at the core of education and scholarship.  Libraries provide access to basic and emerging technologies and the education which enables their effective use.

It has been the practice of the American Library Association to evaluate priorities, and program and funding opportunities in the context of a new administration and congress. We must sustain and grow federal funding for universal service, for broadband and wireless deployment in schools and libraries. We must create funding for library and school construction and renovation. We must focus these efforts on underserved communities, in our cities and in our rural areas. Individuals without dependable and open Internet access and without digital skills are clearly at a disadvantage when it comes to economic opportunity and quality of life. We must maintain and expand federal investment in our nation's libraries.      

People come to libraries physically and virtually for a variety of reasons. To read, to learn, to do schoolwork. To find job training and secure employment. To file taxes. To research community services, and health concerns.  Libraries support developers, freelancers, contractors, not-for-profit organizations, small business owners, and researchers.  Libraries provide materials and services for the print-disabled. Libraries serve the homeless, veterans, immigrants, prisoners, and the many individuals who are seeking to make transitions and to improve their lives.    

Libraries need to look beyond the programs and the funding. We must forge radical new partnerships with the first amendment, civil rights, and technology communities to advance our information policy interests and our commitment to freedom, diversity and social justice.  We must prepare for the "hard ball" of the policy wars.  We must fight for net neutrality, for balanced copyright and fair use, for privacy and confidentiality in the face of expanded national security surveillance, for intellectual freedom and first amendment principles, for voting rights, for the transition of immigrants to citizenship, for the dignity of all individuals. We must fight against hate in all of its bigoted manifestations.    
                                                                     
Libraries are about education, employment, entrepreneurship, empowerment and engagement.  But we are also about the imperatives of individual rights and freedoms, and about helping and supporting the people in our communities.

Jim Neal
ALA President-Elect