President's Report
North Carolina Library Association
Executive Board Meeting
Friday, 25 January, 2002
Randolph Community College, Asheboro
"Say something. Say anything!"
There's a story
about a little girl who was helping her mother and her grandmother prepare
a big family meal. She watched as her mother lopped off about a quarter of
the ham before putting it in a sizeable pan and placing it in the oven.
"Why did you get rid of that perfectly good piece of ham," the girl
asked her mother.
"That's the way my mother prepared ham, and so that's the way I learned
how to do it," her mom replied.
The girl went to her grandmother and asked the same question. "That's
the way my mother prepared ham," grandma responded, "and so that's
the way I learned to do it."
The girl found her great-grandmother relaxing in the living room. "Great
grandma," she said, "why do you chop off a perfectly good piece
of ham before you put it in the oven?"
Great grandma replied, "Well, when I was your mother's age we were very
poor, and only had one pan that was too small to cook a whole ham. We had
to chop off part of it so it would fit in the pan."
The North Carolina Library Association is at a turning point. While we remain a vibrant and relevant organization - our conferences are great successes, our sections and round tables produce great programming throughout the biennium, and projects such as North Carolina Libraries and the Leadership Institute do important work for the state's library community - there are storm clouds on the horizon. For the past decade, we have seen a slow but steady decline in membership punctuated in 2001 by a precipitous drop owing primarily to the departure of most school librarians. At the same time, we have been able to sustain the organization financially only with the crutch of payments we receive for administering LSTA projects - primarily the Very Best Place to Start campaign. Meanwhile, members have raised questions about the costs versus benefits of NCLA institutions - dare I say, sacred cows - such as North Carolina Libraries and the concept of a huge biennial conference.
As we begin the first full biennium of the new century, we have no choice but to reevaluate the range of NCLA activities to make sure they remain worthwhile for members and cost-effective for the organization. Indeed, we will be asked at the first Executive Board meeting to begin meeting this challenge.
As I'm sure you by now are aware, the editorial board of North Carolina Libraries has determined that the best way to keep the journal thriving is to convert it to the electronic format. New Editor Al Jones will report that both the cost and the time commitment necessary for publication of a print journal have become burdensome. Participation by section editors in the heavy schedule of editing and proofreading has declined, making it difficult to get the journal out on a predictable schedule. At the same time, printing costs already have forced a reduction in the number of issues each year from four to three (the third 2001 issue will appear presently; if it had appeared in 2001, NCLA's expenses for the past year would have exceeded revenue by the cost of one journal, about $7,200).
The editorial board has a persuasive, well thought-out plan for the concept of an electronic NCL. A conversation between Al and webmaster Bao Chu Chang quickly dispelled concerns about pagination and citation, indexing and abstracting, archiving, and retaining the journal as a benefit of membership (it can be done). With the move to a more robust server for our website (ibiblio, a free service provided to state non-profits by UNC-CH), an electronic NCL would remain a foundation of the organization.
Despite the need to move NCL to the electronic format, I believe the print format still has its uses. I have long wanted NCLA to provide members with a print newsletter, as do most non-profit organizations and many libraries. I view this as a low-cost, high visibility means of increasing communication with members, providing a tangible benefit of membership, recruiting new members, recognizing the accomplishments of our institutions and colleagues, and raising the profile of NCLA both within North Carolina and the profession nationwide. A print newsletter is something you can easily pass from hand-to-hand, leave lying around a break room, clip for your scrapbook or mail to a legislator.
Specifically, I have wanted (and have heard the same wish from many NCLA members) to revive Tar Heel Libraries, a popular and widely read newsletter that was published jointly by NCLA and the State Library in the early 1990s. At the board meeting we will hear a detailed proposal from Marketing and Publications to accomplish this goal. And although I had expected NCLA to go it alone, State Librarian Sandy Cooper has offered to revive the partnership; more details on her offer a the meeting, too.
Finally, the one factor that determines the success or failure of NCLA is membership. I hope that we can begin to think differently - more aggressively - in this regard. Already, the Membership Committee and the ad-hoc administrative office task force are preparing for 2002 renewals. This initiative will include an effort to reclaim those who soured on the association on account of the manifold problems in the administrative office, and those who assume they are members but did not renew in 2001 because they received no such notice.
That's the easy part of the battle. We also need to recruit new members. This means identifying potential members, targeting them with a membership campaign and selling the benefits of membership to them. The Membership Committee will have some proposals in this regard as the biennium progresses, but I challenge all our sections and round tables to start now. Please form your own membership committees and send a delegate to the association's committee. Meanwhile, go after librarians and library supporters in your types of libraries and areas of interest. Don't wait!
In The Tempest,
Antonio tries to persuade Sebastian to take action. "Well, I am standing
water," says Sebastian. Antonio replies, "I'll teach you to flow."
Sebastian admits, "Do so. To ebb hereditary sloth instructs me."
Antonio notes, "…Ebbing men most often do so near the bottom run by their
own fear or sloth." Let's not let fear or hereditary sloth - the chunk
of ham wasted - allow NCLA to ebb near the bottom run. Let's think big, take
charge and act now.
Ross A. Holt,
President
North Carolina Library Association