As Priority Consultant for ALSC Priority Group V, Projects and Research, my role is to promote, encourage and support projects, activities and research relating to our division of the American Library Association. I’m responsible for four committees and one discussion group. Here’s what they’re doing:
- The Collections of Children’s Books for Adult Research Discussion Group provides a forum for the discussion and study of specific collections of children’s materials in terms of their research value. New co-conveners, including Sylvia and Kenneth Marantz, founders of the Children’s Literature Database and collectors of picture books for 40 years, promise to breathe new life and focus into the group. Since they overlap with the National Planning of Special Collections committee, they will be in contact by sitting in on meetings and making suggestions to the committee.
- National Planning of Special Collections Committee is working on a program for Annual in 2008 entitled, “Using the Past to Create the Future,” and is developing and promoting their new wiki by posting to listservs.
- The Oral History Committee is tackling the many issues involved in interviewing past ALSC Presidents and Distinguished Service Award recipients. They have secured an approved release/permission form including one for an estate representative to sign if the interviewee is deceased. Permissions must be obtained from past interviewees, interviews must be transcribed and edited, a disclaimer to cover factual errors is being written, and more interviews are being scheduled. Brief biographies of interviewees and interviewers will be written. Publication is planned on the members-only ALSC website and in Children and Libraries as the interviews are completed. As if this wasn’t enough, the committee is also planning a program for Annual 2009.
- Publications Committee has reviewed a publication from the Intellectual Freedom Committee about censorship, and has several suggestions for updating it. If the IF Committee will rework it and it meets with Publication’s approval, they will take it to the Board at Midwinter.
- Research and Development Committee is continuing its successful columns in Children and Libraries, and planning its program for Annual 2008 on constructing and using effective surveys. There will be practical tips by a panel of experts and interactive small groups.
So that’s what’s happening in Group V. I’ll post updates as they become available.
~written and submitted by Diane Janoff, ALSC Priority Group V (Projects and Research) Consultant