APABD #12.9
2011-2012
TO:
ALA-APA Board of Directors
RE:
Fall Report
ACTION REQUESTED/INFORMATION/REPORT:
No action requested.
CONTACT PERSON: Lorelle R. Swader, 312-280-4278, lswader@ala.org
DATE:
October 6, 2011
BACKGROUND:
This report is a synopsis of activities since the 2011 Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA
Attachment
APABD #12.9
2011-2012
Director’s Report
Fall Meeting
Staffing Changes
On July 1, 20ll, Jenifer Grady, left the position as Director of the ALA-APA. ALA continued to
contract with Jenifer through September to complete assignments related to the certification programs
and Library Worklife.
On July 5, 2011, Lorelle Swader took over the position as Director on a part-time basis. (Her time is
split 20% in APA and 80% as Director of the ALA Office for Human Resource Development &
Recruitment (HRDR)). Ian Lashbrook (Research Associate) works for ALA-APA, supporting the
Certified Public Library Administrator Program (CPLA) for 20% of his time. (The remaining 80% he
supports the IMLS funded Library Support Staff Certification (LSSC) program). Effectively, the
support for staffing within ALA-APA has been reduced to .40 FTE.
Certification Programs
The CPLA has 133 candidates and 48 graduates. The CPLA Certification Review Committee (CRC)
will meet in late October to discuss approved provider programs up for review and candidates
matriculating through the program. (The CPLA/CRC meets quarterly.)
The LSSC Program, funded through a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services
(IMLS), currently has 188 candidates and 6 graduates. The first grant for the program, which was
primarily a planning grant, officially came to a close on June 30, 2011 after receiving a non-financial
one year extension. A second grant also funded by IMLS, intended to enhance the program, began in
July of 2010 and runs through June of 2013. As part of this grant, once a month, a series of
webinars are conducted to introduce the program widely as well as provide an orientation to
registered candidates. These efforts have generated over 241,806 page views to the
program’s website.
An additional benefit of the second grant is the ability to invest in software development to select and
implement a new certification management system. The purpose is to streamline operations, reduce
duplication efforts, improve productivity, provide better business intelligence to support decision
making, and secure a platform that will allow for future growth of the program. In preliminary
discussions with an outside consultant, it has been determined that this system could be enhanced to
become a fully integrated learning management system that can not only support the LSSC program,
but also incorporate the CPLA program and the newly approved continuing education units (CEU)
program through ALA/HRDR. (On October 5, 2011, ALA was notified that it has been approved by
the International Association for Continuing Education & Training (IACET) as an authorized
provider of Continuing Education Units (CEUs).)
2
APABD #12.9
2011-2012
Publications
Library Worklife: HR E-News for Today’s Leaders, continues to be a very robust publication that
received 298,503 page views during FY11. It is available to all ALA institutional members at no
additional charge. The amount for this subscription from ALA to APA was recently decreased.
Following after the division model for use of volunteer editors, an RFP is being developed soon to
offer a $500 per issue stipend with support for travel to conferences as payment for service. This call
will go out later this month.
During FY11, sales of the ALA-APA Salary Survey: Librarian – Public and Academic exceeded
budget expectations by 85%. The survey is published biennially, with the next one slated for 2012.
In partnership with the ALA Office for Research and Statistics (ORS), an RFP went out seeking
organizations that would be willing to conduct the survey. The deadline was September 15, 2011 and
proposals are being reviewed. All ALA Institutional members have been given free access to the
online ALA-APA Library Salary Database since May.
ALA-APA Council
At the ALA-APA Executive Board’s Fall Meeting they will consider the recommendation of the
Council Effectiveness Task Force to eliminate the ALA-APA Council.
3