Utah Library Association Program Board
Annual Report 2007-2008
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Purpose: The purpose of the ULA Program Board is to coordinate the non-conference
and conference program proposals for the organization. The Program Board Chair
manages the program budget, communicates information to the Program Board and
assists in the management of other ULA units as assigned.
Annual Goals:

To perform all activities efficiently and effectively

To provide excellent training and educational programs for ULA members
throughout the State by presenting Great Issues Forum, the Annual Conference
and other programs

To provide ULA members the opportunity for professional involvement and
continuing education

To use a variety of methods and people to communicate information about
conferences, programs, and opportunities for participation

To become acquainted with more members of ULA and encourage involvement
and collegiality
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To keep a record of Program Board and ULA unit activities to be deposited with
the ULA historian for inclusion in the ULA Archives
Attached is a summary of the reports submitted by the chairs for this year’s Program
Board. In addition, the minutes from the 2007-2008 Program Board meetings have been
submitted to Paul Mogren, the ULA Historian for the ULA archives.
Great Issues Forum: This forum, which is typically held in the fall, was moved to the
spring this year and incorporated as part of the ULA-MPLA Joint Conference held in
April 2008. (see summary below)
Academic Section: Sarah Bosarge, Chair; Erin Dini, Vice-chair. This year, the
Academic Section sponsored 4 programs for the ULA/MPLA Joint Conference. 8
presenters from 5 academic libraries participated in these programs. The programs all
focused on technology use in libraries and were very well attended. The titles were:
Where Virtual Paths Meet: Libraries in Second Life, Open Sesame! Accessing the
Treasures of a Community, Managing the Research Process with Zotero and Does
Power Point Make You Stupid? The Academic Section also co-sponsored a program
with the Archives, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Round Table (AMSC) titled Off
the Beaten Path: The American Literary Underground Comes to Utah presented by Brad
Cole and Denis Brunke, Utah State University in association with Ken Sanders Rare
Books. In addition, there were 4 poster sessions affiliated with the Academic Section.
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Awards: Ruby Cheesman, Chair; Anita Albright, Committee Member. The Awards
Committee sent out requests for nominations in November, 2007. Nominations closed
on Feb 15, 2008. We received 3 nominations for Librarian of the Year; 4 for
distinguished Service; 1 each for Special Recognition and Special Services; 3 for
Legislative. The awards were presented on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at the Joint
Conference Awards banquet.
Continuing Education Committee (CEC): Connie Lamb, co-chair (BYU); Karen Griggs,
co-chair (BYU) For this fiscal year, the CEC was reconstituted and met for the first time
in August 2007, just in time to submit a budget and plan for the ULA annual conference.
The committee reorganized the Continuing Education web page, adding the committee
charge and updating the membership roster. Additionally, the CEC sponsored the
following sessions at the Joint Conference: A Smorgasbord of Ideas at the “World Café”
– Questions & Answers to Help Connect Libraries with Their Multicultural Communities
and The Middle East and Islam: Resources for You and Your Patrons. The CEC also
sponsored a poster session: Continuing Education and Training Opportunities.
CSRT: Donna Cardon, Chair. The CSRT held their first meeting in June 2007. They set
up a wiki for the group, co-sponsored a late Summer Reading Workshop in October
2007, held on a Mid-Year workshop at the Provo City Library on November 30, 2007.
CSRT also submitted an article to the ULA newsletter regarding the success of the MidYear workshop. At the ULA-MPLA Joint Conference they held several workshops and
programs; all were well attended and some were standing room only. An annual
Business Meeting for CSRT was also held at the joint conference. The roundtable is
also looking into requesting non-conference funds to develop a CSRT logo. The new
chairs are Anna Zanarini, Chair and Laura Berube, Vice-Chair.
GENRT: Chair: Emily Schultz, Family History Library; Vice-Chair: Anne Roach, Family
History Library. Some of the 2007-2008 GENRT activities included: Virtual Tours of
Utah’s Cemeteries: “Bury Patches” (Cemeteries of Iron County); posted on ULA website.
Also the members recommended a name change from Genealogy Round Table to
Genealogy and Local History Round Table. The MPLA/ULA Joint Conference Programs
sponsored by GenRT included the following sessions: Preconferences at the Family
History Library, Helping Your Patrons Get Across the Ocean, The Latest and Greatest
from the Family History Library, More Toys and a Better Sandbox: Future Trends for
Digital Libraries, Something for Everyone: Genealogical Reference Services in the 21st
Century, The Modern Genealogist, What’s New in Genealogy on the Internet and
Ghostbusters: The Genealogy Genies.
Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC): Juli Hinz, Chair. The main work of the IFC
involved planning for two conference programs for the ULA/MPLA Joint Conference
2008. They included the following: Free Speech = Free Libraries = Free People: The
Story of America’s Fight for Free Speech. Author and historian Dr. Chris Finan praised
the work of librarians in our commitment to give patrons free access to what they wish to
read, hear, and view. Librarian ‘freedom fighters’ ensure that libraries will continue to
play a central role in protecting democracy and Children’s Author Luncheon –Susan
Patron, the 2007 Newbery Award Winner. With this program the audience heard
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children’s librarian and author Susan Patron talk about her 2007 controversial Newbery
Award-winning book, The Higher Power of Lucky. It was shocking to Patron that some
librarians opposed placing her book in school and public libraries due to the use of one
little word that happens to be the correct anatomical name of a body part. Her inspiring
and entertaining message to librarians was that we must not censor.
LPSSRT: Patricia King, Chair. The Library Paraprofessional and Support Staff Round
Table discussed ways to help paraprofessionals and came up with some ideas for next
year. The officers and members are planning on making this coming year even better.
RASRT: Trish Hull, Chair. The Reference and Adult Services Roundtable had several
email meetings to determine next year’s officers. It also sponsored several workshops
at the Joint Conference including the following: the Great Issues Forum Workshop on
Library Service to Immigrants with Camila Alire, the ALA President Elect. The other
RASRT conference program titles were: G12 Government Information in the 21st
Century, ROSSA with Camila Alire (co-sponsored), Reader's Advisory with Diane Tixier
Herald and Wikis and Library 2.0. RASRT also coordinated a G12 Government
Information pre-conference. Next year they hope to do some work on the website.
Reforma de Utah: Adriane Juarez, Chair. REFORMA de Utah had a very good year.
They created a very positive partnership with the Utah State Library and are now housed
at the Utah State Library Building. REFORMA's files and historical documents will be
housed there. This is also their new meeting space where Reforma members can hold
meetings and planning sessions. REFORMA de Utah supported the Love Your Library
Resolution, which was signed by Governor John Huntsman. The outgoing President,
Adriane Juarez, and the incoming president, Tiffany Herbon were both in attendance at
the signing. At this year's ULA conference, REFORMA de Utah hosted two important
sessions. The first was a presentation by Camilla Alire. She spoke on the importance of
serving Hispanic/Latino patrons in libraries and ways to make the important connection
between libraries and Spanish speakers. The second presentation was given by Susan
Guevara, recipient of the Pura Belpre award for Latino Children's Literature. She is the
illustrator of Chato's Kitchen by Gary Soto, and other picture books, which beautifully
portray the characters within the Latino culture. Ms. Guevara also spoke of her time
spent working with a small town library in El Rito, New Mexico. Ms. Guevara also made
her way to the Provo City Library and the Park City Library for additional presentations.
Research Committee: Alice Weber, Chair. During 2007-2008, the Research
Committee had only a Chair and no other officers or members. In an attempt to become
more knowledgeable and to generate interest, a poster was presented at the ULA
annual meeting at the Salt Lake City Hilton. The poster presented how and why to do
research to improve library services. Discussions during the poster sessions indicated
there is some interest in the topic, and a volunteer and some potential members were
identified. Goals for next year: 1. Increase awareness of the existence of the Research
Committee 2. Increase committee membership 3. Generate a poster(s) or program(s)
for next year's ULA Annual Conference 4. Create a web presence that librarians can use
to inform and assist them in their own research.
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Special Section: April M. Love, Chair. The Special Libraries Section met during 20072008 to prepare and present a program entitled: Science for Non-Science Librarians at
the annual ULA conference. Betsy Hopkins of BYU, Michael Noe of the University of
Utah and April Love of the University of Utah presented Power Points describing science
references and resources available for free on the Internet. Betsy presented information
for the biological and allied health sciences. Michael covered resources for engineering
and applied sciences. April for the physical and earth sciences. The program was very
successful and had an audience numbering between 40 and 45 people.
START: Sarah Bosarge, Chair, Crystal Goldman, Vice-chair. This year, START
sponsored two programs for the ULA/MPLA joint conference and worked with the New
Perspective Round Table to present a pre-conference workshop on social web
technologies. With the New Perspectives Round Table: Interact & Inform: Whys and
Hows of Blogs, Wikis and Myspace (Preconference workshop). The other programs
were: Copyright and Multimedia with Carrie Russell, American Library Association
Copyright Specialist and Socially Challenged: Applications of Social Networking in an
Academic Library with Adriana Reed, Dale Larsen, Crystal Goldman, and Kate Holveot
of the University of Utah Marriott Library.
YART: Mary Anne Heider, Chair; Samantha Larsen Hastings, Vice Chair. Some of the
accomplishments of YART this year are as follows:
YART Wiki Launched, September, 2007. Samantha Larsen Hastings, Vice Chair,
launched the YART wiki, which has been a useful and popular, communicative tool
among YART members, and is much easier to access and use than the ULA website.
www.utahyart.pbwiki.com password: yart.
YART co-sponsored a Fall Workshop November 30, 2007, with CSRT entitled Make the
Library Come Alive for Children and Teens. The workshop was held at the Provo City
Library, Provo Utah. YART provided 3 sessions to the workshop: Keeping Up with Tech
Savvy Teens, presented by Samantha Larsen and Allison Madsen, What to Do with
Teens in the Library, presented by Susan Spicer and Kent Johnson and, Teen Gaming
@ Your Library presented by Mary Anne Heider.
For the ULA-MPLA Joint Conference, YART hosted the following speakers: Anita Silvey,
Paul Genesse, Ruth Hanson, Bill Galvan, Samantha Larsen, Brooke Young, Clinton
Watson, Patricia Foster and Mary Anne Heider. YART also held a Business Meeting at
the conference and the following suggestions were made: Plans for an upcoming
workshop in Cedar City, Utah, to be held August 13 and 14. 2008, in conjunction with
CSRT entitled Think Outside the Book, which will focus on useful programs for children
and teens, the “tween” age group, and literacy issues.
2009 ULA Conference Suggestions: It was suggested that conference sessions for
children’s services and teen services at the 2009 ULA conference should be held on
separate days so that attendees who are involved exclusively in one service area can
obtain leave from their employers to attend the conference for at least one day, and
have the opportunity to attend all of the sessions relevant to their work. Some librarians
cannot get permission/leave to attend the entire conference. It was also suggested that
YART host a conference session hosted by teens themselves in which a panel would
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talk about the role libraries play in their lives and what they would like to see the library
do for them (programs, activities, events).
Author visits, 2008-2009. Partnering with Salt Lake City or Salt Lake County library
systems to host (and pay for) an author during the 2008-2009 year was also discussed.
D.J. MacHale and Jordan Sonnenblick were suggested as possible authors.
Rose Frost, Utah State Library Division, attended the business meeting and asked for
ideas about programs the state should consider for Teen Read Week (October 20-24,
2008). It was suggested that there could be a week of visits by teen/children’s experts to
various communities for workshops: Salt Lake City, Cedar City, Price and Ogden were
discussed as possible sites.
MPLA-ULA Joint Conference Summary
“Where Paths Meet: Connecting Libraries and Our Communities”
April 29-May 1, 2008
Hilton Salt Lake City Center
The MPLA-ULA Joint Conference was held in Salt Lake City, Utah and provided a
fantastic opportunity for the collaboration and meeting of librarians, library professionals ,
authors, illustrators, educators, exhibitors and other library enthusiasts across 12 states.
The programs were excellent and well-attended. Many thanks are owed to the chairs
and members of each ULA roundtable, committee and section who dedicated their time.
Their efforts to propose, sponsor, and present many of the programs were outstanding.
On the whole, the feedback from the conference attendee evaluations was very positive.
For a more detailed report, please see the complete 2008 ULA-MPLA Joint Conference
report prepared by Jeff Belliston and the Joint Conference Committee. Thank you.
“Anything worth doing is worth doing well”...
Report submitted by Darrah Rogers, Program Board Chair, September 10, 2008
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