2007

LITA IRC meeting

About a dozen people attended the meeting on Monday morning from 10:30 to 12:30.
International Visitor Grant

The first topic of discussion focussed on the very generous donor who funded the attendance of a librarian from Trinidad and Tobago at the LITA Forum in October – he was so impressed by the moving thank you he received from the winner (“a memory I will always treasure ..”) that he is funding two more awards. The announcement for this year’s award had been written, and accepted by the committee. Details of procedures will be ironed out by Claudia with the LITA liaison, Karen Starr.

There was general excitement about the possibility of more awards, particularly for international librarians from areas other than the Caribbean. Ideas for encouraging more donors were solicited, and some will be pursued.

Members of the committee were surprised by the fact that LITA charged a $500 overhead fee for handling the grant, almost 20% of the total!!! Karen will try to find out why. There are communication issues that have to be resolved.

Jim Agee gave a short presentation on activities of the IRRT, and their hope for an endowment to support the international receptions., which cost $7-13,000. Soliciting donations is tricky business.

David Nutty explained last year’s grant process, and summarized some of the glitches (including the fact that the grant check was delivered very late, bogged down by ALA bureaucracy.

Co-sponsorship of ALA Program
The deadlines have already passed for this year, even for poster sessions.
There is still a possibility that there will be a tour of portals (digitized international collections) at LC.

Call for involvement
There will be a call for volunteers to staff the international visitors’ center (2 hour blocks), and members are encouraged to sign up for the international reception. See you there??

Members are also encouraged to attend town meeting and give input (normally 8AM Monday morning) and the social hour on Friday evening.

There was more, but this is all I can remember at the moment …