Getting ready for ALA Annual Meeting...

As always, activity on the ALA Council listservs begins to heat up as we all prepare to meet in Chicago next month. One of the projects undertaken by Janet Swan Hill is how best to arrange the ALA Current Reference File (CRF), which have always been kept in hard copy in a (series of?) binders. The plan is to make the digitized documents available online as well as perhaps on a CD or flashdrive for those needing frequent access. The CRF contains full text of policies that were not included in their entirety in the formal Policy Manual, as well as such items as Interpretations and the original Council Document that presented the policy.

Questions posed by the chair of the PMC regarding the future of the CRF include:

1) Is the current practice regarding content of the Manual still desirable

or necessary?

a) Should all policies, no matter how long be in the Manual?

b) If not, should there be a case-by-case decision made (and who should make it)? There are some pretty long policies in the Manual at present, with 6.4 (the Operating Agreement) probably being the longest.

c) Should Interpretations be included in the Manual?

d) If not, should Interpretations still be in the Current Reference File, or should they be in a separate file of "Interpretations of Policy"?

e) If all policies are in the Manual, and all Interpretations in a separate file of Interpretations, then the CRF contains primarily historical and background documents. (this isn't a question, it's just information)

f) Is there any rationale for having one version of the Manual available online, and another in the print Handbook, or should whatever decisions are made for the online version apply to the print version? (Depending on how many longer policies are currently not in the Manual, this could have cost implications)

2) Is there a better, more descriptive term for the Current Reference File (no matter what it contains)

3) How should people be referred to the CRF? (links from the website and online version of the Manual?)

4) Is there any need to restrict access to the CRF? (e.g. members only?)

Please let me know if you have thoughts about the CRF.