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The ¾«¶«´«Ã½Council Committee on Diversity will host a Town Hall Meeting on Diversity during the ¾«¶«´«Ã½Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. The Town Hall Meeting will take place from 9 a.m. to noon Friday June 25, 2010 in the Washington Plaza Hotel, Federal Hall.

Dr. Ismail Abdullahi, chair of the Committee on Diversity and an ¾«¶«´«Ã½Councilor-at-Large, will facilitate the discussion. The meeting will focus on three key elements—education, recruitment and association involvement. Dr. Abdullahi said of the need for the Town Hall Meeting, “This meeting is an opportunity to increase ¾«¶«´«Ã½members’ involvement, to encourage diversity leaders to join the work of the Committee on Diversity and to share big ideas for our association through an interactive and engaging discussion.”

The Town Hall Meeting is open to all conference attendees interested in promoting diversity within the association and profession. The format of the Town Hall will provide ample opportunity for audience members to contribute to the conversation.

The 2009 Town Hall Meeting on Diversity focused on unifying library diversity advocacy efforts across the association and was attended by nearly 100 leaders in the profession. The 2010 meeting hopes to build on this participation and further the conversation on this important issue.

Individuals interested in attending the program are encouraged to RSVP to diversity@ala.org. The program is free and all are welcome.

The ¾«¶«´«Ã½Council Committee on Diversity’s charge is to provide a forum to research, monitor, discuss and address national diversity issues and trends; to analyze and address the impact of diversity issues and trends on the profession, and the relevance and effectiveness of library leadership, library organizations and library services to an increasingly diverse society; to provide to Council and ¾«¶«´«Ã½membership information, needed for the establishment of ¾«¶«´«Ã½policies, actions and initiatives related to national diversity issues and trends; to encourage and facilitate diversity in ¾«¶«´«Ã½membership and the recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce in the profession as a whole; to encourage and facilitate diversity in ¾«¶«´«Ã½leadership and leadership development; to facilitate a broad awareness of how and why diversity is unequivocally linked to all ¾«¶«´«Ã½areas of concern such as intellectual freedom, education and continual learning, literary and equity of access.