Forwarded on behalf of the ARLIS/NA Executive Board and the Public Policy Committee:
The Executive Board and Public Policy Committee urge OCLC members to vote NO on a proposed OCLC Americas Regional Council Bylaws change that, if approved, will significantly diminish representation of museums, archives and other cultural heritage institutions on the council.
The proposed change to Article VIII, B, of the OCLC Americas Regional Council Bylaws (http://www.oclc.org/councils/americas/arc-bylaws.pdf) will reduce by half (from two to one) the current required minimum number of representatives from museums, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions.
The justification for the change as stated by OCLC is to ensure diversity of member types and sizes. OCLC proposes to take away one spot from the existing slate of representatives of museum archives and other cultural heritage institutions and add one spot for a delegate from corporate, medical, or law libraries.
While ARLIS/NA strongly supports the effort for equitable representation on the Council, we do not feel it should be done at the expense of the larger community of museums, archives, and other cultural heritage institutions.
A better solution would be to simply add a required minimum of one delegate to the council from corporate, medical, or law libraries, and retain the current representation for cultural institutions. Cultural heritage institutions constitute a large and growing portion of the OCLC Global Council and its representation should not be reduced.
ARLIS/NA will take this message to OCLC on behalf of our membership. For our members who have voting privileges in OCLC, we advise you to vote against this proposal.
ARLIS/NA Executive Board
February 21, 2013