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Committees and Panels of the Association

The Central organisation of the Association consists of a President, two Vice-Presidents and the Executive Board all elected annually.

Executive Board

The Executive Board is the governing body of the Association and consists of an Honorary Treasurer, Honorary Secretary and twenty-one other members. The Executive Board appoints a Finance and General Purposes Committee and an Education Committee each year, and nominates members to a range of other committees in which it participates. The Executive Board meets 6 or 7 times a year and each Group/Section is entitled to send a non-voting observer to the meetings. [See List of Officers]

FINANCE & GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEE

The Finance & General Purposes Committee is the administrative Committee dealing with finance, membership, and publications. The Committee meets six times a year and its activities are described in the Annual Report.

Education Committee

Role of Education Committee:
Standards
To maintain standards of professional education within Ireland and to work towards the continual raising of standards of professional education in line with best practice internationally;
Read more on the role of the Education Committee...

COMMITTEE ON SCHOOL LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT

Formed from a previous Ad-hoc Committee, this Committee aims to address the Association's concerns in the area of school libraries. It meets several times a year, and, in common with other committees, reports to the Executive Board.

NORTH-SOUTH LIAISON COMMITTEE

The Association has strong links with the Northern Ireland Branch of the Library Association (United Kingdom) and the North-South Liaison Committee, consisting of representatives of both Associations, meets several times a year. The Committee publishes the quarterly journal An Leabharlann (see below), and organises the Annual Joint Conference. The Conference is held in Northern Ireland every third year.

The Association nominates representatives to a range of Committees, including:

LIBRARY STAFF TRAINING COMMITTEE
COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY CO-OPERATION IN IRELAND (COLICO)
NEWSPLAN

As a means of greatly improving the way the Association prepares and carries through policy, it was proposed, in 1998, that the existing Executive Board Committees be replaced with a small number of panels or working groups charged with the tasks of: looking ahead at the issues that will, or may arise, in the future; preparing policy options/recommendations for the consideration of the Board and Association; preparing policy positions at the request of the Board.

The following panels were appointed at the Executive Board meeting of May 21st, 1998: [See the Association's Annual Report 1998 for more detailed analysis on structure and aims]

Children's and School Libraries Panel

Convenor: Marjory Sliney; Members: Fionnuala Hanrahan, Pat Lonergan, Valerie Coghlan; Ruth Flanagan; Kathleen Browne

Public Library Development Panel

Convenor: Pat McMahon; Members: Gerard Maher, Hanna O'Sullivan, Liam Ronayne; Kathleen Browne

Information Society Panel

Convenor: Brendan Teeling; Members: Fionnuala Hanrahan, Mary Turner, Catherine Watters, Beatrice Doran, Jess Codd; Gobnait O'Riordan; Clara Cullen; Siobhan O'Rafferty; Lee Komito

European and International Affairs Panel

Convenor: Liam Ronayne; Members: Pat McMahon, Beatrice Doran, Leslie Bryan; Marjory Sliney

Education and Training Panel

Convenor: Mary Turner; Members: Gerard Maher, Valerie Coghlan, Mary Burke, Catherine Watters; Agnes Neligan; Gobnait O'Riordan; Siobhan O'Rafferty; Carmel O'Sullivan