Guidelines to Organize LACUNY Dialogues

As of 2008, LACUNY Dialogues will be organized each year on the morning of the third Friday in January by LACUNY’s Vice President/President-elect.  The following Guidelines are written not only as a formal record of the event, but also to ensure Dialogues continues as a long-standing organizational tradition in the spirit of its originator, former 2004-2005 LACUNY President Kenneth Schlesinger. 

1. Dialogues is conceived as a Town Hall Meeting [which should appear on promotional materials], and should be low-technology events for increased accessibility and conversation
   1. Facilitators or speakers are discouraged from using PowerPoint or other presentation software
   2. Audiovisual taping of the event should be avoided as this may inhibit participation
   3. Presentations in written and-or audio format [i.e., podcasts] should be posted on the LACUNY website and forwarded to the LACUNY Archives at City College

1. Topics to consider for Dialogues should be:
   1. Timely issue of relevance to academic libraries
   2. Controversial or contentious issue that would generate opinions or debate
   3. Central theme or related themes in response to a question

1. Three facilitators or speakers should be chosen who represent the diverse spectrum of CUNY library faculty based on:
   1. Range of library experience from non-tenured to full professor
   2. Various types of CUNY academic libraries [community, senior college, graduate], representing all five boroughs
   3. Representation of gender, race, and ethnicity
   4. Representation of various responsibilities and functions within the library
   5. Innovative outlook and outstanding intellectual ability

1. Dialogues should adhere to the following format:
   1. Presentations should be no more than ten minutes and presented orally
   2. LACUNY Vice President or President should serve as moderator, offering  opening remarks, soliciting questions-responses at the end of the presentations, and maintaining order for the promotion of lively and collegial discourse