Summaries of GODORT Committees, Interest Groups,
and Task Forces from the
January 12–16, 2026, Virtual Winter Meetings

Andie Craley, GODORT Past Chair, Compiler

Introduction

The Virtual Winter Meetings for GODORT Committees, Interest Groups, and Task Forces were held January 12–16, 2026. Various slides and recordings are found on the GODORT 2026 Winter Meetings Libguide.¹ Below are summaries from the meetings, labeled with the title of the Committee, Interest Group, or Task Force and the Chair of said Committee, Interest Group, or Task Force. The summaries are organized in alphabetical order based on title of the Committee, Interest Group, or Task Force.

Awards/Conference Committee—Emily Rogers

The Awards/Conference Committee met virtually at 11:00 a.m. CST on Thursday, January 15. The Committee agreed to
pursue the Glessner House, Chicago, as the venue for the GODORT Awards Reception, to be held the evening of
Sunday, June 28, during ALA Annual. The committee also selected the awards recipients for 2026, which were presented to Steering later that day.

Cataloging Committee—Liza Weisbrod

The Cataloging Committee met virtually at 2:00 p.m. CST on Thursday, January 15. The Committee reviewed the Library of Congress decision to remove subfield $ v from 650 fields beginning in February 2026, noting its impact on cataloging practices, especially for video games and government documents. The treasurer reported a net loss for GODORT for FY 2025, prompting discussion of new revenue options such as paid webinars or pre-conference events. Updates to the Cataloging Toolboxes and the continued need for LibGuides were shared, along with possible plans for accessibility training. The
Committee is looking for volunteers to update the Cataloging Toolboxes.² Interested people should contact Gwen Sinclair (gsinclai@hawaii.edu). Finally, the Committee noted that
reorganization recommendations are expected in June, including a possible shift of the Cataloging Committee toward an interest-group structure to broaden participation.

Development Committee—Shari Laster

The Development Committee met virtually at 12:00 p.m. CST on Friday, January 16. The Committee reported seeking leads to vendors to ask for support for key initiatives, including the Preservation Grant and Awards Reception. Anyone with suggestions for vendors or questions about fundraising needs was encouraged to reach out to Shari Laster (shari.laster@gmail.com).

Education Committee—Aaron Wilson

The Education Committee met virtually at 2:00 p.m. CST on Friday, January 16. The Committee reported updates on a possible Sunshine Week webinar and Voter and Elections Toolkits (VETK). The Committee also reported seeking VETK Toolkit Editors from the following states: Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Interested parties should reach out to Aaron Wilson (awilso26@umd.edu) to claim a state. Toolkits will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

Federal Information Interest Group (FIIG)—Hayley Johnson

The Federal Information Interest Group (FIIG) met virtually at 11:00 a.m. CST on Friday, January 16. Their meeting featured updates from the Government Publishing Office (GPO). Scott Matheson, Superintendent of Documents and Cindy Etkin, Senior Program Planning Specialist (Librarian), presented a recap of FY 2025 accomplishments and outlined plans for the coming year across Federal Depository Support Services (FDSS), Metadata and Collection Services (MCS), and Projects and Systems (P&S).

General Membership Meeting—Julia Ezzo

Chair Julia Ezzo hosted the General Membership meeting virtually at 12:00 p.m. CST on Monday, January 12. They approved the Minutes from the June 2025 Annual General Membership Meeting, reviewed the Virtual Winter Meeting Schedule and GODORT Friday Chats, and provided updates regarding changes to elected positions and ALA’s financial situation. The Treasurer’s report and action items or reports from Committees were shared.

GODORT 101—Getting to Know the Government Documents Round Table—Julia Ezzo

Chair Julia Ezzo hosted a GODORT 101 Meeting virtually at 11:00 a.m. CST on Monday, January 12 to introduce the activities and offerings of GODORT. The following topics, with associated resources, were discussed: History and Purpose³; Elected Officers, Awards, Grants, and Scholarships⁴; Friday Chats and Help! Webinars⁵; Committees, Projects, and Resources⁶; and Publications and Resources.⁷

Government Information for Children (GIC)—Connie Williams

The Government Information for Children (GIC) Committee met virtually at 12:00 p.m. CST on Tuesday, January 13. The Committee gave no updates, instead using the meeting to discuss needs related to LibGuides.

International Documents Task Force (IDTF)—Michael Alguire

The International Documents Task Force (IDTF) met virtually at 3:00 p.m. CST on Tuesday, January 13. Their meeting featured publisher/vendor updates from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library and its Depository, UN Publications, and Coherent Digital, LLC. These updates were followed by an open discussion, which focused on two topics: firstly, the ramifications of Trump Administration’s January 2026 announcement that it will be withdrawing the United States from sixty-six international organizations and, secondly, recent difficulties ingesting World Bank and OECD records into databases like Ex Libris’s ALMA platform.

Legislation Committee—Lisa Pritchard

The Legislation Committee met virtually at 1:00 p.m. CST on Tuesday, January 12. The Committee hosted Amelia N. Aldred, Deputy Director, State & Local Advocacy, ALA Office of Public Policy and Advocacy, who gave a presentation about work on local and state issues, the work of the Public Policy and Advocacy Office, and a new project to track state legislation that negatively impacts library workers, library services and governance, or the freedom to read. Several members of GODORT agreed to help with the project.

Committee activities since the June 2025 meeting were noted, as follows:

• The Committee drafted a letter of appreciation, which was later approved by the Steering Committee and sent by GODORT President Julia Ezzo, to the Government Publishing Office recognizing their efforts to host the Fall 2025 FDLP Conference.
• The Committee proposed the resolution “ALA Council Resolution to Support and Commend the Work of Librarians and Institutions Preserving Government Information since January 2, 2025,” which was approved by GODORT Steering, and brought forward by Small Round Table Councilor Ben Grantham Aldred and ALA At-Large Council Member Aaron M. Wilson at ALA’s Winter 2026 meeting.

Membership/Nominating Committee—Andie Craley

The Membership/Nominating Committee met virtually at
2:00 p.m. CST on Tuesday, January 13. They hosted Tina Coleman, Membership Marketing Specialist in ALA’s Member Relations & Services Office, and one of the staff liaisons for the Membership Committee and the Membership Promotion Task Force was a guest presenter, who gave some pointers on marketing collaborative efforts among Round Tables to attract memberships. The GODORT Steering–approved slate of Nominations for GODORT elected positions of Chair-Elect, Secretary, and Councilor and for Depository Library Council (DLC) was sent to ALA Staff Liaison. GODORT elected position nominees were notified of their candidacy status and asked to fill out the candidate biographical form in the ALA portal by December 19. DLC nominees were notified and asked to submit their letters and resumes/CV in PDF format to a link provided by ALA Staff Liaison by December 19. The remaining task is to get the information from the ALA collection site to the GPO’s form, which they are using to centralize all DLC nominees, by January 30. By the next committee meeting on February 3, the Committee will be working to have a proposed revised PPM for the combined Membership & Nominating Committee. A suggestion was made to reach out and network with the Federal & Armed Forces Libraries (FAFLIG), which is an Interest Group under Reference & User Services Association (RUSA), a division under ALA.

Notable Documents Panel—Jennifer Castle

The Notable Documents Panel met virtually at 3:00 p.m. CST on Monday, January 12. The Panel held a training session for its members.

Programming/Help/Kenya Flash Committee—Elizabeth Sanders

The Programming/Help/Kenya Flash Committee met virtually at 3:00 p.m. CST on Friday, January 16. The Committee reported the details regarding the 2026 Chair’s Program information, was submitted to ALA, as follows:

• Date & Time: Saturday, June 27, 2026, 2:30–3:30 p.m.
• Title: 150 Years of Government Information at ALA: Sesquicentennial of Government Documents Librarianship
• Speakers: Bernadine Abbot Hoduski, Sarah Erekson chair/potential participant
• Brief Description: Building off Susan Grabler’s 1995 article “Government Information of, by, and for the People: The Changing Mission of the American Library Association’s Public Documents Committee, 1876–1956,” this program will feature panelists discussing early government information issues in libraries and how the American Library Association (ALA) provided a forum to address them.

The Committee also reported the details for the GOROT Juried Proposal for ALA 2026 that was accepted, as follows:

• Date & Time: TBD
• Title: Government Information Lifeguards: Preserving Public Access to our Nation’s Digital Resources
• Speakers: Peter Musser, Digital Public Goods Library & James R. Jacobs, Stanford University
• Brief Summary: Preserving and maintaining accessibility to digital information and resources have always been a concern of librarians due to the ephemeral nature of the internet. This topic has become more urgent given the loss of information across the federal government domain. In this panel discussion, experts from various academic institutions and non-profit organizations will discuss their efforts in preserving and providing access to digital government information. Presenters will share the why’s of their work, their knowledge, and their resources.

The Committee reported that the current Resident of the Kenya S. Flash Residency at Yale Library, Nick Wantsala, could be a potential speaker for the Kenya Flash Lecture Series and would be contacted to confirm interest and availability.

Publications Committee—Jennifer Castle

The Publications Committee met virtually at 2:00 p.m. CST on Monday, January 12. The Committee approved the Minutes from the October 3, 2025 meeting. They announced that the Fall and Winter 2025 issues for Documents to the People (DttP) were released, with the Spring 2026 issue in progress. They reported that the DttP Book Review Editor had stepped off from the position and the editorial board. They discussed the financial situation affecting DttP and other ALA published journals and the desire to keep the journal afloat.

Rare & Endangered Government Publications Committee (REGP)—Susanne Caro

The New Rare and Endangered Government Publications Committee (REGP) met virtually at 12:00 p.m. CST on Wednesday, January 14. They opened the meeting with viewing the REGP Libguide.⁸ They discussed difficulties in collecting certain documents. They mentioned a specific need to collect documents related to sixty-six International Government Organizations (IGO) from which the United States would be withdrawing, per President Trump, as well as some challenges in doing so. They discussed various projects to preserve documents but that with groups becoming open access metadata previously recorded were getting lost. They also discussed the potential loss of LibGuides due to ALA pushing their internal infrastructure, the need to push for continuing to use LibGuides due to the difficulty in transferring content, and the need to push for continuing the subscription to LibGuides due to the difficulty in transferring to a new host. Concerns about DttP were raised, with a representative of Standford University Libraries volunteering to discuss potential help with hosting, as they host the DttP archives.

State & Local Documents Interest Group (SLDIG)—Denise Jones

The State and Local Documents Interest Group (SLDIG) met virtually at 1:00 p.m. CST on Wednesday, January 13. Their discussion was “Digitization for Preservation,” with speakers from New Mexico State Library, State Library of Pennsylvania, and California State Library. The speakers shared their experiences on selection and digitization of their respective collections.

Steering Committee—Julia Ezzo

The Steering Committee met virtually at 3:00 p.m. CST on Thursday, January 15. They approved the minutes from their previous meeting.

The following old business was discussed:

1. The audit of GODORT LibGuides is ongoing and focusing on accessibility compliance with WCAG 2.2⁹ and cleanup of user accounts.
2. The GODORT Special Reorganization Committee has been meeting weekly. To avoid excessive committee consolidations, the Special Reorganization Committee is investigating the possibility of transitioning several GODORT committees into task forces/interest groups. Under this plan, GODORT committees that focus on issues and advocacy would be transitioned to task forces/interest groups, while committees that assist in GODORT operations would remain committees. While the plan has yet to be finalized, the Reorganization
   Committee intends to complete its plan in time to present it in DttP and at the Annual Conference.

The following new business was discussed:

1. Discussion regarding DttP for the upcoming year due to finances was stalled, as there was no updated fiscal information for fiscal year 2025/2026. It was moved to table discussion of DttP and invite the ALA Treasurer to come to a future meeting to clarify the budget situation and answer questions. The motion carried. It was moved to table the discussion of DttP until more information
   was provided to the GODORT Steering Committee, including hopefully a response and visit from the ALA Treasurer. The motion carried.
2. Discussion of GODORT-hosted paid, continuing education webinars to help earn funds was held. It was moved to postpone consideration of this item until the next Steering Committee Meeting. The motion carried.
3. The Steering Committee entered a closed session and approved the candidates for several awards as brought forward by Emily Rogers of the Awards/Conference Committee.

Technology/Social Media/Outreach Committee—Sanga Sung

The Technology/Social Media/Outreach Committee did not meet in January 2026. However, they reminded everyone that if they have any announcements, events, or government information–related activities to share on GODORT social media, including committee news or institutional programs, send them to godortsocialmedia@gmail.com. To report issues with GODORT webpages or suggest updates or improvements, people can contact Sanga Sung (ssung@illinois.edu) or email godorttechnology@gmail.com.

Andie Craley (acraley@harford.edu), Technical Services & Government Information Librarian, Harford Community College

Notes

1. “GODORT 2026 Winter Meetings,” Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) LibGuides, Government Documents Round Table, American Library Association, https://godort.libguides.com/winter_meetings_2026.
2. “Cataloging LibGuides,” Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) LibGuides, Government Documents Round Table, American Library Association, https://
   godort.libguides.com/cataloging.
3. “About GODORT,” Government Documents Round Table, American Library Association, https://www.ala.org/godort/about.
4. “About Awards,” Government Documents Round Table, American Library Association, https://www.ala.org/godort/about-awards.
5. “GODORT Friday Chats,” Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) LibGuides, Government Documents Round Table, American Library Association, https://godort.libguides.com/fridaychats; helpimanaccidentalgovernme2397; Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian Webinars, Government Documents
   Roundtable, American Library Association, YouTube,
   http://www.youtube.com/@helpimanaccidentalgovernme
   2397.
6. “GODORT Committees, Task Forces, and Interest Groups,” Government Documents Round Table,
   American Library Association, https://www.ala.org/godort/about-committees.
7. “Publications and Resources,” Government Documents Round Table, American Library Association, https://www.ala.org/godort/publications-resources.
8. “Rare and Endangered Government Publications (REGP),” Government Documents Roundtable (GODORT) LibGuides, Government Documents Round Table,
   American Library Association, https://godort.libguides.com/REGP.
9. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), December 2024, https://www.w3.org/TR/2024/REC-WCAG22-20241212/.