Comments on: ALA: What is to be done?

By: Melinda

Melinda — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:12:29 +0000

I am currently attending my first ALA conference, and I must say, my overall impressions have been very dissapointing. For a profession that prides itself on being very tech-innovative – I’ve found that finding agendas for various meetings/discussion groups/etc., is like pulling teeth. It’s extremely frustrating – there’s no centralized website/program/etc., where it lists all the meetings and their agendas. I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a deadline for the various discussion groups, etc. to subit their agendas and then have them all published (either electronically or in the printed guide). It is left to the indicudual to track down individual pages and wikis and blogs and discussion groups to find out what is going on. And some of these groups seem to have no real web presence.

The disorganization and lack of communication between all these sub-committees and their parent organizations, as well as a lack of systematic web presence for all the various meetings is a big turn-off for me. I have no desire to go to the Annual Conference.

By: Tayyab Jan

Tayyab Jan — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:12:05 +0000

After reading the article and comments i come to the conclusion that ALA should do something Practical for the promotion of Libraries both at national and international level.

Reward should be given to those who show miximum ouptput.

only arranging conferences and publishing ALA missions is just useless.

AlA shoud focus both its energy and resources on innovation not on human resource like (66000+ members).

Yet it have time to come forward ask the libraries about their problems and should try their best to solve them.

Tayyab Jan
Member UNESCO Programm for Library Promotion.

Cataloguer UET Mardan Campus,Pakistan.

By: Free Range Librarian » Blog Archive » This is why ALA Council is broken

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 23:35:23 +0000

[...] were saying… kgs on Nicole’s Burnout Blueskgs on Why Today is a Glorious DayScott on ALA: What is to be done?unemployed librarian on ALA: What is to be done?Greg Facincani on Why Today is a Glorious [...]

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:55:52 +0000

What I like about the ALA conference is the political unanimity.

Nothing says “dues-paying arm of the Democratic Party, USA” like ALA does. The speakers, the topics, everything is firmly — dare I say rigidly? — left wing.

This is an important reminder to those few dissident librarians who may be feeling left out. They need to realize that the democratic values of free information and free speech are best nurtured when enclosed in a protectively unanimous, totalized belief system which is a priori correct.

Nothing less would be good enough for upholding diversity, tolerance, and liberty. As honorary ALA member Michael Moore probably has already said elsewhere: “¡Socialismo o Muerte!”

By: unemployed librarian

unemployed librarian — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:27:55 +0000

Get the ALA out of the recruitment business.

The last recruitment drive has ruined the lives of countless young librarians because there are too many librarians and not enough jobs.

The ALA simply does not have the forsight to predect librarian shortages. They were dead wrong about the looming “librarian shortage” which was supposed to hit when all the baby boomers were scheduled to retire. But they never retired, and those who have were simply not replaced due to budget cuts. Meanwhile, thousands of unemployed librarians who were recruited with promises of jobs are standing in welfare lines and competing fiercely for the few low-paying positions which are left.

This must never happen again.

By: Aaron the Librarian

Aaron the Librarian — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:45:15 +0000

All these are great questions that could use a virtual town hall setting. Since we’re all brainstorming questions needing answers, we could use the “Improve ALA” wiki
[ http://improveala.pbwiki.com ] to track the questions (and answers)

By: kgs

kgs — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 13:22:15 +0000

I think a conversation worth having online in a fairly broad town meeting is “What would you change about ALA?” More specific discussions could be focused on a variety of topics, such as “What should ALA look like in ten years?” and “What is the role of ALA?”

One direction I think I’d like to avoid is “Do we need ALA.” I only say that because I think that’s like evaluating my writing by the rejection letters instead of the acceptances.

By: david lee king

david lee king — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 04:54:06 +0000

Hmm… I think you’re right, kgs. Probably a number of discussions (assuming good stuff comes out of them) would be useful – that could hone something down into an actual agenda that could then be discussed somewhere (like Denver). And yes – irc would work well for that (and gives me an excuse to use irc again, too).

By: Diving for Perls « Robotic Librarian

Diving for Perls « Robotic Librarian — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 22:34:59 +0000

[...] role in encoding library services, and to that end we need to know the basics. For example, a common complaint about the ALA’s digital face is that the website is unappealing, and even archaic. As Norma [...]

By: kgs

kgs — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 16:08:23 +0000

The ALA membership meeting has always posed as the Meeting of the Masses, but it’s hard to envision real brainstorming in a huge room with chairs facing a podium, not to mention one that this time features a “forum” (program in disguise?) highlighting two guys squaring off about whether Council should address social isssues.

Speaking of which, if the Feminist Task Force wanted some renewed participation, it could ask for women to note whenever ALA holds panels that are all-male.

But back to changing ALA: in my mind, that needs to happen as a gathering discussion over the next six months, with some intentional planning/participation for a convocation in Denver that would be scheduled months before our other schedules are set in stone. An online “town meeting” via IRC would be one thought.