In or out of ALA
ALA leader Rochelle is canvassing the library blogsphere to get a read on who’s giving up on ALA. (I use the word “leader” for her, rather than her proper ALA title, partly because I’m not sure what that is—but mostly because I want to point out that she is leading. Mr. Gorman? Want to know what real, respectful, responsive leadership looks like? Rochelle is it.)
I encourage people who are and who aren’t leaving to talk to Rochelle via comments and email. Elsewhere, Rochelle has suggested that disappointed ALA members contact the Executive Board with their concerns as well as expressing them via blogs et cetera. I completely agree with that advice, and shall be following it.
One thing I do want to make clear: I would not be happy to see people give up on library activism and library organizations altogether because of ALA follies. I certainly shan’t. I intend to become active in my state library association (once I move, of course) and other organizations as well. There’s plenty enough work to be done in libraryland; ALA is far from the only arena for doing it.
Indeed, as I said on Rochelle’s site, it strikes me as a terrible shame that so much librarian energy and brainpower—from some of our best people— is sucked into shoving an elephantine organization into tentative steps toward reform and relevance. I’d rather see folks working on changing the world than changing ALA.