Comments on: On the ALA Membership Pyramid

By: ALA Marginalia » Blog Archive » Increasing Usage of ALA Connect

ALA Marginalia » Blog Archive » Increasing Usage of ALA Connect — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:48:05 +0000

[...] ItLwtLP site also has an interesting post from October 15, 2008, titled On the ALA Membership Pyramid. It has 43 comments on it, which contain some truly interesting ideas for ALA. If you’re one [...]

By: Emily Ford

Emily Ford — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:41:16 +0000

I’m so glad to hear of such efforts and successes for PLA. I recently had a conversation with some volunteers of mine who are public librarians who expressed the difficulty of being involved in ALA because of institutional support. The efforts that PLA is making for virtual attendance and by creating online communities of practice will certainly help professionals participate on national levels, especially those whose employers don’t support conference attendance except for once every few years.

By: Andrea Mercado

Andrea Mercado — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:57:37 +0000

Just to piggyback on Doug Dawson’s comments, PLA also presented its first-ever Virtual Conference in conjunction with the most recent PLA conference, and it was a huge success for a first-time effort. I testified before ALA Council to the fact that there was great demand from those attendees — by way of comments in the live discussions as well as evaluation comments — for more and similar events to be presented by ALA as a whole. I definitely feel like PLA is really making great strides in trying to implement the types of interactions and technologies that can enable members to make the most out of their professional experiences through PLA, and that it’s really hard, slow work making this type of progress within a large organization like ALA.

Andrea Mercado, Co-Manager, PLABlog.org

By: Doug Dawson

Doug Dawson — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:58:01 +0000

Emily, I think that your post is an excellent reminder of the value of getting younger members involved in discussing the future of organizations such as the ALA and PLA. You raise several intriguing ideas for discussion. We in the Public Library Association (PLA) have seen strong support for increased online participation. Last spring the PLA membership voted overwhelmingly in favor of shifting many of the traditional PLA committees to online communities of practice (CoPs). A PLA Emerging Leader group spent time this past summer creating a plan to manage that shift, and out of their recommendations we created PLAspace. Launched last month PLAspace is still taking shape but the number of CoPs and registered users has grown rapidly, and it is all being driven by dedicated PLA members. At this time anyone - member or not - is able to create an account and participate, and I'd like to encourage you and every young librarian to do so to make your voice heard. Doug Dawson | Manager of Web Services, PLA

By: Pro-Con-ference | In the Library with the Lead Pipe

Pro-Con-ference | In the Library with the Lead Pipe — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:02:10 +0000

[...] With the economy tanking and travel prices increasing (I don’t want to think about how much it’s costing to get me across the country to ACRL in March), large national conferences become ever more problematic for a larger number of librarians. There has always been a (perhaps large) group of librarians who have neither the personal nor institutional funding to attend conferences, a group which has been mostly shut out of ALA (see Emily’s post). [...]

By: The Brewin’ Librarian » Great Leaders Listen, Do You?

The Brewin’ Librarian » Great Leaders Listen, Do You? — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:51:20 +0000

[...] in the ALA at large—for reasons Emily at “In the Library with the Lead Pipe” laid out much more eloquently than I could—I am very happy to be involved on a local level. I love this state, I am immensely impressed by [...]

By: Carolyn Wood

Carolyn Wood — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:22:22 +0000

Every individual brings a unique perspective to an organizational system. I agree with much has been said and actually was amusing myself to some extent in this thread. Presently I'm focused on NJLA but continue to pay my obligatory ALA dues. I am open to joining a productive committee/round table if you have a recommendation. While I was visiting Seattle, as an EL, I was indoctrinated into promoting the value of having fun in libraryland. I credit the fish mongers of Pike Place Market who continue to serve as my mentors for literacy advocacy. BTW-I plan to visit Woodbury Public Library at 1:00 pm this afternoon for the opening of the Smithsonian's exhibit, Key Ingredients. Woodbury Public Library Key Ingredients Exhibit The exhibit should be fun, stop by if you need to get out more. Derik: Nice photostream!

By: Emily Ford

Emily Ford — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 15:03:02 +0000

I’ve been following these discussions and wanted to chime in again…

Aaron: I really do like your expansion of the pyramid–this is a great complement to the framework of understanding I see. And I can’t wait for the unicorns.

Rory: I think you’ve poked at another level that can be added to the model.

Jenny: This model does exist, but only in the Student to Work program and not for those of us who have finished school.

Carolyn: I am agreeing with Derik for most of this conversation. I have found myself using the term “indoctrinated” for ALA for quite a while and I use it earnestly. What’s more, a friend of mine and fellow Emerging Leader has referred to ALA as an “elitist monolith” and I quite fully agree. Yet I find myself participating in this structure–to a large degree of consternation. ALA may not be for me in the future, and I think this is what the organization is battling, a whole slew of librarians who don’t really want to participate in that “elitist monolith” or to become “properly indoctrinated.”

By: Derik Badman

Derik Badman — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:39:45 +0000

That indoctrinated comment wasn’t meant as an insult or anything. Just me amusing myself as I write.

I do believe community efforts can make a difference. I do see I’ve a typo in my comment. It should say “I’ve NOT researched it closely”. That is, I know ALA does advocacy, I’ve just not paid attention to the outcomes.

I think it’d be an interesting study to find out what people like. It could potentially work as a marketing effort (so and so loves ALA because…).

By: Carolyn Wood

Carolyn Wood — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:49:30 +0000

properly indoctrinated – ouch

I have been involved in community efforts that made a difference. Things change.

I will give your study idea some thought.