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While ALAers are at ALA, my thoughts on ALA
I know that it is some time since the last kerfluffle has died down -- and in this case, by "kerfluffle", I mean "outpouring of amused frustration against Michael Gorman". Though various people had excellent things to say about why they were planning on leaving ALA (Dorothea, Anna) or why they weren't (Rochelle), I couldn't quite bring myself to to get that worked up about it. I'm in a transitional phase as far as my career grows. I'm graduated from library school and deep in the hunt for my first professional library position. But I have a variety of specialties, and I'm not sure where I'll end up. Will I be a systems librarian? A digital librarian and markup specialist? A reference librarian? A young adult librarian? Will I be joining ASIST, SLA, YALSA, RUSA, ARL? A different organization depending on my final employed specialty?
For my part, I find the ALA as a whole to be remarkably useless organization. The only point, to me, of a massive professional organization is organizing power -- a union, as it were. And sometimes ALA uses its massive organizing power in ways that I find appropriate and of which I approve: protesting the PATRIOT Act's library provisions. Sometimes ALA neglects to use its massive organizing power: waiting until now to start serious efforts to prevent library closings across the nation. And sometimes ALA, in my opinion, misuses its massive organizing power: recruiting library school students for a mythical shortage which is unlikely to appear.
A small organization, though, can be targeted better professionally or geographically to be a more direct use to its members. A geographically targeted organization (MLA, for example) is far superior for networking purposes than an organization with tens of thousands of members. A professionally targeted organization will have conferences, sessions, networking, and other materials aimed specifically to me.
Now it may well be that it will be appropriate for me to join an ALA division (LITA or YALSA, for example). In that case, I will join ALA, and get what I need from the small division within the large organization. But ALA as a whole? I don't feel that they have anything to offer me, except the aforementioned massive organizational and political power. And, I suppose, Michael Gorman's amazing ability to run off at the mouth and make my entire profession look stupid, which he can do whether I'm a member or not.
But wait, you might say. Weren't you the secretary of your student organization's ALA chapter? And yes, I was. But there's a big difference between being the secretary of the student group which works to bring professional events to campus and being a member of the national organization.
For my part, I find the ALA as a whole to be remarkably useless organization. The only point, to me, of a massive professional organization is organizing power -- a union, as it were. And sometimes ALA uses its massive organizing power in ways that I find appropriate and of which I approve: protesting the PATRIOT Act's library provisions. Sometimes ALA neglects to use its massive organizing power: waiting until now to start serious efforts to prevent library closings across the nation. And sometimes ALA, in my opinion, misuses its massive organizing power: recruiting library school students for a mythical shortage which is unlikely to appear.
A small organization, though, can be targeted better professionally or geographically to be a more direct use to its members. A geographically targeted organization (MLA, for example) is far superior for networking purposes than an organization with tens of thousands of members. A professionally targeted organization will have conferences, sessions, networking, and other materials aimed specifically to me.
Now it may well be that it will be appropriate for me to join an ALA division (LITA or YALSA, for example). In that case, I will join ALA, and get what I need from the small division within the large organization. But ALA as a whole? I don't feel that they have anything to offer me, except the aforementioned massive organizational and political power. And, I suppose, Michael Gorman's amazing ability to run off at the mouth and make my entire profession look stupid, which he can do whether I'm a member or not.
But wait, you might say. Weren't you the secretary of your student organization's ALA chapter? And yes, I was. But there's a big difference between being the secretary of the student group which works to bring professional events to campus and being a member of the national organization.