Professional Organizations

The American Library Association (ALA), was founded in 1876 at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. According to the website, ALA.org, it works to promote leadership in the profession, improvement of the profession and governs the new librarianship to ensure everyone has equal access to information. In its strategic plan, ALA has eight main areas of action:

-Advocacy for Libraries and the Profession

-Education and Lifelong Learning

-Intellectual Freedom

-Organizational Excellence

-Diversity

-Equitable Access to Information and Library Services

-Literacy, and

-Transforming Libraries

There are three ways to be a member: You can have a personal membership, an organizational membership or a corporate membership. A personal membership ranges anywhere from $34-$166 dollars per year, depending on which category you are in. Memberships offer the support of other professionals, discounted conference tickets, access to roundtables on topics important to librarianship and subscriptions to any of their publications.

The publications are divided up by division, there is a publication for the Public Library Association (PLA), the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), and the Library & Information Technology Association (LITA). Each focuses on a specific type of librarianship and PLA member has the option of subscribing at a discount rate to any of these publications,

ALA has a conference a big conference every year. I know this year it is in Las Vegas in June. They also host smaller Mid-Winter conferences where librarians can attend breakout sessions to learn more about the ever changing world of libraries. ALA will often host roundtables on topics as well, which any member can attend.

ALA has a presence on all of the major social networking sites. Including: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Reddit. From what I can see Facebook and Twitter are the two most active accounts.

I plan on becoming a member of ALA in the very near future. I see it as the main professional organization for the Library and Information Profession. It is the one I have heard the most about from friends, co-workers and other librarians. It is the organization which accredits the school of Library and Information Sciences for all the major universities.

More information on ALA can be found at ALA.org.

The Indiana Library Federation (ILF), is the main library professional organization in the state of Indiana. Its mission is to foster the professionalism and growth of all libraries and librarians in Indiana.

Personal membership is $40.00 per year (January 1^st-December 31^st). There is no special student rate available. When signing up you pick the division of which you are a part. For instance, I am a member of this organization and I am part of the support staff division and the Indiana Library Division.

The two printed publications are Focus on Indiana Libraries and Indiana Libraries. The first publication is a statewide publication that brings together news and other interests from people currently working in Hoosier libraries. The second publication is for librarians and media specialists, anyone who meets the printed guidelines can submit an article to be printed in an issue.

The organization also sends out weekly and monthly emails about various happenings in Indiana. It offers discounts to many workshops and conferences. For instance, there is a discount on PLA registration for this year. It will be held in Indianapolis in March. The emails also talk about the important work that the federation is doing for libraries in Indiana.

They too have a presence on the web, especially Facebook and Twitter. They too seem to be the most active. More information on ILF can be found at ILFonline.org.