My Own ALA rant
Mar 8th, 2006 by Karen
I was terribly distressed to hear about Karen Schneider’s resignation from ALA Council. It is another thorn in my side in terms of how I have been feeling about ALA. (Meredith and I have similar complaints.) It wasn’t until recently, when I become more active with LITA, that I got to meet Karen. However, I’ve always thought that she did a good job speaking to the issues that I care a great deal about. I’ll miss her represention on the Council particular since I often feel that she is one of a very small group of Councilors who are more progressive. At least there is some hope in incoming ALA president Leslie Burger and councilors like Jessamyn. Still a small part of me blames ALA for Karen’s resignation, if they didn’t insist that physical presence at meetings is the sole acceptable way to participate, perhaps Karen could still be a Councillor. Okay part of this has to do with the fact that I get three funded trips a year at my work and it seems crazy that if I want to volunteer for committee chairship or run for council membership that I should have to use two of them to participate in ALA. What about my own professional development? While some of the programming at ALA is relevant to me, it isn’t even close to the most valuable conference for me professional development wise.
As upset as ALA makes me, I can’t in good conscience turn my back on ALA, not because I love the organization, but because I feel that change has to come from within. I’m not sure what exactly this means for me. Likely it means finding some way to become more involved, although how I’d juggle more commitments and responsibilities is a mystery to me.
