The American Library Association i.e. the ALA

The American Library Association MissionThe ALA Constitution, adopted in 1892 and reinstated by the ALA Council in 1988,  states that the mission of the ALA is “to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.”

The Official ALA Motto:
"The best reading, for the largest number, at the least cost."
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/missionhistory/mission/index.cfm

The ALA has also committed to eight Key Action Areas to focus the Library's energies and resources:  Access,  Confidentiality/Privacy,  Democracy,  Diversity,  Education and Lifelong Learning, Intellectual Freedom,  Preservation, and The Public Good.

The Goals of the ALA
The ALA equips and leads advocates for libraries, library issues and the library profession, and plays a key role in formulating legislation, policies and standards that affect library and information services.
ALA promotes excellence and diversity in the library field.
ALA provides leadership in the transformation of libraries and library services in a dynamic and increasingly global digital information environment.
ALA provides an environment in which all members, regardless of location or position, have the opportunity to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from engagement in their association.
ALA operates effectively, efficiently, creatively and in a socially responsible fashion to accomplish its mission.
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/section2.pdf

I am relieved to see how dedicated the ALA is to the survival of the library.

While the library has traditionally held the position of cataloging the world's information, it is not competing or claiming to compete with Google in maximizing easy access to information. The library is about people helping people, providing the open access needed to close the digital divide. The library provides "the human touch"--something I believe will be even more crucial in the digital future.

"Respectfully connecting people to the information they seek" is how I see the library.

The library is dependent on the public's perception of its usefulness, and their willingness to devote local, state and federal tax dollars to sustain them. While libraries are still valued, they have experienced steady budget cuts. Will people still see a need for the library as a physical place, and sustain this place in the future?

KD Rouse: Thoughts on the Library

Despite my reservations about the potential to ruin a personal haven by working there, (See One Legged Larry & Leery of the Library. KD Rouse. Exploration of Internet Publishing and Promotion Blog. June 17th., 4:42 pm post) I have just successfully completed my first year of Library School at University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

While I have not actually worked in a library, the library has not lost its luster under scrutiny. My admiration and devotion for the library grows as I learn of its heart, brains and guts. It is a place of dreams, and unapologetic triumph, endless destinations, and social reform, manned by a diverse array of unassuming, but fierce defenders of free speech, social equality, and intellectual freedom.

To me, the library is the most successful institution in its marriage to the ideals ensured to us by the U.S. constitution. It is fluid, responding, rising, changing as information builds and morphs to new systems of delivery, driven by technology.

The American Library Association, (ALA) the primary professional association for librarians, embraces a clear mission steeped with workable idealism, proving its dedication and success in implementing social reform and invoking and enforcing our constitutional rights by its history. The ALA provides cohesiveness to the group charged with guarding open and easy access information for all,  in an environment of dizzying change.

The ALA has a proud history and matter-of-fact presence, while it keeps a vigilant eye on the future.

When I walk into a library, I leave the frenzied world behind. I am welcome, no matter who I am or what I look like. It is warm when I am cold, cool when I am hot.
I smell equality, freedom, and the scent of books, and I can wander whereever I will and pick books like posies in any bouquet that strikes my fancy.
My library card is used and worn, but the thrill of being allowed to take books home with me never fades.
I leave with anticipation, happy with the heaviness of my bag.
I devour them behind closed doors, selfish and demanding, using them, then returning them without remorse when I am done.