ALA Council I: Rethinking ALA

Dear President Sullivan and Council friends,

Yesterday morning, I was casually glancing through one of my fave online rags, _American Libraries Direct_ (issue dated 1/30/2013), and what should I find?

[extract]

For about an hour, the [ALA] Council broke into small groups to discuss ‘rethinking ALA’ and what the group’s aspirations were for ALA. Among the many comments and suggestions were:

- Continue legislative advocacy
- Literacy training funding
- Offer leadership in copyright and fair use
- Continue the Digital Content and Libraries Working Group efforts
- Expand membership and encourage diversity
- Encourage every MLIS graduate to become a member of ALA and mentor them to help them become engaged
- To become as effective on the political scene as the National Rifle Association
- To be a financially secure organization
- See ALA as the source for continuing education for the profession

[/extract]

http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/inside-scoop/ala-council-i-reth…

Whoa! Hold on there for a sec! ALA wants to be as effective as… what??? The NRA? So this is what our profession’s leading organization has come to?

Okay, so I realize what the author is saying, and I’m pretty certain that it isn’t that the ALA should be *like* the NRA. But honestly: can we not come up with an equally “effective” yet *positive* role model? Surely they exist. Or maybe they don’t, in which case I am truly saddened and fearful, not only for our profession, but for America.

The NRA’s political effectiveness is based on bombastic invective, manipulation of the facts, and blatant political intimidation. Has the recession gotten so bad that our leaders would stoop to *this*? Is this what we want for the ALA? Are these the values that today’s librarians espouse?

Several years ago, in a previous life as editor of an ALA divisional journal, I published an editorial entitled “No More Silver Bullets, Please”. In it, I decried our profession’s obsession with quick, magic fixes to address the problems of declining patronage, shrinking staffs, and wholesale budget slashing. Little did I then imagine that in just a few short years we’d move from silver bullets to thoughts of sleeping with the likes of the NRA. The irony is overwhelming.

But perhaps I’m simply being old-fashioned and not thinking sufficiently “out-of-the-box”. Let’s try and imagine this as an Opportunity, rather than a Threat.

If the NRA’s brand of “effectiveness” is really what we want, then let’s put our dues money where our mouths are. Here’s a creative way to start: perhaps our colleagues in Chicago can woo Wayne LaPierre away from his current gig in Fairfax, Virginia. Hiring Wayne, currently the CEO and Executive Vice President of the NRA, would be a superb start for ALA’s effort to become as politically effective as that organization! The loss to our professional values would be *peanuts* by comparison with the leverage we’d gain, right?

But, wait! I fear that I’m not thinking *BIG ENOUGH*. And anyway, we’re cash-poor librarians after all — I’ll get to how we deal with *that* problem in a minute — and we very likely can’t afford Wayne. He works for the NRA, remember, an organization with several million loyal dues-paying members. We can hardly compete with that, can we? Ah, but we’re librarians and we believe in playing well with others, known these days as “partnering”! Think of the benefits an alliance with the NRA would reap for both outfits: ALA would get political clout (and maybe some sorely-needed cash) and the NRA would get… respectability? I can see the cross-marketing effort even now: a joint ALA-NRA booth at each organization’s national meeting, featuring side-by-side displays of _American Libraries_ with _American Rifleman_, _American Hunter_, and best of all, _America’s 1st Freedom_! RDA meets the Second Amendment! Tell the truth: does it get any cooler than this?

And just a few booths down the aisle on the ALA exhibition floor, who knows what we might find? Opposite Smith & Wesson’s display, we arrive at Colt’s booth, where, along with the de rigueur free candy, vendor tote bags, and posters (replace “READ” with “OPEN FIRE!”), you might pick up a .45 caliber pistol, ten percent “special conference discount” included… and with no background check! For those with extra-heavy-duty protection needs, an AR-15 semi-automatic is available by request. Of course, in a nod to the continuing relevance of the codex in our profession, there will also be a glossy coffee table book featuring a gallery of “America’s favorite guns”. And more au courant librarians will appreciate the ALA-branded iPad app that offers a how-to guide to “concealed-carry” when working at dangerous inner-city libraries.

Finally, while we’re at it, let’s do something meaningful about the “financially secure organization” aspiration, as well. That will require that ALA get a lot savvier at fund-raising… fast. We’ll need the services of an expert in the art of separating the “one percent” from their assets. Hey, who better to call than Bernie Madoff? Oh, right, Bernie’s doing 150 years in a Federal Corrections Institute in North Carolina. Ah well, someone else nearly as good is surely available!

Yes, these are indeed challenging times, and we need to “rethink” ALA as creatively as we can. Our profession’s leaders have pointed the way. Check your values at the door, but that Saturday Night Special you’ve got in your B&T tote is okay. Really!

Thanks for listening,

- mt