Recession Drives Membership Numbers Downward

July 7, 2009

By any measure, the American Library Association's membership retention level has always been enviable. But the other shoe has dropped in the nation's economic "deep recession," as May figures show. With ALA Publishing Department revenue already in decline, membership dues revenue at $4.3 million is under budget by $127,000 or 2.8%. The number of new and renewing members has declined from 67,827 to 65,437, or -3.52%. On the plus side, ALA continues to see growth in student membership; May numbers were up by 2.3%. Year-to-date statistics show a flat renewal rate overall for personal members and new membership enrolments are down 6.33%. The YTD statistics also show movement from reular and other classes of membership to the "continuous member" category, which is up 8.7% and no doubt reflects the retirement trend within the profession. Of ALA's 11 divisions, only the Young Adult Library Services division has seen growth of 1.04% over FY2008. Not surprisingly, the Public Library Association has born the severest drop at (12.67%), followed by the Reference and User Services Association (8.24%), the Library and Information Technology Association (8.18%), the Library Leadership and Management Association (7.25%), the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (6.05%), and the American Association of School Librarians (5.17%). The other major piece of the ALA revenue pie (in addition to publishing and membership) is conferences. Registration for ALA in Chicago is currently strong—2,000 ahead of Anaheim last year—but not likely to be the record-breaker it could have been under normal circumstances.

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Civil Rights Pioneer, Librarian E. J. Josey Dies at 85

ALTAFF Spokesperson Paula Poundstone at Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!

AL Focus visited ALTAFF Spokesperson Paula Poundstone July 9 before a taping of National Public Radio's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! attended by 500 librarians. The conversation covered Poundstone's role as ALTAFF spokesperson, her kids' reading habits, The Three Stooges, the dreaded acronym game, and the horrors of math. See more ALA videos at alfocus.ala.org.

Latest Library Links

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Joe Foley writes: “Copyright rules vary from country to country and have changed over time. In the US, works created between 1929 and 1963 that gave notice and renewed copyright have 95 years from their first publication date. That means that on January 1, 2025, a host of works from 1929 will enter the public domain. This means that copyright will expire on Buck Rogers, Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar, Tintin, Hal Foster’s first Tarzan comic strips and, yes, Popeye.” Other notable works entering public domain in the United States include the Marx Brothers’ first film, The Cocoanuts, contralto Marian Anderson’s first record, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Creative Bloq, Dec. 7; Everybody’s Libraries, Dec. 3, Dec. 7; Public Domain Review, Dec. 10
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Brittany Adams writes: “The digital landscape of libraries is expanding rapidly, with an increasing shift towards electronic resources and online services. As members of the library community, we’re witnessing a transformative era where physical collections are complemented—and sometimes replaced—by digital ones. This transition offers new opportunities for enhancing accessibility and engagement, but it also presents challenges, especially for young patrons and their families. It is essential to equip children and their caregivers with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate this evolving space confidently.”

ALSC Blog, Dec. 9
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Karen O’Grady writes: “I am the embedded librarian for the Hahn School of Nursing at the University of San Diego. I am surrounded by nursing faculty, staff, and students rather than by librarians. This has proven to be an incredible gamechanger for the way I see things. Every student in my school knows me by name. I am often stopped in the hallway to answer questions. Every correct answer I give increases my authority and builds trust. Through these casual mini-lessons, this foreign animal called ‘librarian’ slowly becomes an approachable, knowledgeable person.”

College & Research Libraries News, Dec.
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ALA has selected 46 participants for its 2025 class of Emerging Leaders (EL). The EL program allows library staff and information workers to participate in project planning work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. The group will take part in a day-long session during the 2025 LibLearnX conference in Phoenix this January and work for six months, culminating in a poster session at ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia in June, where they will highlight results of their project planning work.

ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Dec. 4
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On December 9, ALA announced a $25 million bequest by James W. Lewis, of Washington, D.C. The gift, the largest individual bequest in ALA’s history, will fund scholarships for aspiring librarians with demonstrated financial needs. Throughout Lewis’s career at Merrill Lynch, where he leads the Lewis Group as senior vice president and senior relationship manager, he has demonstrated his commitment to libraries and their communities by generously volunteering his time, including as a member of the Board of Visitors at the library of his alma mater, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He also served as a Library Trustee Board member at District of Columbia Public Library for 10 years.”

AL: The Scoop, Dec. 9
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Tess Prendergast writes: “I will never forget the surprised look on one mom’s face during storytime when I dropped a tip—technically called an aside—about how rhyming helps babies differentiate sounds and prepares them for reading. “You mean that all this singing will help her in school?” she asked. “I thought we were just doing this for fun!” Early literacy activities are certainly fun—but also valuable. Many parents and caregivers aren’t aware that simple, everyday activities can benefit their child’s early language and literacy development and have a lasting positive impact on their learning.”

American Libraries column, Nov./Dec.
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Joel Thornton, associate dean, collections and scholarly communication at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, has withdrawn his candidacy for 2025–2028 treasurer of the ALA. Larry Neal, director of Clinton-Macomb (Mich.) Public Library, is the remaining nominated candidate for ALA treasurer. Members who are interested in running by petition for ALA treasure may do so by completing a petition form with the signatures of no fewer than 200 current personal ALA members, and a Candidate Biographical Information Form, by December 13.

ALA Governance Office, Dec. 9

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Recession Drives Membership Numbers Downward

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Civil Rights Pioneer, Librarian E. J. Josey Dies at 85

ALTAFF Spokesperson Paula Poundstone at Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!