American Library Association

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ALA Logo

The American Library Association (ALA) is a group based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with approximately 66,000 members. Founded in 1876 in Philadelphia and chartered in 1879 in Massachusetts, its head office is now in Chicago. Since 2002, Keith Michael Fiels has been the ALA Executive Director (CEO).^[1]

ALA Seal

The stated 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." ALA membership is open to any person or organization, though most of its members are libraries or librarians. As well, most members live and work in the United States, with international members comprising 3.5% of total membership. ^[2]

The ALA is governed by an elected council and an executive board. Policies and programs are administered by various committees and round tables. One of the organization's most visible tasks is overseen by the Office for Accreditation, which formally reviews and authorizes American and Canadian academic institutions that offer degree programs in library and information science.

Members may join one or more of eleven membership divisions that deal with specialized topics such as academic, school, or public libraries, technical or reference services, and library administration. Members may also join any of seventeen round tables that are grouped around more specific interests and issues than the broader set of ALA divisions.

The ALA is affiliated with regional, state, and student chapters across the country. It also organizes conferences, participates in library standards development, and publishes a number of books and periodicals. The ALA annually confers numerous notable book and media awards, including the Caldecott Medal, the Newbery Medal, and the Stonewall Book Award. ^[3]

1 Political stances
- 1.1 Civil liberties, intellectual freedom, and privacy
- 1.2 Copyright
2 Conferences
3 Divisions
4 Round tables
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Political stances

The ALA advocates positions on United States political issues that it believes are related to libraries and librarianship. For court cases that touch on issues about which the organization holds positions, the ALA often files amici curiae briefs. The ALA has an office in Washington, DC that lobbies Congress on issues relating to libraries, information and communication. It also provides materials to libraries that may include information on how to apply for grants, how to comply with the law, and how to oppose a law. ^[4]

[edit] Civil liberties, intellectual freedom, and privacy

The ALA maintains an Office for Intellectual Freedom, under the guidance of director Judith Krug. The Office promotes intellectual freedom, which it describes as "The right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. [The ALA] provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored."^[5] The primary documented expressions of the ALA's intellectual freedom principles are the Freedom to Read Statement and the Library Bill of Rights.

As a result of its stance on intellectual freedom, the ALA is generally opposed to any censorship of the material in its libraries.^[6] Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, has said "Our hope is that books are retained rather than removed", adding that "[u]ltimately, every challenge (to ban material from libraries) is an attempt to remove ideas from the discourse. We really encourage books (be allowed) to stay in the curriculum and to work with the difficult material. Every community, of course, comes to its own conclusion."^[7] In 1999, radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger campaigned publicly against the ALA's intellectual freedom policy, specifically in regard to the ALA's refusal to remove a link on its web site to an explicit sex-education site for teens.^[8]

In upholding its commitment to intellectual freedom, the ALA filed suit against the United States Children's Internet Protection Act in ALA vs. United States. The circuit court sided with the plaintiffs, but the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the decision in favor of the law on June 23, 2003 in US v. ALA.

The ALA has passed a resolution regarding the USA PATRIOT Act, which it considers "a present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy rights of library users."^[9] A court case involving an ALA member is currently being heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Doe v. Gonzales. It was originally heard by the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, which ruled that issuing a National Security Letter under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to a library consortium violated the right to free speech.^[10] Because the plaintiff is an employee of a library consortium and an ALA member, the ALA has filed an amicus curiae brief with the court.^[11] The ALA sells "radical militant librarian" buttons for librarians to wear in support of its stance.^[12]

[edit] Copyright

The ALA says it "supports efforts to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and to urge the courts to restore the balance in copyright law, ensure fair use and protect and extend the public domain." ^[13] It supports changing copyright law to release orphan works into the public domain; is wary of digital rights management; and, in ALA v. FCC, successfully sued the Federal Communications Commission to prevent regulation that would enforce next generation digital televisions to contain rights management hardware. It has joined the Information Access Alliance to promote open access to research. ^[14]

[edit] Conferences

The ALA and its divisions hold numerous conferences throughout the year, of which the two ALA-wide ones are the ALA Annual Conference and the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Midwinter is typically more focused on internal organization business, while ALA Annual is focused around exhibits and presentations. The Annual conference is generally held in June, and Midwinter is typically held in January. ALA Annual is notable for being one of the largest professional conferences in existence, typically drawing over 25,000 attendees ^[15]. The 2006 Annual conference was held in New Orleans; the association considered moving the conference to a new location after Hurricane Katrina struck, but conference organizers chose to continue plans for holding the conference in New Orleans to show support for the city.