So I mentioned in yesterday’s post that the Communities & Libraries interest group was one I hadn’t heard about before and here’s why: they were founded about a month ago at the CLA conference. At the moment, there are about 20 members, apparently, and 10 interested “others”. The problem of restrictive fees always comes up (Jason wrote about the conference fees on his blog), and I remember this discussion from earlier this year when someone was applying for a CLA conference bursary. One of the requirements of the bursary was that the recipient had to be a CLA member - which is kind of strange: wouldn’t they want to broaden the CLA’s base by bringing in the who can’t even afford to be members?
The ALA has a $50 first-time membership fee, which is good - perhaps a bit pricey for some, but a good policy. I’m not sure what their rates are normally because their site is messed up at the moment. One thing they do that’s good, I think, is let their round-tables charge whatever dues they see fit. For something like the Communities & Libraries group, that might be a fantastic option: total sliding scale.
Some of the people who’ve graduated from library school but haven’t found work yet are finding themselves sans CLA membership, too… which is frustrating (in a circular way) when they’re trying to find work. I noticed that they do have a low-income fee of $100/year (compared to the standard $200/year) which is great, but still a tough sell for people with very little money. But kudos to the CLA for noticing that they ought to have a low-income category. Next step: sliding scale with free conference attendance for student and first-time low-income attendees.
In the meantime, though, it’s good that the Libraries and Communities group is up and running - there’s an e-mail list coming sometime in the near future, and I’m sure the membership base will grow like wild-fire within the public library activist community! Time now for some closing remarks from Annette DeFaveri:
Personally I hope the [interest group] is one part the beginning of a movement within profession to build and support active and activist librarians. I am particularly interested in the philosophical and political ideas that we can bring to the library to help shape a vision for the future of the institution and for the evolution of the profession.
-S.