American Library Association

The American Library Association (ALA) is a group that promotes libraries and library education in the United States and internationally. It has approximately 66,000 members. It was founded in 1876 in Philadelphia and chartered in 1879 in Massachusetts, making it the oldest and largest library association in the world. Its head office is in Chicago. Since 2002^*, the Executive Director (CEO) of the American Library Association has been Keith Michael Fiels. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Association and its staff.

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." It is open to any person or organization willing to pay dues, though most of its members are libraries or librarians. Most members live and work in the United States; international members comprise 3.5% of total membership. ^*

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 academic institutions that offer degree programs in library and information science.

Members may choose to join one or more of 11 membership divisions which deal with specialized topics such as academic, school, or public libraries, technical or reference services, and library administration. Members may also choose to join any of 17 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. ^*

Political stances

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

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. provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored." [http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/basics/intellectual.htm The primary expession of ALA's intellectual freedom principles are the Freedom to Read Statement and the Library Bill of Rights.

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; the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the decision in favor of the law on June 23 2003. ^*

The American Library Association passed a resolution on the Patriot Act, that it considers "a present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy rights of library users" and is active in fighting censorship nationwide. An ALA member's case (Doe v. Gonzales) is currently being heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. 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. [http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/civilliberties/theusapatriotact/usapatriotact.htm#court Because the plaintiff is the employee of a library consortium and an ALA member, the ALA filed an amicus curiae brief with the court.

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." ^* 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. ^*

Controversy

The ALA holds policy positions on number of broadly controversial current issues. Occasionally, social conservatives have singled out the ALA specifically for criticism. The most public instance of this occurred in May of 1999. Dr. Laura Schlessinger, a widely syndicated radio personality, campaigned against the "Teen Hoopla" web site that the ALA had created for those aged 12-18, and that contained a link to an explicit sex education web site. She called the ALA "twits," and asked voters to stop approving the budgets for libraries. Other groups have criticized the ALA for its stance on Children's Internet Protection Act or for its opposition to any form of content filtering within libraries.[http://www.afa.net/lif/schools.asp.

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 focussed on internal organization business, while ALA Annual is focussed 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 ^*. A schedule of upcoming conference dates, with cities chosen through 2014, is available on the ALA's website. 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.

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Political stances

Civil liberties, intellectual freedom, and privacy

Copyright

Controversy

Conferences

Divisions

Round tables

External links