ALA Elections 2015 - about me

Edited 5/11 - no part 2 or part 3!


If you have not received your ALA ballot, they are distributed over several days.

Some of you may have noticed my name out there. This went out to a discussion list a little bit ago:

ASCLA 2015 Elections are Approaching!
Please click on this link to view the following ASCLA members who will be running for election for ASCLA offices in the 2015 Elections. Please join me in thanking these members for agreeing to stand for election for an ASCLA office and be sure to vote in the Spring elections! Voting begins on March 24, 2015 through May 1, 2015 @ 11:59 PM CDT.

Because of my standing for election as Vice President/President-Elect of ASCLA. For those who do not know, ASCLA  is the Association for Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies, one of the divisions of the American Library Association.

It is the smallest of the ALA divisions. For more about ALA and ASCLA, visit the tab ALA 101 (on this blog).

So, here is what I said in my statement of professional concerns:

I have often recommended to new members of ALA to find a home in ALA with others whose work is like theirs. ASCLA has been ALA's smallest division and because of the small size, it is possible to get to know people and to become involved.

I did some simple analysis of recent membership trends, and plotting ASCLA's membership against ALA's membership shows that ASCLA has retained members better than ALA. That does not mean that we do not have to continue to work to recruit members, but it does show that ASCLA has value for ALA members. I have many contacts across the association, and want to leverage the knowledge those people have, to make ASCLA even more successful. Part of the perspective which I bring is from having been active in the larger organization. I believe that my experience, and contacts, will help position ASCLA for the future.

I ask for the vote for those of you who are ASCLA members.

I did stand for this office once before, in 2000. In that election, I was not successful. The difference was four (4) votes. In a way I was relieved. I changed jobs after agreeing to run, and it would not have been as good a fit as it is now. I also had a great deal less experience with ALA.