ALA participation

[Bob Razer]

We make no distinction among librarians at this library system when
funding travel requests with the exceptions that "newer/younger" members
of the staff are likely to get more - not less - financial assistance and
we bear in mind how frequently we have provided financial assistance to a
staff member. Frequent assistance may mean that some years a staff member
who attends ALA most every year may get less financial aid to attend ALA
than someone who only goes every third year or so.

Such a policy is the fairest way to encourage participation in
associations we believe. It obviously is an encouragement to our younger
staff whose salaries are lower than senior librarians.

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 Bob Razer                                                               
 Associate Director		    e-mail: rleslie at fones.cals.lib.ar.us 	
 Central Arkansas Library System    fax:    (501) 375-7451               
 700 Louisiana                      voice:  (501) 370-5954               
 Little Rock, Arkansas 72201                                             
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On Thu, 17 Jul 1997, CMUNSON wrote:

> Hooray Karen! It's nice to see someone elaborate so eloquently about one of 
> our profession's dirty secrets: the inability for younger and new 
> librarians (of all ages) to get involved in their association. I'm 32 and 
> have been a librarian since 1990. ALA in San Francisco was the FIRST time 
> that I've been to an ALA conference (other than looking for a job at 
> Midwinter in 1990). I'm not technically a librarian right now, but I want 
> to stay involved in my profession. My trip to ALA was funded by the 
> association I work for.
> 
> I've wanted to participate at ALA over the years, but the librarian 
> positions I worked at (mostly acting and contractual) had little or no 
> travel money for bottom of the totem pole folks like myself. Year after 
> year it was the librarians with all the seniority that got full funding.
> 
> Of course it would be nice if most of any library's staff could attend ALA 
> if they wanted to, but we are talking about scarce resources here. We can 
> see that consistently these resources are awarded over and over again to 
> those with seniority. I don't know, maybe the reasoning is that these folks 
> are "active in ALA," therefore they should be the ones to get the funding. 
> But how are junior and new librarians supposed to get involved, if they 
> can't afford to go to ALA on their own sparse pay?
> 
> My proposal would be for those librarians who have attended the last 3 ALA 
> summer conferences, to step aside next year so another librarian can go, 
> who hasn't been able to. Go to the conference if you like, but do it on 
> your own money, which we know you have since your salaries can often be 
> $20,000 more than ours.
> 
> Karen, this would get some fresh blood into ALA. Not only would it get some 
> folks involved who understood new technology, but it might get more 
> techno-critics involved too. Then we could get some fascinating debates 
> about the future of libraries.
> 
> Ooh, what fun.
> 
> I really enjoyed the ALA conference. I attended some interesting sessions, 
> heard some good speakers, met some cool folks, and went to some great 
> receptions. I even found myself drafted to be a session moderator at next 
> year's conference, so keep an eye out for the Alternatives In Print session 
> on "Infoshops."
> 
> Chuck
>