ALA participation-Reply

[Sharon Stoerger]

Chuck makes some good points regarding the difficulty in participating in
ALA (mainly travel costs).  I am fairly new to the profession, and ALA in
San Francisco was also my first ALA.  However, there are some stumbling
blocks he didn't mention.

I am the Public Services Librarian (Reference and Library Instruction) in
a small community college in Illinois (under 2000 students).  This year I
was fortunate enough to be able to attend ALA due to the fact that no one
else in my organization wanted to go.  That left a nice amount of money
for me, but the budget still didn't cover everything.  My biggest problem
(after the financial aspect) is staffing.  We have a small staff
to begin with, and there is no one to cover the Reference desk when I am
gone.  We have to hire a substitute or try to manage without, which can be
quite a challenge.

My point is that I would love to participate in ALA committees or
round-tables, but I can't afford both in terms of money and time to attend
Midwinter, ALA and other conferences, such as LOEX.  It seems to me that
with the technological capabilities available today, that it would be
possible to participate on these committees without physically being
present at the conferences.

Like Karen, I am also concerned about the "greying of the active body".
It would be nice to see some "new" librarians with fresh ideas at the
conferences and at the sessions.  I sometimes feel isolated because I only
encounter people who have been in the profession for numerous years.
Sometimes it is difficult to establish that new ideas have credibility
too.

Sharon   


Sharon Stoerger
Public Services Librarian
Danville Area Community College
Danville, IL 61832
(217) 443-8739
stoerger at jaguar.dacc.cc.il.us