The Texas Library Association and the Special Libraries Association

Professional Associations 1

Professional Associations:

The Texas Library Association and the Special Libraries Association

Sharon Barnes

INFO 520: Information Access & Resources

January 25, 2010

Abstract

This paper is about two library associations: the Texas Library Association and the Special Libraries association. The paper covers some basic history of the organization as well as some insights to what each association has to offer.

Texas Library Association (TLA)

“The Texas Library Association (TLA) was established in 1902 to promote, support, and improve library services in Texas” (Home page, 2010). The TLA has over 7000 members and provides their members a site which offers job listings, information, and updated training. The TLA has both a site for Facebook and Twitter. They even have an 18 month calendar for sale on the main page titled “Tattooed Ladies of TLA” (Home page, 2010). This goes to show the stereotypical old blue haired lady is no longer the norm for today’s librarian.

The TLA offers various options in their organization. They have four divisions and twenty six round tables along with districts, interests groups, committees, task forces, and student chapters (Organization, 2009). Currently TLA offers different membership rates which includes enrollment to one division and one round table/interest group. The membership also includes subscriptions to the Texas Library Journal and TLACast.

Of the four mentioned divisions, established in 1987, the College and University Libraries Division (CULD) covers the interests of public universities, private universities, and community college libraries. Their purpose is to promote the interest of the aforementioned libraries and to work with TLA and the American Library Association's Association of College and Research Libraries (ALA/ACRL) (CULD, 2009). Adopted in 1989, the Public Libraries Division was established to provide advice and serve the concerns of the public libraries in Texas. They encourage members to continue further education and work with TLA in matter of concern over policy and regulations pertaining to the public library systems (Public Libraries Division, 2009). Organized in 1947, the Special Libraries has had an annual meeting in conjunction with TLA. The organization studies special libraries in Texas and represent the interest of the members working with the Texas Library Association (Special Libraries Division, 2009). The fourth division is the Texas Association of School Libraries. Their overall object is to work with TLA in promoting the interests of school libraries in general and joint enterprises (Texas Association of School Librarians, 2009). Of the four divisions, I am currently interested in the Special Libraries Division and the Public Libraries Division.

Not only does the TLA provide the above mentioned groups, they also hold one of the biggest conferences nationwide for librarians, vendors, and advocates (Conference wrap-up and awards, 2009). Last year at the 2009 conference they had comedian Paula Poundstone in attendance along with Gloria Steinem (Conference wrap-up and awards, 2009). This shows us there are people outside of the typical librarian community who are involved with this program. The conference focused on different groups of interest to include TX teens and discussed ways to fundraise, offer updates in the IT arena, legislation issues, and professional development (Conference wrap-up and awards, 2009). They also took the time to recognize various award winners in their group. Although I do not foresee being able to attend this upcoming year’s conference, I would like to attend one in the near future.

The TLA also provides various opportunities for new members. They have job listings posted on the site for librarians seeking a new job or maybe even their first job upon graduation. In this arena they advocate for librarians to receive pay worthy of their degree. In this case they are asking employers to start initial salaries at $40,000 a year. They also offer the opportunity to network within the Texas community in addition to having a mentoring program for new librarians to glean knowledge from experienced librarians in the field. TLA provides access to library resources and reading lists (Benefits and privileges, 2009). In support of the librarian community, TLA gives access to Texas legislation issues on their site. TLA is currently advocating for and offers the opportunity of sign up on their email listing to keep abreast of current news. Currently for the 81st Legislative session they are tackling four funding initiatives and two policy initiatives (Meraz & Smith, 2009). For a group whose roots were established in 1902 they have led the way to help pave the road for future Texas librarians.

The Special Libraries Association (SLA)

The Special Libraries Association is a nonprofit organization which has members not only in the United States, but also in 75 countries around the world (Inside SLA, 2009). They serve over 11,000 people in covering various types of corporate, academic, and government libraries (Inside SLA, 2009). Their mission is to “promote and strengthen members through learning, advocacy, and networking initiatives” (Inside SLA, 2009).

The SLA provides various benefits to their members. They offer the opportunity to network within the field. They have three online libraries, excuBooks, and the Innovation Lab (Member benefits, 2009). The SLA also offers certificate programs and university discounts (Member benefits, 2009). The SLA also offers web/technology tools, conferences, and legislative advocacy for their members (Member benefits, 2009).

Like TLA, they offer their services to their members for a cost. On the SLA site however, they state they are having financial difficulties and are currently raising the dues for membership. At this time, employed members will pay $160 for their dues (Dues q & a, 2009). Unemployed members will pay $35 and are currently 57% of the membership. Currently 3/4 of the members are working/residing in North America (Dues q & a, 2009).

With all of these concerns, why would one be interested in joining the SLA? I talked with Pamela Bennett Bardot, who gave some very insightful information on why she chose to be a member of the SLA. She originally joined SLA because it fit with her interest in Military Libraries. She is currently a member of the SLA New Jersey Chapter and the Military Libraries. She stated she was “aware they had many learning opportunities available to members, such as 23 things, Click U, various podcasts, and that members received Information Outlook a great journal with which to keep current on trends in Library Science (P. Bardot, personal communication, January 25, 2010).” She also mentioned that because of this interview she realized the need to “become more involved with her local chapter and plans to attend a conference in the near future (P. Bardot, personal communication, January 25, 2010).” Now while it seems SLA only covers the corporate, academic, and government arenas, Pamela sent me a job listing today for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum for a Catalog and Metadata Librarian. This job opportunity was found through her membership with the SLA.

Overall, this assignment has opened my eyes to becoming involved with professional organizations. Although the military also has one, I often felt like they were trying to pressure us into being members and were solely out to get “your money”. After researching the TLA and SLA I see both the positive and negative sides to joining (i.e. membership may be expensive, but they offer various programs to help with career advancement). Of the two groups I researched, I felt the TLA offered more of an insight to their program. Had I not talked with Pamela Bennett Bardot, based on the website alone I would not have considered joining them. The website was difficult to navigate, stated their problem with current member’s dues (although honest but made you wonder if they were going under), and overall just not as informative unless you were a member. In general, I found it difficult to find any other literature on either of the organization unless through some format of their site or their own published journal articles. At this time I plan on joining the TLA in hopes of networking and preparing for my future employment in the state of Texas.

References

(2009). Conference Wrap-Up and Awards. Texas Library Journal, 85(2), 65-7. Retrieved January

25, 2010, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

Meraz, G. & Smith, P. (2009).Government Affairs. Retrieved from

SLA. (2009). Dues q & a. Retrieved from

SLA. (2009). Inside SLA. Retrieved from SLA.

SLA. (2009). Member benefits. Retrieved from

Texas Library Association. (2010). About TLA. Retrieved from

Texas Library Association. (2010). Benefits and Privileges. Retrieved from

Texas Library Association. (2010). Home page. Retrieved from

Texas Library Association. (2010). Organization. Retrieved from

Texas Library Association. (2009). Public Libraries Division. Retrieved from

Texas Library Association. (2009). Special Libraries Division. Retrieved from

Texas Library Association. (2009). Texas Association of School Librarians. Retrieved from

Wiley, K. (2009).Government Affairs. Retrieved from