ALA: The Membership Cost is Too Damn High?

Note: This is the second part of a two-part post about the American Library Association.

TL;DR: ALA membership is not expensive when compared with professional organizations of similar earning occupations, but that doesn’t mean it’s not personally expensive for you and me.

Remember that guy running for governor of New York? His whole shtick was the “rent is too damn high!” Not gonna disagree with that. Sometimes I think the same thing about membership in ALA and its various divisions and round tables.

So are the membership costs in ALA too high?

Well…I think it depends on your own personal situation, finances, and cost of living in your area.¹ Personally, I have a limit in what I will pay for a professional membership. And nope…you can’t guilt me in to paying more. I’ve also never worked at a library that has covered the cost of an ALA membership–it’s always been money out of my own pocket.

^{1. Do not tell people that membership is not expensive: You do not know their financial situation or personal interests.}

What I’m willing to pay
My limit is $150. Personally, I think that’s a nice chunk of change of my hard earned money. You may think me a cheapskate (go ahead…I’m OK with it), but I would rather put my money elsewhere. Currently, I’m just able to stay at my limit with these bare-bones choices:

Side note: Like a lot of librarians, I also belong to my state library association: the Wisconsin Library Association. Membership is salary-based and I pay almost as much as I do for my ALA membership. The state association is important to me because they offer great conferences that are just the right size, plus the ability to network with colleagues in my geographic area.

How much I could be paying
I’m an academic reference & instruction librarian. If I actually look at the ALA divisions and round tables I would want to belong too, then I would see my membership skyrocket from $150 to $270 per year.

So as a result, I’ve stuck to ALA membership and LIRT because it was cheaper and I liked the work that LIRT does.

Now I know this is where people argue that they wish they could only be members of the divisions of ALA (e.g., Association of College & Research Libraries, Public Library Association, etc.), but I recognize the fact that “bigALA” helps support these divisions and keeps costs down for the divisions.

Cost comparison with other professional organizations
So although ALA may feel “expensive” for me, I wanted to know if its membership fees were high compared to the professional organizations of other similar earning occupations that require a master’s degree.

I went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook and used the entry for “librarians.” The median salary is $55,370 (2012 data). Now I know there are problems with median salary: You may be early career v. late career or in a region with a low-cost of living v. high-cost of living…but it’s a starting point, so that’s what I’m using.

Then I went to the OOH Occupation Finder and limited my search to careers that: 1) require a master’s degree and 2) have a median salary ranging from approximately $40,000 to $65,000 (2012 data).

These are the careers I looked at:

<sup>1. It is likely that “historians” and “anthropologists & archaeologists” may be in positions that require or prefer a doctoral degree.
2. An initial search using the OOH Occupation Finder included the jobs of “archivist” and “curator” in my target list. I have omitted these from my study due to similarities with librarianship. In addition, the jobs of “postsecondary teachers–arts, drama, music” and “postsecondary teachers-nursing” were also included. I have removed these as many full-time positions will require or prefer a doctoral degree, although some may hold a master’s as a terminal degree.</sup>

The cost of professional organizations for other careers

So what do people in these careers pay for membership in their professional organizations? Let’s take a look:

<sup>1. Membership type is for a full membership (commonly referred to as an individual, personal, or regular membership)–not student rate, early career rate, or retiree rate. Some organizations calculate the membership rate based on salary. These are noted below. For each of these instances, I used the median salary of librarians ($55,370) to calculate the rate.
2. Must also pay to belong to state division. Source: American Association for Marriage & Family Therapy.
3. Listed rate is for professionals with a master’s degree and higher. Source: National Association of Social Workers.
4. Survey researchers likely belong to the discipline-specific organization related to the research they conduct. For this analysis, I have chosen to use the American Association for Public Opinion Research as a representative organization.
5. Membership rate based on salary. $90 is for a salary range of $30,000-$59,999. Source: American Association for Public Opinion Research.
6. I chose the National Council for Public History to represent historians that do not necessarily work as professors. There are many organizations for historians, depending on specialty. The American Association of State and Local History offers a membership rate similar to NCPH. A specialty field, like the American Historical Association has a membership rate based on salary. For an income between $45,000-$70,000, the rate is $118.
7. Source: National Council on Public History.
8. Source: American School Counselor Association.
9. Source: American Library Association. Rate is for 3rd and later years of membership.
10. Source: National Society of Genetic Counselors.
11. Membership rate based on salary. $204 is for a salary range of $50,000-$74,999. Must also pay to belong to at least one section. Source: American Anthropological Association.
12. There are many educational/teaching organizations. For this analysis, I have chosen to use the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development as a representative organization.
13. Various membership levels. Joining as a “premium” member gives you a $100 voucher for conferences & professional development. I have chosen to use the basic membership rate of $39 for my analysis below. Source: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
14. Source: American Academy of Orthotists & Prosthetists.
15. Membership rate based on salary. In addition, chapter (state) dues are mandatory for membership. Source: American Planning Association.
16. A $20 discount is given to members who chose to receive online-only access to the association journal. Also, a salary of less than $45,000 pays $95 for membership. Source: American Public Health Association.</sup>

Analysis
The ALA base membership rate is $135. That puts it more expensive than 4 of the comparable organizations, but cheaper than 7 of these organizations. The average rate for membership across these organizations comes to around $173, while the median is $195.

How about if you add a divisional membership to your ALA total? Let’s pick from two: adding ACRL membership costs an additional $60, while PLA membership adds $70 (Source: ALA: Join, Renew or Rejoin). So you’re looking at either $195 (ALA + ACRL) or $205 (ALA + PLA) which doesn’t really change ALA’s position in terms of affordability when compared with the other organizations–although it may definitely change your affordability.

In looking at the other organizations, I liked some of their models. For example, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development offers varying levels of membership that range from $39 to $239. Their “premium” level of membership includes a $100 voucher for their professional development opportunities and conferences–a great bonus for joining at the premium rate.

Several of the organizations (American Association for Public Opinion Research, American Anthropological Association, and the American Planning Association) have membership rates based on salary–which I tend to support, depending on how fees are calculated. Most set a fee based on a salary range. My state library association, although not comparable to the organizations analyzed, does it differently: It calculates the membership fee at $3 per $1000 of wages, with minimum of $50 and a maximum of $250–at this rate, the median U.S. librarian salary of $55,370 would pay $166–pricy, in my opinion, for a state organization.

Many organizations, ALA included, have reduced rates for early-career members. At ALA, the reduced rate for a personal membership is $68 for the 1st year and $102 for the 2nd year. Starting with the 3rd year, you move to the full rate.

I know the economy has been tough and that ALA’s finances have taken a hit. But it’s also been tough on us librarians. Take a look at ALA’s membership statistics:

• 2014: 55,316 members
• 2013: 56,756
• 2012: 57,540
• 2011: 58,996
• 2010: 61,198
• 2009: 61,379
• 2008: 64,884

Notice the consistent drop from 2008 through 2014? That’s a loss of over 9,500 members. How much is related to the cost of membership–or was it just the general economic slump; people cutting back? That’s what I’d like to know.

While the membership costs may not be high when compared with other professional organizations, it’s personally expensive for a lot of us. You may be willing to set aside money for ALA membership–then good for you! (…and I’m not being snippy here…I’m *glad* that you are doing it!).

For the rest of us? It’s a tough decision. I think most us want to be active in the profession, but affordability is often a stumbling block. We also want to see what services we get in return for the membership. Some of us will muddle along: join one year, skip the next–or maybe concentrate efforts at the state level instead. So where does that leave the big tent that is ALA?

 

 

 

 

Meh on ALA?

This is the first of two posts about the American Library Association. The next post – scheduled for next week – will discuss the costs of membership in the organization.

I took this photo at ALA Midwinter in Dallas – 2012.

The first thing I need to admit: I’m not the best of ALA members. Well, it’s not that I’m bad…it’s just that I’m sometimes not a member.

My ALA Track Record
I started out my career 12 years ago with so much idealism that I’m pretty sure I made the other veteran librarians sick. I felt like you *had* to belong to ALA to be a good librarian. I don’t anymore. There are many ways to contribute in your own community, in your state and region, or even with your own initiatives that can all fall outside of ALA.

I then moved to being a member of ALA for one year and then not renewing the next. One year on…one year off. Repeat cycle. On the “on” years, I might attend a conference.

Then the institution I was working at re-did its evaluation process for librarians, placing a greater emphasis on “service to the profession” (something I was not opposed to by the way–it’s a good thing). So then it was back into ALA for several years where I did some committee work and tried to find places where I belonged inside the myriad divisions, roundtables, etc…–which I wasn’t always successful at doing.

Now at my current job, professional service is encouraged, but not required. We have 6 full-time librarians. This year, besides me, only one other librarian belongs to ALA–but we all do the encouraged “service to the profession” stuff. The last few years I’ve done more with my state association, so I’ve gone back to being the “occasional” ALA member.

The Hard Part
I’m not exactly sure what would get me to be a continuous member. Cheaper membership? Well, that’s a given…but I know that’s not happening. I’ll talk more about that in my next post. Side note: Where are these seemingly “mythical” libraries that pay for their employees’ memberships? Never worked at one.

It’s not that I don’t like ALA. They work on big and important initiatives and they have a dedicated and hardworking staff. However, sometimes I feel like there is this disconnect: it is the American LIBRARY Association after all, and not the American LIBRARIAN Association. Disagree if you’d like.

And yep…You get what you put into your membership: I’m not serving on committees now. And I know I don’t have the patience for deliberative bodies like ALA Council (vitally important, just not my cup o’ noodles).

My only connection is through the twice weekly email newsletters and notifications about expensive workshops my library cannot afford. Heck, I don’t even need to be a member to follow association news–I can track it on Twitter. I can also get helpful open-access articles (like C&RL News, etc) for free. During conferences, you can follow posts on Twitter (check out the #alamw15 hashtag) – as one of the #alaleftbehind.

So with 50,000 members, most of whom don’t serve on committees or even attend conferences, I guess my question is: What’s keeping them as members? Is it general goodwill?

My ALA membership will be coming up for renewal. It will probably be an “off” year for me. Maybe even several years. I’ll re-up at some point. I hate to think I have a deficit of goodwill–but that alone won’t make me renew my membership. And I’m not jaded about the profession either: I enjoy my current job. It’s both creative and technical, collaborative and independent, with a lot of variety. I guess I just feel like I don’t have a need to belong to ALA. Is that bad? I dunno. But I still feel like a heel.

 

The Librarian Shortage Myth & Blaming Library School

Update: Received a couple of comments about being a “male librarian” and how I’m ignoring my own privilege. Yep, these readers are correct! I wrote this post in haste without taking in to account how my own privilege and status play into this–or in my case, I dismissed it–which is wrong. For that, I apologize and will try to do better the next time. However, I do stand by my advice to critically evaluate the state of the job market. -joe, 3/18/15

Don’t blame library school if you cannot find a professional job. You are an information professional. Did you not research the state of the job market?

I made that very blunt point in a 2011 blog post: “I graduated from a top library school.” Yeah, so what? – It’s generated a lot of comments since then and struck a nerve with some readers.

One person commented:

I do not agree about NOT blaming the ALA and the school. There is a lot of false information put out by the ALA ..remember all those retiring librarians. Also as a male you are at an advantage. I have seen some really dopey male librarians hired at our library I asked one about a book I was looking for and he googled and turned the screen and told me read this stuff. When I persisted he pointed to an elderly female librarian and told me to ask her because she’s really good at that stuff. This after being told that library only hires the creme de la creme. Guess that creme got stale googling. You can be all positive because you got a job. People have done all you suggested and still have no job in a library or have a part time job in a para professional area. There is an article in the Library Journal called that lucky few – referring to people like you who got a library job.

Blaming Library School

Looking back at my original “blunt” advice, I stand behind my underlying principle: You are responsible for the usefulness of your education and the decisions you make. Putting aside the reader’s baseless “male librarian” comment, I DO agree with the reader on this point: some library schools and the American Library Association have marketed this “myth” of a librarian shortage.

I graduated from library school in 2002 when this “myth” was being pushed. Take a look at this 2000 press release from the University of North Texas on the nationwide librarian shortage. Here’s a similar story from SUNY Buffalo from 2002. Even the Bush administration was involved with this 2003 news release from “first librarian” Laura Bush. On the ALA website, you can still see (outdated) vestiges of this thinking:

…these sources indicate that there is a need for sustained effort to recruit new people into the LIS professions and to retain those who are working in libraries today. As large numbers of LIS professionals reach retirement age, there is a corresponding need for new people to replace them.

However, as information professionals, we should know not to take things at face value. Looking back at all of the stories about a “librarian shortage” from the early 2000’s, I decided to pull my library’s print (read: dusty) copy of the 2002-2003 Occupational Outlook Handbook. The outlook for librarians is as follows:

Applicants for librarian jobs in large cities or suburban areas will face competition, while those willing to work in rural areas should have better job prospects.

and…

Employment of librarians is expected to grow more slowly than average for all occupations over the 2000-2010 period. The increasing use of computerized information storage and retrieval systems continues to contribute to slow growth in demand for librarians.

[Source: 2002-2003 Occupational Outlook Handbook (pgs. 188, 190)]

I’d call this a pretty measured response from an authoritative source. Don’t you think?

More current, the 2012-2013 Occupational Outlook Handout certainly isn’t promoting a shortage of librarians:

Employment of librarians is expected to grow by 7 percent from 2010 to 2020, slower than the average for all occupations.

and…

Jobseekers may face strong competition for jobs, especially early in the decade, as many people with master’s degrees in library science compete for a limited number of available positions. Later in the decade, prospects should be better as older library workers retire and population growth generates openings.

[Note: bold emphasis is mine. Source: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/librarians.htm#tab-6]

Overabundance of MLSs

So, are library schools churning out too many MLSs? – probably. Take a look at this insightful analysis by Brett Bonfield from In the Library with the Lead Pipe. The one thing to remember: If you throw out the noble goals of education and focus on the bottom line, it’s the library school’s job to get butts in the seats (tuition). Nothing more. Nothing less. Other disciplines have focused more attention on this. For example, news of job woes among law school graduates have resulted in law schools capping admissions. Should library schools do the same?

The librarian job crisis – both unemployment and UNDERemployment – isn’t about library schools. In the words of political strategist James Carville: it’s the economy, stupid. I’m not just talking about the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, either. I graduated library school during the post 9/11 economic slump. In my mind, much of the 2000s was a general economic malaise that contributed to library budget cuts, unfilled openings, and senior librarians who have deferred retirement (and I don’t blame them for that).

This is compounded by the fact that some librarian positions have been re-classified from MLS positions to paraprofessional positions (yes, I know the debate about the term paraprofessional–spare me here, please!), further de-professionalizing the workforce. In addition to this, what might have been one full-time MLS position has been converted into two part-time positions. Also, as experienced librarians have moved up, those entry-level positions have often been unfilled or converted to something else entirely different.

No one should be sugar-coating the job market for librarians. It’s tough. I’ve been lucky and I know that. At the same time, I like what I do and I don’t feel “guilty” about having a job. Nor has being male held an advantage. I’ve been successful because I’m good at what I do.

For anyone thinking of going to library school: do your research, be aware of the employability issues, network with working librarians, investigate alternatives to “traditional” library work, and see whether you would be a good fit.

ALA Poster Session – Assessment into Action: Meeting the Needs of Adult Learners

Here is the online version of my poster session for the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. My topic is academic libraries and adult learners:

Assessment into Action: Meeting the Needs of Adult Learners
What do you do with students you rarely see in the library? University of Wisconsin-Green Bay has a growing adult learner population, most of which take classes solely online. Reaching these students can be challenging. Librarians conducted an assessment of adult students to investigate their needs. This poster session will focus on the assessment results and the outreach plan put into place. It will highlight several initiatives, including librarian-faculty collaboration with introductory courses, the embedded librarian program, and the targeting of library services to adult students. It will also address using data to argue for increased budgetary support and collaboration with offices outside the library. Based on preliminary feedback from students and faculty, an increase in reference questions, as well as high usage statistics from librarian-created tutorials and discussion boards, the outreach plan is working. The poster session will include charts of the assessment data, handouts of the assessment tool, teaching and marketing materials (LibGuide, tutorials, newsletters), and photographs of embedded librarian best practices.

Materials:
Embedded Librarian Tips (PDF)
Library Survey for Adult Degree Students (PDF)
Library Survey for Adult Degree Faculty (PDF)
Adult Degree Library Guide for Students (Libguide)
Adult Degree Library Guide for Faculty & Staff (Libguide)
Adult Degree Library Welcome Video (YouTube)

Poster:

Introduction

Assessment, Outreach Plan

Embedded Librarian Program

Promoting Services, Advocating for Support