College and Research Libraries


Som.e Questions 

One of the proposals of the Activities Committee on New Directions 
for ALA ( ACONDA) offers the possibility that the Association might 
become "a federation of organizations with specialized interests" under 
the umbrella of ALA offices responsible for general concerns and 
centralized services. In substance it is a proposal which has appeared 
in earlier Activities Committee reports, but ACONDA presents it in 
conjunction with another for a functional organization in which pres-
ent divisional specializations might be supplanted. 

ACRL has strongly endorsed the federation plan, saying that: 

Academic libraries, as well as other types of libraries, are institutions having 
a configuration of problems which make them unique institutions in terms 
of priorities, personnel, and professional aims. Failure to recognize this 
principle and gear the reorganization of ALA to respond to this particular 
set of requirements would produce general mediocrity throughout the work 
of the Association. 

Perhaps fortunately the plan is identified as a long-range option, 
and ACONDA recommends "extensive study by staff and membership 
to develop creative schemes for restructure of the Association." 

Creative schemes are needed, certainly, to make the Association 
effective, on the one hand, and representative on the other. 

John Lorenz wrote to ACONDA (Final Report, p. 82): 

ALA has become a large organization. In the process it has become too un-
wieldy, expensive and, in many cases fruitless to have hundreds of commit-
tees and hundreds of meetings, the principal or only result of which is 
membership involvement or communication. These are no longer sufficient 
justification. The Executive Board and the Divisions should be seriously 
asked to reexamine the need for all committees and consider the alternative, 
where necessary or desirable, of having a responsible individual (possibly a 
member of an existing board) to be responsible for action and/ or communi-
cation as needed in particular areas of concern. 

Could ACRL, as a semiautonomous association, continue to con-
tribute to the general welfare of the profession as well as to the ad-
vancement of academic librarianship? 

Can ACRL set an example for the other federated associations in 

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298 I College & Research Libraries • September 1970 

reducing the size and complexity of ALA in the manner which Mr. 
Lorenz suggests? Three current measures of the magnitude of this 
problem, of course, are the thousand meetings of the annual confer-
ence, the increase in dues, and the decrease in membership. Only a 
third of the librarians in the U.S. belong to their national professional 
society. 

Can ACRL find means for controlling the proliferation of sections , 
committees, and subcommittees with overlapping interests? Can 
ACRL control the Standing Committee Syndrome, which rewards the 
assiduous committeeman with brownie points, travel money, and 
selective friendship for finding means of keeping a good thing going? 

The recent decline in membership confirms the need for New Direc-
tions, and federation, on the face of it, would be less of an innovation 
than would be the alternative scheme of functional organization. Nev-
ertheless ACRL has contributed substantially over the years to the 
membership-and the leadership-of ALA, and it can be expected to 
continue this role in solving ALA's urgent and perplexing organiza-
tional problems. 

DAVID w. HERON 

.,. 

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