Monday, July 27, 2009

Belonging, Distantly

It is the time of year when a young librarian's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of renewing professional memberships.

Ah yes. They seem to come due about now. At least, those that aren't due at the beginning of the year. Which is in fact half the total.

OK, so I'm reading into a statistically not-remarkably-significant trend.

But since I haven't really thought much about these professional organizations since the last renewal, it does make me wonder,

a) should I be getting more out of this and/or putting more into it?

b) if I'm not going to get out/put in more, should I be paying for it?

Enh. I will, I guess, just in case I one day feel like getting or putting more. I'd want to have that connection established at that point, after all.

But I haven't really found the time to be very engaged lately in ALA or M[assachusetts]LA, so I do kind of have to think about what it is I'm doing.

Just saying "you go, ALA and MLA!" I guess. "I heartily endorse this event or product that you might be promoting!"

Declaring membership in the community is something, I reckon.

2 comments:

erinserb said...

So far, M(ed)LA has been pretty good; I really like all the ALA has to offer as well. Wish I could have gone to their show in Chicago - rats!

You're probably not gonna find ALA having their conf. in Honolulu, like MLA's this year - that is no fair!

Actually, MLA may be secretly contemplating Anchorage for a future site - of course in May surely :-)

A'Llyn said...

I couldn't make it to Honolulu, so I'm still bitter, but yeah, M[ed]LA is the one I pay the most attention to. They're closer to me next year, so maybe then!