Should AASL Go It Alone?

Would you walk out of a relationship if you felt undervalued and ignored? That’s the way some members of the largest professional organization for school librarians feel they’re being treated by the American Library Association (ALA)—and they want to secede.

It may seem like a drastic measure—and it may never happen—but several disheartened members of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) say they’ve been disrespected once too often and that breaking away from ALA after 56 years might finally get them noticed.

“I don’t feel represented by ALA, and I’m not happy with it,” says Peter Milbury, a school librarian at Chico High School in California and cofounder of LM_NET, an online discussion group for media specialists. “I’m an advocate that [secession] be seriously discussed among school librarians—and I don’t feel bad about raising the issue.”

The latest upset began when Lisa Von Drasek, a children’s librarian at the Bank Street School for Children in Manhattan, expressed disappointment on LM_NET that a recent salary survey by ALA’s Allied Professional Association omitted school librarians. Just prior to that, ALA’s publication American Libraries excluded media specialists from its March cover story about 10 noteworthy librarian bloggers. “Not including a school librarian was a little slap in the face,” says Von Drasek, who doesn’t support leaving ALA.

Although ALA, which has 11 divisions, including AASL, has had presidents who were media specialists, many say the organization focuses most of its attention on public libraries and question why ALA hasn’t fought harder to protect school librarians’ jobs, promote them as crucial to student achievement, or launched a public service announcement devoted solely to media specialists.

Janet Swan Hill, of ALA’s executive board, says school librarians were left out of the survey because their pay is tied to teachers’ salaries, but the two incidents had a cumulative effect. Others like Paula Yohe, technology director in charge of library programs for the Dillon School District in South Carolina, back the idea of seceding or getting ALA motivated to do more for school librarians.

AASL’s President Cyndi Phillip says she doesn’t support leaving ALA, but the association would discuss the issue if members requested it. Currently, AASL is working to increase its involvement in ALA leadership and raise the profile of school library issues within ALA, Phillip says.