Year: 2002
Type: article
Abstract: IN 1946, THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATIONLIBRARY (ALA) established with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) the Joint Committee on Library Service to Labor Groups. Since then, the committee has been a beacon for service to labor, and the link between the organizations has been integral to public learn-ing and beneficial to both unions and libraries. In 1974, the charge became “to initiate, develop, and foster, through the organizational structures of the ALA and the AFL-CIO, ways and means of effecting closer cooperation between librarian and labor organizations. ” It was also to serve as “a cata-lyst for libraries and other institutions to enable them more effectively to fulfill the expressed and unexpressed needs of the labor community ” and to encourage wider use of libraries. Today, the committee is within the Ref-erence and User Services Association (RUSA) and is comprised of nine li-brarians, appointed by RUSA, and nine representatives from the AFLCIO, with a cochair from each group. Several aspects of the partnership suggest that it has played an important role in furthering the long tradition of public learning-union leaders speaking strongly about services targeted to labor’s needs, developing guidelines for service, establishing the John Sessions Memorial Award to recognize a library or library system for significant work with unions, forging an active publishing program including reading and viewing lists, and presenting and exhibiting material at conferences. The committee’s activities reflect a continuum of the value that committed li-brarians and union leaders have long placed on public learning for labor. The partnership has endured because a renewing group of librarians and union leaders has recognized its importance, and the joint committee is a model for ALA commitment and collaboration.
Author: Arthur S. Meyers
Language: English
Subfield: Library and Information Sciences
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1590672550