The position of Secretary was added to the YALSA Board, by membership vote, only four years ago. Until my term began, in 2008, the role of keeping our volunteer association’s formal record fell to YALSA staff. The addition of this position to the Board places that responsibility with membership; in addition, the position of Secretary adds another voice—and set of energies—to the Board’s Executive Committee.
I ran for the position of Secretary for several reasons: I had been on the YALSA Board when the idea of creating the position was under discussion and then development and I was a promoter of the concept. In addition, I have served in a few other elected offices, in other professional organizations, at the time when that position was first initiated, so I had a good sense of the kind of ground-breaking and flexibility the initial office-holder needed to bring to the effort of “launching” how the position might work to the advancement of the Board and membership as a whole.
Being Secretary for YALSA doesn’t mean slavishly recording each word that falls from anyone’s lips during the course of our meetings, but it does mean recording the official votes on any item before the formally sitting Board, as well as capturing the essence of discussions, noting attendance (both of Board members and any visitors) for the record, and taking part in discussions, as well as planning sessions undertaken by the Executive Committee.
As a long-time member of YALSA and a true believer in services to teens in libraries, my Board life is an important aspect of both my ongoing professional development and my identity. YALSA provides the stable presence of peers in a professional life that, for me, is otherwise regularly changing and on-the-go. YALSA members are the peers and colleagues to whom I turn for information, suggestions, guidance and mentoring opportunities. I consider it a privilege to help our association construct the new office of Secretary and look forward to seeing how it develops in terms to come under the creative work of future office holders.
This week YALSA Board members are writing about their experience serving on the Board. This post is one in that series.
First off: the work of the Board takes place all year round, not just when the Board meets in person at the Midwinter meeting and Annual conference.
Tip: Talk with your supervisor and your loved ones before you decide to run. Make sure they understand and support the commitment that will be involved.
Between Midwinter and Annual, there are conference calls, online chats, posts in ALA Connect, talking with YALSA members and prospective members, and emails…lots of emails!
Thus, it’s extremely helpful for a prospective Board member to be comfortable with communicating in all kinds of ways, both online and offline.
Tip: I use my personal email rather than my library email address for Board mail because Gmail allows me to filter and sort incoming messages using a delightful and elaborate color scheme. All my Board messages are labeled in orange. (Like orange alerts.) I keep them in my inbox until I’ve answered them.
What does the Board actually do? Well, there’s a long list of duties on the website that I’d encourage you to read, but in short: the Board works to make YALSA more effective and successful at reaching its goals.
Some examples of things you’re likely to do as a Board member:
Give input about the slate of programs planned for an upcoming conference
Vote to launch a new award
Make recommendations to YALSA staff about how to proceed with potential partnerships
Encourage talented YALSA members to take on leadership roles
Advise the chair of a committee as their liaison to the Board
Vote to convene a new task force, like the Recession Relief Task Force
Support the Friends of YALSA
Learn strategies for being an effective Board member!
Tip: Find ways to make connections between your YALSA Board work and the work you do in your own setting. Maybe you’ve met a committee chair who’d be a great guest speaker at your next staff development event, or used an online tool that your colleagues will find useful. Sharing the knowledge, professional connections and resources you encounter as a Board member will help your manager and colleagues see the value of your service.
What I really appreciate about serving on the YALSA Board is the chance to work with other folks who are passionately committed to teen services. It’s hard work, but it’s also both rewarding and fun.
Once again the YALSA Board has a proposal about BBYA before it, and once again controversy seems to have erupted. Discussion–sometimes heated–on various blogs and Twitter streams has left many librarians wondering if we’re in for a repeat performance of the overcrowded, emotional Board meeting in Chicago last July.
Before anyone goes hunting for extra folding chairs, however, YALSA would like to clarify some information about the proposal.
While there is mention on blogs and lists that the document being discussed and those leading up to its creation have not been publicized, the full text of the proposal–along with every item on the Board agenda, and minutes from past meetings–is available online.
There has been some concern about the timing of these documents, but the Board agenda and documents represent a year round process that involves dozens of people and hundreds of hours of work from many committees, task forces and individuals. The full timeline for the development of these documents could be a post in itself (and maybe it will!) but here’s the short version: work on the Midwinter agenda topics and documents literally begins at the close of Annual. Board members, committees, ad hoc groups, task forces, and the Executive Committee all take part in the process of getting work done and planning for what will be accomplished at Midwinter. YALSA’s goal is always to have Final Board documents finished and online for members two weeks prior to Midwinter.
The selection committee for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction will publish its full list of nominations. This is a rigorous selection process that will ultimately recognize more nonfiction titles than BBYA ever has.
In the past four years, BBYA averaged about 14 titles per year. The Nonfiction Award selection committee will recommend about 30 titles annually. Some critics of the BBYA proposal believe that these nonfiction titles are chosen on literary merit alone; this is incorrect. Committee policies clearly state that the finalist and winning titles must “include excellent writing, research, presentation and readability for young adults.” (Emphasis added.)
Board members make decisions on behalf of the membership, but they are, and always have been, open to questions, concern and discussion from the membership.
All agendas, Board documents and meeting minutes from the past five years are online for anyone to view. Since Annual, the Board discussed the selected lists proposal during their August meeting (a conference call that was open to anyone who wanted to listen in; information about was posted on the YALSA homepage a month in advance) and the Executive Committee discussed it at its face to face October meeting. Each time, President Linda Braun gave prior notice via a blog post and shared the link to the document.
The Board was elected by the YALSA membership, and the Board is given the authority via YALSA’s bylaws to govern and make decisions for the Association. Every committee, jury and task force has a Board liaison. These liaisons work with member groups to
If you offer me a choice between going to a conference program and observing the work of a committee or board…I’ll pick the committee and board stuff almost every time. You’ll find debate, controversy, and loads of interesting discussions.
Yesterday, I observed the ALA Executive Board. They had a pretty interesting agenda, including a report on librarian demographics. It was fascinating stuff and merits discussion amongst a wider audience.
The demographers have not compiled their findings into a final report, and it will probably be a while before we see their interpretations. I’ll walk you through the slides, but keep in mind…while the numbers aren’t completely raw, you might consider them still medium-rare. As such I defer to the ALA Office for Research & Statistics when it comes to explaining all the charts and graphs. And keep in mind these caveats: this data represents particular snapshots and projections. It can be difficult to predict trends.
Slide 3: Credentialed Librarians by Age, 2005
These numbers are from census data, meaning this represents librarians throughout the US. There is an obvious bubble in the Baby Boomer age group, but interestingly, the numbers are concentrated in the first half of the Baby Boom. One of the demographers mentioned that the number of MLS degrees issued peaked in the 1970s. As the Boomers aged, they continued to join our profession, so the number of librarians in this age group continued to grow across the next thirty years. Note these numbers are for 2005, so projecting forward, 40% of librarians are age 54-63.
Slide 4: GM Auto Workers by Age and Sex, 2006
This is here as a comparison to other professions and industries. The same Baby Boom bubble is apparent, but you’ll also notice the steep decline around age 45. Seniority rules mean that workers under 45 are most likely to be laid off, so they’re simply not present in the GM workforce.
Slide 5: Credentialed Librarians by Gender and Age, 1980 & 1990
These are snapshots of the profession in 1980 and 1990. In 1980, the Boomer bubble occurs around age 30, and overall the profession appears fairly young. In 1990, the Boomer bubble has moved to age 40 and grown a bit in the meantime.
Slide 6: Credentialed Librarians by Gender and Age, 2000 & 2005
By 2000, the Boomer bubble has reached 50, and in 2005, it’s at 55. Since 1980, the profession has aged significantly.
Slide 8: Credentialed Librarians by Gender and Age, 1995
Same stuff we just saw, this is here to make the next couple of slides possible. Can you spot the Boomer bubble?
Slide 9: Credentialed Librarians Growth 1995-2005
Alrighty. The light blue represents the 1995 numbers aged forward 10 years. The purple shows people who have entered the profession since 1995. Remember, this represents a sample, so it doesn’t mean that there were no 39 year old males or 54 year old females who became librarians from 1995-2005, it just means there weren’t any in this sample. If you look past the choppiness, you can still get a general idea of what is going on…librarians enter the profession at many different ages.
Slide 10: 1995 Credentialed Librarians Aged to 2005
Once again, same data from slide 8 aged to 2005, but this time (represented in light green) we’re looking at individuals who have left the profession (through retirement, death, career change, etc). The demographers mentioned that men tend to enter the profession earlier, and they follow more traditional (i.e. earlier) retirement patterns than women.
Intermission. Switch gears, we’re blazing ahead to the future.
Slide 11: Number of Credentialed Librarians by Age 1980-2006
Once again, we’re looking at snapshots of the profession at particular moments in time. This chart shows quite clearly that young librarians were prevalent in 1980, and we can watch the Boomer bubble (and the profession overall) age as we progress to 2005.
Slide 13: Projected 2015 Data
There’s the 2005 data from the last slide, alongside three different versions of what 2015 might look like. The first is based on the changes that occurred from 1980 to 1990, the second on 1990-2000, and the third on 1995-2005. While the projections are generally similar, note the differences in the 65-70 and 70+ categories. (There’s a funny dip in the 50-54s for the set on the right. Yup, it’s weird, and nope, the demographers aren’t really sure what’s going on.)
Slide 14: Percent of Credentialed Librarians Age 60+
The left half of the graph represents actual numbers, the right half are all 2015 projections, based on different rates as in slide 13. From what the demographers said, I got the impression that the 1995-2005 scenario is mostly likely. You can see that from 1980-2000, the number of librarians aged 60+ was fairly constant at 10%. In 2005, it jumps to a little over 15%, but in 2015, we’re looking at 27-30% at age 60+.
Slide 15: Estimated and Projected Credentialed Librarian Retirements by Decade
This chart illustrates the impending wave of librarian retirements that we’ve been hearing about for a while. We’re already four years into the 2005-2015 projections. Of course, in recent years we’ve witnessed that Boomers are delaying retirement.
Slide 17: Projected Retirements of 2009 Domestic Working ALA Members
This slide represents just ALA members.
Slide 18: Anticipated Member Retirements 2009–2020
More ALA member-only data. The graph on the left is actual 2009 numbers, while the middle and right graphs are projections. Like slide 10, the projections show 2009 members aged forward to 2015 and 2020, with light green representing anticipated retirements (or people leaving the profession for other reasons). Notice the growth in the 70+ category.
Slide 19: Credentialed Librarians: Hours Worked by Age and Gender
I think we’re back to census data, but don’t quote me on that. This slide shows a general trend towards part-time work as librarians age. (Again, this is a sample, not everybody, so there’s potential for a certain choppiness. Yes, there are probably 70+ year old males somewhere who worked 33 hours a week, it just happens that there weren’t any in this sample.)
Slide 20: Census Credentialed Librarian vs. ALA Membership Age Distributions
This might be one of the most interesting charts, but also the hardest to interpret. Here we compare total librarians compared to ALA members. My notes say that this is data for 2005. I think the member data used is from 2009, adjusted backwards for 2005. Note these are percentages; I’d like to see the actual numbers. At first glance, it looks like younger librarians are more likely to be ALA members. Of course, students enrolled in library degree programs aren’t credentialed, and therefore not included in the census numbers (those are the blue bars). I’d like to see library school students included in this data somehow. The difference between ALA members and total librarians might also be affected by the definition of credentialed librarian. It looks like the turnaround point for ALA membership is age 40, but when asked about this, the demographers mentioned that ALA’s drop in market share with regards to membership begins around age 30. (I’d really like to see more data there.)
Alright, that’s a lot to digest. Interesting to consider it alongside discussions about how to make ALA more responsive to younger members. What do you think?
Hello YALSA world!
I am so excited to be here in Chicago at the ALA Annual Conference. Along with the rest of the Board I’ve been busy reading our Board documents and preparing for the meeting, as well as for our other scheduled events.
We’ll be covering many items during the course of the agenda including some that propose new ways of serving members.
I find it useful to gain context and history by reading past minutes of prior Board meetings. These can be accessed here:
http://ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/boardandcommittees/boardcommittees.cfm#minutes
All Board meetings are open. There have been a couple of schedule changes to the agenda. Item #21 will be addressed around 5pm on Saturday and item #14 will be addressed around 11am on Monday.
I look forward to seeing many of you very soon!
Sarah Cornish Debraski
YALSA President
The YALSA Board is comprised of dedicated, thoughtful, lively member leaders who come together to discuss the direction of our association. Recently, Board member Sandra Payne resigned from the Board due to personal reasons. We thank Sandra for her service and will miss her. According to the YALSA Bylaws, “Vacancies other than those provided for in these Bylaws shall be filled by the Board of Directors by appointment until the next annual election, at which time two candidates shall be nominated to fill each unexpired term.” (Article XIII, Section 15) The Board of Directors has appointed Jerene Battisti to fill this position. Jerene will begin serving immediately and through the next Annual conference.
YALSA’s member leaders are a big part of the success of our organization. Members can become chairs of a variety of types of groups (taskforces, committees, juries), convenors of discussion or interest groups, and can run for a number of different offices, including President, Secretary, Councilor, Fiscal Officer, and Director of the YALSA Board. Being a member leader is a valuable experience that can help you develop leadership skills to use in your own workplace, as well as contributing to this association. As you know our annual election is held each spring. I encourage you, though, to consider these leadership opportunities year-round. The Nominating Committees is always interested in finding good candidates for the election slate. You can learn more about YALSA governance at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/boardandcommittees/boardcommittees.cfm
Sarah Debraski
YALSA President
