Also, I would point out that libraries increasingly hire non-librarians in technology positions. That likely means that even if said persons might eventually find Code4Lib, their allegiance to a profession as epitomized by ALA is unlikely. Roy
On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 8:37 AM, Debra Shapiro <dsshap...@wisc.edu> wrote: > LITA is now the smallest ALA division. > > Personally, as someone who’s been involved with LITA for 20 years, I think > the decrease is due to all the reasons Kevin cites below, and also because > of something of an identity crisis - related to the advent of the Internet, > as Eric says. > > LITA is the technology division of the ALA. *Everything* in libraries is > done with technology now, so ALA members who once might’ve chosen to join > the technology division choose instead to join other divisions, related to > their other interests. Look at the list of ALCTS (the cataloging division) > programs for any given ALA conference, or ALCTS list of CE webinars, and > it’s all topics that might’ve once been more the purview of LITA. > > Of course I ran for LITA prez on that platform 6 years ago and lost so > what do I know … > > deb > > > On Jan 5, 2015, at 10:28 AM, Kevin Ford <k...@3windmills.com> wrote: > > > > I think this just goes to show, with the advent of the > > > Internet, centralized authorities are not as necessary/useful > > > as they once > > > used to be. —ELM > > > > > > > -- Maybe. I think it it recession-related. The high water mark for > nearly all of the groups on that list is 2007 (2006 for one or two). The > overall stats for ALA show the same membership pattern (increasing until > 2007, decreasing thereafter): > http://www.ala.org/membership/membershipstats_files/annual_memb_stats > > > > I'd be interested to know if LITA's membership decrease is greater (as a > percentage) than the others. Perhaps that would suggest forums such as > code4lib peeled off some of those would-be LITA members. Otherwise, it > just looks like a broader decline in ALA membership, probably for a few > reasons: fewer librarians in the workforce, fewer institutions willing to > pay professional membership fees, less willingness to pay those fees out of > pocket, etc. > > > > Yours, > > Kevin > > > > > > > > > > On 1/5/15 10:12 AM, Eric Lease Morgan wrote: > >>>> I’m curious, how large is LITA (Library and Information Technology > >>>> Association)? [0] How many members does it have? > >>> > >>> Apparently it has around 3000 members this year. I found this on the > ALA > >>> membership statistics page: > >>> > >>> http://www.ala.org/membership/membershipstats_files/divisionstats#lita > >> > >> > >> Interesting and thank you. Code4Lib only needs fifty more subscribers > to equal LITA’s size. I think this just goes to show, with the advent of > the Internet, centralized authorities are not as necessary/useful as they > once used to be. —ELM > >> > > dsshap...@wisc.edu > Debra Shapiro > SLIS, the iSchool at UW-Madison > Helen C. White Hall, Rm. 4282 > 600 N. Park St. > Madison WI 53706 > 608 262 9195 > mobile 608 712 6368 > FAX 608 263 4849 >