Welcome to the Arkansas Library Association Website

Promoting library service and the profession of librarianship in the State of Arkansas since 1911.

Click here for the ArLA Membership Form!

2010 ArLA/SELA Annual Conference Website!

Our Mission

To further the professional development of all library staff members; to foster communication and cooperation among librarians, trustees and friends of libraries; to increase the visibility of libraries among the general public and funding agencies; to serve as an advocate for librarians and libraries.

Message From The President

Welcome to all members of ArLA!

This year, 2010, has already started out as an eventful one. Our own Arkansas State Library has moved from the former Capitol Mall location to its new location at the former Dillard’s location at 900 W. Capitol. I am looking forward to visiting when it is officially open. The United States Department of Agriculture has made funds available on a competitive basis for rural libraries. A national forum will be held in Little Rock on February 18 about this funding. When the 2011 federal budget proposal was released, it was discovered that the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries Act had been removed. This disappointment has caused AASL to begin an effort to get this changed. All this and we are just starting the year of 2010. What else will this year deliver to us as a profession? Hopefully the good will outweigh the bad. 

This year is the time of our joint conference with the Southeastern Library Association to be held in Little Rock on the last weekend of September. Amid the state library’s move, Dwain Gordon has been working feverishly on the conference to make it the best one ever. Please put September 27-28 on your calendar and join other Arkansas librarians and Southeastern librarians in Little Rock on those days. Information will be available on this website as arrangements are made.

The ArLA Board will continue to work hard for you, the association’s members. The board’s annual leadership retreat will be held at Lakepoint Conference Center on February 19-20.

If you have questions about the association or would like to get involved in ArLA, please contact me or any other association officer or board member. All contact information is available on this website thanks to Ron Russ, our webmaster and ALA Councilor.

-Connie Zimmer

2010 Arkansas Library Association President

Affiliations

The Arkansas Library Association is a chapter of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Southeastern Library Association (SELA). It is represented in ALA and SELA by a councilor who is elected by the members of the Arkansas Library Association.

ArLA Diversity Statement

Diversity is a fundamental value of the Association and its members, and is reflected in its commitment to recruiting minorities and people with disabilities to the profession and to the promotion and development of library collections and services for all people. The Association endorses opportunities for the professional development and education of all library staff members and trustees; it promotes continuous, lifelong learning for all people through library and information services of every type. The Association advocates funding and policies that support libraries as great democratic institutions, serving people of every age, income level, location, ethnicity, or physical ability, and providing the full range of information resources needed to live, learn, govern, and work.

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