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Key Infor­ma­tion:

  • Grad­u­ates can pur­sue var­i­ous roles, includ­ing tra­di­tion­al librar­i­an­ship, archival work, and infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy.
  • Pro­fes­sion­als often sup­port edu­ca­tion­al ini­tia­tives and aca­d­e­m­ic research.
  • The field offers spe­cial­iza­tions in areas like pub­lic librar­i­an­ship, aca­d­e­m­ic librar­i­an­ship, and infor­ma­tion sci­ence.

A bachelor’s in library sci­ence is one of the most flex­i­ble degrees today. Library and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence pro­fes­sion­als are those who have an innate pas­sion for help­ing oth­ers and mak­ing a change in the world. Stu­dents with a keen inter­est in work­ing in a library, archive, or sim­i­lar set­ting will like­ly be curi­ous about the specifics and nuances of a bach­e­lor of library sci­ence career and degree pro­gram. If you are inter­est­ed in under­stand­ing what is a library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence, it is also essen­tial to under­stand – what is the dif­fer­ence between library sci­ence and infor­ma­tion science?

Library sci­ence is the field that pre­pares pro­fes­sion­als to manage/organize books, media, and dig­i­tal infor­ma­tion. In fact, library sci­ence today is more close­ly relat­ed to infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy than to the human­i­ties or lib­er­al arts. The man­age­ment of this infor­ma­tion & books includes –

  • Col­lect­ing
  • Reserv­ing
  • Archival method­ol­o­gy
  • Orga­niz­ing books and oth­er mate­ri­als in var­i­ous kinds of libraries

If you have a seri­ous inter­est in a career as a pro­fes­sion­al librar­i­an, it is high­ly like­ly you will need to ulti­mate­ly earn a Mas­ter of Library Sci­ence degree (aka, an MLS) or MLIS – Master’s of Library & Infor­ma­tion Science).

More specif­i­cal­ly, library sci­ence pro­fes­sion­als have the skills to –

  • Design and imple­ment effec­tive knowl­edge-orga­ni­za­tion systems.
  • Devel­op advi­so­ry resources for read­ers and researchers that help to encour­age younger stu­dents to become life­long learn­ers and read­ing lovers.
  • Assist schol­ars in locat­ing archival resources crit­i­cal to the com­ple­tion of their work.
  • Iden­ti­fy resources to help oth­ers in times of crisis.
  • Assist med­ical per­son­nel in locat­ing impor­tant and rel­e­vant health infor­ma­tion effectively.

Accreditation for Library and Information Science

An accred­it­ed bach­e­lor in library sci­ence is the first step to a library sci­ence career. The process of accred­i­ta­tion is con­sid­ered an eval­u­a­tive process dur­ing which schools and aca­d­e­m­ic pro­grams are reviewed against a set of pre­de­fined fac­tors and stan­dards. Depend­ing on the exact type of accred­i­ta­tion, the process may eval­u­ate a school or aca­d­e­m­ic program’s qual­i­ty con­tin­gent on fac­tors like –

  • The curriculum/coursework
  • Stu­dent support
  • Learn­ing outcomes
  • Fac­ul­ty, among oth­er factors.

There are two types of accred­i­ta­tion found in the US – Regional/National or Spe­cial­ized Accred­i­ta­tion. Each of these types of accred­i­ta­tion is dis­cussed next.

Region­al Accreditation 

Region­al accred­i­ta­tion is an accred­i­ta­tion process that the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment admin­is­ters through its nine Region­al Agen­cies. These region­al accred­it­ing agen­cies are man­aged by the USDE – the Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion man­ages these agencies.

The WASC Senior Col­lege & Uni­ver­si­ty Commission

The South­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges & Schools Com­mis­sion of Colleges

The Mid­dle States Com­mis­sion of High­er Education

The North­west Com­mis­sion on Col­leges & Universities

The New Eng­land Com­mis­sion on High­er Education

The High­er Learn­ing Commission 

Region­al accred­i­ta­tion is award­ed to schools, uni­ver­si­ties, and col­leges across the Unit­ed States if they meet the cri­te­ria set forth by these region­al aca­d­e­m­ic agencies.

Spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion is typ­i­cal­ly award­ed at the pro­gram lev­el. As such, it is impor­tant to deter­mine which of the avail­able accred­it­ed library sci­ence pro­grams fit your bud­get and your edu­ca­tion­al goals.

Spe­cial­ized Accreditation

In addi­tion to region­al accred­i­ta­tion, insti­tu­tions of high­er edu­ca­tion have the option to vol­un­tar­i­ly sub­mit their pro­grams to an approved-accred­it­ing process, which awards spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion if the pro­gram meets the estab­lished accred­i­ta­tion cri­te­ria. Accred­it­ed library sci­ence degree programs

Pro­grams and schools open their books and insti­tu­tions to an eval­u­a­tive accred­i­ta­tion process that is typ­i­cal­ly done by an accred­it­ing agency sanc­tioned by the indus­try. Pro­grams and schools may seek to be award­ed spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion, which is gen­er­al­ly admin­is­tered after the school meets the spe­cial­ized accred­i­ta­tion. The two pri­ma­ry accred­i­ta­tion agen­cies for library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence degree pro­grams are the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion & the Coun­cil for Accred­i­ta­tion of Edu­ca­tor Preparation.

Like many high­er learn­ing aca­d­e­m­ic degree pro­grams, stu­dents research­ing if a bach­e­lor’s in library sci­ence online pro­gram has library sci­ence accred­i­ta­tion should deter­mine which of the accred­it­ed online library sci­ence degrees will best serve their aca­d­e­m­ic and career objectives.

The Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion – The ALA

The ALA was estab­lished in the mid-1870s. The ALA is one of the accred­it­ing agen­cies in the field of library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence. This includes the accred­i­ta­tion of library schools and aca­d­e­m­ic degree pro­grams that pre­pare pro­fes­sion­als for work as pro­fes­sion­al librar­i­ans across the Unit­ed States, Cana­da, and Puer­to Rico.

Pro­grams that have received accred­i­ta­tion from the ALA – the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion are gen­er­al­ly those that have been designed to train library & infor­ma­tion spe­cial­ists for pro­fes­sion­al work in a wide vari­ety of library envi­ron­ments, includ­ing aca­d­e­m­ic libraries, school libraries, to cor­po­rate libraries. ALA accred­it­ed degree pro­grams will typ­i­cal­ly meet the estab­lished require­ments for most states across the nation.

The Coun­cil of the Accred­i­ta­tion for Edu­ca­tor Preparation

The CAEP – also known as the Coun­cil for the Accred­i­ta­tion of Edu­ca­tor Prepa­ra­tion is a sec­ond pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion in the field of library sci­ence that accred­its cer­tain aca­d­e­m­ic degree pro­grams in edu­ca­tion that offers pro­fes­sion­als a spe­cial­ty regard­ing the man­age­ment of a school library and its sup­port services.

It is not­ed that some states, on an indi­vid­ual basis, may offer accred­i­ta­tion for library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence pro­grams, which is the rea­son it is impor­tant to deter­mine the require­ments of each state with­in the state’s Depart­ment of Education.

Types of Library and Information Science Degrees

The field of library and infor­ma­tion is a dynam­ic career field that offers pro­fes­sion­als many types of set­tings, careers, and dis­ci­plines from which to choose. Stu­dents with an inter­est in an on-cam­pus or online library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence degree are encour­aged to check out the many bach­e­lor of library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence options avail­able before mak­ing any final aca­d­e­m­ic or career deci­sions. A library sci­ence bach­e­lor degree online can make all the difference.

Stu­dents should explore the many spe­cial­ties and aca­d­e­m­ic con­cen­tra­tions that are avail­able in the bach­e­lors in library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence degree pro­grams, espe­cial­ly the newest, most inno­v­a­tive library sci­ence bachelor’s degree online options if stu­dents require flex­i­bil­i­ty in sched­ul­ing. Your elec­tive options may lead you to spe­cial­iza­tions. Finan­cial aid may depend on your full-time sta­tus and GPA.

In an infor­ma­tion and library sci­ence bach­e­lor of arts or bach­e­lor of sci­ence pro­gram you will learn skills like infor­ma­tion man­age­ment, infor­ma­tion stud­ies, library man­age­ment, library tech­nol­o­gy and more. Besides tra­di­tion­al librar­i­an, career paths for library sci­ence stu­dents include library tech­ni­cians, archivists in spe­cial libraries, and more. You may also add a teach­ing cer­tifi­cate for more options.

A Sam­pling of Con­cen­tra­tions for a Bach­e­lor of Library and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence Degree Programs

  • Pub­lic Librar­i­an­ship – pub­lic libraries have been enrich­ing people’s lives since the mid-1800s. Librar­i­ans work­ing in pub­lic libraries have diverse respon­si­bil­i­ties, which may include offer­ing pro­grams in ESL (Eng­lish as Sec­ond Lan­guage), tech­nol­o­gy train­ing, or sto­ry­time for infants and tod­dlers, among oth­ers. Pub­lic librar­i­ans will also help devel­op pro­grams for the com­mu­ni­ty in the areas of retire­ment and life skills and have an innate need to help oth­ers find infor­ma­tion to meet their spe­cif­ic objectives.
  • Sci­ence Infor­ma­tion – infor­ma­tion spe­cial­ists in the area of sci­ence have the skills to sup­port an exten­sive sci­en­tif­ic pro­cess­ing com­mu­ni­ty. Sci­ence infor­ma­tion spe­cial­ists work along­side sci­en­tif­ic researchers, explor­ing and using the lat­est technologies.
  • Aca­d­e­m­ic Librar­i­an­ship – an aca­d­e­m­ic librar­i­an may work in any high­er edu­ca­tion aca­d­e­m­ic library, which may include a col­lege, pro­fes­sion­al school, com­mu­ni­ty col­lege, or tech­ni­cal school, among oth­ers. Library spe­cial­ists in an aca­d­e­m­ic set­ting work to sup­port the school’s research, stu­dents, and teach­ing efforts. An aca­d­e­m­ic librar­i­an may also con­duct research and even have some edu­ca­tor and instruc­tion­al duties with­in their job responsibilities.
  • Geo­graph­ic Infor­ma­tion – geo­graph­ic infor­ma­tion spe­cial­ists are tasked with the respon­si­bil­i­ty of man­ag­ing print and dig­i­tal car­to­graph­ic resources relat­ed to geospa­tial tech­nol­o­gy. Geo­graph­ic infor­ma­tion is rec­og­nized as the process in which industry/scientific infor­ma­tion is orga­nized and accessed across indus­tries and in every­day life.
  • Dig­i­tal Col­lec­tions (Archives & Repos­i­to­ries) – dig­i­tal librar­i­ans must com­plete a range of library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence duties to man­age cur­rent and future dig­i­tal libraries and archives. Con­tent may be cre­at­ed through dig­i­tal­iza­tion or born as a dig­i­tal­ized doc­u­ment. Dig­i­ti­za­tion includes the access, retrieval, orga­ni­za­tion, stor­age, preser­va­tion, and ulti­mate­ly, the dis­sem­i­na­tion of dig­i­tal collections.
  • Infor­ma­tion Orga­ni­za­tion – infor­ma­tion orga­ni­za­tion pro­fes­sion­als, seek to con­trol the bib­li­o­graph­ic process that includes – 
    • The cre­ation
    • The exchange
    • The preser­va­tion, and
    • The use of infor­ma­tion resources and data. In oth­er words, that man­age­ment of records in a way that facil­i­tates a user’s expe­ri­ence and access to that information.
  • Youth ser­vices – a youth ser­vices librar­i­an works with chil­dren from birth through high school and often through the ear­ly part of col­lege. Youth ser­vice librar­i­ans devel­op pro­gram­ming to sup­port users in print, dig­i­tal media, and infor­ma­tion lit­er­a­cy, to name a few. Pro­gram­ming can be quite diverse as it may include robot­ics for chil­dren and life-skill pro­grams for younger adults.
  • User Expe­ri­ence (UX) – a librar­i­an who spe­cial­izes in user expe­ri­ence is skilled in improv­ing the design of infor­ma­tion sys­tems. A user expe­ri­ence con­cen­tra­tion for an on-cam­pus or online library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence degree will include train­ing in UX research in all infor­ma­tion-inten­sive set­tings. UX pro­fes­sion­als are well-skilled in rel­e­vant UX tech­niques relat­ed to user design and user experience.
  • Data Cura­tion /Data Man­age­ment – data cura­tors and data pro­fes­sion­als work with all kinds of data, but most often, their work will be ded­i­cat­ed to sci­en­tif­ic research. Data cura­tion spe­cial­ists devel­op pol­i­cy and seek com­pli­ance in the preser­va­tion and plan­ning of data and data process­es. Among the respon­si­bil­i­ties are – 
    • Ref­er­ence col­lec­tions that may include a pro­tein data bank or genome database.
    • Data col­lec­tions relat­ed to research.
    • Data col­lec­tions with sig­nif­i­cant sci­en­tif­ic or research merit.

Certifications/Licenses in Library and Information Science

If you have spent suf­fi­cient time reflect­ing on the library sci­ence degree pro­gram that will meet your aca­d­e­m­ic objec­tives, you have like­ly asked your­self – What can I do with a degree in library and infor­ma­tion science?

Now, it is time to con­sid­er these rel­e­vant inquiries with regard to library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence degree jobs –

  • What types of infor­ma­tion sci­ence degree jobs are avail­able in the area in which you live?
  • What jobs can you get with an infor­ma­tion sci­ence degree that is earned online from an accred­it­ed insti­tu­tion of high­er education?
  • What Bach­e­lor of Library and Infor­ma­tion sci­ence jobs are avail­able at the entry-level?

The require­ments for licen­sure in library sci­ence dif­fer from state to state. While some states only require cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for spe­cif­ic job respon­si­bil­i­ties, oth­ers man­date that librar­i­ans hold a grad­u­ate lev­el (master’s degree) in library sci­ence. Everylibraryinstitute.org offers an updat­ed list of require­ments for each state. The most sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence among the states’ require­ments is relat­ed to edu­ca­tion­al mandates.

The ALA offers a vari­ety of state and region­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for library sci­ence and infor­ma­tion pro­fes­sion­als. The Amer­i­can Library Association’s state cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are cat­e­go­rized based on whether the can­di­date holds an MLS – a Mas­ter of Library Sci­ence degree or not. Here is a par­tial list of some of the avail­able indus­try cer­ti­fi­ca­tions in the field of library science –

The Library Sup­port Staff (LSSC) Cer­tifi­cate – this cer­tifi­cate pro­gram from the ALA is for those who wish to work in a library set­ting that does not require library sci­ence pro­fes­sion­als to hold a master’s degree in library sci­ence. The LSSC can­di­date is required to com­plete six of ten avail­able sets of com­pe­ten­cies. To be eli­gi­ble, an LSSC can­di­date must hold a high school degree (or an equiv­a­lent) and have work/volunteered for a min­i­mum of 1,820 hours over the last six­ty months or five years.

For those who wish to research the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion require­ments of each state with regard to library sup­port staff, fol­low this link pro­vid­ed by the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion (ALA).

The Cer­ti­fied Pub­lic Library Admin­is­tra­tor (CPLA) Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion – is avail­able for post-MLS degree hold­ers. Stu­dents com­plete sev­en cours­es and are pro­vid­ed a five year renew­al recer­ti­fi­ca­tion when complete.

Stu­dents and recent grad­u­ates have the option of demon­strat­ing their com­mit­ment and pro­fes­sion­al skills to the library pro­fes­sion by a vol­un­tary cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. Poten­tial school librar­i­ans have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pur­sue a vol­un­tary cer­ti­fi­ca­tion offered by the NBPTS – the Nat’l Board for Pro­fes­sion­al Teach­ing Stan­dards – which offers a library media cer­tifi­cate for stu­dents aged from ear­ly child­hood through young adults.

Library and Information Science Salary Data

Can you work at a library with­out a degree? Of course — but you can’t be a librar­i­an. You can work at a library with an asso­ciate degree or oth­er under­grad­u­ate degree. You can earn an online bach­e­lor while you’re work­ing, and that online degree can help you advance.

Accord­ing to the sta­tis­ti­cians at the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics (BLS), there were more than 140,000 librar­i­ans and library media spe­cial­ists work­ing in the Unit­ed States dur­ing 2019. The pro­ject­ed growth for the library sci­ence pro­fes­sion through the next decade is 5%, which includes the cre­ation of anoth­er 7,000+ jobs through 2029.

The fol­low­ing rep­re­sents the per­centiles of avail­able library sci­ences salary ranges.

Salary Per­centile DataLibrary Sci­ences Salary — AnnualLibrary Sci­ence Degree Salary — Hourly
10%$ 33,820 per year$ 16.26 per hour
25%$ 46,030 per year$ 22.13 per hour
50% (Medi­an)$ 59,500 per year$ 28.61 per hour
75%$ 75,700 per year$ 36.40 per hour
90%$ 94,520 per year$ 45.44 per hour

The top pay­ing indus­tries for an infor­ma­tion sci­ence salary are as follows –

Top Pay­ing Indus­tries for Library Sci­ence Jobs SalaryNum­ber of JobsLibrary Sci­ence Degree Salary
Fed­er­al Exec­u­tive Branch1,240$ 89,010 per year
Legal Ser­vices1,120$ 77,840 per year
Sci­en­tif­ic R & D470$ 77,730 per year
Com­put­er Sys­tems Design200$ 72,230 per year
Archi­tec­tur­al & Engineering110$ 71,040 per year

The top pay­ing states for library sci­ence salaries are as follows –

Top Pay­ing States for Library and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence SalaryNum­ber of JobsLibrary Sci­ence Salaries
Wash­ing­ton DC1,260$ 87,250 per year
Cal­i­for­nia10,300$ 78,650 per year
Mary­land3,330$ 74,340 per year
Wash­ing­ton2,960$ 73,910 per year
Con­necti­cut2,410$ 72,540 per year

The top pay­ing met­ro­pol­i­tan areas for library sci­ence salaries are as follows –

The top Pay­ing States for Library and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence SalaryNum­ber of JobsLibrary Sci­ence Salaries
San Luis – Paso Rob­les, CA30$ 89,880 per year
San Fran­cis­co – Oak­land, CA1,530$ 89,390 per year
Merced, CA30$ 87,800 per year
DC – VA – MD — WV4,310$ 84,630 per year
Fres­no, CA150$ 82,030 per year

Professional Organizations in Library and Information Science

Pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions are avail­able in almost every indus­try and sec­tor as they work in an over­all sup­port­ive role for busi­ness­es and pro­fes­sion­als employed in the spe­cif­ic indus­try. Pro­fes­sion­als orga­ni­za­tions often per­form as the voice for the indus­try when advo­cat­ing for changes to improve the indus­try and its clientele.

Each pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion will offer unique ben­e­fits and ser­vices based on its mis­sion and ethos. How­ev­er, most pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions are designed to admin­is­ter and accred­it edu­ca­tion pro­grams that train indus­try pro­fes­sion­als. In the realm of library sci­ence, there are a vari­ety of pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions that sup­port the indus­try and indus­try professionals.

Mem­ber­ships for these orga­ni­za­tions will dif­fer, depend­ing specif­i­cal­ly on each pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion but typ­i­cal­ly include -

  • Job boards.
  • Advo­ca­cy services.
  • Con­tin­u­ing Edu­ca­tion opportunities.
  • Accred­i­ta­tion services.
  • Cre­den­tial­ing.
  • Annu­al conferences
  • Licen­sure, among others.

The Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion — The ALA

The Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion is rec­og­nized as the largest (and the old­est) of any pro­fes­sion­al library asso­ci­a­tion across the globe. Estab­lished in the mid-1870s, the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion offers its mem­bers a vari­ety of resources. The ALA seeks to offer lead­er­ship in the improvement/promotion of the library and infor­ma­tion sci­ence and services.

ALA’s Spe­cial­ized Divisions

The Black Cau­cus of the ALA — the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion — The BCALA

The Amer­i­can Library Association’s Black Cau­cus was devel­oped to pro­mote and advo­cate for library ser­vice and resources to serve the coun­try’s African Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty. The BCALA offers pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment options to cre­ate African Amer­i­can lead­ers in Amer­i­can libraries.

The Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­lege & Research Libraries — The ACRL

The ACRL — the Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­lege and Research Libraries is anoth­er (and the largest) divi­sion­al sec­tion of the ALA. The ACRL is the pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion for aca­d­e­m­ic library & infor­ma­tion pro­fes­sion­als that seeks to enhance the librar­i­an pro­fes­sion­als who serve the high­er edu­ca­tion aca­d­e­m­ic com­mu­ni­ty in the areas of teach­ing, research, & learn­ing. More than 10,000 aca­d­e­m­ic librar­i­ans are mem­bers of the ACRL, which equals about 1/5 of the total mem­ber­ship of the Amer­i­can Library Association.

The Amer­i­can Indi­an Library Asso­ci­a­tion — The AILA

The AILA – the Amer­i­can Indi­an Library Asso­ci­a­tion, was estab­lished in the late 1970s, born from a con­fer­ence meet­ing at the White House regard­ing infor­ma­tion ser­vices on or near-native American/Indian reser­va­tions across the coun­try. The AILA is anoth­er divi­sion­al com­po­nent of the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion that was designed to meet the library sci­ence and infor­ma­tion needs of Amer­i­can Indi­ans or Alaskan Natives. Mem­ber­ship is avail­able to research, school, and pub­lic librar­i­ans on reser­va­tions, with a pri­ma­ry object of find­ing ways to dis­sem­i­nate infor­ma­tion regard­ing the cul­ture, val­ues, and lan­guage of Alaskan and Native Amer­i­can information.

In addi­tion, there are a vari­ety of pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions that offer mem­ber­ship ben­e­fits based on more spe­cif­ic sub­ject areas or per­haps, geog­ra­phy, or maybe both.

The Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of School Librar­i­ans — The AASL

The ASSL — the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of School Librar­i­ans is a divi­sion­al com­po­nent of the ALA. It is rec­og­nized as the only nation­al orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to advo­cat­ing and pro­mot­ing the school library com­mu­ni­ty and the pro­fes­sion­als work­ing there. The AASL offers ser­vices to more than 7,000 school libraries and librar­i­ans in the U.S. and also across the globe.

The Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Ser­vice to Chil­dren — The ALSC

The ALSC — the Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Ser­vice to Chil­dren is con­sid­ered the globe’s largest pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion exclu­sive­ly ded­i­cat­ed to the pro­mo­tion and sup­port of library ser­vices avail­able to chil­dren of all ages. The ALSC mem­bers are giv­en oppor­tu­ni­ties to par­take in cre­ative pro­gram­ming, net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and obtain rel­e­vant con­tin­ued edu­ca­tion in their spe­cif­ic field.

The Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Law Libraries — The AALL

Estab­lished in the ear­ly 1900s, the AALL, the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Law Libraries, was designed as a pro­mo­tion­al vehi­cle in sup­port of public/legal libraries and to pro­vide indus­try lead­er­ship in the field of legal information.

The Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Col­lec­tions & Tech­ni­cal Ser­vice — The ALCTS

Estab­lished more than a half-cen­tu­ry ago, the ALCTS – the Asso­ci­a­tion for Library Col­lec­tions and Tech­ni­cal Ser­vice was devel­oped to serve its pro­fes­sion­al librar­i­an mem­bers who hail from more than 40 coun­tries across the world. With about 4,000 mem­bers, the ALCTS has grown to be one of the industry’s pre­mier sources for infor­ma­tion pro­fes­sion­als in the busi­ness of the col­lec­tion and preser­va­tion of infor­ma­tion across medi­ums. The ALCTS seeks to cre­ate the prin­ci­ples and stan­dards for man­ag­ing the orga­ni­za­tion and deliv­ery of infor­ma­tion across forms.

The Asian Pacif­ic Amer­i­can Librar­i­ans Asso­ci­a­tion — The APALA

Estab­lished in 1980, the APALA – the Asian Pacif­ic Amer­i­can Librar­i­ans Asso­ci­a­tion (and pre­vi­ous­ly affil­i­at­ed with the Amer­i­can Library Asso­ci­a­tion) grew from the AALC, a dis­cus­sion group of Asian Amer­i­can Librar­i­ans in 1975. The APALA offers sup­port ser­vices to librar­i­ans work­ing in Asian and Pacif­ic her­itages and ancestries.

The Chi­nese Amer­i­can Librar­i­ans Asso­ci­a­tion — The CALA

The CALA – the Chi­nese Amer­i­can Librar­i­ans Asso­ci­a­tion was found­ed in the mid-west in 1973. Sev­er­al oth­er chap­ters of CALA were formed over the next few years, and by 1983, these five chap­ters (across the nation) — North­east, Cal­i­for­nia, Mid-West, South­west, and Atlantic merged to cre­ate the cur­rent iter­a­tion of the CALA.

Relat­ed Rankings:

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