This is why we love you. :P

(not a mistake. sent to list. sorry to spam but Andromeda rocksssssss.)

On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 3:38 PM, Andromeda Yelton <[log in to unmask]
> wrote:

> (Putting on LITA Board hat)
>
> To pull out some math in case you don't want to sort through the docs, and
> also make a correction:
>
> Yes, LITA's membership decline is faster than average for ALA.
>
> No, LITA is not the smallest division; ASCLA and United are quite a bit
> smaller.
>
> (Putting on personal hat)
>
> I find myself thinking of LITA less as "the technology division of ALA" and
> more as "the libtech association where I get to meet non-technology
> librarians". I love getting to meet people I can talk Django and Heroku
> with (!), and I meet more of those in code4lib than in ALA. But I *also*
> love
> seeing how the tools of the libtech world do, and don't, support the needs
> of library staff and patrons more broadly. And I love learning how the
> issues that matter to us as technologists - copyright, data quality,
> privacy - impact librarians in other subfields. And, to be blunt, there are
> some damn fun youth services librarians, copyright librarians,
> instructional librarians, et cetera. And I meet them through LITA.
>
> (okay maybe that was my Board hat too. I can wear two hats at once! I am
> like Hydra. Well. Not Project Hydra. Or Hail Hydra. SO YOU HOPE.)
>
> On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 11:59 AM, Cindi Blyberg <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > You can see the Executive Director's membership reports on ALA Connect:
> >
> > Annual 2014 - http://connect.ala.org/node/225631 (pdf)
> > Midwinter 2014 - http://connect.ala.org/node/216881 (pdf)
> > Annual 2013 - http://connect.ala.org/node/208000 (.docx)
> > Midwinter 2013 - http://connect.ala.org/node/197812 (.rtf)
> >
> > -Cindi
> > LITA Immediate Past President
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 11:28 AM, Kevin Ford <[log in to unmask]> 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
> > >>
> > >>
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Andromeda Yelton
> Board of Directors, Library & Information Technology Association:
> http://www.lita.org
> Advisor, Ada Initiative: http://adainitiative.org
> http://andromedayelton.com
> @ThatAndromeda <http://twitter.com/ThatAndromeda>
>