I called the American Library Association and the Special
Libraries Association to see how much they allocate for lobbying
activities on the national level.
ALA has about 55,000 members and a total budget of about $28
million dollars. It has allocated $166,000 for lobbying activities for
the last four years--$46,000 of which was for the most recent year.
SLA has about 15,000 members and a total budget of about $4
million dollars. It allocates nothing for lobbying activities. (One
important section of SLA is government documents.)
AALL has about 5,000 members and a total budget of about
$875,000. We allocate $77,625 for our Washington Affairs office--about 9
percent of our total budget.
Because of budget constraints, only two issues (instead of four)
of Law Library Journal will be published next year. I don't like to play
off one AALL activity against another, but the above figures from our two
sister
associations suggest that the amount we spend on lobbying activities may
be out of line. I'm not denying its importance, but clearly our
executive board feels this is more important than two issues of LLJ. I
flat out disagree with this. I also think that we should perhaps join
forces with ALA with respect to lobbying activities. ALA did tell me
that they plan to expand their Washington office. Can our informational
and lobbying needs be that different from ALA's?
Fritz Snyder, Univ. of Montana Law Library
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