Library as Place is a category on this blog. What about Organization as Place?

Over the past few days, I've been reading numerous blog postings from the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. Probably many of you have done the same.

Well, here is something different. This is a blog entry about not being at ALA Midwinter.

I've spent literally thousands of dollars in personal money to attend ALA meetings. Most of the time, I've enjoyed myself, despite the money, time and effort I've spent to participate. But now, for the first time in a while, I'm not in attendance.

If you must know: a) I'm on sabbatical, and b) I'm saving money for retirement. Because I'm not in Seattle, ALA's anachronistic way of running its meetings is hard to ignore.

The purpose of the ALA Midwinter Meeting is ostensibly "to do the business of the organization." Of course, this isn't all that happens, but theoretically, it is meant to be one huge business meeting.

Oh, the irony!

It's ironic that an organization whose member libraries are increasingly becoming digital institutions does nothing to offer live broadcasts of its meetings.

It's ironic that an organization that expects its member libraries to move into the future relies on the volunteerism of its participants to blog meetings for those who don't physically attend.

It's ironic that libraries are relatively poor institutions, forced either to decline to send staff to ALA conferences or to do what it can to fund these trips, but don't rise up and pressure ALA to offer online conferences available to all.

It's ironic that ALA's business model continues to rely on revenues from conference attendance and vendor participation, rather than to orient its budget to the digital world.

It's ironic that the phenomenon of virtual committee membership has evolved slowly within ALA, and that the notion of virtual ALA membership has been suggested but not implemented.

I could go on.

I'm not here to debate the virtues of face-to-face meetings as compared to virtual gatherings. I'm here to ask one fundamental question: Who should we look to for leadership that takes us into the future, if not our national organization and its engagement with members at its meetings?