As a future children’s librarian, school librarian, or just plain awesome librarian, you should be joining professional organizations as a student. For one thing, membership is cheaper as a student, and for another thing, you can list them on your resume when you’re job hunting. And for a third thing, it’s just cool to belong!
Some organizations to look into:
ALA (obviously)
ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children)
YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association)
AASL (American Association of School Librarians)
In addition,
WLA (Washington Library Association) For those of you who are online, do some searching around for a local association.
PLA (Public Library Association) These guys have an awesome magazine. Seriously. I’ve used articles in class papers.
RUSA (Reference and User Services Association)
and many more. I haven’t even STARTED on the committees.
So get out there and join some stuff! There’s always more to learn and infinite ways to network and collaborate. And then come back and write us a blog post about what you discovered!
iYouth UW 