Hello ALSC Members,
This marks my final blog post as President of ALSC, with my term officially wrapping up after ALA Annual. I want to start by thanking ALSC members, member leaders, volunteers, and staff for all the incredible support over the last two years.
Thank you to the Board of Directors for the time and energy that has gone into all of our meetings and other work together. Thank you to all the Priority Group Consultants, committee chairs and co-chairs, and committee volunteers for taking on so many important projects and helping ALSC to serve our membership and the larger children’s librarian community. Thank you to all ALSC staff for pushing forward and keeping things running even as so many unexpected projects and initiatives came up whenever we thought we’d finally caught up! It has been a true honor to have this opportunity to serve ALSC to date.
Now, as most of you have hopefully been made aware by now, ALSC and YALSA are embarking on a new adventure together. We will be reunifying and the two divisions will once again be combined, with a mission to serve both children’s and teen librarians.
I know that there will be many questions that I am unable to answer in a blog post or in our FAQ page, but please rest assured that although this is moving forward at a rather accelerated pace, we will be looking to the memberships of both divisions to provide feedback and input that we can use to ensure that we can best serve our newly reunited division starting in 2026.
Please be sure to attend the ALSC Membership Meeting if you are at Annual (there will be an extended opportunity for Q&A) and watch for announcements in the coming months that will announce some virtual Town Halls, survey opportunities, and updates of what will be happening over the course of the transition year (2025-2026).
In some ways, the timing is appropriate, as we are facing increased challenges to our work and to the materials that we celebrate and champion for young readers. As such, a reunification will allow us to ensure that we have a strong and unified voice to address our uncertain future in the current sociopolitical climate.
The combined Executive Committees of ALSC and YALSA have been working together to build a collaborative environment under which we can begin the work of unification. We recognize that this may come as a shock to some and that the whole process brings with it a great deal of uncertainty, but ALSC and YALSA staff and member leaders are working hard to make the entire process collaborative and seamless as possible.
As I noted in my last post, ALSC has weathered many changes as a division over the last century, taking on different names with an evolving mission—as the Section for Library Work with Children (1901), the Division of Libraries for Children and Young People (1941), the Children’s Services Division (1957), and eventually the Association for Library Service to Children (1976).
For all the change that it will bring with it, this new iteration of our division will not be the first time that we have had to rethink our scope and mission, and I am fully confident that with the support of the combined membership we will evolve as a division to meet this challenging moment. And we will emerge stronger on the other end.
And with that I end with yet another Thank You—in advance—to all of you for your continued support.
Onwards!
Rob Bittner, PhD (He/Him)
President, Association for Library Services to Children