ALA–Allied Professional Association Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels told members of the ALA-APA governing Council during the Midwinter Meeting that success of the financially struggling organization lies within its Library Support Staff Certification Program, set to begin accepting applications January 25.
>Fiels said there are about 150,000 professional librarians working in libraries in the United States where the MLS is the gold standard and nearly a quarter-million other people working in libraries with no certification program. “The goal is to create a program that would be a national standard of education and training and competences for people who are working at the paraprofessional, paralibrarian support staff level, depending on which term you use in libraries.
“I certainly wish I could stand here and say APA had been wildly successful in 2009, paid off its loan, and was lending money back to ALA, but unfortunately that's not the case,” ALA-APA Treasurer Rod Hersberger said, reporting that APA's operating revenue dropped nearly $17,000 in FY2009 from the previous year.
APA lost $15,244 in FY2009 and was unable to make a scheduled interest payment to ALA of about $11,000. Fiels said to reduce expenditures, ALA-APA Director Jenifer Grady is now the sole employee.
“APA, of course, like everything else throughout the Association, is being impacted by what is happening out in the economy and is happening to libraries," he added.
In other action, the ALA-APA Council approved a wording change for the ALA-APA Salary- and Status-Related Policy Statements to bring them more in line with ALA Policies 54 Series: Library Personnel Practices (APACD #8.1 revised).