We have grown up knowing the motto of the Three Musketeers: All forOne, One for All. Now we more fully understand that the musketeerswere articulating in rather elegant shorthand their endorsement of theconcepts of group unity and group diversity

Jones, Plummer Alston

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44 — Fall 2002                                                                                                                                                       North Carolina LibrariesPlummer Alston “Al” Jones, Jr.,From the EditorUnity v. Diversity:The Dilemma ofProfessionalismWe have grown up knowing the motto of the Three Musketeers: All forOne, One for All. Now we more fully understand that the musketeerswere articulating in rather elegant shorthand their endorsement of theconcepts of group unity and group diversity.Most would agree that the North Carolina Library Association’sstrength lies in the fact that it is a very diverse organization offering a forumfor public librarians, school librarians, and academic librarians as well aslibrarians in various specializations in librarianship. NCLA has consistentlyadvocated that libraries need to change to accommodate new user groupsand meet their special emerging needs — even to the point of creating a newmembership organization (round table usually) to serve a new group.Unfortunately, NCLA has not been as successful in achieving theconcept of group unity. To put it quite simply, we as members of a diverseorganization have still not learned to collaborate — to work together tosolve common problems. Most of our members feel extreme loyalty forsections or round tables that address issues affecting them individuallyand collectively. What appears on the surface to be loyalty can leadinexorably to the belief that NCLA is superfluous to the needs of a particu-lar interest group.I personally view NCLA as the glue that binds all of this wonderfuldiversity into a powerful unified professional organization. If we worktogether, NCLA has the clout to affect societal change through thepolitical process with the North Carolina General Assembly at the statelevel. Since NCLA is the state chapter of the American Library Association,North Carolina librarians can offer a united voice that will be heard at thenational level also.I would like for NCLA members to see NCLA not as superfluous or evenpart of the problem, but as part of the solution. I believe that NCLA is dealingwith a societal program that is bigger even than NCLA — a widespreaddistrust of large organizations — a problem not only statewide, but alsonationwide and even on an international scale. The dissolution of this wide-spread distrust must be accomplished one organization at a time, one state ata time. Let’s work together to make NCLA a model for the other state libraryassociations to emulate.ALA President in the late 1970s, Eric Moon, formerly editor of LibraryJournal and retired publisher and head of Scarecrow Press, called for thereform of ALA’s organizational structure. In Moon’s opinion, ALA’s divisions,including the Association of College and Research Library (ACRL), the PublicLibrary Association (PLA), and the American Association of School Librarians(AASL), to name but three of many, were divisive and unwittingly promoteddisunity. In a sense, ALA’s multitude of divisions is similar to NCLA’s wide arrayof sections and roundtables. The recent breakaway from NCLA of the majorityof the former members of the North Carolina Association of School LibrariansSection has weakened our voice at the local, state, and national levels. Whatwill happen to NCLA if public librarians or academic librarians choose toleave?Where is professionalism — our loyalty to the profession of librarianship? Ibelieve that being a professional means putting the needs of all citizens forfree libraries and unfettered access to information ahead of even the mostnoble special interests.

Unity v. Diversity: The Dilemma of Professionalism

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Unity v. Diversity: The Dilemma of Professionalism

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