Membership & Service Along the Career Path

Membership can be bought. In fact, for our state, national, and international library associations there is a fee to belong. Putting pen to check or entering a credit card number can officially make you a “card carrying member,” even though very few organizations will mail you an actual card anymore. This monetary exchange alone gives librarians the justification needed to list membership of a professional organization on a dossier or a curriculum vita. For this reason, tenure policies often require service to the profession, not just membership to the organization. Membership can easily be passive, while service requires action. Here are the reflections on service, and other benefits of membership, by two Penn State librarians at different points in their professional journeys, one on the tenure-track, and the other post-tenured. Public librarians, school media specialists, and librarians at other academic institutions may have different experiences. Green, K. E. C., & Imler, B. (2019). Membership along the career path: Pre- and post-tenure musings. Pennsylvania Libraries: Research and Practice, 7(2), 77-80. doi: 10.5195/palrap.2019.206