Spent last week in Atlanta at the ALISE conference, my 16th consecutive one, I believe, and my last. We seem to have come a long way in some regards, and made little real progress in others, but that’s probably true of most annual gatherings. First impressions, it was a little light in attendance, there seemed to be fewer job interviews occurring, and perhaps a little less going on than some other conferences. Of course, I have no data to back that up but so it seemed to me and a few others I spoke with during the week.
I’m never a fan of poster sessions, and it’s not helped when a large convention room is broken up with posters at either end but tables and chairs in between. Hotels really need to better understand the logistics of human flow as it seemed designed to discourage people from visiting some areas and it can’t have been too helpful for those allocated space at the far end of the room. The organizers of the conference seemed to sense that too as they made far better use of the space for the final evening’s event. Of course, hotel arrangements for ALISE are never ideal, they are forced to take what they can get once ALA flexes its sizable muscles on bookings in the area.
Highlights were few (on the program side at least) but the Deans and Directors meet was unusually lively. A series of motions relating to accreditation revealed a stronger sense of disquiet and a shared desire for more control over the rather bloated accreditation process among the schools. How times have changed. Rather than have complaints dismissed by the majority as the whining of a few uppity schools, now there seems to be widespread recognition that the system is flawed, expensive and fails to deliver on its aims, which (lest we forget) is supposed to be about ensuring quality educational programs. Not everyone feels quite the same, and some seemed to wanted to grandstand on procedural points of order, but on the whole, I was heartened to see that in 15 years, the tide has finally turned and schools are showing some backbone and initiative in seeking a better process. Long may this continue as I see more than a little resistance looming among the traditional stakeholders who won’t give up power easily and will no doubt find ways of blocking change.
I am not sure what the future is for ALISE. I find the program to be limited but the need for a hiring conference and space for programs to get together to share concerns and take collective action justify some role. Given the news from Allen Renear’s analysis that enrollment in ALA-accredited programs dropped 30% in the 5 years up to 2014, one wonders how long before another round of program closures looms. The schools doing well seem to be succeeding on the back of new degree programs which most are not putting up for accreditation by ALA, with good reason, but that trend was sadly not discussed widely at the conference. All to say, I do think there is some grounds for arguing that ALISE split from ALA’s schedule and partner more with ASIST, allowing the latter’s program, which is usually far stronger, to benefit from ALISE’s job-market function. By holding some kind of joint conference in Fall, with six-month’s of separation between them and the similarly populated iConference, there would be better balance and functionality to the circuit for schools. Yes, I know, we recommended that a few years ago and the motion to move was rejected by a small margin but this idea is worth revisiting, if only to reduce costs and give the collective membership of the two groups a chance to gather more productively.
Ah but you say….the ALISE conf is for LIS programs, the iConf is for information programs and ASIST sits in the middle. There’s a lot that can be dissected there but the simple fact that practically any program can now call itself an iSchool, and the fact that many LIS programs have done precisely that, indicates to me that the once-meaningful lines drawn between the camps are blurred. I’d much rather see concerns with information education broadly embrace the L part than have the L part try to claim ownership of the information field, and to that end, a larger ASIST conference with an early component concentrating on education, led by what is now ALISE, has some attractions.
But that’s all another set of concerns for other people. To paraphrase the bard, I came to praise ALISE, not to bury it (no matter what other rumors you may have heard).