In votes on Tuesday, June 23, and Saturday, June 27, the ALA Council voted to approve Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures as a new ALA division beginning September 1, 2020, and to dissolve the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS), the Library Information Technology Association (LITA) and the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA) effective August 31, 2020. The vote to form Core was 163 to 1.
The presidents of the three divisions, Jennifer Bowen (ALCTS), Emily Morton-Owens (LITA), and Anne Cooper Moore (LLAMA), said the following: “While we are all sad to say goodbye to our longtime homes in ALCTS, LITA and LLAMA, we are excited to join together in our new division Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures. After nearly two years of continuous planning and effort that has been both energizing and rewarding to all those who have been involved, we are eager to launch into delivering powerful new programming, networking opportunities and collaborative engagement for our members that is being constructed from the ground up. We hope that Core will serve as a model for new organizational engagement within ALA and as a source of professional support as our libraries and communities evolve.”
Kerry Ward, LLAMA Executive Director and interim executive director of ALCTS, added, “On behalf of the staff, I want to thank the Council and the ALA Committee on Organization for their support of Core. It was a bittersweet moment to see our old divisions officially dissolved, but also exciting to know that a new era has begun. Our members voted overwhelmingly for Core, and we’re looking forward to coming together as the first Core staff and to building a new division that will serve members better than ever before.”
Core was officially approved by the membership of ALCTS, LITA and LLAMA in April 2020. For more information on Core, visit https://core.ala.org/.
