Professional Associations

Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA)

Mission:

The mission of ARLIS/NA is to foster excellence in art and design librarianship and image management. We achieve this mission through a wide variety of activities, such as:

• Meeting, networking, and sharing ideas in person at our annual conferences.
• Publishing substantive articles of a practical as well as scholarly nature through our publications, such as Art Documentation, ARLIS/NA Reviews, Occasional Papers, and online publications.
• Providing a forum for professional communication, via our listserv and web site.
• Reaching out to future art librarians through numerous scholarship awards.
• Recognizing excellence in the field through awards for research, service, and publication

 Membership Benefits:

• Networking with fellow professionals in all levels of the organization, including Chapters, Divisions, Sections, Special Interest Groups, Committees, and the Executive Board.
• Subscription to Art Documentation
• News, job postings, internships, and announcements on the website
• Access to the ARLIS/NA Learning Portal
• Discounted conference rate
• Free membership in Divisions, Sections, and Special Interest Groups

Membership Price:

• Individuals - $120
• Introductory - $90 (1 year limit)
• Retired/Unemployed - $60
• Students - $50 (3 year limit)
• Business Affiliate - $190

Opportunities and Requirements:

• Opportunities to be awarded scholarships or awards. (Various requirements, available here)

Publications:

• ARLIS/NA Reviews - "expert evaluations of new publications throughout the year in an online format."
• Art Documentation "appears twice yearly and features substantial articles on issues of interest to art information specialists...plus in depth reviews."
• ARLIS/NA Multimedia & Technology Reviews - "target projects, products, events, and issues within the broad realm of multimedia and technology related to arts scholarship, research, and librarianship."

Primary Activities:

• Annual Conference
• Summer Educational Institute (sponsored with the Visual Resources Association Foundation)

Society of American Archivists

Mission:

SAA promotes the values and diversity of archives and archivists. We are the preeminent source of professional resources and the principal communication hub for American archivists.

Membership Benefits:

• Access to The American Archivist (Journal) and Archival Outlook (Newsletter)
• Member discounts on books in the SAA Bookstore, registration for SAA's annual Meeting, registration for continuing education workshops
• Mentoring Program
• Ability to join 2 sections and an unlimited number of roundtables
• Access to the SAA Membership Directory

Membership Price:

• Individual Full Membership - (dues depend on annual earnings) $50 - $250
• Individual Student Membership - $50
• Individual Associate Membership - $100 (residents of USA), $125 (non-residents)
• Institutional Membership - $550 (sustaining), $300 (regular)

Opportunities and Requirements:

• Digital Archives Specialist Certificate (no specific requirements)

Publications:

• The American Archivist
• Archival Outlook newsletter
• In The Loop newsletter
• Books

Primary Activities:

• American Archives Month
• Annual Meeting

I keep flip-flopping back and forth about whether I would prefer to be an archivist or an art librarian. Luckily, when I completed my library visits for a class project I met a woman who does both! She basically has my dream job working at the Detroit Institute of Arts as the head librarian. I'm sure it is a lot of hard work managing the main museum library, two sub-libraries, and the archive, but it also seems like a lot of fun. Anyway, because I'm considering both of these fields, I choose to look into the professional associations outlined above.
I would certainly consider joining both of these associations in the future. I've never had to conduct research without being enrolled at a college/university, so I imagine it will be helpful to have personal access to journals in the future. I've also been told that books for some archives classes are very cheap/free for SAA members and I will be sure to take advantage of that once I enroll in those. At this point I don't have money to travel to conferences and meetings, but that is something that I would like to do in the future. Both organizations offer scholarships, but I feel like I need to have more experience and participate in some more projects before I would be qualified to earn them. The twitter account for the SAA is better than many that I have seen, I particularly appreciate that they include job postings.

Websites Consulted
http://www.arlisna.org/
http://www2.archivists.org/
https://twitter.com/ARLIS_NA
https://twitter.com/archivists_org