In May to June 1993 The American University of Armenia organized a 3-week course entitled "Strategic Planning for Librarians," inviting as presenters two American-Armenian librarians, Sylva Natalie Manoogian, Los Angeles Public Library Department Manager, and Araxie Churukian, from the University of California at Riverside. Participating in the course were more than 50 library workers, who were encouraged by their colleagues from abroad to establish a planning group with the following goals:
To develop the constitutional structure of the Armenian Library Association
To convene the inaugural conference of the Association in 1994
On 7 October 1994, the Armenian Library Association conference was convened in the National Library of Armenia. Inaugural Conference participants were 119 delegates and 64 guests, including representatives of the American Library Association.
The delegates represented all major research, academic technical, special, public, and children's libraries of the Republic. Overall, 44 library representatives, and of that number, delegates from nearly all of the nation's regional libraries. One hundred of the 119 delegates were women; and 19 were men. Anelka Grigoryan, first deputy minister of culture of the Republic of Armenia gave the welcoming address. Also participating in the conference were American-Armenian librarians, S. N. Manoogian, A. Churukian, and Samuel Fustukjian (South Florida University Library director), and also Marie Mathis, Los Angeles Public Library.
The conference approved the Association's constitution and elected a 21-member administration. Nerses Hayrapetyan was elected the first president of the Library Association. Upon examining the status of library work in the Republic, the inaugural meeting approved the mission statement submitted to the library workers, the intellectuals, and the public. This states: We, the participants in this inaugural meeting, are applying to our co-workers and to all those supporters of library work, asking them for their enthusiastic support of the goals of the Association. The free development of our national culture and knowledge depends on the expression of our individual intellectual strength. Libraries, as centers for the preservation of national spiritual values, moral upbringing, cultural and historical traditions, must assume the place of utmost importance in the sphere of illumination and education.
The Association was officially registered with the Republic of Armenia Ministry of Justice in March 1995 under the name Library Association of Armenia. On 6 March 1998, by decision No. 9/1-3 of the Ministry of Justice, the organization was reregistered under a new name, Armenian Library Association (ALA).
Any library worker over 18 years of age and information specialist may join the Armenian Library Association.
The highest body of the Association is the convening of all its members, which takes place once each year. Its headquorters are elected for two-year terms. Activities include working meetings, which include reports of the executive board's work during the year, as well as symposia, round tables, debates, studies, and lectures.
The President of the Association is elected for a two-year term at the biennial convention. Responsibilities include examining and deciding all questions regarding the work of the Association, with the exception of those issues, which must be approved by the membership. The administration accepts decisions concerning the creation of representation, sections, committees, working groups and other bodies of the Association.
The Association's governing members also include the vice-president, secretary, and auditing committee.
The official publication of the Association is its Bulletin, which is published annually with the approval of the administration.
The Association's budget is secured from annual membership dues, voluntary contributions from libraries and individuals, and grants from benevolent organizations.
One of the goals of the Association is to participate in international library cooperation. Toward that end, in 1995, the Association applied to the governing bodies of IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions), indicating its interest in membership in that most important international library organization. In August 1996, during the 62nd IFLA congress in Beijing, the Armenian Library Association was elected as a national association member.
The Association is registered in 4 working group sections: national libraries, scientific-technical libraries, public libraries, and information technologies.
Regional relations with Georgian and Azeri library workers began perhaps in 1996 to 1997. During those years, after the break-up of the former Soviet Union, the first immediate linkages among the three nations' library workers took place.
5 to 6 May 1997, the regional conference on The Library as an information centers: a new image took place in Yerevan. Participating in the planning were 15 Georgian librarians and two librarians from the United States. Three members of the Association's administration, who also represented the Inernational Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) Armenian Alumni Association, had initiated the organization of the conference. IREX sponsored the 3-day conference, with participation of more than 50 library workers. Proceedings of the conference were published in a single volume.
3 to 5 June 1998, Tbilisi, 10 Association representatives participated a regional conference on Libraries: Enablers of Information Access, which was organized by the Association of Information Specialists of Georgia.
18 to 21 April 1999, 5 Association representatives participated in activities of the 2nd South Caucasus Regional Conference. Director of the Papazian Library, Satenig Avakian's presentation focused on Library Standards Utilized in Armenia. Rafik Ghazaryan, Deputy Director of the National Library of Armenia, had prepared the second paper to be presented.
March 2000, Tbilisi, 9 Association representatives participated in the 2-week course organized by the Association of Information Specialists of Georgia. Seven librarians from each of the South Caucasian republics were involved in the course. S. Avagyan and N. Hayrapetyan taught the classes on Catalogues and International bibliography.
Armenian-Georgian Workshop
Association of Information Specialists of Georgia in companionship with the Armenian Library Association led a two weeks workshop on Library and Information Sciences on December 3 - December 15, 2001 at the IATP NLA site. Eight professional librarians four by each association conduct workshops on Library and Information management, Library Automation, Reference sources and Services, Intellectual Freedom, Fundraising and Grant writing, Internet and e-mail usage and other fundamental issues of library sciences. 17 librarians from five libraries participated in the workshop. The new skills they developed will allow them to search for information on the Internet and make contacts with like-minded organizations. Librarians visited American University of Armenia Papazian Library. Part of workshops was arranged at the Republican Scientific-Medical Library. Part of city librarians will build a resource page for their branch libraries. Directors of the National Library of Armenia, Republican Scientific-Medical Library, Republican Scientific-Technical Library, and Mr. G. Vahanyan, IATP Armenia regional coordinator participated to the closing ceremony. Some of librarians were recommended to continue their training as system librarians for Armenian Unified Library Automated Network.
ALA Bylaw
You can download the Armenian version of ALA bylaw in MS Word format here.
