ALA Strategic Plan
ALA Strategic Plan
ALA’s new Strategic Plan is a bold, forward-looking roadmap designed to strengthen our organization, expand opportunities, help prioritize our work, and ensure our continued leadership in the library field.
This plan lays out clear priorities that will drive meaningful impact for ALA's members, the library industry, and the broader community ALA serves.
View the Strategic Plan Dashboard (PDF)
Strategic Objectives per Domain
Mission
Empowering and advocating for libraries and library workers to ensure equitable access to information for all.
Vision
Libraries thrive so everyone can succeed.
Values
Domains and Goal Statements
- Advocacy: Champion libraries and empower advocates to support our core values.
- Member Experience: Deliver a personalized member experience that deepens engagement, strengthens retention, and reinforces ALA’s value to the members at every stage of their careers.
- Organizational Redesign: Redesign and strengthen ALA’s organizational structure to foster clarity, accountability, and collaborative leadership.
- Financial Stability: Optimize ALA’s capacity for impact through disciplined financial stewardship, streamlined operations, and resource allocation into mission-aligned growth
- Professional Development: Offer educational and leadership opportunities that promote lifelong learning and career advancement.
Strategic Objectives per Domain
Advocacy
- Develop a unified, proactive advocacy strategy centered on ALA’s values of access, equity, and intellectual freedom
- Expand partnerships with national and international aligned organizations to impact ALA’s reach, credibility, public visibility, and policy influence.
- Build an infrastructure to rapidly respond to opportunities and crises. (urgent priority)
- Empower advocates with toolkits, templates and legislative updates to amplify their voice at the local and state level.
- Launch a national public awareness campaign highlighting intellectual freedom, access to information, and the societal value of libraries in democracy and education.
Member Experience
- Continue to enhance the membership model to improve flexibility and demonstrate value.
- Improve all member-facing digital platforms.
- Reimagine the conference experience to engage more of the membership.
- Explore new ways of communicating and engaging with members.
Organizational Redesign
- Optimize programs and align organizational functions in accordance with ALA Forward recommendations. (urgent priority)
- Realign elements of the ALA governance structure to provide for more efficient decision-making.
- Advance the “Our ALA” model. (urgent priority)
- Implement consistent onboarding, training and leadership development programs for Board members and staff in alignment with association and non-profit management best practices.
Financial Sustainability
- End operating deficit spending, adhere to clear/realistic/reality sized budgeting practices. (urgent priority)
- Review programs/services to identify opportunities for consolidation, streamlining, or elimination.
- Centralize functions and operations to eliminate duplication and maximize efficiency.
- Redesign or sunset low-performing, financially un-sustainable or outdated offerings. (urgent priority)
- Create and invest operating surpluses to build a reserve fund to support the association’s financial health.
Professional Development
- Expand meaningful opportunities for engagement by providing a breadth of educational and informational resources such as virtual learning, networking, leadership and career pathways, mentoring, and certifications.
- Support library workers with a variety of skills and knowledge to support their learning and professional growth.
- Research and gather data to identify educational needs of library workers to develop opportunities in emerging and evolving trends.
- Support and strengthen accreditation function of the association.
