ALA Junk Mail, originally uploaded by notmarian.

I made the grievous error of joining ALA with my home address. Well, I used to have a membership with my work address but the ALA website and database is so stellar that I couldn’t use my work address and could not simply renew (long story). Almost at the very moment I gave ALA my home address, the junk mail from publishers started to arrive. Here is the pile from the last 4 weeks or so. Advertising and catalogs from publishers and, my favorite, boxes of books from vanity presses. Really awful books they have to give away. This is my final straw with ALA. I will not be renewing my membership unless threatened by pain of torture. Well, maybe I will renew if ALA improves. At this point, I feel quite sure that I will never have to make good on that bargain. I’m ashamed of ALA for selling our addresses to vendors. Not to mention the crap state of the ALA website. As a librarian, I’m more ashamed of that than this tree-killing pile of junk.