American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit educational organization of 58,000 librarians, library educators, information specialists, library trustees, and friends of libraries representing public, school, academic, state, and specialized libraries dedicated to the improvement of library and information services.

The Mission of the American Library Association is to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.

A new five-year initiative, ALA Goal 2000, aims to have ALA and librarianship be as closely associated with the public's right to a free and open information society - intellectual participation - as it is with the idea of intellectual freedom.

See: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvoca cy/index.cfm for ALA's issues and advocacy activities. The Washington Office houses two separate ALA Offices: the Office of Government Relations (OGR) and the Office of Information Technology Policy (OITP). While the OGR acts as the link between ALA members and the federal government, the OITP promotes the development and utilization of electronic access to information as a means to ensure the public's right to a free and open information society.

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