Organization formed to combat information apartheid

Black Collegian, Jan 1994

A recent electronic mail conference among African-American librarians, in different parts of the nation, has resulted in the formation of the African American Library and Information Science Association (AALISA), a new proactive African-American professional association dedicated to empowering the African world community.

The association, founded last September at UCLA, is part of a growing trend among African-American professionals to organize themselves to address underrepresentation issues, and other needs within various professions.

According to the American Library Association, African-American librarians represent only 6.3 percent of all U.S. academic and public librarians. However, African Americans represent approximately 12.6 percent of the population, a figure that is expected to reach 35.5 million by the year 2000 and 40.4 million by 2010.

This lack of African-American librarians and information professionals reflects what AALISA's president, Itibari M. Zulu of UCLA's Center for Afro-American Studies calls "information apartheid," which articulates a practice of differentiating information according to social status, and access to current technology.

For more information contact AALISA, c/o the UCLA Center for Afro-American Studies Library, 44 Haines Hall, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024-1545, call (310) 825-6060.