hall of shame: ALA and NJASL

As an LIS student, I rely on professional library organizations for information for papers and online discussions. So, I was quite annoyed to find, for the 2nd time this month, a library organization has taken formerly free information on their website and moved it to a (paid) members-only section.

Hello? I thought:
library = free = access to information
Right?

I mean, I'm willing to pay for a hard copy. I realize these documents take money and effort (albiet from VOLUNTEERS) to produce. But, get with the 21st century already and throw up a free pdf on your site. Actually, in these cases, KEEP the free pdf that you ALREADY HAD (for FREE) on your site for months (or YEARS). Why move it to a member-restricted section of your site NOW? (i.e., A few weeks before the end of MY semester?!)

ALA, NJASL? You know what documents I'm referring to. I'll be waiting for your reply while I find a friend to email me a copy she wisely downloaded before you went all Amazon on me.

library hall of shame: dead links on the ALA website

I'm sorry, ALA, I am sick of your dead links, and I'm calling you out. Yes, your website redesign was a good idea (even if your new look is a bit sterile for my tastes). But, hello? What's with all of the dead links?

I am sick of all of the external dead links I'm getting from my professors and colleagues sending me to your site. Yes, I'm a MLIS candidate who knows her way around a search engine, and many pages are easily located. But what's with all of the dead links still cluttering your in-site navigation? Like this one, and this one, and this one, on this page. (I should add that I eventually found the articles I was looking for, but not through ALA's search function. I had to use (gasp!) Google.)

And, could you, like, throw us a bone...or site map?

As librarians, don't you have an obligation to make information accessible? For shame!