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The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of library associations in Finland, which is unique in that there are four library associations within a common infrastructure established by the National Library.

The paper looks at all four library associations in Finland.

The paper finds that the associations have become part of a nationally connected series of projects and are working to create more commitment from the professionals who either make or break the associations.

As a model Finland's library associations have many lessons to offer into the future.

Vietnam has a fairly large body of dedicated library professionals working in a well structured library system. It is an anomaly that Vietnam does not have a national library association. This article advocates the creation of such a national organization for Vietnam. The first part of the article attempts to answer the question: what is a national library association for? Examples from both developed and developing countries are given to demonstrate the values of national library associations. The second part of the article is aimed at answering the second question: why do we need a national library association for Vietnam now? The author’s main arguments are the pressing needs imposed on the Vietnamese library community by the national standardization programme and the overhaul of the national library science curriculum.

Library associations in India have been playing an important role in conveying useful messages and guidelines for library development, acting in this transitional era as meeting places for professionals, helping them exchange opinions and promoting free access to information while also facing a series of structural, political, cultural and financial challenges. Despite this scale of involvement, there has been relatively little analysis of the characteristics and services Indian library associations provide, how these can be enlarged and how associations should manage the entire professional community. This paper seeks to fill that gap.

An attempt is made to comprehend the present status of membership based library associations in India and the range of structural, political, cultural and financial challenges which they face through SWOT analysis together with a review of the literature, websites and ephemeral material such as minutes, annual reports, newsletters and memoranda.

That there is an immediate need for restructuring these associations in pursuit of a new working model which would involve functioning in close partnership with other groups; the associations need to be stronger financially and have more impact in pursuing and meeting the objectives and goals of the members of association. To this end, an Indian Institute of Library and Information Science should be established on the pattern of the Indian Institute of Technologies.

The focus of this paper is on the practical aspects of making professional associations function more successfully.

Recommendations are made for carefully planned public relations programs to be carried out by leveraging convergence technologies which could guarantee the long‐term success of library associations.

To guide students' thinking about joining professional associations.

A few representative professional organizations are explored. Aspects such as organizational structure, history, culture, professional focus, and size are discussed.

Many more professional associations exist and encourage student participation than most students are aware of when they enter the profession.

Students can compare professional associations to find those most suited to their professional interests. These may not be the most local or well known national organizations.

This is an attempt to help students recognize that professional organizations exist regardless of their niche interest, and despite the larger and more general associations that may be given local emphasis.

This paper aims to present an overview of the current library and information service in UK professional associations. Challenges in the sector are identified and some of the best information services are examined in order to construct useful models for best practice.

A mixed method approach is used: literature review, sources‐based research, content analysis of web sites, statistical analysis, and open‐ended interviews. A total of 50 web sites of professional associations were analysed and 13 association representatives were interviewed. Models of best practice in professional association library and information services are proposed.

The professional associations with the best web site information provision often have excellent in‐house libraries and a growth in membership between 1999 and 2007. Challenges include: attracting and retaining members through the information services, sufficient marketing and promotion of information services, generating or attracting enough funds, keeping information up‐to‐date, creating benchmarks and standards, and developing information policies and strategy.

The proposed models can be used by professional association library information services to improve their service delivery.

The study contributes to the under‐researched area of library and information services of UK professional associations. The paper outlines original models for building information strategy and best practice.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

There are numerous professional associations for librarians and libraries. A small proportion of these have promulgated codes of ethics. These codes of ethics vary along several dimensions. Often the code reflects the social, political, or professional mandate of its organization. This paper aims to address ethics codes and their functions in professional associations that have individuals as members.

It is suggested that for these organizations there are several different types of ethics codes. This paper addresses the four most common types. The oldest code (American Library Association), one of the newest (Association des Bibliothécaires Français), and two of a more average age (Canadian Library Association and Colegio de Bibliotecarios de Chile) are compared and considered in detail.

The paper finds that, while most library and information professionals share similar values, as reflected in their codes of ethics, the application of those codes varies widely.

The paper provides useful information on codes of ethics for libraries and librarians.

This study aims to report on the findings of a detailed analysis of the collection development tools of use to subject bibliographers in meeting the challenges of the ongoing changes within the broad discipline of area studies.

Select online and print resources are examined for their treatment of specific area studies subjects.

This study identifies the benefits of subject resources, points out inconsistencies with the use of the controlled vocabulary and notes subject access limitations.

The analyzed resources will assist library professionals in identifying and selecting relevant sources.

The detailed analysis of how this subject is treated by numerous resources is unique to the field of library science.

The purpose of this article is to examine how library associations have adapted to recent technological changes, and how this affects networking among members, providing professional development opportunities, and advocating for the profession and their users.

The author examines 12 challenges facing library associations.

The paper proposes that library associations should base their organization around the three principles of sensemaking, influencing, and sharing stories.

The paper provides a useful insight into the problems of change management for library associations from the viewpoint of an experienced library professional.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the adoption of Web 2.0 in library associations in the presence of social media. This paper attempts to measure the penetration of Web 2.0 tools in various library associations all over the world.

The study was conducted through an assessment of the library associations’ web sites. A total of 188 library associations’ web sites were analysed, out of which 115 library associations have implemented Web 2.0 applications; this is 61.17 percent of the total.

On the basis of the analysis it was found that the majority of Web 2.0 tools have been used by American continents library associations. This stands at, 89.86 percent, whereas only a small number of Web 2.0 tools have been used by Asian continent library associations, that is, 25.64 percent. The most of Web 2.0 tools used by library associations, is, Facebook, Twitter, RSS feeds, LinkedIn, Flickr and Blogs.

The findings of this study can be utilized to assess the status of assorted Web 2.0 tools used in libraries associations. It may enable future research to investigate other aspects, such as the adoption of Web 2.0 tools in library associations of a particular country as well as continent.

The paper begins with an introduction to Web 2.0 technology and attempts has been made to analyse the usage of this new technology in library associations worldwide.