Article I.     Name

Article II.     Mission

Article III.     Membership

Article IV.     Membership Applications and Vote

Article V.     Board of Directors

Article VI.     Meetings

Article VII.     Nominations and Elections

Article VIII.     Member Communication and Website

Article IX.     Ticker: The Academic Business Librarianship Review

Article I.     Name

Academic Business Library Directors

The name of this organization is the Academic Business Library Directors, hereinafter called ABLD. 

Article II.     Mission

ABLD is a working group of library directors at the top business schools in the United States and Canada. Through annual meetings and active email list participation, the organization fosters collaboration, networks globally, and shares best practices. This group of leaders works constantly to stay ahead of the curve in the academic business field and to share its deep knowledge and experience with the premier institutions to which its members belong. ABLD is committed to its vital role in the education of the business leaders of tomorrow.

ABLD contributes to the success of its members’ business schools by:

• delivering strategic initiatives that produce excellence
• developing our facilities to reflect new trends in learning styles, information services, and management education
• influencing product and service development
• leveraging the power of its member institutions for the benefit of management education

ABLD contributes to the profession by:

• inspiring qualified librarians to pursue careers as business information professionals
• mentoring the next generation of directors to assume their rightful role in the wake of organizational change
• promoting library services and professionals at our institutions
• networking with other international groups of academic business library directors

Article III.     Membership

Membership is open to academic business library directors, library leaders, business subject librarians, and other librarians who have substantial leadership, management, or budgetary responsibilities for business library collections, staffing, operations, or resources that support business-school research and curriculum.

ABLD has one category of membership. Individual membership is based on organization affiliation and may not be transferred to another institution or individual.

Member qualifications:

Members must be library directors or library leaders affiliated with leading graduate business programs that have appeared in the top 60 from the Poets & Quants Top 100 U.S. MBA Programs ranking or in the top 10 on Maclean’s Best University Business Programs.

• Member institutions need to directly serve schools of business or management that are accredited by the AACSB.

• Members must have job responsibilities that primarily or significantly correspond to business-school research, curriculum, and related programs. Example roles may include:

• Library directors who are key decision makers in business library facilities, business collections, business library staffing, and other resources.
• Business subject liaisons who manage or influence collection budgets and coordinate business school instruction and outreach for the library.

Applicants shall petition the board for membership when:

• Their business school is not represented in ABLD, and they wish to join
• They wish to succeed a former ABLD member as library director
• They move to another qualifying business school

Membership is limited to library directors or library leaders at institutions that meet the membership criteria below and shall consist of library directors whose application for membership has been approved by the membership in a vote.

Membership is capped at 50 members.

1. Membership is open to library directors or library leaders at institutions in the United States or Canada that serve accredited and ranked MBA programs.
2. ABLD members must be permanent employees of their library's parent institution. Membership is limited to one person per institution.
3. Each member is required to actively participate in the work of the group throughout the year.
4. At a minimum, members are expected to annually complete the member statistics survey, and submit a "Year in Review" on the state of their library.
5. Additionally, members are expected to attend at least one in-person annual meeting every three years.

Admission will also be based on a combination of the following criteria:

1. Rankings of business programs by Poets and Quants (U.S.) and Maclean’s (Canada).

2. Administrative oversight including: 

   • Collections
   • Budget
   • Personnel
   • Facilities
   • Research and curriculum program support
3. History of the institution with ABLD
4. Value that membership will bring the new director
5. Value that the new member will bring to ABLD

Members lose membership status when they:

1. Move to another institution.
2. Experience a change in position responsibilities not aligned with ABLD qualifications.
3. Fail to meet criteria for active membership status as defined above.
4. Fail to attend the annual domestic meeting for three consecutive years. (Extenuating or special circumstances may be taken into consideration by the Board.)
5. Fail to regularly participate in the annual statistics survey and year-in-review report.

Article IV.     Membership Applications and Vote

Applicants will be asked to address the membership criteria in their applications. Applications will be reviewed by the Board of Directors, which will screen and present appropriate applications to the general membership for a vote.

The Board may appoint, or an applicant may identify, an ABLD member who acts as a sponsor for the applicant.

Based on the initial screening and the board members’ assessment, the Board will forward the applications to the membership for a vote. This vote should occur within 30 days after the applications have been forwarded to the membership.

A simple majority of members in favor is required to admit a new member.

The vote is conducted by the Chair, who tallies the results and announces them to the applicant and the membership.

In the event that there are more applicants than open membership positions, the applicants receiving the highest number of votes cast shall be declared members.

The Board may invite applicants who are in the process of applying for membership to attend the Annual Meeting.

Article V.    Board of Directors

Responsibility for governance is held by a six-member Board consisting of:

1. Chair (one-year term; elected by members)
2. Chair-Elect/Recording Secretary (one-year term; elected by members)
3. Past Chair (one-year term)
4. Vendor Relations Liaison (three-year term; elected by members)
5. Host for upcoming meeting (appointed by Board)
6. Host of the most recent meeting (appointed by Board)

The Chair, Chair-Elect/Recording Secretary, and Vendor Relations Liaison are elected at the Annual Business Meeting.

Responsibilities of Board Members

All Board Members

• Assess membership applications and indicate assessment to the Chair and Board
• Assist host with annual meeting planning
• Constitute nominating committee for board positions
• Propose changes to the ABLD Charter as needed

Chair

• Guide and direct the association in its policy-making and management functions
• Conduct the annual business meeting
• Liaise with other groups of academic business librarians.  Traditionally, the Chair (or designee) attends the EBSLG (European Business Schools Library Group) annual meeting.  Attendance is a shared expense between the Chair’s home institution and ABLD, which covers the cost of economy airfare.
• Coordinate the Board review of membership applications
• Manage membership applications vote – present applications to membership, manage the voting process, and communicate results to membership and applicants

Chair-Elect/ Recording Secretary

• Serve as Chair in the absence of the Chair
• Record the minutes of the Annual Business Meeting
• Serve as program chair for the annual meeting in coordination with the meeting host.

Past Chair

• Liaise with the Ticker Editorial Board

Vendor Relations Liaison

• Represent issues and concerns of membership to vendors
• Coordinate vendor participation at the annual meetings in cooperation with the meeting host and Chair-Elect
• Participate in planning vendor-related programs at annual meeting in cooperation with meeting host and program chair

Article VI.     Meetings

Annual meetings are held at a member’s institution, which is usually determined by a voluntary invitation during the Annual Meeting. Ideally, two or three locations are identified in advance, giving the hosts and members time to plan. Meetings are generally in March, April or May.

The host and Program Chair (who is the Chair-Elect/Recording Secretary) determine the meeting agenda in consultation with the membership. The host is responsible for local arrangements. Members may volunteer to participate in the program, may be asked to present papers, serve on panels, demonstrate new technology, etc.

Registration fees are kept to a minimum, and cover mailing, food and incidental costs where possible.

The Annual Business Meeting is held each year, often on the last day of the meeting. During the Business Meeting, new board members are elected, the next meeting site(s) are selected, and the board reports on membership decisions and other business.

Attendance

Members are expected to attend at least one meeting out of every three. Members may designate an appropriate alternate representative from their institutions if the are unable to attend. The host may invite guests depending on expected attendance and facilities. These guests could include librarians from the host or nearby institutions. Guests may attend program sessions but not the business meeting. At the Board’s discretion, interim directors, or directors in the applications process may be invited.

Article VII.     Nominations and Elections

The Board shall solicit nominations for positions to be filled from all members of the Association.  Nominations should be finalized one month before the annual meeting by the Board. 

The candidates are announced and the statements provided to the membership before the annual meeting.

The election is held during the Annual Business Meeting. Only members present may vote.

If there is a single candidate for a Board position, a simple show of hands indicating a majority is permissible. If there is more than one candidate for a position, a candidate slate and ballot should be circulated at the meeting.

The candidates receiving the highest majority of the votes cast shall be declared elected.

Article VIII.     Member Communication and Website

ABLD maintains a communication list open to current members. Applicants being considered for membership may be included on the list at the Board's discretion.

Postings on the listserv are restricted to listserv members and should be kept private. The ABLD website is hosted externally, but maintained by a member institution. The URL is http://www.abld.org. 

Article IX.     Ticker: The Academic Business Librarianship Review

Published by the Academic Business Library Directors (ABLD), Ticker: The Academic Business Librarianship Review, an open access journal, is a forum for the exchange of research, best practices, and innovative thinking in business librarianship and business library management.

The governance of Ticker: The Academic Business Librarianship Review is the Editorial Board with the advice of the ABLD Board. For details as to composition of the Ticker Editorial Board as well as its policy and procedure, see the Ticker: The Academic Business Librarianship Review website. An annual report is submitted both to the ABLD Board and the full ABLD membership. A Ticker: The Academic Business Librarianship Review update may be included at the annual ABLD conference.

Updated on January 4, 2021