Links to Helpful Organizations
"The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 64,000 members. Its mission is to promote the highest quality library and information services and public access to information." source
"The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is a nonprofit global organization for innovative information professionals and their strategic partners. SLA serves more than 12,000 members in 83 countries in the information profession, including corporate, academic and government information specialists. SLA promotes and strengthens its members through learning, advocacy, and networking initiatives." source
The American Society for Information Science and Technology
"The mission of the American Society for Information Science and Technology is to advance the information sciences and related applications of information technology by providing focus, opportunity, and support to information professionals and organizations." source
Society for Technical Communication
"STC is an individual membership organization dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication. It is the largest organization of its type in the world. Its 18,000 members include technical writers and editors, content developers, documentation specialists, technical illustrators, instructional designers, academics, information architects, usability and human factors professionals, visual designers, Web designers and developers, and translators - anyone whose work makes technical information available to those who need it." source
ACM Special Interest Group on Design of Communications
"SIGDOC is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group (SIG) on the Design of Communication (DOC). Until 2003, SIGDOC focused on documentation for hardware and software. With the shift in focus from documentation to the "design of communication," SIGDOC better positioned itself to emphasize the potentials, the practices, and the problems of multiple kinds of communication technologies, such as web applications, user interfaces, and on-line and print documentation. SIGDOC focuses on the design of communication as it is taught, practiced, researched, and theorized in various fields, including technical communication, software engineering, information architecture, and usability, etc. " source
Usability Professionals Association
"The Usability Professionals’ Association supports usability specialists, people from all aspects of human-centered design, and the broad family of disciplines that create the user experience in promoting the design and development of usable products." source