Personal members include professionals and para-professionals in Ireland and abroad, students, and supporters of the library sector.
Strategy and policy are in the hands of the association's council, while day-to-day finance and administration is handled by a management committee.
The association publishes a journal, An Leabharlann – The Irish Library, and organises regular conferences.
The new category, LAI Author of the Year, is awarded to an Irish author whose works contributed significantly to the reader experience and enjoyment of Irish books during the year, as nominated by librarians and library book club members.
[15] In 2019 it was announced that the LAI would host the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Dublin in 2020.
[16] The #ebooksos campaign, highlighting the limitations and restrictions imposed on libraries when sourcing and lending ebooks, was strongly supported by the LAI.
[17][18] In 2022, the LAI, with the Consortium of National and University Libraries (CONUL), the Irish Universities Association Librarian’s Group and the Technological and Higher Education Association Librarians’ Group, published a statement condemning the withdrawal of over a thousand ebook titles from library subscription packages by the publisher Wiley, and the relabelling of key ebook titles as etextbooks which would be sold as a subscription model to students based on class size.
[23] Early Councils of the LAI included representation from many professional bodies, including the National Library, the Royal Irish Academy, the Universities, the Royal Dublin Society and the School of Library Training at University College Dublin.
A Liaison Committee was set up in 1929 between the LAI and their colleagues in Northern Ireland after a meeting at the Library Association Conference in the United Kingdom.
[24] Dr Mary Delaney of South East Technological University (SETU) Libraries became editor of An Leabharlann in 2023.