American Library Association

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American Library Association

50 East Huron Street
Chicago, Illinois 60611
U.S.A.
Telephone: (312) 944-6780
Toll Free: (800) 545-2433
Fax: (312) 440-9374
Web site: http://www.ala.org

Nonprofit Organization
Founded: 1876
Members: 64,000
Revenues: $47 million (2006)
NAIC: 511130 Book Publishers

With more than 64,000 members, the Chicago-based American Library Association (ALA) is the world’s largest library association and the oldest. The ALA has chapters in all 50 states, its operations divided among 11 divisions to serve the needs of public libraries, school libraries, and college and research libraries; library trustees and advocates; information technology personnel; and other constituents. The ALA also hosts some 15 round tables, covering such subjects as Intellectual Freedom; Library History; Library Research; Social Responsibilities; Ethnic and Multicultural Information Exchange; and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender issues. The ALA’s reach is also extended through a network of about 25 affiliated organizations. The association is governed by an elected council, the directives of which are carried out by a 13-member executive board.

19TH-CENTURY ROOTS

As the public library movement began to take shape in the United States in the 1800s, a call came from a number of quarters for leading librarians to come together at a convention where they could exchange ideas and seek ways to advance the cause of public libraries. In September 1853 such a convention was held in New York City, and among the topics discussed was a proposal for a “card catalogue” that relied on punched slips of paper strung together. While the attendees made it clear that they intended to make the gathering an annual event, they were unable to form a permanent organization to organize future conventions.

More than 20 years passed before that dream was realized. In 1876 many groups converged on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to meet during the United States’ centennial celebration. Librarians took advantage of this idea to finally schedule another conference. While no one person can lay claim to the idea, among the leading librarians who at least share the credit was Melvil Dewey, who in that same year of 1876 published the Dewey Decimal Classification system that would make him famous. For several years Dewey had wanted to establish a national organization for librarians and launch a library periodical, and now he took the lead in seeing that the conference actually took place. The three-day event was held in Philadelphia in August 1876, and out of it emerged a new national organization for librarians called the American Library Association, as well as an official publication of the group, American Library Journal.

The ALA’s first president was Justin Winsor, an able administrator who was superintendent of the Boston Public Library at the time of his election but who soon left to become librarian of Harvard University. He, Dewey as secretary, and the association’s vice-presidents drew up the ALA’s constitution, which was published in Library Journal in March 1877. The creation of an executive board of directors, originally composed of five members, was one of the provisions, charged with making decisions for the ALA in between annual conferences. In reality, little happened outside of the conferences during these early days of the ALA.

Winsor’s tenure came to an end in 1885, and henceforth ALA presidents were elected at the annual conference and served only until the next gathering. Dewey took his turn in 1890 but poor health forced his resignation before the 1891 San Francisco conferences. There, K. A. Linderfelt, head librarian of the Milwaukee Public Library, was elected to succeed Dewey, but his term came to an even quicker end under even less auspicious circumstances. He was arrested for embezzlement, the stealing of public funds, and he was replaced as ALA president by William I. Fletcher. In ALA records, Linderfelt is not to be found because the association’s secretary was instructed to record Fletcher as serving the entire term that would have been Linderfelt’s.

FIRST STATE CHAPTER: 1890

State library organizations also began to crop up during this period. In 1890 the New York Library Association became the first, and four more state associations followed that year, and another four a year later. In the meantime, the ALA also began to branch out in other ways. In 1889 the College and Library Section was formed, providing academic library administrators a forum to discuss matters that concerned them.

For many years the ALA had no true headquarters, essentially located wherever the organization’s secretary resided. For the first 15 years that meant the desk of Dewey, wherever he happened to make his office in Boston. By the end of the 19th century, however, there was a clamoring for a permanent headquarters located at a major center of library work, although there was some disagreement over the purpose of the headquarters. Dewey saw it as a “great central clearinghouse” for new methods and ideas in the library field and a place to provide training, while Arthur E. Bostwick of the New York Public Library hoped the headquarters would become more of a social club. As for the location, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., were all leading candidates, but in the end Boston was chosen because office space could be leased at a less expensive rate. Hence, in September 1906 the ALA moved into four rooms at 34 Newbury Street in Boston. Little more than a year later the lease was terminated and the association was once again looking for a permanent home. The offer of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Library to provide free quarters was tentatively accepted, but because of some internal dissension the ALA decided instead to accept free space in Chicago at the John Crerar Library, which was under construction. Because of building delays, however, the ALA ultimately moved into the Chicago Public Library in September 1909.

The United States’ entry into World War I in 1916 afforded the ALA with an opportunity to move beyond a purely professional association to become something of a service organization. During the war, the ALA’s Library War Fund financed libraries at the 32 military training facilities spread across the United States. The ALA also spent some of the money it raised on books for servicemen and launched a national donation campaign that netted 3.5 million books.

This experience during the war prompted the ALA to look for more ways to have an impact on the lives of Americans, leading to the 1919 proposal of what became known as the Enlarged Program. It was an ambitious slate of ideas, which included providing books and magazines to Coast Guard units and the American Merchant Marines, bringing library services to poorer sections of the country, and spending money to promote the “library idea” with the general public. While the goals may have been commendable, ALA leadership misread the organization’s public profile and ability to raise funds outside of the time of war. Hence, a $2 million fund-raising campaign garnered just $80,000, and in late 1919 it was terminated, thus putting an end to the “noble experiment.”

COMPANY PERSPECTIVES

The mission of the American Library Association is to provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.

In response to this resounding failure, the ALA phased out the programs launched during the war years and sought to increase its membership and broaden its base of support and influence in the United States. An Activities Committee was also formed, in response to critics, to review the ALA’s procedures and practices, resulting in some fruitful changes to the organization. The onset of the Great Depression in late 1929 hindered the ALA, as libraries suffered severe budget cuts, leading to the layoff of librarians and the inability of many ALA members to pay their dues. After several years, however, conditions began to improve, the government restored budgets and librarians went back to work, and the ALA’s membership began to grow.

Aside from economic problems, the ALA in the 1930s also had to face challenges to intellectual freedom as another world war loomed. Some reading material was deemed totalitarian propaganda by some people, who called for it to be removed from library shelves. Some novels, such as John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, were considered by many to be subversive because of their socialist politics, while other works of fiction, such as Kathleen Winsor’s Forever Amber, were deemed immoral because of their sexual content. To combat the censorship initiatives, the ALA passed the Library Bill of Rights in 1939, which was followed by the formation of the Intellectual Freedom Committee. To ensure free access to information, however, the ALA possessed no power beyond the publicity it could bring to bear on the people or government entities engaging in censorship.

During World War II, the ALA resumed its campaigns to raise funds and collect books for military personnel. It also faced a new challenge; after years of dealing with the problem of unemployment among librarians, it now had to contend with a major shortage of librarians. Not only were many called to military service, but others took higher-paying jobs outside of the profession, as the wartime economy boomed and private-sector salaries grew because so much of the workforce was now in the service of the country. The final year of the war, 1945, saw the ALA finally move into its own headquarters after decades of depending on free space. The organization was able to acquire the McCormick mansion in Chicago for its permanent new home.

In the decade that followed World War II, the ALA struggled to find agreement on what direction to follow. It also had to contend with strained relationships with its divisions, in particular the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), which wanted greater autonomy. As a result, the ALA reorganized as a more decentralized operation. In 1952 the ACRL recognized its first local chapter, located in Philadelphia. During this period the ALA was able to successfully lobby for federal aid to libraries, resulting in the passage of the Library Services Act. It was also able to obtain funding from charitable organizations to become involved overseas in building libraries and establishing library schools.

NEW HEADQUARTERS COMPLETED: 1963

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, while the ALA was still refining its working relationship with the divisions, the association considered another relocation of its headquarters. A plan to move to Washington, D.C., failed because of an inability to raise the necessary funds, and in the end the ALA decided to construct a new headquarters around its old building. The five-story L-shaped structure opened in stages and was finally completed in 1963. It was a time of optimism for the organization and the library movement it served because the federal government made new monies available. Later in the 1960s, however, as the war in Vietnam drained dollars from the common purse, budgets were cut.

KEY DATES

1876:: The ALA is founded in Philadelphia.
1909:: Headquarters are moved to offices of the Chicago Public Library.
1939:: The ALA passes the Library Bill of Rights in response to censorship efforts.
1945:: The association moves into its first permanent home in Chicago.
1963:: New headquarters building opens in Chicago.
1982:: Banned Books Week is launched.
2002:: The ALA opposes the USA Patriot Act.

In the meantime, the ALA, like the country in general, was forced to take a stand on the civil rights movement sweeping the country, and decide whether it would allow libraries that discriminated against people on the basis of race, religion, or personal belief to be part of the ALA. In 1964 the association expressed an intention to employ “every means at its disposal” to ensure everyone had freedom of access to libraries. It was very much a “paper policy,” however, and discrimination continued in America’s libraries. The matter ultimately came to a head at the 1966 conference held in Detroit. The agenda listed but one item: Shall library institutional members in the ALA be open only to libraries that are integrated? While the meeting’s members unanimously adopted a recommendation to the council that the ALA’s constitution be amended to eliminate discriminating libraries from the ranks of the association, the council at the midwinter meeting that year voted it down. Most of the council supported the spirit of the recommendation but were opposed to the mechanism proposed.

Finding agreement was always difficult for the ALA, which underwent regular reorganizations but remained in many respects a bureaucracy that had difficulty in changing or making decisions. It faced something of a revolution in the late 1960s when a group of members called for the formation of a Round Table on the Social Responsibilities of Libraries to give members a forum to express their concerns on such issues as “race, violence, war and peace, inequality of justice and opportunity.” Citing urgency, an attempt was made to skirt the approval process of the Committee on Organization, which was responsible for reviewing these kinds of requests, and its chairman accused the round table’s organizers of making a brazen power play, one which if successful would establish a precedent for other “pressure groups.” Nearly two years would pass before the new round table would gain official status within the ALA, although it had already been allowed to meet and organize. The ALA also received criticism from within, as evidenced by the scornful remarks delivered by outgoing treasurer Ralph Blasingame, who maintained that the ALA was an old organization, run by old people, and unable to chart a course for the future. He advocated yet another reorganization, one that would place ten-year term limits on certain staff officers and allow for greater participation from younger ALA members.

As disturbing as Blasingame’s comments may have been, they did little to change the ALA, by this time approaching its first century in operation. Author Dennis Thomison offered a trenchant assessment of the association at this point in his history of the ALA through 1972. Highlighting a number of seeming contradictions, he wrote that the ALA was “often resistant to change, sometimes utterly unpredictable, frequently right in the vanguard of American thought, and always determined in its principles. It has been, on occasion, an organization that has seen nothing wrong with being outspokenly liberal one moment and terribly conservative the next.” He added, “The membership is so diverse that ALA cannot possibly answer the call of every member. ALA will surely always be behind the demands of its outspoken dissenters, and just as surely, far in advance of its conservative constituency.”

On the whole, the ALA became more of a liberal-leaning organization in the years following Blasingame’s scathing analysis. It had to face the challenge of new technologies that had a profound impact on libraries. In the 1940s libraries began to incorporate film strips into their holdings, making libraries more than just repositories of books. Now in the late 1970s and early 1980s, new media became available: videotape, videodisc, and audiocassettes. In 1980 at a meeting held in New York City, the ALA sponsored a colloquium to ponder an “information agenda for the 1980s” and provide libraries with some guidance on what material, and how much, they should now offer to their users. In the 1990s this debate would be renewed with the emergence of the Internet as a popular medium, as libraries began to buy computers and make them available to users to browse the Internet. In the early 2000s the ALA took on book publishers over the right of libraries to make electronic books available free online.

Some old battles for the ALA were also reengaged in the final decades of the 20th century. In 1982 the ALA had launched the annual observance of Banned Books Week and each year had no difficulty in finding books that some group wanted removed from the shelves of a library. On the one hand, the days when Catcher in the Rye was considered racy and kept behind the counter may have passed, but there were still sexually-explicit books that some groups opposed, and on the other hand Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn was regularly denounced for its racism, despite critical acclaim. The Internet also opened up new areas of censorship for the ALA to consider. Many libraries installed software filters on library computers to prevent users from viewing material that might be deemed offensive to others. The ALA opposed filters, maintaining that they compromised a library’s obligation to the free flow of ideas. In 1999 the organization also came under fire from conservative radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who opposed the ALA’s intellectual freedom policy and launched a public campaign to force the ALA to remove a link on its web site to an explicit sex-education site for teenagers.

The ALA also found itself often at odds with the government. In the late 1980s it opposed a plan to turn over the organization of certain databases, such as census material, to private companies, which the ALA worried might make the material too expensive for libraries to purchase or simply focus on the data that had the most commercial value. In the early 2000s the ALA was especially upset over the USA Patriot Act, passed after the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, being opposed specifically to the provisions that allowed the Federal Bureau of Investigation access to library records to determine what kind of materials a person may have checked out. A resolution passed by the ALA called the act “a present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy rights of library users.”

In its 130th year of its existence, the ALA continued to find ways to make itself relevant. In 2006 it published its first-ever The State of America’s Libraries report, which noted that 89 percent of Americans surveyed were pleased with their public libraries, and most agreed they were underfunded. Libraries also continued to face numerous attempts to censor library materials. Hence, the ALA still had a significant role to play in serving as an advocate for libraries and the public’s right to intellectual freedom.

Ed Dinger

PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS

American Association of School Librarians; Association for Library Collections & Technical Services; Association for Library Service to Children; Association for Library Trustees and Advocates; Association of College and Research Libraries; Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies; Library Administration and Management Association; Library and Information Technology Association; Public Library Association; Reference and User Services Association; Young Adult Library Services Association.