Four score and fift–well, six and three-quarters score ago, 103 of our fathers and mothers brought forth on this continent a new association, conceived in Liberty to Read, and dedicated to the proposition that access to information and library services should be equal for all.
From October 4th through the 6th in 1876, 103 men and women gathered at a Convention of Librarians at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I won’t bore you with a full list of names that mean very little to you if you haven’t gone to library school, but you probably won’t be surprised to learn that, among the group that called this meeting (which was to discuss the formation of a professional organization) was Melvil Dewey. From this convention was born the American Library Association, the very first library association in the world.
Now, 135 years later, it’s also the largest library association in the world, with over 62,000 members! And not all of them are librarians—you just need to love libraries! The ALA Annual Conference is also one of the biggest professional conferences in the world! Over 25,000 people attend each June; again, not all of them are librarians. There are also publishers, writers, teachers, and members of Friends of the Library organizations. There are countless workshops, speakers, and other programs on just about any library-related issue you can think of.
The whole point of the ALA is to make libraries better. They strive toward this goal through library advocacy, promotion of literacy and intellectual freedom, policies that support equal access to information and library services for all people, and scholarships and library job resources, just to name a few ways.
So, what does this mean for you? While you may never see or even hear about the ALA’s work (at least not directly) you reap the benefits of better libraries—proof of their devotion to the cause that the best reading, for the largest number, at the least cost shall not perish from the earth.
| Jake Gauslow |
| Adult Services Librarian | |
| jgauslow@friscotexas.gov |
Tags: ALA, American Library Association, birthday, Frisco Public Library, History
