The 1976 ALA Conference – American Library Association Archives

Allie Beth Martin, ALA President 1975-76. Photo found in record series 99/1/13, Box 2.

Clara Stanton Jones, Acting President, 1976, ALA President 1976-1977. Photo found in 12/1/4, Box 1.

Peggy Sullivan, Local Arrangements Chair. Photo found in record series 5/1/1, Box 18.

David Reich, Local Arrangements Co-Chair. Photo found in record series 5/1/1, Box 18.

Robert Wedgeworth, ALA Executive Director. Photo found in record series 5/1/1, Box 18.

The Committees

The 1976 Centennial Conference was great undertaking and was the result of the collaboration of many people, with plans beginning as early as 1967 with the formation of the ALA Centennial Anniversary Committee. The committee was tasked with initiating plans and recommendations for the anniversary celebration, though it was specifically noted that it was not to serve as the action committee. The Centennial Action Committee was authorized in 1969 by the Executive Board with Mattie Ruth Moore as its first chair.

Handwritten agenda for a planning meeting, found in record series 5/1/28, Box 1.

Skeleton schedule for the conference from 1975, found in record series 2/1/22, Box 1.

Local Arrangements Committee meeting minutes, found in record series 5/1/28, Box 1.

In addition to the Centennial Action Anniversary Committee, there was also the Chicago Centennial Conference Program Committee and the Local Arrangements Committee (headed by Peggy Sullivan and David Reich), which oversaw committees on the Celebrate a Century, Fair-in-the-Park, Inaugural Banquet, and Librarians-at-Large Day. The conference was truly the result of the collaboration of many people, who worked hard to make it an memorable event. ALA Presidents like Ed Holley, Allie Beth Martin, and Clara Stanton Jones helped to steer the vision of the conference. Executive Director David Clift served as a liaison to the many of the planning committees until his retirement, and then Robert Wedgeworth took up the helm of Executive Director.

Preserving Its History

The 1976 Centennial Conference was also the catalyst for the establishment of the ALA Archives at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. With scholarly interest in the history of the ALA on the rise in the 1970s, the Association became aware of the need for better organization, preservation, and access to its historical records. University of Illinois Archivist, Maynard Brichford, made the case to have the records transferred to the Urbana-Champaign campus in 1973.

A detailed, final layout sketch of ALAA stacks at UIUC, circa 1973, found in record series 18/1/1, Box 1.

Celebrate!

In her 1975 inaugural address, ALA President Allie Beth Martin declared, “The theme for the 1976 conference is ‘Celebrate!’ and we are going to do just that in a conference which will be long remembered, and the best in a hundred years.”

ALA 1976 Conference programs, from record series 5/1/1, Box 18.

Tickets to various events, found in record series 2/1/22, Box 1.

Flyer for the JMRT Kissing Booth at the Fair in the Park, found in record series 5/1/28, Box 1.

Unfortunately, Martin passed away in April 1976 before the conference in July. Clara Stanton Jones, the ALA vice president and president-elect, stepped up as acting president and saw the last of the final plans of the conference come to completion. The conference, held in Chicago from July 18-24, became the second most attended conference in ALA’s history up to that point, with just over 12,000 people in attendance.

The International Reception at the Newberry Library, 13/6/17, Box 1.

The ACRL Pie Throwing booth at the Fair in the Park, found in record series 13/6/17, Box 1.

Two women resting in the park with ALA 100 balloons, found in record series 18/1/57, Box 1.

The celebration was marked by several different conference events such the International Reception at the Newberry Library for international guests in attendance, a lecture series, the Fair in the Park with games and activities, the Grant Park Concert, and Librarians-at-Large Day. Special speakers were also highlights of the conference, including poet Gwendolyn Brooks, who delivered an original poem at the ALA Inaugural Banquet, author M.E. Kerr, and state senator and activist Julian Bond. The 1976 Centennial Conference also signaled the start of Clara Stanton Jones’s official term as ALA President, who was the first African American to hold the position.

The First Step Into ALA’s Second Century

Virginia Jones receiving an ALA Honorary Membership, found in record series 13/6/17, Box 1.

Centennial Banquet Program, 1000 copies were printed, this one is number 154, found in record series 5/1/1, Box 18.

In Jones’s inaugural address at the end of the 1976 Conference, she reflected on the struggles of the Association, debates within the membership as social charge swept through the nation. She also acknowledged that the current mood of the membership was one towards hope and renewal, and addressed the librarian’s place in the world:

Our vision has been enlarged by our coming together, our confidence and hope renewed. ALA is at the height of vigor in strong staff leadership and creative membership involvement. There is every reason to expect that librarians in everyday practice and in Association activities will think and understand their way into the new chapter ahead, rather than drift and trail. […] Librarianship is only one component of civilization, but we must recognize that at this crucial period in the human struggle, no profession or unit of society is dealing with just its own isolation practice or commodity. Librarians must appreciate the true weight of their contribution in the delicate and desperate balance in today’s world. [1]

Jones’s words echoed the hope and responsibility she felt that the Association needed. The 1976 Centennial Conference not only served as a celebration for the Association, but also a time for it to come together after a period of financial struggle and internal debate.

In the Archives: the 1976 ALA Conference

[1] Clara Stanton Jones, “The First Step into ALA’s Second Century,” in Step into 200: American Library Association Gala Inaugural Banquet, July 23, 1976, Record series 5/1/1, Box 18, Folder: 1976.