In addition to these digital collections, a growing number of collections are now available online by request. Please contact the ALA Archives at (217) 333-7841 or ala-archives@library.illinois.edu if you would like access to these materials. The ALA Archives makes digital versions of collections accessible for educational and research purposes only.
The ALA Collections in the University Library Digital Library contains a wide variety of ALA and library related images, postcards, and textual materials. This includes WWI Library War Service images; the FW Faxon Collection of group pictures of librarians attending the ALA conferences, covering the period of 1894-1932; and the Library Building Photographs Collection.
The American Library Association Institutional Repository (ALAIR) is an open access repository, committed to collecting, permanently storing, and providing digital access to the publications and intellectual work of the American Library Association. It is organized into communities reflecting the Divisions, Offices, Committees, and Round Tables that make up ALA.
Discover the ALA’s digital past through its web archives, containing archived copies of the ALA’s website by Archive-It, including captures from its divisions, committees, offices, and round tables.
The Sjoerd Koopman Library Postcard Collection includes approximately 16,000 pictorial and photographic postcards of libraries all over the world. The ALA Archives holds digital copies of cards from this collection depicting libraries throughout the United States; the majority of them are also available as physical objects. Subjects include public libraries, private libraries, academic libraries, library interiors, reading rooms, and bookmobiles. New objects will be added periodically.
This collection contains published proceedings of annual conferences as well as transcripts of the general sessions from 1881-83, 1885-87, and 1889-1922.