This blog post is part of a series exploring the important events and people in ALA’s history for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of ALA in 2026.
The Advance Attendance Register for the Richmond Conference displayed a rendering of the White House of the Confederacy.
Wilson Bulletin editor, Stanley J. Kunitz, called it the “The Spectre at Richmond” – but the racial discrimination at the 1936 ALA Annual Conference was no ghostly apparition.[1] The conference was held in Richmond, Virginia, a city with Jim Crow era racial segregation laws. While the American Library Association itself had no segregation or discriminatory policies, up until 1936 they had not established any ruling against holding a conference in a segregated city where members would be subject to discrimination. Thus, “the Spectre” marched into the halls of the hotels and auditoriums, reminding all librarians present that there was still work to be done. Continue reading “Librarians, Segregated: The 1936 ALA Annual Conference”→
This blog post is part of a series exploring the important events and people in ALA’s history for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of ALA in 2026.
Overhead view of the entrance to Library 21 and the main exhibit space.
The ALA predicted the future 62 years ago in Seattle – the future of libraries, that is. They called their premonition “Library 21,” an exhibition at the 1962 World’s Fair. The “automated” library of the future would blend traditional library services with advancements in information technology. Partnered with companies including Remington Rand-UNIVAC, Xerox, RCA, IBM, and Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library 21 explored the importance of library services in daily life and how “electronics and information technology will have great impact on the methods we use for storing, retrieving, and communicating knowledge in the libraries of tomorrow.”[1]
The 9,000 square foot exhibit space was the first exhibit on the ground floor of the Washington State Coliseum, which drew large crowds during the Fair’s run from April 21 through October 21, 1962.[2] An estimated 1.8 million people visited Library 21 – almost 20% of the total attendance of the Fair.[3] Designed by Vance Jonson of Los Angeles and constructed by the firm Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall, the exhibit structure itself was quite impressive. The futuristic exhibit consisted of two large circles connected to form a figure eight, with stairs from the second circle leading to the colorful Children’s World below. The circles were lit from above and surrounded by reflecting pools. Visitors approached via a bridge into the first circle, which included the UNIVAC computer, the Ready Reference Center, and the adult reading area. The second circle contained the Xerox Theater, Learning Resources Center, and other electronic exhibits. Continue reading “Library 21: ALA at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair”→
Fraser Valley Union Library Bookmobile. Found in record series 18/1/57, Box 5, Folder: Bookmobile – Outside Shelving, 1939-1976
A relatively new addition to National Library Week, the first National Bookmobile Day was celebrated in 2010, to recognize over one hundred years of service that bookmobiles and direct-delivery outreach services have contributed to bringing information, technology, and resources to all readers.[1]
The more things change, the more they stay the same, or so you will think when you look at this laundry list of key considerations Katherine L. Sharp outlines for someone setting up a library in her writing “Catechism for Librarians.” Unlike a religious Catechism, she outlines not what to believe but a series of questions a librarian must answer for herself. Despite being only 3 by 5 inches in size, 24 pages long, and never published, these 180 questions still provide a reasonable guide to someone setting up a library today. And their relevance is still more interesting when you consider that this was written in 1891, with no knowledge of the sweeping changes in librarianship and technology that were to come. A few of the more prescient questions are presented here in their modern context: Continue reading “Have you a card catalog? Katharine L. Sharp’s Catechism for Librarians”→
Katharine Sharp and other librarians at an unknown event, c. 1900. Caption on the back reads: “Mr. Brunden, our host, Miss ‘Public Libraries’ Ahern; Mr. Dewey (with the Placid look upon his face); Miss K. L. Sharp; Miss M. McIlvaine.”
For an educated woman at the turn of the century, there were few options for a intellectually satisfying career, as Katharine L. Sharp discovered as a newly minted college graduate in 1885. She taught foreign languages at a high school in Illinois for two years, but then she took a position as Assistant Librarian at the Scoville Institute and seems to have found her calling. Believing so strongly in the burgeoning field of professional librarianship, she enrolled in the new New York State Library School in 1889, where she studied under Melvil Dewey. [1] Continue reading ““The Best Man in America is a Woman”: Katharine L. Sharp and the First “Lady Librarians””→
New York City, New York Book Collection, February, 1919 Record Series 89/1/13
Within a few weeks of America’s entrance into World War I, the American Library Association undertook an enormous campaign to send books and other reading materials to American forces at home and abroad. Continue reading “A Book for Every Man”→
The beginning of the Twentieth century marked the start of expansion for American libraries. A nationwide movement to establish county library systems began in 1898. This coincided with the spread of branch libraries, which began to appear in large cities in the early 1890s. The growing number of library buildings was due in large part to Andrew Carnegie, who built libraries in 1,412 communities. The first part of the century also saw a broader range of services as librarians reached out to groups that had previously been ignored by the library: children, immigrants, minorities, soldiers, the sick and the handicapped, the working class, and isolated rural community dwellers. Continue reading “Have Books, Will Travel”→
