The Works Progress Administration (later called the Works Projects Administration, or WPA) was created in May 1935 as part of the new Deal to provide jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression. In addition to building public roads and supporting community arts projects, the WPA, with help from the ALA Library Extension Board, supported public libraries by sponsoring bookmobiles and providing workers for demonstration projects that extended library services to rural communities. Continue reading “Libraries During the Great Depression”
2024
January
March
April
May
June
July
September
October
- Librarians, Segregated: The 1936 ALA Annual Conference
- 15 Years of Fear: The ALA and the Patriot Act
November
2023
January
March
April
May
June
July
September
October
2022
April
June
July
October
December
2021
July
August
September
November
2020
January
February
- “Librarians Are More Freedom Fighters Than Shushers”: Carla Hayden
- Publications: Children's Books for General Reading, 1924-1929
March
April
May
- Social Gatherings of Times Past: Century 21 Exposition (Seattle, 1962)
- Publications: Library Video Magazine, 1986-1990
June
July
August
October
2019
January
February
March
April
May
June
- Traveling Libraries: The Library Extension Board and Rural Library Service
- Publications: Manual of Library Economy, 1911-1930
July
August
September
- Publications: Reading with a Purpose, Numbers 48 to 68
- Publications: Reading with a Purpose, Numbers 30 to 47
- Publications: Reading with a Purpose, Numbers 16 to 29
- Publications: Reading with a Purpose, Numbers 1 to 15
October
- Publications: Reading for an Age of Change Advertisements, 1961-1966
- Publications: Reading for an Age of Change, 1962-1968
November
December
2018
January
February
March
April
May
June
- Out of the Closet & Onto the Shelves: Librarians and the Oldest Gay Professional Organization in the U.S.
- Publications: SRRT Newsletter
July
- Just for Fun: 22 Steps to Build Your Own Public Library
- Library Life: The Arthur Plotnik Photographs
August
September
October
November
2017
January
February
- “First Your Country, Then Your Rights”: African American Soldiers in WWI
- Research Strategies: Finding African American History Materials at the ALA Archives
- Publications: The Black Caucus Newsletter
March
- The Books They Read: Library War Service in WWI
- Publications: The Newsletters of Women in Libraries and Women Library Workers
April
- Nathaniel L. Goodrich Scrapbooks, 1881-1902
- Publications: Library War Service Publications
- Commemorating the Library War Service
May
- The A.L.A. and Armed Services Librarianship
- Publications: Chinese-American and Asian Pacific American Librarian Publications
- Research Strategies: Finding Asian American and Pacific Heritage Materials at the ALA Archives
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
2016
January
February
- Clara S. Jones: "Awareness is Not Burdened with Repression; It is Liberating"
- Preserving the Nearly Immortal Life of A.A.L.S. Headquarters Tour Guide and Mascot "Prissy".
March
April
May
- Celebrating 140 Years of the ALA
- Oh the Things You Will Find...Preserving Materials at the ALA Archives
June
July
August
September
- "Beyond the Hopes or Plans": ALA at the 1893 World's Fair
- Research Strategies: Navigating a Record Series Structure
October
- Activism and Advocacy in ALA: Women's Organizations
- Research Strategies: Reading and Accessing Database Records
- New Digital Exhibit: Celebrating the Organizers!
November
- "Public Library of the High Seas": ALA and the American Merchant Marine Library Association
- Research Strategies: Publications About the A.L.A. and Librarianship
December
2015
January
February
- Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015): Live Long and Prosper
- Action, Not Reaction: Integrating the Library Profession
March
April
- Celebrating National Bookmobile Day at the ALA Archives
- National Library Workers Day: "Libraries Work Because We Do!"
- National Library Week: "For a Better-Read, Better-Informed America"
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
2014
January
- Audiovisual Collections at the ALA Archives
- "Give the Next Man a Chance!" The Circulating Books of World War I
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
- Burton E. Stevenson: ALA Representative in Europe
- Library/USA Exhibit at the 1964-5 New York World’s Fair
October
November
December
2013
May
June
September
- “The Best Man in America is a Woman": Katharine L. Sharp and the First "Lady Librarians"
- Banned Books Week
- “Capturing our Stories” Librarian Oral Histories Project Added to ALA Archives’ Digital Holdings
October
- "Lots of Love (of both the revolutionary and non-revolutionary kind)": the History of the ALA's GLBT Round Table
- 40 Years of ALA Archives at the U of I
- Have you a card catalog? Katharine L. Sharp’s Catechism for Librarians
November
December
- Announcing Digitized Chinese-American Librarian Association Newsletters!
- Library Buildings: Altgeld Hall, University of Illinois