ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Preview of the past: The American Library Association Archives

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Archives is the major North American research center for the study of the history of librarianship. Central to these resources is the ALA Archives, which contains nearly 2,000 cubic feet, or the equivalent of 1,125 file drawers, of the official records, personal papers, and publications of the American Library Association (ALA).

In addition, the UIUC Archives includes materials on librarianship with its holdings on the University of Illinois Library and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Complementing the strength of these resources are other association archives: the American Association of Law Libraries, the Association for Library and Information Science Education, the Geoscience Information Society, the Health Sciences Librarians of Illinois, and the Map and Geography Section of the Special Libraries Association.

Miss J. A. Rathbone at the ALA Conference in Colorado, 1895.

Archives expand

Last year the ALA Archives expanded by nearly 70 cubic feet. Among the more important recent accessions were the additions to the Executive Director, RASD, and ASCLA subject files; ALISE and GODORT files; and the Sanford Berman Papers. There are also six new records series: Public Information Office Photographs, the National Library Power Program Files, RASD Occasional Papers and the Douglas M. Knight Papers, Lester Asheim travel diaries, and the Cargill/ALA Partners for Family Literacy Project Files.

ALA materials date from the first American library convention in 1853. They include formal proceedings, reports, correspondence, subject files, financial records, publications, papers, and scrapbooks. The University of Illinois Library and library school archives date from the school’s founding in 1893, and of special interest are course materials and alumni files dating from those early years.

The formats are numerous. Materials are in the form of manuscripts, typescripts, photographs, slides, filmstrips, motion pictures, videos, audio recordings, postcards, and posters. Major strengths include the activities of SRRT, the Washington Office, and the International Relations Office, as well as the history of library education and cataloging.

Your papers are wanted

ALA members are invited to contribute to the continued growth of this unique research collection. The UIUC Archives is interested in receiving publications, photographs, postcards, scrapbooks, personal papers, and the archives of other groups, associations, and organizations that deal with important aspects of the history of librarianship. For further information, please contact the University of Illinois archivist: William J. Maher, University of Illinois Archives, 19 Main Library, MC-522, 1408 W. Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL 61801; phone: (217) 333-0798; fax: (217) 333-2868; e-mail: illiarch@uiuc.edu.

For more information on the ALA Archives, you can examine a selection of ALA Archives holdings on the Internet through a connection on the ALA homepage or directly at the World Wide Web URL: http:// www.library.uiuc.edu/archives.—Elizabeth R. Cardman. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign