In a special episode of our “How I Library” podcast, show host and I Love Libraries editor Phil Morehart speaks with library historian and author Wayne Wiegand about the beginnings of the American Library Association (ALA) as it celebrates its 150th anniversary.
In 1876, 103 librarians gathered in Philadelphia to create a new association for librarians. One hundred and fifty years later, ALA has endured to help shape both the library profession and American history.
In the first in a series of four bonus “How I Library” episodes on ALA history that will be released throughout this year, Morehart and Wiegand (author of “Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library,” “In Silence Or Indifference: Racism and Jim Crow Segregated Public School Libraries,” and more) explore the rich, fascinating early years of ALA and its complicated founders, ALA’s impact on librarianship, the role of ALA and librarians during WWI, and much more.
You can learn more about library and ALA history and all of the celebrations that the Association has planned for its Sesquicentennial at ala150.org.
“How I Library” is available for download or streaming on Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Or listen below.
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