Nickname | ArLA |
---|---|
Formation | January 26, 1911 |
71-0452619 | |
Headquarters | Little Rock, Arkansas |
Parent organization | American Library Association |
Website | arlib |
The Arkansas Library Association (ArLA) is a professional organization for Arkansas's librarians and library workers. [1] It is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. [2] It was founded on January 26, 1911, in Little Rock, Arkansas by Caroline Langworthy from the Carnegie library of Fort Smith, Maud Pugsley from the Little Rock Public Library and the Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs. [3] [4] [5] C. W. L. (Charles Webster Leverton) Armour, a trustee of Fort Smith Public Library, was the organization's first president. [6] [7] Early legislative efforts led to approval of a plan allowing some towns to impose taxes for library development. [5]
Miss Jim Parks Matthews, an assistant librarian at the University of Arkansas, was the first librarian and first woman to serve as ArLA president in 1923. [5] During this time the organization moved towards advocacy for professional development for librarians. [5]
ArLA began publishing a newsletter which evolved into Arkansas Libraries by 1930. [5] After the organization had a financial setback in 1933 when their bank failed, Arkansas Libraries stopped being published until 1944. [5] It is still being published quarterly in 2020. [8]
The Association bestows The Arkansiana Award, given to the author(s) of a book or other work which represents a significant contribution to Arkansas heritage and culture on three categories: Adult Non-Fiction; Adult Fiction; and Juvenile Books. In 2021 the winners were: Marla Cantrell for Early Morning in the Land of Dreams (Adult Fiction); David Hill for The Vapors : A Southern Family , the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs (Adult Non-Fiction), and Darcy Pattison and Eileen Hutcheson for A Little Bit of Dinosaur (Juvenile). [9]
Arkansas is a landlocked state in the south-central region of the Southern United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage language, a Dhegiha Siouan language, and referred to their relatives, the Quapaw people. The state's diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the densely forested land in the south known as the Arkansas Timberlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River and the Arkansas Delta.
Sebastian County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 127,799, making it the fourth-most populous county in Arkansas. The county has two county seats, Greenwood and Fort Smith.
Conway County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Created as Arkansas's 11th county on October 20, 1825, Conway County has four incorporated municipalities, including Morrilton, the county seat and most populous city. The county is also the site of numerous unincorporated communities and ghost towns. The county is named for Henry Wharton Conway, a politician from a powerful political family who served as the delegate from the Arkansas Territory to the U.S. Congress from 1823 to 1827.
Morrilton is a city in Conway County, Arkansas, United States, less than 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Little Rock. The city is the county seat of Conway County. The population was 6,992 at the 2020 United States census.
Conway is a city in the U.S. state of Arkansas and the county seat of Faulkner County, located in the state's most populous Metropolitan Statistical Area, Central Arkansas. Although considered a suburb of Little Rock, Conway is unusual in that the majority of its residents do not commute out of the city to work. The city also serves as a regional shopping, educational, work, healthcare, sports, and cultural hub for Faulkner County and surrounding areas. Conway's growth can be attributed to its jobs in technology and higher education; among its largest employers being Acxiom, the University of Central Arkansas, Hendrix College, Insight Enterprises, and many technology start-up companies. Conway is home to three post-secondary educational institutions, earning it the nickname "The City of Colleges".
Mena is a city in Polk County, Arkansas, United States. It is also the county seat of Polk County. The population was 5,558 as of the 2020 census. Mena is included in the Ark-La-Tex socio-economic region. Surrounded by the Ouachita National Forest, Mena is a gateway to some of the most visited tourist attractions in Arkansas.
Russellville is the county seat and largest city in Pope County, Arkansas, United States, with a 2021 estimated population of 29,338. It is home to Arkansas Tech University. Arkansas Nuclear One, Arkansas' only nuclear power plant is nearby. Russellville borders Lake Dardanelle and the Arkansas River.
Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents that encompasses the Arkansas counties of Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian, and the Oklahoma counties of Le Flore and Sequoyah.
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
Adolphine Fletcher Terry (1882–1976) was an American political and social activist in the state of Arkansas. Terry leveraged her position within the Little Rock community to affect change in causes related to social justice, women's rights, racial equality, housing, and education. Fletcher is most remembered for her role on the Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC) that was primarily responsible for reopening the Little Rock, Arkansas, public school system and bringing to a close the school district closing in 1958, following the Crisis at Little Rock Central High. In its "Millennium Poll" in 2000, the Arkansas Historical Association named Terry one of the state's 15 most significant figures in state history.
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members as of 2021.
Interstate 49 (I-49) is an Interstate Highway in the state of Arkansas. There are two main sections of the highway across different sides of the state. The southern section starts at the Louisiana state line, then runs to Texarkana, at the Texas state line. The northern section begins at I-40 and at U.S. Highway 71 (US 71) in Alma and runs north to the Missouri state line, where the freeway continues into Missouri.
Little Rock is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 204,405 in 2022, according to the United States Census Bureau. As the county seat of Pulaski County, the city was incorporated on November 7, 1831, on the south bank of the Arkansas River close to the state's geographic center. The city derived its name from a rock formation along the river, named the "Little Rock" by the French explorer Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe in 1722. The capital of the Arkansas Territory was moved to Little Rock from Arkansas Post in 1821. The six-county Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway, AR Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is ranked 81st in terms of population in the United States with 748,031 residents according to the 2020 estimate by the United States Census Bureau.
George Richard Mann was an American architect, trained at MIT, whose designs included the Arkansas State Capitol. He was the leading architect in Arkansas from 1900 until 1930, and his designs were among the finalists in competitions for the capitols of several other states.
Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is a metropolitan area and region in Arkansas within the Ozark Mountains. It includes four of the ten largest cities in the state: Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, the surrounding towns of Benton and Washington counties, and adjacent rural Madison County, Arkansas. The United States Census Bureau-defined Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers Metropolitan Statistical Area includes 3,213.01 square miles (8,321.7 km2) and 560,709 residents, ranking NWA as the 102nd most-populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. and the 13th fastest growing in the United States.
The Librarian of the Year Award is an annual award made by Library Journal to "honor a professional librarian for outstanding achievement and accomplishments reflecting the loftiest service goals of the library profession." It was first awarded in 1988. Although it is often referred to as the "National Librarian of the Year Award," any working professional librarian from North America is eligible.
Charlotte "Lottie" Andrews Stephens was the first African American to teach in Little Rock, Arkansas. She taught for seventy years and an elementary school was named for her in 1910.
The Little Rock–Pine Bluff media market, which encompasses the state capital and two of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. state of Arkansas, maintains a variety of broadcast, print and online media outlets serving the region. The Little Rock–Pine Bluff market includes 38 counties in the central, north-central and west-central portions of the state, serving a total population of 1,172,700 residents ages 12 and over as of 2021. As of September 2021, it is ranked as the 59th largest American television market by Nielsen Media Research and the 92nd largest American radio market by Nielsen Audio.