California Library Association

Last updated
California Library Association (CLA)
Established1895;129 years ago (1895)
Type Non-profit
NGO
Location
President
Shawn Thrasher
Vice-President
Genesis Hansen
Past President
Gary Shaffer
Website www.cla-net.org

Established in 1895, the California Library Association (CLA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization. Members of CLA include library staff members, professional librarians, library and information science graduate students, and those individuals "interested in the development, promotion and improvement of library services" in the state of California.

Contents

History

The California Library Association traces the impetus of its founding to the American Library Association (ALA) conference in 1891 in San Francisco in 1891. [1] [2] This was ALA first West coast conference. At that time, there was interest in forming a regional library association on the west cost, because it was felt that the American Library Association's was focused more on the development of East coast libraries. [3] CLA was formed in 1895 at "a meeting of representatives of eight northern California libraries." This creation was spearheaded by George Clark, Arthur Jellison, and Joseph Rowell. [4]

CLA quickly took its role of advocating for libraries in California seriously. In the early 1900s, CLA worked on collaborations and mutual support with the California State Library and State Librarian James Gillis. In 1912 the organization advocated for the building of schools, including the California State Library School, to train librarians and to expand libraries throughout the state. [3] [5] [6]

At the 1914 annual meeting of the Association, it was voted to affiliate the California Library Association with the American Library Association. [7] This gave the CLA representation within the national association's Council. [8]

In 1941 the organization published guidelines for the roles of professional and non-professional librarians in college and university libraries. [9]

The organization has a history of advocating against censorship, [10] [11] discrimination, [12] [13] [14] and government interference. [15] [16] [17] In 1984, the organization received national attention when it rescinded its invitation to a noted Holocaust denier and antisemite, [18] David McCalden, to speak at their convention. [19] [20] [21] "When [McCalden's] request to display his books during Banned Books Week was denied by the Torrance (California) Public Library, McCalden was invited by the California Library Association in 1984 to operate a booth and participate in a presentation at its annual conference. The uproar by both politicians and the press when this became public led the CLA to cancel McCalden’s exhibit and program." McCalden sued CLA and his lawsuits were dismissed by the courts. [22] [23]

Purpose

The organization's original focus was on traveling libraries and interlibrary loan, creation of a state library commission and state library standards, and library training and copyright depositories in the state of California. The CLA operated as the de facto state library commission promoting library services to underserved areas until the California State Library took over those roles. [3] : 92  Currently its stated mission is to provide "leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library services, librarianship and the library community." The organization also gives awards to programs that encourage reading and education, including the PBS show California Gold with Huell Howser. [24] [25]

CLA provides resources to its members and to California libraries of all types, including educational opportunities, library job listings, and advocacy efforts. Members including individual members (including library students), public and academic libraries, and library-related businesses. CLA organizes an annual conference which brings library workers and supporters together to learn and network, as well as to attend to the organizational business of the association. [26]

Structure

CLA operates according to its bylaws and standing rules. The association is managed by a board of directors, consisting of 15 members. The members are elected for a term of 3 years, and elections are conducted every year for 2 or 3 positions. [27]

CLA partners with the California State Library to create the California Public Library Trustees Toolkit, Lunch at the Library, a program to serve lunch to children in the summers, and California Libraries Learn (CALL), continuing education for staff in public, school, special, or academic libraries in California. [28] [29] [30]

Related Research Articles

The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a United States–based nonprofit organization which promotes Holocaust denial. It is considered by many scholars to be central to the international Holocaust denial movement. Self-described as a "historical revisionist" organization, the IHR promotes antisemitic viewpoints and has links to several neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Librarian</span> Profession

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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State University, Sacramento</span> Public university in Sacramento, California

California State University, Sacramento is a public university in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is part of the California State University system.

Philip Olin Keeney (1891–1962), and his wife, Mary Jane Keeney, were librarians who became part of the Silvermaster spy ring in the 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David McCalden</span> British far-right political figure and Holocaust denier

William David McCalden was a British far-right political activist. After moving to the United States, he was co-founder of the Institute for Historical Review in 1978 and advocated Holocaust denial. McCalden died of AIDS-related complications in 1990.


The Art Libraries Society of North America is an organization of approximately 1,000 art librarians, library students and visual resource professionals. The ARLIS/NA was founded in 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Association of Law Libraries</span> American nonprofit membership association of law library professionals

The American Association of Law Libraries(AALL) is a nonprofit educational organization with over 5,000 members across the United States. AALL's mission is to promote and enhance the value of law libraries to the legal and public communities, to foster the profession of law librarianship, and to provide leadership in the field of legal information and information policy."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Tenney</span> American politician (1898–1970)

Jack Breckinridge Tenney was an American politician who was noted for leading anti-communist investigations in California in the 1940s and early 1950s as head of the California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities ; earlier, he was a song-composer, best known for "Mexicali Rose".

Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas without restriction. Viewed as an integral component of a democratic society, intellectual freedom protects an individual's right to access, explore, consider, and express ideas and information as the basis for a self-governing, well-informed citizenry. Intellectual freedom comprises the bedrock for freedoms of expression, speech, and the press and relates to freedoms of information and the right to privacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Faculty Association</span> Labor union in California

The California Faculty Association (CFA) is an American labor union that represents lecturers, professors, counselors, librarians and coaches from the 23 campuses of the California State University (CSU). It is the exclusive collective bargaining agent for all faculty in the CSU system. In 2022, their annual revenue was $18.1 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Dakota Library Association</span> Professional association for librarians in North Dakota

The North Dakota Library Association (NDLA) is a professional association for librarians, library staff, and library supporters that represent school, public, academic, and special libraries located in North Dakota, United States. "The purpose of this organization is to exercise professional leadership and to promote library services and librarianship." The North Dakota Library Association was formed on January 18, 1906. The association has humble beginnings – at the 1909 conference, there were only 18 members. There are currently over 300 NDLA members.

The Chinese American Librarians Association or CALA, is a library association that supports professional development and research scholarship of CALA members, in the profession of librarianship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Matthews</span> American librarian and art collector

Miriam Matthews was an American librarian, advocate for intellectual freedom, historian, and art collector. In 1927, Matthews became the first credentialed African American librarian to be hired by the Los Angeles Public Library.

This is a timeline of women in library science throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carma Leigh</span> American librarian

Carma Leigh, born Carma Russell, was an American librarian. She was the State Librarian of California from 1951 to 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan H. Hildreth</span> American Librarian

Susan H. Hildreth is an American librarian, administrator, and educator who has led numerous libraries and library agencies in addition to teaching at the University of Washington Information School. Between 2011 and 2015 she served as the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the principal US federal funding agency for libraries and museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connecticut Library Association</span> Professional association for librarians in Connecticut

The Connecticut Library Association (CLA) is a professional organization for Connecticut's librarians and library workers. It is headquartered in Belchertown, Massachusetts. It was founded on February 23, 1891, in New Haven, Connecticut, with the purpose of promoting "library interests by discussion and interchange of ideas and methods, and not to 'trench upon the province of the American Library Association.'" The first regular CLA meeting was held in the Wadsworth Atheneum in May 1891. CLA's initial membership was thirty people and dues were fifty cents. The first CLA president of the Association was Addison Van Name who served from the organization's founding in 1891 to 1892. CLA urged the state of Connecticut to provide incentives for towns to make their libraries public. The state responded by offering grants of up to $200 yearly for libraries to spend on books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mabel R. Gillis</span> American librarian

Mabel Ray Gillis was an American librarian. From 1930 to 1952, she served as the seventeenth State Librarian of California, the first woman to hold that office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Federation of Library Associations</span> Canadian library advocacy organization

The Canadian Federation of Library Associations / Fédération canadienne des associations de bibliothèques (CFLA-FCAB) is a non-profit federation of Canada’s library associations. It was incorporated on 16 May 2016 and replaced the Canadian Library Association (CLA).

References

  1. ↑ Johnson, Bruce (30 November 1975). "The California Library Association, 1895-1906; Years of Experimentation and Growth". Education Resources Information Center. Institute for Education Sciences. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  2. ↑ "Public Library The Trustees Meet and Transact the Regular Monthly Business". The Sacramento Union. Vol. 80, no. 142. Sacramento, California, United States of America: Sacramento Publishing Company. 1891-02-04. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-08-30.
  3. 1 2 3 Held, Ray (1973). The Rise of the Public Library in California. Chicago, Illinois, United States of America: American Library Association. ISBN   0-8389-0124-7 . Retrieved 2024-08-30.
  4. ↑ Hansen, Debra Gold (2013). "Depoliticizing the California State Library: The Political and Professional Transformation of James Gillis, 1899-1917". Information & Culture. 48 (1): 68–90. doi:10.7560/IC48105. ISSN   2164-8034. JSTOR   43737452.
  5. ↑ "Success of County Free Library System". Tulare County Times. Tulare, California, United States of America. 1912-05-16. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-08-30.
  6. ↑ Kunkle, Josephine (1972). "The California State Library School". Journal of Education for Librarianship. 12 (4): 232–239. doi:10.2307/40322191. ISSN   0022-0604. JSTOR   40322191.
  7. ↑ California Library Association Annual Meeting and California County Librarians' Convention Lake Tahoe, June 17 to 22. Sacramento, California, United States of America: California State Library. 1912. p. 300. Retrieved 2024-08-30.
  8. ↑ Summary proceedings of the annual conference of the California Library Association, 1914. Sacramento: California Library Association. 1914. p. 22. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  9. ↑ Sheridan, Leslie W. (1976-09-01). "The Role of the Beginning Librarian in University Libraries (Book Review)". College & Research Libraries. 37 (5): 477–478. doi:10.5860/crl_37_05_477. hdl: 2142/39269 . ISSN   2150-6701.
  10. ↑ "Historian Charges LA Officials With Censorship". Santa Barbara News-Press. Santa Barbara, California, United States of America. 1945-10-09. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-08-30.
  11. ↑ "Self-Appointed Censors Hit by Librarian". Stockton Evening and Sunday Record. No. 166. Stockton, California, United States of America. Associated Press. 1957-10-17. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-08-30.
  12. ↑ Poole, Alex H. (2023), Sserwanga, Isaac; Goulding, Anne; Moulaison-Sandy, Heather; Du, Jia Tina (eds.), ""Will the Day Ever Come When We Will Be Judged on Our Merit and not on Our Blackness?" The Black Caucus of the American Library Association and the Long Freedom Struggle in the United States, 1970–1975", Information for a Better World: Normality, Virtuality, Physicality, Inclusivity, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 13971, Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 485–500, doi:10.1007/978-3-031-28035-1_36, ISBN   978-3-031-28034-4 , retrieved 2024-09-02
  13. ↑ Villagran, Michele A. L.; Hofman, Darra (2023-02-06). ""It's hard to know what we should be doing": LGBTQ+ students' library privacy in the COVID-19 pandemic". Sexualities. 27 (7): 1225–1246. doi:10.1177/13634607231152428. ISSN   1363-4607. PMC   9908524 .
  14. ↑ Koseff, Alexei (2024-08-05). "As LGBTQ library material comes under fire, California may ban book bans". Jefferson Public Radio. Southern Oregon University . Retrieved 2024-09-02.
  15. ↑ Stanton, Sam; Bazar, Emily (2003-09-22). Rodriguez, Rick (ed.). "Librarians step up". The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, California, United States of America: McClathcy Newspaper. ISSN   0890-5738 . Retrieved 2024-08-30.
  16. ↑ "#blackhistory: On August 6, 1905, Miriam Matthews, the Los Angeles Public Library's first black librarian and the "Dean of California Black History," was born". California African American Museum. August 6, 2019. Retrieved 2024-08-30. Matthews also took on the politically fraught work of fighting for academic and intellectual freedom at the height of the McCarthy Era. As a member (and later Chair) of the California Library Association's Committee on Intellectual Freedom to Safeguard the Rights of Library Users to Freedom of Inquiry, Matthews pushed back on efforts to whitewash textbooks on California history and to establish a board of censors to review acquisitions by LAPL.
  17. ↑ Horning, Claudia M. (2022). "Trailblazing Black Librarian in the Golden State: The Legacy and Accomplishments of Miriam Matthews, 1905–2003". Southern California Quarterly. 104 (4): 407–450. ISSN   0038-3929. JSTOR   27274572.
  18. ↑ Thomas, Cal (1984-12-07). Censoring Bigot Is Just Playing Into His Hands. Philadelphia Daily News. p. 52.
  19. ↑ "Speech by man who disputes Holocaust cancelled". The Galveston Daily News. Galveston, Texas, United States of America. Associated Press. 1984-11-18. p. 13. Retrieved 2024-09-02.
  20. ↑ Knight, Pat (1985-04-25). "Revisionism Changing history or spreading prejudice". Corvallis Gazette-Times. Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-09-02.
  21. ↑ Drobnicki, John A.; Goldrnan, Carol R.; Knight, Trina R.; Thomas, Johanna V. (1995-01-13). "Holocaust-Denial Literature in Public Libraries: An Investigation of Public Librarians' Attitudes Regarding Acquisition and Access". Public & Access Services Quarterly. 1 (1): 5–40. doi:10.1300/J119v01n01_01. ISSN   1056-4942.
  22. ↑ Carelli, Richard (1992-06-02). "High court strikes down attempts by two states to keep out garbage". The Buffalo News. Associated Press. p. 4.
  23. ↑ Froehlich, Thomas (2022). "American Democracy Under Siege: Business as Usual in Libraries?". Journal of Information Ethics. 31 (2) – via ProQuest. Their concern stems from a seminal case regarding David McCalden, a Holocaust-denier and promoter, who sued the California Library Association when it canceled his scheduled appearance at its 1984 annual conference. His suit was dismissed.
  24. ↑ California's Gold Memorial Collections (2013.011.r.c), Frank Mt. Pleasant Library of Special Collections and Archives, Chapman University, CA
  25. ↑ Talan, Carole (2005). Kurutz, Gary (ed.). "California Celebrates 20 Years of Library Literacy Services". California State Library Foundation Bulletin. No. 81. Sacramento, California, United States of America.
  26. ↑ "California Library Association's 2018 Conference". The Silicon Valley Voice. 2 December 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  27. ↑ "Governance - California Library Association". www.cla-net.org. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  28. ↑ "California Libraries Learn (CALL): Fostering Learning and Growth in California Libraries". California State Library. 2022-03-24. Retrieved 2024-08-20.
  29. ↑ "California Public Library Trustees Toolkit". California State Library. 2023-06-15. Retrieved 2024-08-20.
  30. ↑ "California State Library - Lunch at the library". California State Library. 2024-06-17. Retrieved 2024-08-20.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.