CentenniAL

Will Manley’s forthcoming “Will’s World” column in February reviews the first year of the ALA Bulletin, specifically its July coverage of the 1907 Annual Conference. The ALA Bulletin is the immediate predecessor to American Libraries, and the January 1907 issue is the one to which we date our hundreth anniversary.

But American Libraries didn’t actually become American Libraries until January 1970. So to start at a somewhat different beginning, I'd like to give an overview of the topics covered by the first issue of the newly renamed American Libraries.

Image
The 2-color cover (black and cyan, if you’re keeping track) features a young woman with glasses, hair in a bun, and stacks of books in both arms. In other words, “stereotypical librarian.” Except that upon closer examination, she’s grinning, and leaping into the air. The cover note on the table of contents, salutes youth as it “... Takes hold of the ‘image’ and begins to make it their very own.” One could debate the cover's success as an image-buster (as AL Editor Leonard Kniffel and I did, briefly; he finding the meaning more apparent than I), but it's clear that the concern is not a new one.

Classification
Three letters addressed an October 1969 article that argued against converting to Library of Congress classification from Dewey. All three were pro-Dewey, although one argued that in closed stacks, it was better to not classify at all.

The environment
One letter lamented a Washington Post article about the destruction of a Los Angeles park to make room for a parking lot for the staff of the Central Library, saying the librarians who called in sick because they couldn’t park were “a disgrace to the profession.”

Gerald Shields’ editorial quite passionately called for libraries to participate in a national “teach-in” on pollution, set for April 22 of that year. “If anyone ever thinks of the library again will depend on what you do April 22,” he wrote. Apparently someone did something right.

Intellectual Freedom
The then-two-year-old Intellectual Freedom Office had a monthly column in the magazine, authored by then- and current Director Judy Krug. This issue’s focus, however, was a fairly innocuous essay on the value of alternative press materials.

More controversial would have been the several letters on the “Librarians for 321.8” group. Among that group’s proposals was the addition of at least four full-time staff members to the Intellectual Freedom Office.

ALA Reform
The “Librarians for 321.8” had also called for the provision of candidate statements on Council ballots, an idea that letter-writers were generally in favor of, and the suspension of members whose actions didn’t support the Library Bill of Rights, which the letter-writers didn’t really address.

A full feature, “A Membership Dilemma,” addressed ALA’s “identity crisis,” and some specific complaints from a generally pro-status-quo position. For example, it blamed the ALA membership for creating a splintered structure that caused slow reactions, lack of member participation for allowing a relatively small group of people to weild power in the Association, and the ALA Council for not providing more oversight over Executive Board and Headquarters actions.

Faculty Status for Librarians
Specifically, in California. A featured report report on the status of California State College librarians, who were seeking faculty status, declared that “Among the states to which the nation customarily look for educational leadership, California is most backward in this respect.”

An anonymous letter in response to an October 1969 article on the same issue, however, took a contrary view, writing “We are a ‘profession’ in love with petty housecleaning type tasks. Until librarians can prove in word and deed their intellectual and managerial competence, they will be, with justification, denied faculty status.”

—Greg Landgraf, Editorial Assistant, American Libraries