Surveying the role of ethnic-American library associations - The Role of Professional Associations

Library Trends, Fall, 1997 by Tami Echavarria, Andrew B. Wertheimer

INTRODUCTION

The last few decades since the blossoming of the civil rights movement

have seen the emergence of a unique type of organization of librarians--i.e.,

the ethnic library association. These associations cross many

professional and geographic boundaries, including public, special, school,

and academic librarians from technical and public service as well as

administration. What unites these professionals is an interest in professional

opportunities for minority librarians, fostering access to unbiased ethnic

information and recruitment of minority librarians to lead library service

into a multicultural future. A survey of these associations demonstrates

how many of these organizations were formed and ultimately examines

the fruits of their collaborative action. While it is not a

historical examination of the subject, a definition and a context is required to

appreciate why these associations were formed and continue to fill a niche

in the profession.

Minorities are comprised of individuals who have a common characteristic

that is shared among them and which is different from the majority

and from other minorities who do not share that characteristic. That

common shared characteristic is the bond that unites the group. In the

case of ethnic minorities, it is a common racial, cultural, religious.

linguistic, and/or geographic heritage that defines a particular group as the

same or similar and sets it apart from others (Chu, 1994, p. 128).

The 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were decades when white and minority

societies were segregated and unequal in the United States. Nonwhite

individuals had very limited opportunities and many were impoverished.

under-educated, and alienated from the "American Dream." The 1960s

was a decade of activism in which various entrenched values of American

society were questioned and challenged, and new hope was born in the

hearts and minds of many. Since the struggles of the 1960s for civil rights

in American society, the voices of minorities, organized into groups for

various causes, have been heard. Among these causes is equal opportunity

for all of America's citizens irrespective of race, religion, gender,

or color.

Libraries were, as they still are, a microcosm of American society.

During the decades of the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and even into the 1960s,

some library school professors expressed discriminatory attitudes regarding

nonwhite students' intelligence being inferior (Williams, 1987, p. 156).

Few minorities were in the profession, and their opportunities for advancement

were virtually nonexistent. Discrimination in employment

and promotional opportunities was rampant and blatant. The situation

in libraries merely mirrored the larger society. In some states, professional

organizations were segregated. Minority librarians who belonged

to the American Library Association (ALA) felt that the association did

not adequately represent them, did not provide opportunities for them

to participate in decision-making, and responded to their needs too slowly

and tentatively.

The result was that, in the 1970s, ethnic library associations and caucuses

began to organize formally. The ALA Black Caucus formed in 1970;

REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library Services to the

Spanish Speaking, organized in 1971; the Asian American Library Caucus

emerged in 1975; and the American Indian Library Association was

established in 1978. This time period also saw the emergence of library

associations for Jewish-Americans and Chinese-Americans, among others.

How they organized, their purposes, and the role they fill in the

profession is important in understanding why they are needed. There

are minority associations and caucuses in many professions; library and

information science is representative, in this respect, of professions in

the United States. Within the library and information science profession

there are ethnic minority associations and caucuses at the national and,

in some instances, state levels. It is the intent here to examine ethnic

library associations and caucuses within the profession at the national

level.

AMERICAN INDIAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION (AILA)

Indian peoples have seen libraries as a part of their education. During

America's frontier days, Indian lands were often traded by Indian

tribes to have access to the "white man's education." Treaties signed by

the U.S. government, still in force today, guarantee this education. But

living up to the agreements of the treaties has always been an issue, and

the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has given Native Americans only the

bare minimum.

Before the late 1970s, American Indians and Alaskan native people

living on or near reservations did not have access to library facilities

equal to other Americans. On most reservations under the auspices of the U. S.

Bureau of Indian Affairs, the only library was a small school library. Its

hours and resources were geared to juvenile readers and considered inadequate

(Isaac, 1978, p. 13). State and public libraries felt no obligation

to serve reservations since the Indian tribes were not part of their