The Georgia Library Association (GLA) is a professional organization in the United States for

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

librarians 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 role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

and library workers. It is headquartered in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

. It was founded as The Georgia Library Club by members of the Young Men's Library of Atlanta and Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs. The organization changed its name to the Georgia Library Association at its first business meeting. GLAs first president was Anne Wallace, elected at the organization's first meeting May 31, 1897, in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. The Georgia Library Association was open only to White librarians until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The

American Library Association 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 a ...

(ALA) asked each state chapter to recertify itself by 1956 and required that each state have a single, integrated chapter. The Georgia Library Association did not recertify and lost their chapter status. By 1965 the Georgia Library Association complied and was restored.

E. J. Josey Elonnie J. Josey (January 20, 1924 – July 3, 2009) was an African-Americans, American activist and librarian. Josey was the first chair of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, having been instrumental in its formation in 1970; s ...

was a Black Georgia librarian and ALA member. When he noted in 1964 that ALA officers attended the GLA conference, a conference he could not attend as an ALA member, he drafted a resolution forbidding ALA officers from participating in the activities of segregated ALA chapters. Josey became the first Black librarian to receive membership in GLA. He founded the Black Caucus of ALA in 1970 and was president of the American Library Association from 1984 through 1985. GLA has published ''Georgia Library Quarterly'' (previously ''The Georgia Librarian'') since 1964. Records of the Georgia Library Association are archived at

Valdosta State University Valdosta State University (VSU or Valdosta State) is a public university in Valdosta, Georgia. It is one of the four comprehensive universities in the University System of Georgia. , VSU had over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students. VSU ...

.Georgia Library Association (GLA) Records.
aldosta State University Archives and Special Collections.

References

External links

Official website

Southeastern Library Association website
Library associations in the United States {{library-stub