How I Library Episode 32: Historian Wayne Wiegand on ALA and Library History
Mar 28, 2026
Wayne Wiegand, a library historian and author of works on American library and ALA history, guides listeners through the birth and early power struggles of the ALA. He discusses Melville Dewey's controversial influence, who was included and excluded in early librarianship, women’s rising roles, ALA’s WWI efforts, and how the association centralized power and shaped standards.
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Early Leadership Was Narrowly Elite
- Early ALA leadership was overwhelmingly white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men from Eastern institutions.
- That demographic homogeneity shaped ALA's early identity and made professionalization acceptable to elites of the era.
Women Staffed Libraries But Lacked Power
- Women became the majority of library staff as cities hired low-cost workers for Carnegie-era branches.
- Dewey promoted women into library roles via his library school, framing female labor as skilled but cheaper than male hires.
1893 Exhibit Shifted ALA Power Westward
- Power in ALA shifted between 'old guard' elites and Dewey's network, with a decisive turn after the 1893 Chicago exhibit.
- Dewey leveraged his library school graduates and the 1893 model library to displace Eastern leadership.