One Component of Civilization

Clara Stanton Jones stood before the American Library Association’s Centennial Conference on July 23, 1976, and declared:
“Librarianship is only one component of civilization…”

Fifty years later, her words feel less like a ceremonial reflection and more like a warning—and a challenge.

The 1976 centennial celebrated the builders of the profession: its founders, institutions, standards, and campaigns for professional recognition. But the years from 1976 to 2026 transformed libraries into ways few could have imagined. Libraries confronted political polarization, censorship battles, privatization pressures, rapid technological change, a global pandemic, and the disruptive rise of artificial intelligence. In an era marked by uncertainty over truth, democracy, and public trust, libraries became far more than repositories of books.

One Component of Civilization: 50 Years of the American Library Association tells the story of how the American Library Association — through its leaders, staff, divisions, and above all its members — helped libraries navigate the defining challenges of the last half century. The book explores how ALA:

• built professional frameworks for a changing information age
• fought for federal and local library funding
• created national advocacy networks
• developed standards and training for emerging technologies
• promoted libraries as catalysts for equity and access
• defended intellectual freedom during one of the most contentious periods in modern American history

More than an institutional history, One Component of Civilization: 50 Years of the American Library Association is the story of libraries becoming essential civic infrastructure in modern society. It reveals how ALA helped libraries move beyond isolated cultural stewardship and become active participants in democracy, education, digital citizenship, and the preservation of trustworthy knowledge itself.

At the sesquicentennial of the American Library Association is upon us, One Component offers both a celebration of the last fifty years and a vital reflection on what libraries must become in the next fifty.

Katharine Phenix is a public librarian, writer, and library advocate whose career has focused on public library service, outreach, and readers’ advisory. At the Westminster Public Library in Colorado in 1985, Phenix directed a project that connected a library bookmobile to the library’s computer system through a radio data modem while the vehicle was on the road. Contemporary library reports described it as the first bookmobile to achieve live computer linkage in operation, providing patrons with remote access to the library catalog and circulation system. She was on the ground floor of netLibrary, the first company to provide ebooks to libraries. As a public librarian in Colorado, she worked for Anythink Libraries in Adams County and currently is with the Boulder Public Library District. Active in the American Library Association, she chaired the Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship and has been a member of several book award committees for the Reference and User Services Association, including the Notable Books Council and the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction jury. In addition to public library work, Phenix has written on librarianship, democracy, human rights, and most recently a history of ALA’s strategic plans for the Public Library Quarterly in 2025.

Kathleen de la Peña McCook is Distinguished University Professor at the University of South Florida School of Information where she teaches about Library History and Cultural Heritage. Her previous positions include Dean at Louisiana State University, faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and librarian at Dominican University. She has held leadership roles in the American Library Association and served as ALISE president. Among honors received are the American Library Association Joseph W. Lippincott Award and the REFORMA Elizabeth Martinez Lifetime Achievement Award. Her publications include A Place at the Table (ALA), Library Services to Youth of Hispanic Heritage (McFarland) several editions of Introduction to Public Librarianship (ALA) and since 2021 The Preservation and Annihilation of Memory at Substack.