Kansas Library Association Centennial Moments

"A Distinguished Past, A Dynamic Future"

The first decade (1900-1909)
The second decade (1910-1919)
The third decade (1920-1929)
The fourth decade (1930-1939)
The fifth decade (1940-1949)
The sixth decade (1950-1959)
The seventh decade (1960-1969)
The eighth decade (1970-1979)
The ninth decade (1980-1989)
The tenth decade (1990-1999)

The first decade (1900-1909)

During the first decade of the 20th century:

Queen Victoria died,
Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest-ever president of the United States,
the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane at Kitty Hawk,
Peary reached the North Pole (maybe),
the first Ziegfield Follies were presented, and
the electrocardiogram was invented.

Best sellers included:

The Virginian by Owen Wister,
The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle,
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair,
The Crisis by Winston Churchill (the novelist, not the British prime minister), and
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Wiggins.

In libraries during 1900-1909:

The book wagon made its presumed first appearance in Washington County, Maryland in 1905.
Andrew Carnegie gave away millions of dollars to build libraries across the country.
The Chicago Public Library had satellite stations in fire stations and fire boats.
Leavenworth became the first city in Kansas to receive a grant from Andrew Carnegie for a public library.
The Kansas Library Association was organized in 1900.
In 1904, the KLA annual meeting was held at St. Louis during the World’s Fair.
KLA dues were raised from 50 cents to $1 in 1904.
The library training department at Kansas State Normal School (Emporia) was created.

By Roger Carswell
Director
Southeast Kansas Library System/Iola Public Library

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The second decade (1910-1919)

During the second decade of the 20th century:

the Titanic sank,
Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, NM,
World War I was fought,
the Bolshevik Revolution occurred,
the Spanish Influenza epidemic killed millions of people around the world,
the Panama Canal was completed, and
New Mexico and Arizona joined the union.

Best sellers included:

The Harvester by Gene Stratton Porter,
The U.P. Trail by Zane Grey,
The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori, and
Penrod by Booth Tarkington.

In libraries during the 1910s:

Women in libraries in 1918 earned $900 per year.
ALA campaigned to get reading material for camp libraries for American troops in World War I.
Publisher’s Weekly added nonfiction best selling records.
The KLA annual meeting scheduled for Pittsburg in October 1918 was canceled because of the Spanish influenza epidemic.
Kansas library trustees held their first meeting as a group in 1916.
The 1911 annual meeting provided for two KLA sectional meetings: one for college and reference librarians, and one for public librarians.
Canton was the last Kansas town to receive a Carnegie grant.

By Roger Carswell
Director
Southeast Kansas Library System/Iola Public Library

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The third decade (1920-1929)

During the third decade of the 20th century:

Lindbergh made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean,
the stock market soared then crashed,
Charles Curtis of Kansas became vice president (the highest office yet held by someone of American Indian blood),
King Tut’s tomb was discovered,
Clarence Birdseye marketed quick-frozen food,
Prohibition went into effect, the social scene included flappers and speakeasies, and
the Leopold and Loeb trial was dubbed “the trial of the century”.

Best sellers included:

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Outline of History by H.W. Wells
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
So Big by Edna Ferber, and
The Re-Creation of Brian Kent by Harold Bell Wright.

In libraries during the 1910s:

Not allowed to check out books because he was black, future author Richard Wright tricked the library into giving him books.
Book carts appeared in hospitals.
County libraries are authorized by the Kansas Legislature in 1921, and
Scott County becomes the first county library in 1924.

By Roger Carswell
Director
Southeast Kansas Library System/Iola Public Library

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The fourth decade (1930-1939)

During the fourth decade of the 20th century:

the Depression was in full force,

Roosevelt instituted New Deal programs,

Social Security was begun,

the Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind were filmed,
Hitler came to power in Germany,
World War II began, and
the Lindbergh kidnapping/murder trial was dubbed the trial of the century

Best sellers included:

The Good Earth by Pearl Buck,
Magnificent Obsession by Lloyd C. Douglas,
Miss Bishop by Bess Streeter Aldrich,
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell,
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, and
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

In libraries during the 1930s:

In libraries during the 1930s:

The Library Bill of Rights was adopted in 1939
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built libraries
Navy Blues, a 1937 movie, made the drab librarian turned beauty into a cliche
In Kansas, a bill to establish a certification board and requirements for librarians divided members of the Kansas library community and died in the Legislature
The Junior Members Section (now New Members Round Table) of KLA was formed

By Roger Carswell
Director
Southeast Kansas Library System/Iola Public Library

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The fifth decade (1940-1949)

During the fifth decade of the 20th century:

Pearl Harbor was attacked,

the Allies defeated Germany, Italy, and Japan in World War II,

the atom bomb was produced,

the Iron Curtain descended across Europe,

India gained its independence,

Israel was created,

Casablanca was filmed,
Bing Crosby recorded “White Christmas”,
Edwin Land invented the Polaroid camera, and
the Nuremberg trials were dubbed “the trials of the century”.

Best sellers included:

I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson,
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn,
Berlin Diary by William Shirer,
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway,
The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas, and
Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor.

In libraries during the 1940s:

1400 librarians attending the ALA convention in San Francisco protested the appointment of Archibald McLeish, not a professional librarian, as Librarian of Congress.
The average cost of hardcover fiction was $2.58 (1941).
An In-service Library Institute sponsored by KLA and the Kansas State Teachers College (Emporia) library school was held it 1944; it proved so successful that another was held in 1946.
The College and University Libraries Section became a permanent division of KLA in 1942.
No KLA annual meeting was held in 1943 due to war and travel restrictions.
Hutchinson became the first Kansas library to leave its Carnegie building in 1949.

By Roger Carswell
Director
Southeast Kansas Library System/Iola Public Library

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The sixth decade (1950-1959)

During the sixth decade of the 20th century:

The Korean War was fought,
the nation liked Ike,
the McCarthy hearings were televised,
the Brown vs. Board of Education decision outlawed school segregation,
Sputnik was launched,
TV became all the rage, and
the Rosenberg trial was dubbed “the trial of the century”.

Best sellers included:

Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl,
From Here to Eternity by James Jones,
East of Eden by John Steinbeck,
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious, and
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.

In libraries during the 1950s:

A growing trend toward book banning brought the Freedom to Read statement in 1953,
the average cost of hardcover fiction was $3.50 in 1954,
the federal library program began with the Library Services Act of 1956; Kansas first participated in 1958,
“Wake Up and Read” was the National Library Week theme in both 1958 and 1959,
Kansas library laws were complete overhauled in 1951 as part of a general revision of Kansas statutes,
Kansas libraries affiliated with the Bibliographic Center for Research (BCR),
KLA established an Intellectual Freedom Committee,
the William Allen White Children’s Book Award was established,
the first state-owned bookmobile became part of the Kansas Traveling Libraries Commission services in 1958.

By Roger Carswell
Director
Southeast Kansas Library System/Iola Public Library

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The seventh decade (1960-1969)

During the seventh decade of the 20th century:

The Berlin Wall was constructed,
JFK, RFK, and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated,
the U.S. entered the Vietnam War,
ARPANET (which eventually evolved into the Internet) was created,
Apollo 11 landed on the moon,
the Civil Rights movement made great strides, and
the first heart transplant was performed.

Best sellers included:

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone,
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee,
Happiness Is a Warm Puppy by Charles Schulz,
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann, and
The Godfather by Mario Puzo.

In libraries during the 1960s:

OCLC came into existence,
LSA was expanded into the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA),
regional systems of cooperating libraries were authorized by Kansas Legislature; in 1968, the statute was expanded to allow membership by school and academic libraries,
the first public library construction grants under LSCA Title II were made for new buildings in Neodesha, Pratt, Wichita, and Salina, and
the first state services for blind and physically handicapped were funded in 1965

By Roger Carswell
Director
Southeast Kansas Library System/Iola Public Library

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The eighth decade (1970-1979)

During the eighth decade of the 20th century:

Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace as a result of the Watergate scandal,
the communist North triumphed in Vietnam,
the U.S. celebrated its Bicentennial,
Egyptian president Sadat electrified the world by visiting Israel and later signing a peace accord,
the first human test tube baby was born,
President Ford survived two assassination attempts,
Muhammed Ali made a comeback,
supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini held Americans hostage in Iran, and
the Manson trial was dubbed “the trial of the century”.

Best sellers included:

Love Story by Erich Segal,
Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask by David Reuben,
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach,
All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward,
The Stand by Stephen King.

In libraries during the 1970s:

The FBI attempted to hunt subversives through library check-out records,
Institutional libraries were added to LSCA,
ISBNs came into being,
ALA celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1976,
Kansas began state aid to local libraries and regional systems,
The database now known as the Kansas Library Catalog was first produced,
The first joint conference of KLA, KASL and KAECT, or Tri-Conference, was held in Topeka in 1979.

By Roger Carswell
Director
Southeast Kansas Library System/Iola Public Library

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The ninth decade (1980-1989)

During the 1980s:

the AIDS epidemic emerged,
Reagan won two landslide elections,
Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union,
the Berlin Wall came down and Communism collapsed throughout eastern Europe,
the Challenger exploded, and
Madonna was popular.

Best sellers included:

Iacocca by Lee Iacocca,
North and South by John Jakes,
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel,
Family Album by Danielle Steel,
The Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy, and
Misery by Stephen King.

In libraries during the 1980s:

Ten ALA-accredited library schools closed,
“Information Power” was published,
The national library symbol was created,
Microcomputers and automated circulation systems came into widespread use in libraries,
The Kansas Library Network Board came into being,
The Kansas Union Catalog migrated to microfiche format, then to CD-ROM,
The Interlibrary Loan Development Program (ILDP) was established by the Kansas Legislature,
Friends of Kansas Libraries was formed.

By Roger Carswell
Director
Southeast Kansas Library System/Iola Public Library

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The tenth decade (1990-1999)

During the 1990s:

the Gulf War was fought,

apartheid ended and majority rule began in South Africa,

Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show
the Americans With Disabilities Act became law,
the economy boomed,
and the O.J. Simpson trial was dubbed “the trial of the century”.

Best sellers included:

The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller,
The Client by John Grisham,
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt,
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt,
Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom,
Body of Evidence by Patricia Cornwell, and
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling.
In libraries during the 1990s:
- The Internet became commonly available in libraries
- “Libraries Change Lives” was an ongoing National Library Week theme
- The Second White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services was held
- The Library Services and Technology Act replaced the Library Services and Construction Act
- Federal library programs were moved from the Department of Education to the Institute for Museum and Library Services
- The Kansas Library Catalog became available online
- The Kansas State Library contracted for statewide access to databases
- Blue Skyways was developed
- The Kansas Library Association embarked on an ambitious plan to double membership and establish its own office
- The Kansas Library Trustee Association was organized
By Roger Carswell
Director
Southeast Kansas Library System/Iola Public Library
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Note:
Authors and Books are linked to the Kansas Library Catalog.
Movies are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

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Last modified: 25 June 2000
Please send comments to KLA Webmaster

This site hosted by KLA on Blue Skyways.	This site rated with RSAC.

Last modified: 25 June 2000 Please send comments to KLA Webmaster