1876

Melvil Dewey, Justin Winsor, C. A. Cutter, Samuel S. Green, James L. Whitney, Fred B. Perkins, and Thomas W. Bicknell issued a call to librarians to form a professional organization. During the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, 103 librarians responded to a call for a "Convention of Librarians" to be held October 4-6 at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Melvil Dewey, Justin Winsor, C. A. Cutter, Samuel S. Green, James L. Whitney, Fred B. Perkins, and Thomas W. Bicknell issued a call to librarians to form a professional organization. During the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, 103 librarians responded to a call for a "Convention of Librarians" to be held October 4-6 at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. n attendance were 90 men and 13 women, among them Justin Winsor (Boston Public, Harvard), William Frederick Poole (Chicago Public, Newberry), Charles Ammi Cutter (Boston Athenaeum), Melvil Dewey, and Richard Rogers Bowker. These attendees formed the American Library Association. The aim of the Association was "to enable librarians to do their present work more easily and at less expense."