The Missouri Library Association (MLA) is a professional organization for

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

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

Ballwin, Missouri Ballwin is a southwestern suburb of St. Louis, located in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 31,103 as of the 2020 census. History Ballwin was established in 1837. The community was named for John Ball, who settled ...

. It was founded on December 18, 1900, in Columbia, Missouri, at a meeting called by Fredrick Crunden, Head Librarian for the

St. Louis Public Library The St. Louis Public Library is a municipal public library system in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. It operates sixteen locations, including the main Central Library location. History In 1865, Ira Divoll, the superintendent of the St. Louis ...

; Carrie Whitney, Director of the

Kansas City Public Library The Kansas City Public Library is a public system headquartered in the Central Library in Kansas City, Missouri. The system operates its Central Library and neighborhood branches located in Kansas City, Independence, and Sugar Creek. Founded ...

; Charles Yeater, Trustee and President of the Board of Directors for the

Sedalia Public Library Sedalia Public Library is a historic Carnegie library building located at Sedalia, Pettis County, Missouri. It was designed by the architecture firm Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge and built in 1900. It is a two-story, cruciform plan, Greek Revi ...

; Purd Wright, Librarian at the

St. Joseph Public Library St. Joseph Public Library, also known as Free Public Library, Public Museum, Public Library, and Board of Education Building, is a historic library building located at St. Joseph, Missouri. This library has over 9,000 books. It was designed by th ...

; and James Gerould, University Librarian at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded ...

. The organization's first president was Fredrick Crunden. One of the organizations early goals was the establishment of a state library which was accomplished in 1907. MLA worked to create a librarian certification program, forming a Certification Board in 1934.

References

External links

Missouri Library Association website
Library associations in the United States Organizations based in Missouri {{Library-org-stub