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

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') 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 border ...

librarians A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

and library workers. It is headquartered in

Ballwin, Missouri Ballwin is a western 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 at t ...

. It was founded on December 18, 1900, in

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in Missouri, United States. It was founded in 1821 as the county seat of Boone County, Missouri, Boone County and had a population of 126,254 as recorded in the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Misso ...

, at a meeting called by Fredrick Crunden, Head Librarian for the St. Louis Public Library; Carrie Whitney, Director of the

Kansas City Public Library The Kansas City Public Library is a public system headquartered in the Central Library (Kansas City, Missouri), Central Library in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri. The system operates its Central Library and neighborhood branches l ...

; Charles Yeater, Trustee and President of the Board of Directors for the Sedalia Public Library; Purd Wright, Librarian at the St. Joseph Public Library; and James Gerould, University Librarian at the

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

. 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