American Library Association (ALA)

The American Library Association (ALA) was founded in 1876 in Philadelphia, at a conference held at the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The defined purposes of the ALA are fundamentally public service purposes–primarily public and educational, rather than professional. ALA is, therefore, characterized as a nonprofit corporation under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service code and has, from its formation, been open to “any person, library, or other organization interested in library service and librarianship…upon payment of the dues provided for in the Bylaws.”