ABSTRACT
State Library agencies which vary from state-to-state as to history, role and scope, legal functions, personnel strength, and services, are reviewed. A book could be written about each of the fifty state library agencies and their impact on the development of libraries in their particular geographical area and nationwide. From little known agencies at the fringes of state government in the early nineteenth century to robust multipurpose agencies administering millions of state and federal dollars today, their growth has been most pointed in the past 55 years. This can be best viewed in the development of national standards for library functions at the state level, the introduction of federal aid in 1956 matched by hundreds of millions of dollars in state funds, the professionalization of state librarians and staff, and the broadening of state library functions and the accountability which follows.
