Kansas Association of School Librarians

Ms. Collection No. 121

• Introduction
• Biography
• Scope and Content
• Contents List

Introduction

The Kansas Association of School Librarians was organized in 1949. A History and Archives Committee has always been in existence, collecting materials for preservation. In 1978, the first donation of their papers was given to the Society, which they designated as their archive. Additional donations were made in 1979 and 1985. The collection consists of 11 boxes of papers, 1 box of cassette tapes and 21 scrapbooks. There are six series: History, Organizational Records, Presidents’ Books, KASL publications, Cassette tapes and Scrapbooks.

The collection consists of correspondence, meeting programs, and minutes, cassette tapes of meetings, scrapbooks, organizational publications and a master’s thesis of the history of the organization from 1949 to 1960. The collection contains published materials because the Society maintains the organization’s archives. There are no restrictions on the collection.

Biography

The Kansas Association of School Librarians (KASL) was organized in 1949 after school librarians had been meeting together informally during meetings of the Kansas State Teachers Association. The KASL was the thirteenth such state association in the nation. It affiliated with the Kansas State Teachers Association (forerunner of the Kansas - National Education Association) in 1949 and with the Kansas Library Association in 1950. The organization also cooperates with the State Department of Education, the American Library Association (and its division of the American Association of School Librarians) and the Kansas Council on Children and Youth.

Since 1949, the organization has been involved with organizing workshops for its members, hosting the William Allen White Book Award Dinners, lobbying for support of libraries, participating in National Library Week (1958-), formulating a Code of Ethics for School Librarians, improving standards for school libraries, improving accreditation criteria for school librarians, and publishing handbooks, bibliographies and a semiannual newsletter.

KASL depends on the KASL Council to keep the organization running smoothly. The council formulates and sets policies, transacts the business of the Association, approves the work of committees and plans the programs for its annual meeting. The council consists of the president, vice president (president-elect), secretary, treasurer, immediate past president, the district directors and the state school library media consultant serving as an advisory member without vote. Others who may attend council meetings without a vote are committee chairmen and presidents of affiliated organizations.

KASL is divided into six districts. The districts’ organization’s main function is to plan an annual fall workshop for each district. These are designed to bring smaller groups of school librarians together to learn from each other, unlike the much larger annual state meetings which bring in outside speakers. For more information on the organization of KASL, consult the KASL Guidelines found in box 11.

Some of the secondary school librarians began bringing their student assistants to meetings and workshops of KASL in the 1950s. In 1965, these students formed their own organization, the Kansas Library Assistants of Secondary Schools (KLASS). This organization’s membership fluctuated with student interest. The students invited authors to speak and held workshops on topics such as operating audiovisual and video equipment. Other purposes of the organization included recruiting future librarians to the profession (especially in the sixties and early seventies) and providing social activities for these students at their schools and at meetings of the association.

The members of KASL have been concerned with many issues and trends; two important concerns have been the professionalization of school librarians and the introduction and utilization of audiovisual materials and computers in the school library or “media center” and in the curriculum. Changes in attitudes influenced by the character of the times is evident. In the 1950s, KASL members expressed a fear that comic books would warp children’s minds, were eager to find patriotic books for their shelves and actively recruited of future school librarians. In the 1980s, KASL is championing intellectual freedom, creating awareness of stereotypes in children’s literature and is encouraging its members to be computer literate.

The school librarian is a member of two different professions: teaching and librarianship. Their allegiance is to both; however, the records of the KASL show that although the KASL was born out of the KSTA (later K-NEA), in later years they have begun to identify themselves as school librarians through their own organization. This almost led to a complete break with K-NEA in1973, when communication and cooperation between the two groups was poor, but they reaffirmed their relationship with the K-NEA and the teaching profession and decided continue the affiliation. In 1977, however, the K-NEA decided to temporarily suspend meetings and the KASL began joint conferences with the Kansas Association for Educational Communications and Technology (KAECT), soon joined also by KLA.

An umbrella organization for these three related groups was founded (the Kansas Council on Information Science). Conferences have also been held in conjunction with the KLA and the Mountain Plains Library Association.

Scope and Content

The collection covers the association from its beginnings (1949) to the present. Because there has always been a History and Archives Committee, coverage of those years is fairly equal, although in some series records are retained by KASL longer than in others. This committee has collected papers from the different committees of the KASL, put together scrapbooks of flyers and clippings for each year, collected papers from each president’s term of office, collected the “presidents’ books” (records each president kept while in office) and begun collecting cassette tape recordings of annual conventions and council meetings. Periodically, they add to the collection as the Kansas State Historical Society is their designated archive.

The records of the KASL portray the growth of a vocation struggling toward professionalization. They also shed light on women’s and men’s participation in a largely female-dominated profession. School librarians in Kansas have struggled to define their own identity, as well as the role of school libraries in the educational system as these libraries have evolved from neglected stacks of books to “media centers” which, at their best, provide students and teachers with literature, information and entertainment in the many varied forms available today. The most notable success of the group of people which make up the KASL may be represented by the Blue Valley Unified School District Library Media Services (under the direction of Ruth Bell), which was named the School Library Media Program of the year in 1981 by the Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Corporation and the American Association of School Librarians. (Materials documenting this award appear in the scrapbook for January 1981-December 1982.)

Contents List

Series Description

There are six series in this collection: History, Organizational Records, Presidents’ Books, KASL Publications, Cassette Tapes and Scrapbooks. A timeline describing the history of the organization from 1949 to 1974 was done for the 25 th anniversary of KASL is included in the collection.

The History Series consists of two histories of the KASL. Faye Riggs completed a master’s thesis (for her M.L.S. degree from Kansas State Teacher’s College at Emporia [now Emporia State University]) on the history of the KASL from 1949 through 1960. It is more documentary than interpretive. Appendices contain copies of publicity flyers and convention programs (much of which may also be found in the scrapbooks), although Appendix M contains short autobiographies of the founder of KASL and the first ten presidents. This history is a carbon copy of the typed manuscript and was originally in one folder. It has been transferred to several acid free folders for preservation purposes.

For the 25 th anniversary of KASL, Beatrice Paddock (the first president) compiled a history booklet, which covers the years 1949-1974. This lists activities and accomplishments of the organization year by year, office holders and prominent members of the organization.

The Organizational Records Series contains files which have been preserved as they originally appeared. These seem to be the files of the History and Archives Committee. They contain financial records, meeting programs and minutes, committee records and correspondence during the years 1953-1975. The series is divided into three subseries: General Organizational Records, KLASS organizational records and Presidents’ Files.

KLASS (Kansas Library Assistants of Secondary Schools) was organized in 1965 after librarians had been bringing their students assistants to KASL meetings since September 1952 for informal gatherings. KLASS provided the students with opportunities to meet authors, learn how to operate audiovisual equipment and socialize. Membership and enthusiasm fluctuated and in 1974, KASL and KLASS officers decided to temporarily suspend meetings. However, a KLASS handbook appears in the 1979-80 scrapbook, evidence that the organization may have been revived.

Another subseries is the Presidents’ Files. These contain correspondence, meeting programs, flyers and minutes and KASL publications. They are arranged chronologically, labeled with each president’s name and years in office. Generally, presidents served for 12 months, however in order to comply with K-NEA meeting schedules, some annual meetings were postponed during the 1970s and two presidents served for 18 months. Of special interest is the folder 15 in box 5 (Lois Adriance 1973-74: K-NEA). During the early seventies, communication broke down between KASL and K-NEA until in March 1973, the members of KASL voted to give up their affiliation with K-NEA. However, they discovered that their constitution required them to give members two weeks’ notice of such a vote. In November 1973, members voted again, deciding to retain affiliation with the teachers’ association.

The Presidents’ Books Series contains the records kept by the presidents during their terms of office. These include correspondence, meeting programs, flyers and minutes. There were originally in three ring notebooks, but have been transferred to folders and boxes for preservation. Most of the notebooks were transferred into two or three folders. The papers appear in their original order, with the papers in the front part of the notebook in the first folder, and those in the back part of the notebook in the second or third folder. Some of the material found in the presidents’ books duplicated that in the scrapbooks or presidents’ files.

Publications of the KASL appear in the series of that name. These include issues of the KASL Newsletter (begun in 1951), the KASL Guidelines (which explain procedures for committee chairmen) and the membership directories.

The Cassette Tape Series contains cassette tape sound recordings of KASL meetings in 1977 and 1978. They are irregularly labeled; some titles giving exactly what is on the tape and some only giving a date.

The scrapbooks contain photographs, meeting programs and flyers, newspaper and magazine clippings. There is also a timeline which was completed for KASL’s 25 th anniversary in 1974, which lists significant events and people in the organization’s history from 1949-1974.

More information on KASL may be found in the Society’s Library.

Nancy Garner
Lela Barnes Intern
August 1985

Box List

Box 1:
History Series
Riggs, Faye. “Kansas Association of School Librarians: A History of the Organization from 1949 to 1960.” Master’s thesis, Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, July 1962.

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