Subject files of Executive Directors, contains correspondence with ASL Presidents (1963-72), minutes, bylaws, budgets, reports, conference materials, membership lists, newsletters, election files and organization, includes materials and correspondence for projects on Decade of the Disabled Award and International Year of Disabled Persons, activities of the Automation, Awards, Conference Program, Legislation, Membership Promotion, Nominating, Organization and Bylaws, Planning, Publications, Research, Standards Review, and Survey Standards committees, and ASCLA representatives to non-ALA associations, materials on library service to prisoners, the elderly and the disabled; and files relating to the Multitype Library Cooperation Section/ Continuing Education (MLCS/CE) Networks are People - Two Approaches workshop, ASCLA merger, committees and annual meetings (1979-98), services to Blind and Physically Handicapped committees and Francis Joseph Campbell Award (1979-95), Services to the Deaf, bylaws, minutes, and program - Help: Libraries and the Hard of Hearing (1980- 82), activities and correspondence of Independent Librarians Exchange Round Table (ILERT), Library Service to Special Populations Section (LSSPS), Interlibrary Cooperation and Networking (ICAN) Section (formerly MULTI-LINCS), and State Library Agency Section (SLAS); "Roads to Learning: The Public Libraries' Disabilities Initiative" Project Files; and publications of the association.

Some committee names, publication titles, and folder titles use antiquated terms in reference to people with disabilities.

In 1958 the National Association of State Libraries, founded in 1889, disbanded (1). Its membership merged with that of the American Association of State Libraries (AASL), a division of ALA since January 1, 1957 (2). The State Library Agencies Division (SLAD) was founded on January 1, 1957 (3) and in 1958 SLAD merged with the AASL (4) to become the State Library Agency Division (5)  In 1977-78 AASL changed its title to the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) (6). Title was changed to Association of Specialized Government and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASGCLA). Division was dissolved September 1, 2020.

ASCLA is responsible for functions pertaining to library services performed by state library agencies, specialized library agencies, and mutitype library cooperatives. It has the specific responsibility for:

1. Synthesis of appropriate ALA unit activities with the development and evaluation of programs which extend and improve user services in state and specialized libraries and multitype library cooperatives.

2. Representation and interpretation of the roles, functions, and services of these types of libraries within and outside the profession.

3. Development of policies, studies, and activities relative to government funding, grants and appropriations, and inter-governmental relationships in matters which affect these types of libraries, coordinated with appropriate ALA unit archives.

4. Establishment, evaluation, and promotion of standards.

5. Identification of user needs, and the creation and promotion of services to meet those needs.

6. Stimulation of the development and participation in appropriate type-of-activity divisions of librarians engaged in these types of libraries.

7. Coordination of the activities of ALA units which have a bearing on the concerns of this association.

8. Granting recognition for outstanding library service enacted.

9. Disseminating information and stimulating publishing and research.