Microfilmed planning files of the ALA Librarians' Conference, contains correspondence (May 18 - October 20, 1876), letters of invitation, individual responses, conference discussion suggestions, program requests and hotel arrangements. Correspondents include Melvil Dewey, William E. Foster, Daniel W. Fine, R.B. Anderson, Charles Cutter, Christopher Little, Luther Holmes, George S. Williams, Theodore M. Osborne, Edward M. Hall, Ezra Abbot, the Franklin Hotel manager (Philadelphia), Oran W. Morris, Louise W. Roose, Otis Robinson, Charles Evans, M.B. Coolidge, Thomas Karney, M.A. Bean, W. Carrington Button, William Dunn Macray (Bodleian Library, Oxford), F. Saunders, James Reed, Edward A. Noyes and Pat Rufas. The series includes a description of the holdings of the library of the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts (now Peabody Essex Museum) and shorthand notations by Melvil Dewey on the respondents' letters. Please see Record Series 97/1/28 for a microfilm copy of this scrapbook which also includes Edward G. Holley's notes identifying items and transcriptions of letters.
Entire series digitized.
The Conference Arrangements Office was established in 1968 as a unite of the Administrative Services Department of the American Library Association (1). Its origins date back to 1957 when a Conference Program Arrangements unit was established as part of the Program and Membership Services Department (2). From 1964 to 1966, the Conference Arrangements Office was known as the Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting Executive Committee (3). Responsibility for administering the unit has shifted between ALA departments over the years including Program and Membership Services (1957-59), Administrative and Fiscal Services (1960-61), Executive Office (1973-81), Fiscal Services (1982-84), and Communications Services (1985- ) (4).
The purpose of the Conference Arrangements Office is to coordinate all arrangements, excluding program, for the two annual meetings of the Association. Activities include handling requests for facilities, exhibit space, conference site information, program scheduling and placement of advertisements in the Official Program (5).