Brief Description: Grant applications for projects funded by the Knapp Foundation to improve school libraries. Schools which had central libraries and a librarian on at least a half-time basis were eligible for grants under Phase II (1963). Schools which did not meet these requirements were classed in Phase I. Elementary and secondary school and college laborers were eligible for Phase II grants which provided for school and teacher-education projects in which ALA field workers and teachers of education at teacher training institutions worked to improve a school library. Applicants for Phase II projects reported the number of students in the school, the number of volume in the collection,, their proximity to a Phase I school, their expenditure per pupil and their physical facilities. Reports describing staff and physical growth were included with Phase I and Phase II applications. In Phases I and II, five elementary school library demonstration centers were established in Indiana, Maryland, New York, Texas and Washington. From Phase III grant applications (1965), three secondary schools were selected as demonstration centers with the full program services recommended in Standard for School Library Programs (1960) and received financial assistance to expand their libraries' staff, materials, and physical facilities. Applications for Phase III grants listed personnel, physical facilities and total operating funds. Supplementary material included correspondence, photographs, maps, blueprints, public relations brochures and newspaper clippings.

Record Series Number: 20/4/8

Created by: American Association of School Librarians (AASL) (1915-)

Volume: 4.6 Cubic Feet

Acquired: 4/26/74

Arrangement: Alphabetical by state and alphabetical by community thereunder

Biographical Note for American Association of School Librarians (AASL) (1915-) :

The first annual meeting of the School Libraries Section was held in East Hall, University of California, at 9:30 Saturday morning, June 5, 1915, with an attendance of 250. In the opening meeting, the purpose of the section was outlined. "The school library being one of the great problems of library endeavor, it is fitting that there should be a section in the American Library Association devoted to the discussion of work with all classes of schools" (1).

The American Association of School Librarians (ASSL) is interested in "the general improvement and extension of library services for children and young people."

The American Association of School Libraries became a division of ALA on January 1, 1951. Formerly it was a section of the Division of Libraries for Children and Young People; and before 1941 it was the School Libraries Section of ALA organized in 1915 (2).

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