ALA report Libraries and Adult Education

recommends programs adapted to needs of special

1990 ALA report, Adult Services: An
groups:
Enduring Focus for Public Libraries.
•Immigrants, workers, unions. •4,215 libraries surveyed.
American Library •University extension students. •Public libraries had 18 different programs
Association •Public school youth, the blind. based on the needs of ethnic and minority
Established •Inmates in hospitals and prisons. groups.

1876 1920s 1926 1954 1990

ALA Committee on Work with the Foreign ALA Survey of Adult Education survey of 1,692 public
Born publishes articles about reading habits libraries finds:
of immigrants and ethnic minorities. •Only 364 libraries had done a study of
community needs.
•Only ten percent had an interest in conducting
studies of needs.

Adapted from Jones, Jr., Plummer Alston. “Advocacy for Multiculturalism

and Immigrants’ Rights: The Effect of U. S. Immigration Legislation on American Public Librares,1876-2020.” North Carolina Libraries
(Online), 2020, Vol. 78 Issue 1, p3-16.