LHRT (Library History Round Table)

American Library Association Executive Directors

The Executive Director of the American Library Association delegates authority within ALA headquarters to ALA's department heads, who, in carrying out their assigned duties, are called upon to use ALA's name, and, in that name, to commit the Association to programs, activities, and binding agreements.^[2]

Name	Tenure
Leslie Burger[3]	2023-
Tracie D. Hall[4]	2020-2023
Mary W. Ghikas [5]	2017-2020
Keith Michael Fiels	2002-2017
William R. Gordon [6]	1998-2002
Mary W. Ghikas	1997-1998
Elizabeth Martinez	1994-1997
Peggy Sullivan	1992-1994
Linda F. Crismond [7] First woman executive director.	1989-1992
Thomas J. Galvin	1985-1989
Robert Wedgeworth	1972-1985
David Horace Clift (*Title changed to Executive Director as of November 1958)	1951-1972
John MacKenzie Cory [8]	1948–51
Harold F. Brigham (interim)[9]	1948
Carl Milam[10]	1920-1948

Secretaries of the Association prior to Carl Milam were George Burwell Utley (1911–20);

•  Chalmers Hadley (1909–11);
• Edward C. Hovey (1905–7);
•  James Ingersoll Wyer (1902–09);
• Frederick Winthrop Faxon (1900–02);
•  Henry James Carr (1898–1900); 
• Melvil Dewey (1897–98);
•  Rutherford Platt Hayes (1896–97);
• Henry Livingston Elmendorf (1895–96);
•  Frank Pierce Hill (1891–95);
• Mary Salome Cutler (1891);
• William E. Parker (1890– 1891);
• Melvil Dewey (1879–90).^[11]

References

1. ^ American Library Association-Allied Professional Association
2. ^ ALA President & Executive Director – Roles & Responsibilities ALA Executive Board. Annual Conference 2001 – San Francisco. EBD #5.3 2000-2001. June 12, 2001.
3. ^ ALA appoints Leslie Burger as Interim Executive Director American Library Association, November 15, 2023.
4. ^ "ALA Appoints Tracie D. Hall as Executive Director". American Library Association. 2020-01-15. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
5. ^ A Tribute Resolution Honoring Mary Ghikas American Library Association. June 27, 2020.
6. ^ "William Gordon Selected Executive Director." 1998. American Libraries 29 (May): 7.
7. ^ DeCandido, G.A., and M. Rogers. 1989. "The First Woman: Linda Crismond Named Executive Director, ALA. (Cover Story)." Library Journal 114 (12): 14–17.
8. ^ John Mackenzie CoryDirector of New York Public Library. 1970-78.American Library Association Archives.
9. ^ Harold F. Brigham Papers, 1919-1942 |July–Aug., 1948 American Library Association Archives.
10. ^ Sullivan, P. 1976. Carl H. Milam and the American Library Association. New York: H.W. Wilson.
11. ^ American Library Association. Past Executive Directors & Secretaries

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Kathleen de la Peña McCook
Distinguished University Professor
School of Information
University of South Florida
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