Members of the Club: A Look at One Hundred ALA Presidents. Occasional Paper Number 182.

A survey of the personal, socioeconomic, and professional characteristics of the 100 men and women who served as President to the American Library Association (ALA) between 1876 and 1986 was undertaken to identify those socioeconomic and professional characteristics whose frequency distributions remained relatively constant for all 100 members of the club, and to identify those group characteristics whose frequency distributions changed over the 110-year period during which the group held office. A comparison of presidents from 1906 to 1925 with their counterparts from 1966 to 1985 shows a sharp contrast: the former individual was more likely to be white, male, married, and Protestant; somewhat more likely to be a Republican; and a graduate from a northeastern college or university but without formal library education; and the director of a nonpublic library in the northeast. By contrast, the latter individual was more likely to be white, married, and Protestant; somewhat more likely to be female and a Democrat; either from the midwest, the south, or the northeast, with an undergraduate degree from a midwestern or southern school; more likely to have a Ph.D. in library science; and to be directing a library school at the time of tenure. Despite the shifts evident in the last 20 years, the picture still shows significant gaps in representation of the association's membership in terms of both personal and professional characteristics. A list of the 100 former ALA presidents together with the dates that they held office is appended. (7 references) (EW)