Advocay for Multiculturalism and Immigrants' Rights: The Effect of U. S. Immigration Legislation on American Public Libraries: 1876-2020

摘要

The American Library Associa-tion (ALA), founded in 1876,demonstrated its advocacy forimmigrants' rights and multicultural-ism in adult library services from 1918to 1948 through the Committee onWork with the Foreign Born (CWFB),which served as a clearinghouse forAmericanization (assimilation) ser-vices within a philosophical frameworkof cultural pluralism, now known asmulticulturalism. The ALA CWFBthroughout its existence depended ongrants from the Carnegie Corporationfrom 1911 to 1961 through the Amer-ican Association for Adult Education(1915-41), and the Ford Foundation,through its Fund for Adult Education(1951-61). Beginning in 1956 withthe Library Services Act, the federalgovernment began to fund libraries,including programs for immigrants,African Americans, Native Americans,and illiterate adults. Since 1972, theReferenceandUser Services Association(RUSA) has provided literacy trainingfor foreign- and native-born adult il-literates; and the Public Library As-sociation (PLA) has supported pro-grams to prepare New Americans forcitizenship.