Ada E. North
Founding the Iowa Library Association
The Iowa Library Association was founded on September 2, 1890, at the State Library in the Capitol building, as the Iowa Library Society. Ada North initiated the first meeting with the help of four other organizers including Mary Miller, State Librarian; T.S. Parvin, Iowa Masonic Library; Clara M. Smith, Burlington Public Library; and Clara C. Dwight, Dubuque Y.M. Library.
The five organizers were joined by twelve other librarians who borrowed bylaws which had been adopted by the New York Library Association on July 11th of that year. Iowa became the second state to have a library association. The bylaws called for dues of one dollar per year, and called for an annual meeting at the State Library during the week of the State Fair.