MBLC Celebrates 125 Years

July 1963 Division of Library Extension newsletter

Libraries forged their own trade agreements in the sixties! In 1963, Richard J. Sullivan, Chairman of the Board of Library Commissioners and I. Albert Matkov of the Massachusetts State Library presented testimony at a joint committee on state administration regarding the adoption of an Interstate Library Compact. If passed, Massachusetts would join Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont as New England Compact partners.¹

Today, print and non-print materials from all types of libraries in Massachusetts know few boundaries. At a rate only dreamed of in 1963, titles are transported around the state with the power of automation and the Internet.

What else happened in 1963?

• The civil rights movement ramped up. In the early hours of June 12, 1963, NAACP member and civil rights leader Medgar Evers was gunned down at his home in Jackson, Mississippi at the age of 37. On August 28, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.²
• The year ended in the shadow of the assassination of President Kennedy on November 22.²

References:
1. Division of Library Extension newsletter, June 1963.
2. www.upi.com [link].