1. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service Significant Events in American Public Library Reference Service See also: public libraries, history

2. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1731 - First circulating library set up by the Library Company of Philadelphia, organized by Benjamin Franklin. Members paid a fee to borrow materials and underwrote purchases of books.

3. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1833 – First free public library established in Peterborough Library, New Hampshire

4. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1852 - Boston Public Library founded by Josiah Quincy, Jr. (left), George Ticknor (middle), Edward Everett (right), Nicholas Marie Alexander Vattemare, and Joshua Bates.

5. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1876 - Samuel Swett Green (left) publishes "On the Desirableness of Personal Relations between Librarians and Readers," Library Journal, v. 1, October 1876, pp. 74- 81) which reads remarkably like contemporary reference literature. It is often cited as one of the first articles to consider the library customer. See it online at http://www.ischool.washington.edu/jwj/520/green.htm (ignore obvious scanning errors)

6. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1876 - American Library Association (ALA) was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Justin Winsor, William Frederick Poole and Melvil Dewey, and incorporated in 1879. The Reference Services Division began in 1957.

7. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1881 – 1917 – Carnegie libraries built worldwide. 1,681 libraries built in the United States, 2,507 built around the world.

8. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1887 – First library school established at Columbia University, New York City, by Melvil Dewey.

9. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1889 - Minneapolis Public Library separates children's books from the rest of the collection in 1889. In 1892, a separate room was set aside for children and children's books. In 1899, the storytelling hour was incorporated as a regular part of the program at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Anne Carroll Moore joined New York Public Library in 1906; in 1911, a Central Children’s Room opened in the new Central Library. (Pictured are Anne Carroll Moore and the Central Library Children’s Room of Madison Public Library, 1906.)

10. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1919 - Approximately 3,500 public libraries in existence. Half were Carnegie libraries.

11. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1913 - A gift from a local citizen established the first phonorecord collection outside the Library of Congress, at the St. Paul (Minnesota) Public Library.

12. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1935 - New York Times first microfilmed past issues, 1914- 1927. (First microfilm reader patented in 1922.)

13. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1942 - Film lending became a part of library service. By 1955, over 250 libraries were lending films.

14. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1980s - OPACs (online public access catalogs) begin to replace card catalogs.

15. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1983 - Apple IIe first sold commercially. 1984 - The first portable PC by IBM is introduced in 1984, featuring 256-640 KB RAM.

16. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1991 - Introduction of World Wide Web interface to the Internet. Pictured is Tim Berners Lee, credited for inventing the World Wide Web and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).

17. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 1999 - First virtual reference network in the United States. In 2005, the 24/7 Reference network merged with QuestionPoint.

18. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service 2003 - 16,421 public libraries in the United States, according to the American Library Association.

19. TechnologyPublic Libraries Significant Events ReferenceCustomer Service **Much of this information was taken from Famous First Facts, 5th ed. H. W. Wilson, 1997. Photos from Flickr, Wikipedia, Google Images and various web sites.