User:Cjkocjan11/David horace clift

David Horace Clift
David Horace Clift was a former executive director of the American Library Association (ALA)from 1951-1972. On December 30, 1999 he was named one of the 100 most important leaders for his work with libraries by the American Libraries.

Early life
David Horace Clift was born in Mason County Kentucky on June 16, 1907, the eldest of six children. He attended the University of Kentucky where he earned a B.S. in commerce in 1930,In 1965 he was named to University of Kentucky's hall of distinguished alumni. It was while a student that he attained his love of libraries. He served as a library assistant from 1927-1930, and also spent one summer working as a desk assistant at the Lexington Public Library. After graduating he left Kentucky and went to New York where he earned a B.S.in Library Science from Columbia University in 1931. David worked as a reference assistant at the New York Public Library from 1931-1937, and later that year went to work at Columbia University as an assistant to the director of libraries. While in New York he was president of the New York Library Club from 1941-1942.

War years
David entered the U.S. army as a private in 1942, mostly serving in the medical division. He was eventually transfered stateside to Washington D.C. where he worked with the Office of Strategic Services(OSS).He also served on the interdepartmental committee for the aquisition of foreign publications,other roles He served in were chief of the publication section, chief of analysis and abstract section and deputy chief of the division. He then became a member and eventually acting chief of the Library of Congress mission to Germany. His main purpose on this german trip was to obtain copies of publications which appeared in enemy countries during the war and obtain them for american research libraries.

Post War Years
Upon completion of his work with the US Government, David moved to Connecticut and went to work for Yale University as an associate Librarian in 1946. While at Yale he also served as secretary, Vice-president, and president of the Connecticut Library Associaation. He also spent one summer teaching at New Haven State Teachers College, and was also an associate at Yale's Trumball College. It was while working at Yale that davids passion and ambition for the profession made him realize the changes that needed to take place in order for libraries and librarians to grow as a profession. At Yale he developed a position classification system and pay plan that became the model for academic libraries.

Early ALA Years
After leaving Yale, David joined the American Library Assocition in thier Washington D.C. Headquarters where he served on the ALA board of personal administration, he served as its chairman from 1950-1951. While with the ALA he served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of State and U.S Department of education dealng with Library matters. He was a member of the Board of Visitors to the library at Duke University and a member of the technical advisory board committee for regional libraries at the Connecticut State Department of Education. His concern for libraries was not just limited to U.S. borders, he did extensive travel world wide under the the ALA, foundations, and of U.S. government banners. His trips took him to places such as Germany, Paris, and Japan he also made trips to destinations such as Russia, Brazil, and Seoul, further energizing his importance in libraries regardless of the political or socioeconomics of a country. In 1964 he was named to the post of delegate to the International Federation of Library Associations.

Later ALA years
David's ambition in his tenure at the American Library Association was to make it grow into a model of respectability and transform the very nature of libraries. Using his ideas from his Yale days, he devised a pay plan that would enable the organization to be able to recruit a more dedicated staff to help organize and transform the ALA. One of his great success's was getting more grant money into the organization that helps establish a national standard for libraries as well for the teaching of library sciences. He also helped to establish advances that made libraries an important place in schools. He helped to mold the ALA magazine into a more important publication with the name of American Libraries. His tenure caused significant growth in membership which stood around 19,000 in 1952 to a little over 30,000 by the end of his tenure in 1972. Most impressive was growth in the budget which went from $191,000 to more then 2 million by 1972. One of his biggest projects came in 1967 when he along with fellow ALA administrators created the office for intellectiual freedom whose purpose was to implement policies which would become know as the Library Bill of Rights. The main provision of this bill was to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries. David Horace Clift passed away October 12,1973 while returning from a european trip collecting data on comparative librarianship.