Black Caucus of the American Library Association

The Connecticut Black Caucus of the American Library Association, 

(BCALA-CT) was established officially in January 1999 as a statewide organization. 

Organized in January of 1999, BCALA-CT initially came together after a conversation between Dr. Howard F. McGinn, former Director of the New Haven Free Public Library, Diane Y. Turner, and Aissatou E. Sunjata. Due to the extraordinary recruitment efforts by Howard McGinn of African-American librarians to the New Haven public library; he and Ms. Turner and Ms. Sunjata believed that there was potential for members to form a Connecticut affiliate chapter.

An information session was held at the main branch of the New Haven Public library for librarians interested in joining the association. From that first meeting of twelve people, a steering committee was formed and Bylaws were drawn up. At the first official meeting of the association Diane Turner and Josephine Anderson were elected co-presidents. Presently, the affiliation continues to grow with over forty members. The Connecticut affiliate stands by the goals and objectives set up from the first initial meeting. 

With this website, BCALA-CT hopes to strengthen our mission to serve as a source of recruitment for qualified African Americans interested in becoming Librarians and Para-professionals throughout the state of Connecticut and to continue to encourage the development of authoritative information resources about people of color and the dissemination of this information to the larger community.