Oklahoma: Statewide automation‐related activities

Abstract

Oklahoma is a sprawling state of topographically diverse landscapes—plains, grasslands, mountains, and man‐made lakes. It is a people as diverse as the land and imbued with the “pioneer spirit.” The Oklahoma Library Commission, established in 1919, began serving citizens in remote areas of the state in 1920 with traveling libraries of books that were sent by mail, express, or someone's Model T Ford to country schools, small public libraries, orphanages, hospitals, and anywhere else where there was a need for books. In 1953, the Commission merged with the State Library. Legislation created the Oklahoma Department of Libraries (ODL) in 1967. Traveling collections lasted in some form until the 1970s. In the spring of 1975, the Allen Wright Memorial Library, the main branch of the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, was dedicated. The building was named after the Choctaw preacher and leader in Indian Territory who, as a delegate to Washington, DC, became the first person to use the state's name when, concerning the Reconstruction Treaties of 1886, he referred to the Indian people as “Oklahoma,” meaning “they are red people.”

Citation

Corbett, J. and Young, B. (1996), "Oklahoma: Statewide automation‐related activities", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 14 No. 2/3, pp. 255-258. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb048021