{{Short description|American librarian (1907–1973)}} {{Infobox person | name = David Horace Clift | image=David_H_Clift.png | birth_date = June 16, 1907 | birth_place = Washington, Kentucky | death_date = October 12, 1973 | occupation = Librarian | known_for = Chief Executive of the American Library Association 1951–72 }} '''David Horace Clift''' (June 16, 1907 – October 12, 1973)<ref name="Shields"/> was a noted American librarian and former chief executive of the American Library Association (ALA) from 1951 to 1972.<ref name="Shields"> {{cite book |last=Shields|first=G. R. |chapter=Clift, David H. |editor-first=R.|editor-last=Wedgeworth |title=World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services |publisher=ALA Editions |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-8389-0609-5 |edition=Third |pages=213–214 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HSFu99FCJwQC&q=david+horace+clift&pg=PA213}}</ref> He was named by the ALA as one of the 100 Most Important [Library] Leaders of the 20th Century.<ref> {{cite journal |last=Dewey|first=M. |title=100 of the MOST IMPORTANT LEADERS WE HAD in the 20TH CENTURY |journal=American Libraries |publisher=American Library Association |volume=11|number=30 |date=December 1999 |pages=38 }}</ref>
==Biography== Clift was born in Washington, Kentucky, on June 16, 1907, to Charles L. Sr. and Mary E. (Tomlin) Clift.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/9413823|title=Kentucky lives: the Blue Grass State who's who; a reference edition recording the biographies of contemporary leaders in Kentucky ...|last=Tapp |first=Hambleton |date=1966|publisher=Historical Record Association|pages=92–93|oclc=9413823}}</ref> He attended and graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1930.<ref name="archives">{{cite web |url=https://archon.library.illinois.edu/ala/?p=creators/creator&id=4069 |title=Clift, David H. (1907-1973) |website=American Library Association Archives |access-date=November 11, 2022}}</ref><ref name=UKAA>{{cite web |title=David Horace Clift |year=2011 |access-date=24 January 2011 |publisher=University of Kentucky Alumni Association |url=http://www.ukalumni.net/s/1052/index-no-right.aspx?sid=1052&gid=1&pgid=665 |archive-date=7 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307171236/http://www.ukalumni.net/s/1052/index-no-right.aspx?sid=1052&gid=1&pgid=665 |url-status=dead }}</ref> During his college years, he briefly worked at the Lexington Public Library.<ref name="Shields"/> After graduation from Kentucky University, he attended Columbia University School of Library Service,<ref name="Shields"/> graduating in 1931.<ref name=UKAA/>
==Career== After graduating from Columbia University in 1931, Clift found employment at the New York Public Library in the reference section.<ref name="archives" /><ref name=":0" /> Drafted into the army in 1942,<ref name="Shields"/> Clift eventually found himself working for the Office of Strategic Services where he was named executive director of the Interdepartmental Committee for the Acquisition of Foreign Publications, reporting to OSS Executive Director Frederick Kilgour, with whom Clift had become acquainted at the Columbia University Library.<ref name="archives" />
Clift's experience in the OSS had a profound effect on him as an organizer.<ref name="Waller"> {{cite journal |last=Waller|first=T. |title=David H. Clift – A Very Partial Profile |journal=American Libraries |publisher=American Library Association |volume=3|number=7 |date=July 1972 |pages=702–709 |jstor=25618941}}</ref> "[He] was exposed, for example to the ambitious project known as Armed Forces Editions, a program that introduced hundreds of thousands of GIs to paperback books…"<ref name="Waller"/> Clift was honorably discharged from the Army in 1945.<ref name="archives"/>
In 1945–1946, Clift traveled to Germany for the Library of Congress<ref name="Shields"/> in order to acquire for American research libraries publications which had appeared in enemy countries during the war.<ref name=UKAA/> Next, Clift took on the role of associate librarian at Yale University. While at Yale, he also became a fellow of Trumbull College and developed a position classification and pay plan that became a model for academic librarians.<ref name="Shields"/> He was president of the Connecticut Library Association from 1950 to 1951. Clift assumed position of chief executive of the American Library Association in 1951 and served until 1972.<ref name="archives" /><ref name="Shields"/>
===Tenure at ALA===
In 1951, when Clift took over executive duties for ALA, membership was 19,701 and the general funds budget was $191,129.<ref name="Shields"/> From May 7 to June 5, 1961, Clift was head of the United States Delegation of Librarians while visiting the Soviet Union under the Cultural Exchange Agreement.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Soviet libraries and librarianship: report of the visit of the delegation of U.S. librarians to the Soviet Union, May-June, 1961, under the U.S.-Soviet cultural exchange agreement.|last1=Ruggles|first1=Melville J.|last2=Swank|first2=Raynard C.|publisher=American Library Association|year=1962|location=Chicago|pages=v}}</ref> He was responsible for moving the association's headquarters from rented space to a permanent location in an abandoned mansion in Chicago.<ref name="Waller"/> He oversaw the promotion and advancement of library growth and literacy growth in America and the world. He also supported the Intellectual Freedom advancements. When Clift retired in 1972, ALA membership had risen to over 30,000 and the general funds budget was over $2 million.
Clift was honored with the Association's Joseph W. Lippincott Award in 1966.<ref name="Shields"/> He was honored with the American Library Association Honorary Membership in 1972. A special issue of ''American Libraries'' titled, "Two Decisive Decades: 1952 to 1972: Festschrift Issue Honoring David H. Clift" was published.<ref>G. R. S. “Tribute to an Emeritus.” ''American Libraries'' 3, no. 7 (1972).</ref>
Clift died on October 12, 1973.<ref name="Shields"/>
On his role as an association executive, he is quoted as saying "it was to administer the policies decided by membership and leave the leadership to those elected by the membership."<ref name="Shields"/><ref>Clift, David Horace. 1963. “Role of Library Associations, a Symposium.” ''Bulletin of the Medical Library Association'' 51 (April): 44–49. </ref>
==Selected publications==
*{{cite journal | last = Clift | first = David H. | editor-last = Clift | editor-first = David H. | title = Library Associations in the United States and British Commonwealth | journal = Library Trends | volume = 3 | issue = 3 | date = Winter 1955 }} *{{cite book | last = Clift | first = David H. | last2 = Lacy | first2 = Dan | title = How Books Get to Adult Readers | year = 1956 | editor-last = National Society for the Study of Education | series = Fifty-fifth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Part II | publisher = University of Chicago Press | location = Chicago }} *{{cite journal | last1 = Ellsworth | first1 = Ralph E. | last2 = Clift | first2 = David H. | title = Critique of Library Associations in America [with Discussion] | journal = The Library Quarterly | volume = 31 | issue = 4 | pages = 382–400 | date = October 1961 }} *{{cite journal | last = Clift | first = David Horace | title = Role of Library Associations, a Symposium | journal = Bulletin of the Medical Library Association | volume = 51 | date = April 1963 | pages = 44–49 }} *{{cite journal | last = Clift | first = David H. | title = After the ALA Reorganization | journal = ALA Bulletin | volume = 59 | issue = 8 | pages = 727–732 | date = September 1965 }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clift, David Horace}} Category:20th-century American librarians Category:1907 births Category:1972 deaths Category:University of Kentucky alumni Category:Columbia University School of Library Service alumni Category:Yale University faculty Category:People from Washington, Kentucky Category:American Library Association people