Public libraries in the United States
Kay Vandergrift and Virginia Walter traced the development of services to children in public libraries to the US Bureau of education report entitled Public Libraries in the United States, which was commissioned in 1876, the same year the American Library Association was founded. William I. Fletcher insisted that libraries should change their policies that limited access to children, and so the purposeful basis for children’s services in public libraries became one of full access for children to library materials and services. The task of accommodating children in public libraries was considered the “social housekeeping” of the progressive era, 1900 – 29. The connection between woman coming to the forefront in the progressive era was due to the lack of female suffrage