Hawaii Library Association


The Hawai'i Library Association is a professional organization for Hawaii's librarians and library workers created "to promote library service and librarianship in Hawai'i." It is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawai'i. The Hawai'i Library Association was organized at a meeting of 20 county librarians on January 16-17, 1922. Clara Hemenway, director of the University of Hawai'i Library was the first president. The association's first informal meeting was in 1922; Margaret Newman was the first elected president at their first official meeting in 1924. HLA became a chapter of the American Library Association at that same meeting, in March 1924.
HLA publishes the HLA Newsletter, the Hawai‘i Library Association Journal, and Current Hawaiiana. HLA's Children and Youth Section sponsors the annual Nēnē Award, a children's book award selected by Hawaii's elementary and middle school children.

HLA sections

HLA has seven sections as of January, 2020.