[1] The foundation president was William Herbert Ifould, the Principal Librarian at the Public Library of New South Wales.

[2][3] John Metcalfe, Deputy Principal Librarian at the Public Library of New South Wales was the first honorary general secretary and drafted much of the original constitution.

[4][5]In 1949, the institute changed its name to the Library Association of Australia, and was renamed again 1989 to its current name of the Australian Library and Information Association and a permanent office was established in Canberra.

[6] The Association is governed by a constitution and a board of directors who are voted on by members for two year terms.

[1] JALIA is a quarterly scholarly journal, named as of Volume 66, Issue 1, 2017; a merger of the Australian Library Journal (ALJ) (1951 to 2016), and Australian Academic and Research Libraries (AARL) (1970 to 2016).