Southeastern Library Association

The Southeastern Library Association, or SELA, is an organization dedicated to collaborating with different library associations within in the U.S. southeastern region. SELA includes the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. SELA generally works with members of state library associations who are also members of SELA; for example, during the odd years a Leadership Conference is convened in which officers, directors, state representatives, and other SELA leadership members meet up to discuss issues, such as, the functionality of SELA, the upcoming Biennial Conference, and any other issues that need to be addressed. For over sixty years SELA has been instrumental in influencing legislation and garnering foundation and federal funds to support regional library projects. The association's accomplishments include: the creation of two library surveys, the adoption of school library standards, the establishment of state library agencies, the founding of library schools, the sponsoring of workshops, and the publication of a regional research and professional journal that has received national recognition.

History

1920s

The idea for a southern library association was conceived in 1920 by a group of librarians on their way to an American Library Association meeting in Colorado Springs. Their idle conversation about the possibility of a regional library association evolved into a serious discussion about the advantages it might offer. After a meeting in early June the ALA sent out letters to leading southern librarians describing the proposed meeting and asking for criticism, suggestions, and support. After the responses to the preliminary letters were received, invitations to the first meeting were dispatched. In response to the invitations The first regional meeting took place in Signal Mountain, Tennessee on November 12 and 13, 1920 with an attendance of approximately one hundred librarians from seven states. This meeting was originally called the Southeastern Library Conference; the purpose was to address general professional issues rather than topics on administration and technique. The success of the first meeting prompted conference leaders to schedule another meeting for November 1922. During the 1922 meetings attendees addressed several key issues, such as, the provision of library services and the establishment of training facilities for African Americans and the establishment of a constitution for this new organization. A constitution providing for an informal organization based upon state memberships (automatically making members of state library organizations SELA members) was adopted, and Mary Utopia Rothrock of the Lawson McGhee Library in Knoxville and Charlotte Templeton of the Greenville Public Library were elected the first president and secretary-treasurer. During the 1924 Asheville Conference, nine states- Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia- have ratified the constitution. The April 1926 Signal Mountain Conference established goals to improve library services over a ten year period, including the negotiation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools regarding standards for school libraries and institutions offering courses on school librarianship. At the final conference of this decade, the 1928 conference in Biloxi, substantial progress was made regarding issues in services to minorities, establishing standards, and setting up state library agencies; and in 1929 the Policy Committee prepared a special report citing critical needs for the Southeast to be submitted to their national foundations at their January 1930 meetings.

1930s

The goals that were identified in 1929, by the Policy Committee, were achieved with the financial support from three educational foundations: (1) The Julius Rosenwald Fund provided support to numerous school and college libraries for African Americans, sponsored demonstration programs of public library service, and laid the foundation for library extension work in the South through grants to several southern states. (2) The General Education Board, which made funds available to establish the position of school library supervisor in eight of the nine southeastern states whose role to support research programs and to sponsor cooperative enterprises in university libraries in the southern U.S. region. (3) The Carnegie Corporation which funded a survey of library training facilities in the South and provided direct assistance in updating collections in many college and university libraries in that region. The 1930 Tampa conference included reports on the completed survey of library training programs; and the need for librarian certification, continued support for county library development, and better library legislation. In 1934 the first joint conference of the Southeastern and Southwestern Library associations was held in Memphis. Members at this time were concerned about the evolving relationship between libraries and social development and the need for governmental support. Attendees were challenged to plan constructively in all developmental areas from elementary school to the largest research library by Dr. Louis Round Wilson, Dean of the Graduate Library School at the University of Chicago. Two years later, during the 1936 Asheville conference, cooperative measures to strengthen research facilities were discussed, in fact, Henry Odom's Southern Regions were analyzed for possible application for library development during the Asheville sessions. During the 1938 Atlanta conference discussions were held on federal and state aid; librarians began to recognize the importance of obtaining government funding for library development and they were willing and eager to seek it.

1940s

Federal aid continued to be at the forefront at the 1940 Savannah conference. The association was also in need of reorganization and for necessary committees to be established however, because of World War II, all conferences had to be suspended, but some programs were continued and a survey on the size and effectiveness of southern libraries, jointly sponsored by SELA and the TVA Library Council was undertaken. Conferences started up again in 1946 in Asheville and reorganization was once again the main priority of the meeting agenda; and, in addition, two committees were set up: The Publications Committee to investigate the publishing studies affecting regional librarianship and the feasibility of establishing a quarterly journal, and the Activities Committee to revise the constitution. The reports of these two committees were approved at the 1948 Louisville conference, and they also provided for annual meetings, a headquarters office, a full-time executive secretary, and a quarterly journal.

1950s

On March 13, 1950, although Tennessee was essentially the birthplace of the SELA, Georgia became the state where the SELA became a legal corporation to enter into legal contracts. As a result the headquarters office was established at Georgia Tech (where it remained for the next twenty years) and Dorothy M. Corsland, librarian at the Georgia Institute of Technology, became the first acting Executive Secretary. In Atlanta, October 1950, a new constitution was prepared and was finalized by November 4, 1950. The first issue of the Southeastern Librarian came out in 1951; first issued semi-annually, it has been issued quarterly since 1953. In 1952, then president Louis Shores appointed the first Southern Books Competition Committee, which; to this day, remains to be a major project for SELA. Cataloging practices in small libraries were also surveyed during that year at the Atlanta Conference; and, in fact, the meeting concluded the first biennium as an incorporated organization. In 1956 President Nancy Jane Day persuaded the Southern States Work Conference to take school libraries as one of its study projects. This significantly enhanced the visibility of school libraries. During the Roanoke Conference (the same year) the Trustees and Friends of the Library met as a section of the Southeastern Library Association. In February 1958, upon recommendation from the SELA Activities Committee, a workshop for committee chairs and new officers was established, which is a practice still in operation. During the 1958 Louisville Conference, the Association looked at ways to strengthen the relationship between the nine state associations and the regional association.

1960s

This was a decade where SELA made significant advancements, this was attributable to major federal legislation made during that period .The Asheville SELA conference of 1960 was preceded by two workshops on facilities: The Public Library Building Institute and the College Library Buildings Institute. In addition, before 1962, three more workshops were held: Recruiting for Librarianship in the Southeast, Library Education, and Library Service to Business and Industry. At the 1962 conference The Reference Services Section reported on a survey of inter-library loan services in all types of libraries. During the 1964 conference in Norfolk the Sections were for the first time responsible for planning the general sessions, and following the passage of the Higher Education Act the officers representing SELA attended many workshops concerning Title II programs and its allocations. In 1967 a workshop on Interlibrary Loan Cooperation was held to assist in the implementation of Title III of the Library Services and Construction Act. The first workshop on Library Automation was held in Gatlinburg in 1968 and, during the fall conference in Miami, membership reached 3,085 the largest number on record.

1970s

In 1970, two new sections of the SELA were approved during the Atlanta conference: Special Libraries and Library Education. In addition, during this conference the constitution was revised to include an elected secretary and a paid executive secretary. By 1971 a comprehensive survey of libraries in the Southern region was initiated; the information compiled within this survey was meant to supplement and update the information collected in the original survey done twenty-five years ago . During the 1974 Richmond conference West Virginia became the tenth state affiliate of the SELA. Between 1975 and '76 the results from the survey were published in the University of Alabama Press, Libraries and Library Services in the Southeast. In addition, that same year (1975) marked the first SOLINET terminal at Emory University on January 2nd. The SELA's first permanent award established in January 1976 at the bequest of the estate of Mary Utopia Rothrock (one of the early founders of SELA) to provide a biennial award to a southeastern librarian for exceptional library development within the region. On January 3rd, 1977 former librarian of Austin Peay University, Johnnie Givens, became the first full-time Executive Director, and during that time two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanitiesand the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for a Solar Technology Transfer Program were secured. Two publications were established by different SELA committees in 1977: The Southeastern Bibliographic Directory: Academic Libraries and Special Collections in Libraries of the Southeast; they were issued by the Association (SELA) in 1978. Two of the Association's prestigious awards were given out during that time: the first activity award went to the Greenville County Public Library in South Carolina in recognition of an outstanding children's program and Pulitzer Prize winner, Eudora Welty, received the first Outstanding Author Award. In addition, John Gribben and Kenneth E. Toombs, founders of SOLINET, received the Rothrock Award. In fall of 1978 a newly established Junior Members Round Table began to function informally. In 1979, after discontinuing the Executive Director's position, the Executive Board, in the best fiscal interest of the Association, decided to staff the headquarters office once again with a part time executive secretary and a full time office manager. In June of that year, The Southeastern Librarian received special ALA recognition when it was awarded the H.W. Wilson Award for the most outstanding library periodical of the preceding year. Also, in observance of the twenty-fifth anniversary of SELA's Southern Books Competition, the Association published a list of award winners from 1952-1977. In 1979, after several transfers, headquarters was finally moved from Georgia Tech to an office complex in Tucker, Georgia.

1980s

During the Birmingham Conference of 1980, members observed the Association's sixtieth anniversary with the publication of The Southeastern Library Association, Its History and Its Honorary Members, 1920-1980 . The 1980-82 biennium saw the creation of three new roundtables: Library Instruction, Online Search Librarians, and Government Documents. The biennium also conducted several workshops, such as, "Library Marketing" sponsored by the Public Relations Committee, "From Tape to Product: Some Practical Considerations" sponsored by the Resources and Technical Services Section, and "Crisis in the Southeast" (focusing on children's services) sponsored by the School and Children's Librarians Section. At the 1982 conference in Louisville, an expanded, revised version of the SELA Handbook was distributed to members, and Louisiana became the eleventh constituent member of the Association. In Spring of 1987, upon examination of the Association's organizational structure, then SELA president Charles Beard recommended that Legislative/Library Cooperation Committee be split into two separate committees, because of the need of increased emphasis on these two areas. President Beard also requested that a Special Interest Group on Library Services to the Aging to be established. This special interest group became a sub-committee to the Reference and Adult Services Section. During the 1986 biennial conference in Atlanta, the SELA introduced a resolution to support the Division of Library and Information Management at Emory University preventing the closing of one of the leading library and information management programs in the nation.

1990s

Southeastern Library Association members started off this decade by focusing on the preparations for the 1991 White House Conference on Library and Information Science. Local and national meetings were held to gather opinions and determine directions for this national gathering of librarians and advocates and, in addition, an ad hoc task force chaired by Charles Beard met from August 16th-18th, 1990 as a preliminary consensus building step . Each biennial conference, during this decade, offered programs on the changing role of the profession, technological updates, and practical advice from the front lines. Throughout the 1990's, members worked on a variety of projects for the betterment of the Association and the library profession, for example, a new SELA membership directory was created, the traveling SELA exhibit was refreshed, and in 1999 Gordon Baker and Bob Fox took over association management.