In 1949, a petition was brought to ALA Council during the Midwinter Meeting to form the Round Table on Library Service Abroad. The petition was approved and thus officially began what was later known as the International Relations Round Table (IRRT). However, IRRT’s origins can be traced to a year earlier in 1948 to the (confusingly named) International Relations Round Table on Library Service Abroad, a conference held at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Also called the Williamstown Conference, its resounding success laid the foundation for IRRT.
In February 1948, the ALA International Relations Office (IRO) sent out a questionnaire to librarians on its Foreign Library Service Roster. The last question asked, “Would you be willing to attend, at your own expense, a ‘guinea pig’ session, devoted to the international aspects of library work …?”[1] 100 librarians affirmed their unreserved interest in the “guinea pig” session, while others noted their interested dependent upon funding.[2] With a strong response to the question, Helen Wessells, associate director of IRO, started planning. Continue reading “International Origins in Williamstown”
