Library History Today Blog: The American Library Association’s neglected Canadian conference in Vancouver, 1949

Canadian library histories often recount six American Library Association’s conferences in Canada: Ottawa (1912), Toronto (1927 and 2003), and Montreal (1900, 1934, and 1960). But there is rare mention of another ALA annual meeting held in Vancouver on the University of British Columbia campus from August 22–25 in 1949. It was the only the second ALA meeting on the Pacific west coast following the first in Seattle in 1925. However, this convention was not ALA’s usual full-scale conference; instead, it was the first of seven regional ones which the Association experimented with during 1949 to determine their effectiveness. Normally, ALA would register about 3,000 members at its single annual meeting each year. By comparison, there were about 750 in attendance in Vancouver. This number was boosted by the fact that the Pacific Northwest Library Association celebrated its 40th anniversary in Vancouver along with members from western state associations, such as California. A few Canadians, mostly members of the British Columbia Library Association, also were in attendance. By comparison, the Canadian Library Association (CLA) was attracting about 250–500 people to its annual meetings in the late 1940s. The ALA meetings in Toronto in 1927 and Montreal in 1934 had registered almost 2,000 attendees.

The conference featured a number of important ALA official events and speeches. The newly elected officers for ALA in 1949–50 were introduced. The new President was Milton Lord, the director of the Boston Public Library. He would return to Canada to make an address about library community relations in an international setting at the Canadian Library Association’s 1950 meeting in Montreal. Clarence R. Graham, librarian of the Louisville Free Public Library became the first Vice-President. In a few years, he would break barriers by making Louisville the first public library in the American southern states to open its main library to Black Americans. A Canadian, Mary E. Silverthorn, from the University of Toronto Library School, was elected to ALA’s Council for the term 1949–53.

But the outgoing President, Errett W. McDiarmid, the director of the University of Minnesota library and the university’s library instruction programs, made the most news. He had spoken earlier in June at the Canadian Library Association’s annual conference (held in Winnipeg) on subjective library standards. One thread of his Vancouver presidential address attempted to counter the growing threat of book censorship in libraries and the suppression of “un-American” ideas and alleged Communist infiltration. He called on delegates to protect the democratic right to free access information in libraries, to promote free speech, and to support the societal duty of professionals to oppose censorship. The role of librarians and libraries in defending intellectual freedom would increasingly concern ALA members after the strengthened Library Bill of Rights in 1948. In Canada, Vancouver’s library director, Edgar Robinson, believed that adults should be able to make their decisions about reading. He did not ban books: he held a few controversial ones on a restricted basis for individuals to request if they chose. Ultimately, Robinson felt book bans were counter-productive. However, it would be many years before the majority of Canadian library associations formally adopted statements of intellectual freedom in the mid-1960s. Even in the United States, the Library of Bill of Rights continued to have many opponents and would be revised on several occasions into the 21st century. More serious was the allegation that a library employee might have communist or socialist leanings—dismissal often followed brief, in-camera reviews such as the contentious John Marshall case at Victoria Public Library in 1954 (almost half a century later the library board would offer Marshall an apology for his mistreatment).

For the most part, the conference was an amiable, businesslike affair. Delegates discussed part of an important postwar Fourth Activities Committee report that recommended organizational changes in ALA’s structure supported by many members. However, California delegates rejected the notion that state associations should become state chapters of ALA. They preferred the status quo of independence and cooperation between states and the ALA. Delegates also had an opportunity to combine business with pleasure. A day was set aside for an enjoyable “mystery cruise” up the scenic British Columbia coastline on the S.S. Lady Alexandra, followed by an evening banquet at the Hotel Vancouver.

Another day was set aside for discussions on the partially completed ALA study headed by Robert D. Leigh, The Public Library Inquiry. The Inquiry would continue until 1952. Bernard Berelson, the author of the 1949 Inquiry volume, The Library’s Public, said his research confirmed that the library reached only a minority of the population, the better educated. Alice Bryan, who was researching the profiles of public librarians, reported her ongoing research that focused on personality concepts, such as leadership, educational qualifications, and gender issues. Her ground-breaking contribution, The Public Librarian, would be published in 1952. Robert Leigh reported on library governance and collections. The findings and recommendations of the Inquiry significantly influenced library planning, namely the encouragement for the concept of larger units of service, the revision of standards, and the eventual achievement of federal aid for public libraries in 1956. The Library Services Act passed by Congress aimed to foster the development of public libraries in rural areas through federal funding. The Inquiry reports emphasized that democracy and enlightened citizenship would continue to be a vital part the public library’s mission on a broader societal level.

There were moments when Canadian contributions came to the fore. Edgar Robinson had chaired local arrangements. Anne Smith, the experienced Assistant Librarian at the University of British Columbia, assumed the presidency of the Pacific Northwest Library Association at its annual meeting held on August 25th. Kathleen Jenkins, president of the Canadian Library Association, sent a formal letter of greetings. But the Canadian highlight was Helen Gordon Stewart: she addressed ALA on its closing evening about her experience in the British West Indies. She had been involved from 1941–47 in a Carnegie Corporation funded project, the Regional Library of the Eastern Caribbean, that sought to create a more systematic library service across these islands, especially in Trinidad and Tobago.

The regional conference was one aspect of many efforts to forge closer ties between two nations. ALA’s Resolutions Committee closed the conference with a typical expression of appreciation for their Canadian sojourn: “Be it Further Resolved that as we leave sunny British Columbia with regret that our stay has been too short . . . .” In 1952, the Pacific Northwest Library Association revisited British Columbia in Victoria. ALA returned to Canada at a combined ALA-CLA conference in Montreal in 1960 which attracted more than 4,500 participants. The aspect of cross-border ties and cooperative action between ALA (or PNLA) and Canadian associations had strengthened after the Second World War. The CLA and ALA had formed an ALA-CLA Liaison Committee in 1946 that encouraged joint membership and included both president-elects as alternating chairs each year. The committee was a driving force in arranging the joint ALA-CLA Montreal conference in 1960. The theme of friendship and consensus on library matters would continue to be a unifying force throughout the 1950s and 60s.