A Glimpse Into the Past: Highlights from the TLA
Archives
Gloria Meraz
The history of the Texas Library Association—its accomplishments, tribulations, goals, and members—may grow distant in people’s memories over time, but it endures in vivid and colorful form in the Texas Library Association Archives. Throughout its ninety-six-year history, TLA has built a wide range of activities—public relations campaigns, a vigorous legislative committee, programs for continuing education, scholarship funding, and a variety of prestigious awards to name only a tiny fraction—that fulfill the Association’s mission. Through these diverse activities, the Texas Library Association has also created an informative and rich body of records that document the role of the Texas Library Association in fostering one of the strongest statewide library communities in the country.
While the success of any organization is often judged by its most recent efforts, success over the long term is the hardest to achieve and, in matters of public trust, the most important to maintain. For this reason, the history of an organization must be carefully preserved not only in the minds of its members, but in the form of objective evidence which can be studied and verified by scholars and the public. The TLA archives ensure a primary chronicle of the Association and its work for libraries and librarians in the state.
Comprised of correspondence, minutes, reports, programs, papers, speeches, printed materials, photographs, audiocassettes, and videocassettes, the archives document the organ-ization’s activities from it earliest years to its most recent endeavors. The archives reveal the passion, hard work, and creativity of the Association’s members. Not only do the records report TLA’s accomplishments and setbacks, but they also bear witness to the effects of historical events on the operations and perspectives of individuals working in and for libraries.
The TLA Archives
As TLA’s constitution mandates, the archives are held by the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Over the past several months, TLA and the AI Services Division have worked together to further increase the accessibility of the TLA archives and to create a records inventory that maintains information concerning how the records were created and used.
The vast majority of the archives dating back to the first fifty years come from the files of TLA presidents, secretaries, and treasurers. Back then, the running of the organization consisted of a fairly loose structure wherein TLA records survived depending on the organizational skills of the persons holding executive or unit offices. Then, in the first half of the 1950s, TLA underwent a series of events that led to a more structured association. Beginning with the reorganization of the divisions, districts, and round tables and ending with the hiring of an executive secretary, Jerre Hetherington, TLA operated through a more centralized system (via Hetherington) and formalized procedures for the systematic transfer of records to the AI Services Division. Accordingly, the TLA archives reflect this new order as the majority of the records were created and preserved through unit activities and the office of the executive secretary. More recent records (from the 1970s on) show fewer presidential records but more records relating to the activities of the executive board, the planning of the annual conference and assembly, and unit files.
While all of the records are unique, they demonstrate some basic characteristics of TLA, such as the growth of the organization, its diversity of activities, its ability to relate national concerns into local interests, and its relationship with members. Perhaps the most visible characteristic in TLA’s history is the sheer growth of the organization. The largest state library association with the biggest annual convention, TLA started with a handful of committed members. Organized in 1902, TLA’s first gathering consisted of only about fifty people! Today, that number is closer to 7,000 and, as Executive Director Patricia Smith vows, that number will become 10,000 by 2000. While membership statistics provide a numerical understanding of TLA’s expansion, they cannot capture the gradual shift from the intimacy of early TLA to the efficiency of modern TLA. Nor can they show that, even from its earliest years, TLA was an ambitious organization that wooed potential members with all available resources, regardless of the substantial energy involved in increasing membership when all transactions had to be handled individually, as the letter below indicates.1
3 October 1911
To: Miss Elizabeth WestIt would give us pleasure to enroll you as a member of the Texas Library Association. Mr. Winkler can tell you of our pleasant annual meetings and of the good work we are trying to do.
To have you added to our numbers will be an encouragement to us, and possibly you can gain something from us.
For your convenience I enclose a bill for the annual fee of $1.00.Very Truly Yours,
Irene Galloway
Given this cumbersome method of member solicitation, one is tempted to ask: "Just how did TLA get so big?" The answer resides in the same records. The very letters, written by individuals at all stages in their careers, show a passion and commitment that does not dim with reading them decades later. Incidentally, Elizabeth West did in fact join TLA. She held the office of TLA president (among several others) from 1914 to 1915 and 1915 to 1916.
In many respects, the work of TLA is most evident in the diverse topics it explores in its conferences and programs. Striving to maintain an interesting and helpful array of programs for a growing and divergent membership, TLA has sought to maintain a balance between scholarly and professional activities. The 1966 conference provides a notable example of TLA’s diversity. In that year, Jesse Shera delivered a paper (the manuscript is in the archives) to the Reference Round Table that discussed issues of user uncertainty and the problems users faced in formulating reference questions.2 Interestingly, Shera’s paper described some of the issues Robert Taylor addressed two years later in his seminal article "Question-Negotiation" in College and Research Quarterly. That year is also a landmark because it inaugurated the First Annual Texas Governor’s Conference on Libraries, the First Texas Conference on Library Mechanization, and saw "The Librar-ian’s War on Poverty."3
Occasionally, however, the work of TLA is characterized not by its diverse agenda but rather its unity with global concerns. When world events present themselves, often in devastating terms, it is left for individuals and groups of individuals to make sense out of these occurrences and to translate the effects of those world events into more immediate and intimate terms. In 1942, TLA President Donald Coney faced a convention of individuals wondering about their own futures and about the role of their profession in the world drama. He commented,4
We are now caught up in a total war for our liberties. There has grown up in the world in the past 2 decades a political philosophy opposed to that on which our government is founded. . .There was a time when wars were fought by men whose profession was war, and on a well-defined field of battle. In those days the world was remote from the battle front. Today, we do not see warfare by bullets and bombs alone, but warfare by means of ideas, and against ideas as well. Books have an especial value today in a time of crisis in that they are not only the instruments of warfare, but a defense against attacks as well—for it is in books that we find the ideas of our kind of life set forth. It is in books we find our freedoms and our principles stated, and it is to books that we can turn for support of that position that we must defend if we are to continue in our way of living. . .
Coney’s address survives in the TLA archives where it is kept with other of Coney’s files and is supplemented by later files detailing TLA’s work with the Department of Defense on the dissemination of information on the war effort. One of TLA’s most useful functions has been translating such national and statewide concerns into a local dialogue.
Accordingly, the heart of TLA’s work centers on bringing issues that affect libraries and library users to the forefront of public and government action. It provides the mechanisms for converting ideas into objectives, objectives into plans, and plans into action. Nowhere is this chain more readily traced than through the archival records relating to the Library Systems Act, arguably the single most important piece of legislation for libraries in Texas. The frequent correspondence with the State Library, the months of revised drafts, the agendas of meetings across the state, and the urgent telegraphs keeping TLA informed about the voting positions of state legislators establish a unique record of the planning, strategy, and work that ultimately led to the passage of the Library Systems Act in 1969. These archives along with the final published report are available at the AI Services Division, where researchers can further benefit from the numerous other archival records from other agencies available there for consultation.
The challenge for TLA—or for any organization for that matter—goes beyond providing a conduit for achieving national and state goals; it lies also in incorporating those goals into the fabric of the organization itself. One of the most important examples is the issue of civil rights for minorities. While minutes of the Junior Members Round Table (later to become the New Members Round Table) and the Recruitment Committee chronicle the need to recruit minority librarians, some of TLA’s most long-standing efforts regarding equality for minorities are captured in routine work known only to those directly involved in carrying out administrative duties for the organization.
Correspondence dating back to the late 1940s shows the Association’s concern with the rights of all of its members. The archives contain file copies of letters written by TLA presidents and conference organizers to managers of conference hotels. These letters ask for an assurance that all members of TLA would be allowed to participate in the conference activities occurring in the hotel without fear of discrimination. As TLA informed hotel managers, "If there is any problem here, I should appreciate hearing from you at once before any announcement to the membership is made concerning the official hotel. . ."5 The replies from hotel managers came quickly and positively.6
In addition to the topics of political and public origin, the TLA archives also reveal a history of its members and their work for TLA. One of only a handful of members since the 1940s, Margaret Nichols attended her first conference in 1948.7 The memorable event of the conference, recalled Nichols (who was then listed at Margaret Irby) was the less-than-sober address given by a former editor of The New York Times. Dubbed "the second fall of the Alamo," the speech proved to be among the highlights of the conference.8 Despite the dubious occurrences during her first conference, Ms. Nichols fortunately remained firm in her loyalty to TLA.
Other archival records show the humor of TLA members in a fashion that lets us know that some things remain the same. In the following letter, Fred H. Graves expresses some subtle views on his TLA duties.9
July 22, 1949Dr. Arthur Sampley, Librarian
. . .Please believe me when I say I appreciate your charitable words about N[ews] N[otes] v. 25, and that I am not ratting on my obligation to the organization; I’d be glad to wash windows, mow lawns, or even sit babies, but please, no more News Notes!
Sincerely, Fred H. Graves
Along with these records of members’ on-going activities, the archives contain also insights about members’ friendships and testaments to one another. A recent addition to the TLA archives is a memorial ribbon designed for the Elizabeth Crabb Fund. The many archives created by Ms. Crabb during her long service to TLA show only one—albeit important—description of her work, including her important contribution as the initial processor of the TLA archives. Tributes such as these are exemplified by the ribbon offer a compelling and significant history of TLA and the importance of individual members to the organization as a whole. It is a history that will be preserved in the archives.
A Lasting Legacy
The TLA archives represent an important tool for understanding the Association’s past and for shaping its future. More than just an image of the past, the TLA archives provide information about the circumstances, events, and people that ultimately shaped the Association we have now. These records establish, like nothing else, a gauge by which to measure our activities and a compass for planning the future. The TLA Archives are a fluid, integral byproduct of our organi-zation’s work and, without them, our organization loses its memory.
At this moment, TLA is creating archives that will one day benefit future generations of librarians and researchers. At some point, the most objective and complete description of the work the Association and its members are conducting today will be the archives we produce, preserve, and maintain. With these "archives-in-the-making," TLA accomplishes something beyond the traditional expectations of its organizational mission: it leaves a documentary legacy of its work and the imperatives that motivated its members.
Notes
1. Irene Galloway to Elizabeth K. West, October 3, 1911; Correspondence; Julia Ideson (1910–1911); President’s Files; Texas Library Association Archives; Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX.
2. Jesse Shera, Paper delivered to Reference Round Table, March 25, 1966; Papers, (1966); Conference Files; Texas Library Association Archives; Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX.
3. 1966 Conference Program; Programs (1960–1969); Conference Files; Texas Library Association Archives; Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX.
4. Donald Coney, President’s Address, April 21, 1942; Conference File; Donald Coney (1941–1942); President’s Files; Texas Library Association Archives; Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX.
5. William Dix to B.F. Orr, December 30, 1949; Conference Correspondence; Arthur M. Sampley (1940–1950); Presi-dent’s Files (1949–1950); Texas Library Association Archives; Texas State Archives, Austin, TX.
6. B.F. Orr to William Dix, January 5, 1950; Conference Correspondence; Arthur M. Sampley (1949–1959); Presi-dent’s Files; Texas Library Association Archives; Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX.
7. Membership List, January 30, 1947–March 3, 1947; Mary Alice Hamilton (1946–1947); Treasurer’s Files; Texas Library Association Archives; Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX.
8. Telephone conversation with Margaret Irby Nichols, January 21, 1998.
9. Fred H. Graves to Dr. Arthur Sampley, July 23, 1949; Correspondence; Arthur Sampley (1949–1950); President’s Files; Texas Library Association Archives; Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Austin, TX.