"This Year -- Richmond!": The 1936 Meeting of the American Library Association

At ALA's 1936 conference in Richmond, Virginia, librarians faced issues of professional identity, technological advance, and societal change. Meeting in the South and led by southerner Louis Round Wilson, attendees focused on the extension library service to rural, underserved areas. Meeting in Richmond, librarians confronted the realities of racial segregation and its implications for ALA. The Richmond conference launched ALA's quest for federal aid, favored by southern librarians, and prompted adoption of a policy on race, favored by northern ones. New technologies displayed at the conference offered means to transcend regional differences and enlarge the audience for public library service.