The Southeastern Library Association (SELA) is an organization that collaborates with different library associations within the Southeastern United States, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia."Help/FAQ", "SELA", 2 November 2013

SELA works with members of state library associations who are also members of SELA. Every other year 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 and the Biennial Conference. For over sixty years SELA has been instrumental in influencing legislation and garnering foundation and federal funds to support regional library projects."Welcome", "SELA", 7 November 2013

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 SELn, a regional research and professional journal that has received national recognition.North Carolina Library Association (October 2008). Biographical Sketch of Leland Park, NCLA Leadership Institute Mentor Retrieved February 2, 2014.

History

1920s The idea for a southern library association was conceived in 1920 by librarians Tommie Dora Barker, Mary Utopia Rothrock, and Charlotte Templeton, 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 a regional library association 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. Once the responses to the preliminary letters were received, invitations to the first meeting were dispatched. 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; its purpose was to address the general, professional issues concerning information professionals at the time rather than topics on administration and technique. The success of the first meeting prompted conference leaders to schedule another meeting for November 1922."A Signal of Accomplishment- The 1920s", "SELA", 7 November 2013 Library Journal, edited by Melvil Dewey, reported that the association was officially founded at the November 1922 meeting, and the journal published the association's proposed constitution.Conference of Southeastern Librarians, Library Journal, Volume 47, p. 1082. Retrieved February 2, 2014. During the 1922 meetings attendees addressed several key issues, such as, the provision of library services, the establishment of training facilities for African Americans, and the adoption of a new constitution that provided an informal organization based upon state membership (automatically making members of state library organizations SELA members). In addition, librarians 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 of the association. During the 1924 Asheville Conference, nine states- Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia- 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. On the final conference of the decade, the 1928 conference in Biloxi, substantial progress was made in providing 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 the region. The 1930 Tampa conference included reports on the completed survey of library training programs, 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 Association was held in Memphis; the purpose of the joint conference was to address 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 Louis Round Wilson Dean of the University of Chicago Graduate Library School. Two years later, during the 1936 Asheville conference, cooperative measures to strengthen research facilities were discussed. 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 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; 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 during 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. 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; it 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, which significantly enhanced the visibility of school libraries. During the Roanoke Conference of that same year the Trustees and Friends of the Library, formed in 1946, officially met as a section of the Southeastern Library Association, and, upon recommendation from the SELA Activities Committee, a workshop for new committee chairs and officers was called for February 1958, which became a customary practice for SELA. During the 1958 Louisville Conference, with Regionalism being the main objective, the association discussed ways to strengthen the relationship between the nine affiliated state associations and the association itself.

1960s This was a decade where SELA made significant advancements, attributable to the major federal legislation advancements made at the time. The Asheville SELA conference of 1960 was preceded by two workshops on facilities: The Public Library Building Institute and the College Library Buildings Institute. Before the 1962 conference, 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 the inter-library loan services in libraries of all types. During the 1964 conference in Norfolk the Sections of the association were, for the first time, responsible for planning the general sessions and, following the passage of the Higher Education Act (HEA), the officers representing SELA attended many workshops concerning Title II (HEA) 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. By the next conference, which took place in Miami, membership reached 3,085, the largest number on record.

1970s