Library Periodicals Round Table | The American Library Association Archives

When the Editors and Publishers Round Table disbanded it recommended the formation of a Library Periodicals Round Table.  The ALA Council approved the formation of the Library Periodicals Round Table on July 4, 1952.  It first met February 3, 1953 (1).

The original purpose of the Round Table was "to provide opportunities for the discussion of mutual aims and problems by those editorially responsible for all library periodicals, or their authorized representatives."  Membership was limited to members of the editorial and business staffs of library periodicals (2).  Within a year the Round Table changed its purpose to read "to provide opportunities for the discussion of mutual aims and problems of library periodicals" and altered its membership standards to "any member of the ALA interested in these problems" (3).  The Round Table defined a library periodical as "any serial publication except annual reports, unannotated book lists, and publications of the Federal Government issued in the continental United States under library auspices for librarians and/or anyone else interested in the development and welfare of librarians" (4).

The Round Table published a quarterly LPRT Newsletter (5) and the 1957 Library Periodicals Directory (6).  Its committees included Editorial Policies, Advertising Policies, Exchanges Policies, Newsletter (7), Library Periodicals Directory (8), Manual for Library Periodicals Editors, Membership, Midwinter Program, Activities, and Nominating (9).

In 1963 the Library Periodicals Round Table requested that it be disbanded.  It officers recommended that the Round Table's primary function, "the improvement of library periodicals of many types," be assumed by the Public Relations Section of the Library Administrative Division.  At a January 27, 1964 Committee on Organization meeting, the Round Table and Public Relations Section agreed to the proposed reorganization.  The ALA Council accepted the reorganization on January 30, 1964 (10).

Sub-Groups:

1-Officers

2-Publications

30-Publications Committee

1.  ALA Bulletin, April 1953, p. 174.

2.  Ibid.

3.  ALA Bulletin, December 1954, p. 652.

4.  Phillips Temple, "Directory of Library Periodicals," ALA Bulletin, October 1955, p. 518.

5.  ALA Bulletin, December 1954, p. 652.

6.  Phillips Temple, et. al., comp., A Directory of Library Periodical Publications in the Continental United States (Pittsburg, Kansas: Kansas State College Library, 1957).

7.  ALA Bulletin, December 1953, p. 573.

8.  ALA Bulletin, December 1955, p. 661.

9.  ALA Bulletin, December 1957, p. 882.

10.  ALA Council, Minutes, Second Council Session, 1964 Midwinter Meeting, January 30, 1964, p. 12.