IFLA in the International Arena before the Second World War: Evidence from the Actes du Comité International des Bibliothèques, and the Digitized League of Nations Archives

Did IFLA play a significant international role before the Second World War? This paper reports on an exploration of two sources of information on IFLA’s international activities during 1928-1939: the proceedings of the annual meetings of the International Library Committee, and files relating to entities of the League of Nations that were concerned with libraries and bibliography. Accessing IFLA’s proceedings, and finding relevant documents in the League of Nations archives turned out to be challenging. This paper is primarily about these sources, but offers some tentative findings. It appears that IFLA was more actively and productively engaged internationally than had thought, engaging particularly with the Committee of Library Experts of the League’s International Committee for Intellectual Cooperation. Both the Actes du Comité international des Bibliothèques and the League of Nations archives hold a treasure trove of data for historians of IFLA, librarianship and documentation, and the international cultural and intellectual milieu during the inter-war period. This resource should be better utilized. Keywords: IFLA, League of Nations, International Committee for Intellectual Cooperation. Archives, international relations