Ohio Valley Group of Technical Services Librarians:
A History
Angel Clemons and Tyler Goldberg, University of Louisville
Abstract: The Ohio Valley Group of
Technical Services (OVGTSL) has a long history dating to 1924. It is one of
ALA’s original regional groups and has met almost continuously for the
past 83 years. This presentation traces the history of OVGTSL from its beginnings
as the Ohio Valley Regional Group of Catalogers to the present day as an organization
of 100+ members whose focus is the ever-changing world of technical services.
We’ll look at programming through the years, structural changes in the
organization and its bylaws, the rapid growth of the organization between the
late 1940s and early 1960s, and the current status of OVGTSL today. We’ll
also discuss the challenges of maintaining an organization whose leadership
rotates annually among three states and preserving its history in an electronic
environment. The organization’s archival material, housed at the University
of Kentucky Libraries, provides the basis for this historical research. The
meeting minutes, programs, and transcripts clearly shows the evolution of technical
services, from cards to automation and from print to electronic, with many of
the speakers throughout the years having been influential in the world of technical
services. The history of OVGTSL is a history of technical services.