ALA'S ATTIC; CURIOSITIES FROM THE ARCHIVES

摘要

To the casual observer, this probably looks like an innocent photo of an ALA registration desk sometime in the 1950s. To the practiced ALA conference attendee, however, the whole photo is an obvious hoax: Three people registering and two people waiting to help them? No one looks weary or impatient? War of the Worlds has nothing on this photo! Could it be a communist plot to convince ALA conference-goers that registration lines at next month's Midwinter Meeting in Philly are going to be short? The reality: Philadelphia was the site of the 1955 Annual Conference. More than 4,300 librarians attended-thus explaining the registration line-and "braved the varying extremes of an eastern-wide heat wave and mechanical air-conditioning," over the Fourth of July weekend.