The Council of National Library and Information Associations held its final meeting May 5 in New York.
Since the previous meeting in December, when the future of the council had been discussed, the member associations had been polled about possible dissolution of the organization because it was unable to undertake new initiatives to justify its continued existence.
Based on the poll results, attendees of the May meeting approved a suggestion of the CNLIA board of directors to dissolve the council.
Founded in 1942, CNLIA made a series of significant accomplishments. Among them were the initiation of the Bowker Annual, a compendium of information for librarians, publishers and information specialists. The CNLIA also served as secretariat of the Z39 Committee of the American National Standards Institute, which developed worldwide standards for library practice, including the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) giving each publication a distinctive serial number. The council also revived publication in 1966 and 1970 of Who's Who in Library and Information Services, an occasional biographical directory of United States and Canadian library professionals.
