Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book seeks to explore the history of international library development work in the quarter of a century that followed the end of the Second World War. It discusses an important story about internationalism, globalization, the spread of information and ideologies about information and how it should be used, modernization and modernity, and the making of the modern world in a crucial period in world history. The book examines international library development work from the end of the Second World War to the end of the 1960s. It focuses on the story of how Britain, the USA, and Unesco sought to construct a post-war library and information discourse and tried to put it into practice through providing assistance and expertise in building library services globally.