The first meeting of the Council of Post Secondary Library Directors [CPSLD] was held at the request of Dennis Franklin, Executive Secretary of the Academic Advisory Board for Higher Education in British Columbia. The meeting took place at the University of British Columbia [UBC] library on October 10, 1969, and was chaired by Basil Stuart‐Stubbs.
Representatives included;
Basil Stuart‐Stubbs, UBC, Del Affleck, Capilano College, Don Baird, SFU, I. F. Bell, UBC, Doug Bridges, Malsaplina College, J. Cheng, Okanagan College, R. L. Davison, Library Development Commission, Robert Harris, BCIT, Dennis Franklin, Academic Board, Dean Halliwell, University of Victoria, John Mansbridge, Selkirk College, Ron Welwood, Notre Dame University.
Issues addressed included the need for resource sharing and for new, library standards to be developed. It was decided at this meeting that the librarians would offer to act in an advisory capacity of an Advisory Committee to the Academic Board. Meetings were held two or three times a year to discuss items of mutual concern, to provide input to the Ministry on items of importance to the Council and to be a liaison to the Ministry on Library matters. The group was known interchangeably as the College and University Librarians of BC or College Librarians Group until 1976, when the title Post Secondary Library Directors Association (PSLDA) was adopted.
PSLDA's objectives were to

act as an advisory Body to government and other groups concerned with post‐secondary library services, such as the College Principles Group and the BCAC. to help facilitate exchange of information among post‐secondary library directors to promote the development of methods for cooperative endeavours to facilitate research planning and development in identified areas of concern to initiate conjoint response to developments within post‐secondary education.

In April, 1977, the PSLDA Strategies Committee consultation with the Ministry of Education proposed a revised set of objectives that would better meet the changing directions of provincial libraries. The new objectives included "to act as the council of college, vocational and technological institution libraries in relationship to the development of the network of BC Libraries." By 1978 the title Council of Post‐Secondary Library Directors [CPSLD] had been adopted.