Spring 2001
91´«Ã½
New Series Vol. 5 No. 2
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Executive Board Meeting will be held on Sunday June 17 th from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm
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Contents
Message from the Chair || Minutes || Liaison Reports || Website report
Library History Award || Conference announcement
Studies in Book and Print Culture || Work in Progress || Book Auction at 91´«Ã½
Spring 2001 Bibliography in Library History
Message from the Chair
Dear LHRT Members:
Despite seismic transformations, libraries persist. As cornerstones supporting culture, education, research, recreation, and society, they have accrued a past capable of informing us about the power of place in an increasingly virtual milieu. Distinguished speakers in the fields of history, architecture, and librarianship will explore aspects of the library as a locale affected but not defeated by various phenomena from earthquakes to electronic media during LHRT's Annual Program and Research Forum. Entitled "Public Libraries as Public Spaces: Histories of Buildings and Their Uses," the program
is scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 17, during the 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference in San Francisco. I am delighted to announce that our speakers will be:
Laura McCreery, Project Director, Library School Oral History Series, The Bancroft Library, University of California-Berkeley, who will speak on "Sites of Memory: The Role of Place in the Oral History of UC Berkeley's Library School";
Melanie Kimball, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, who will speak on "A Home-Like Atmosphere: Children's Rooms in the Public Library"; and
Buzz Yudell, F.A.I.A., Architect, Moore Ruble Yudell, Santa Monica, CA, and Adjunct Professor, UCLA School of Art and Architecture, who will discuss the historic preservation and renovation of the Lawrence Clark Powell Library at UCLA.
Our session is in the "leadership" track of 91´«Ã½'s new program organization. That seems fitting since true leadership involves, among other qualities, the abilities to know and appreciate the past, to evaluate its impact on the present, and to assess what it may suggest about the future. I look forward to seeing you at what promises to be an informative and inspiring program.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the LHRT members who have agreed to run for office on the 2001 ballot including Christine Jenkins, Kenneth J. Potts, P. Toby Graham, Steven W. Sowards, Cindy Mediavilla, and Richard Rubin. And I encourage all LHRT members to cast their votes before April 27.
It has been a pleasure serving LHRT as chair.
Cheryl Knott Malone
Minutes
By Holly G. Willett
Library History Round Table
Executive Committee Meeting
91´«Ã½ Midwinter Conference
January 14, 2001
Renaissance Hotel, Washington, D.C.
I. Call to Order.
Chair Cheryl Malone called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. Attendees introduced themselves. Present were: Michele V. Cloonan, Donald G. Davis, Jr., Julia Glynn (91´«Ã½), Elizabeth Hanson, David M. Hovde, Melanie Kimball, Mary Jo Lynch (91´«Ã½), Cheryl Malone, Marilyn Martin, Sibyl E. Moses, Larry Nix, Kenneth Potts, Louise Robbins, Lee Shiflett, Steve Sowards, Fred Stielow, Andrew Wertheimer, Will Wheeler, Holly G. Willett.
II. Approval of Agenda.
The agenda was approved by consensus.
III. Approval of Annual Conference 2000 minutes.
Minutes of the executive committee meeting held in Chicago in July 2000 were approved by consensus.
IV. Summary Remarks from the Chair.
Cheryl Malone thanked Lee Shiflett for agreeing to co-edit the newsletter. Al Jones, board member-at-large was unable to attend the meeting.
V. Old Business.
A. Library History Seminar: Donald G. Davis, Jr., reported on the Library History seminar held at the Library of Congress in October, 2000, during the Library of Congress's bicentennial celebration. The seminar was titled "Interpreting the Past, Mapping the Future". A report has appeared in the Library of Congress Information Bulletin. John Cole of the Center for the Book is interested in publishing fourof the papers to be distributed as a book of 100 pages. Other papers may be submitted to the Library of Congress. Louise Robbins noted that it was an exciting affair and attendees were treated royally by the Library of Congress. The book on the LHRT's 50th anniversary was distributed at the seminar. Oak Knoll Press is now distributing the remaining copies. The round table will provide mailing labels of our membership to Oak Knoll Press for the purpose of advertising the book, and we will ask Oak Knoll to run an ad in the Library of Congress Information Bulletin. Action: Cheryl Malone will write a letter to James Billington, Librarian of Congress, thanking him for supporting the seminar and mentioning John Y. Cole's role in creating a superb event.
B. Membership Brochure: Andrew Wertheimer presented the final version of the membership brochure. He used Eagle Feather, a font designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. If any changes are required, Andrew should be notified by e-mail as soon as possible. Reproduction by 91´«Ã½ was discussed, including the color and type of paper and the costs of reproduction and distribution. Chapter Relations and New Members Round Table annually distribute membership brochures to library schools and new members. The chair and those present extended thanks to Andrew for a job well done.
C. National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History: Steve Sowards reminded the Executive Committee that LHRT is the sole unit within 91´«Ã½ supporting the NCC, and although the $400 we pay yearly is small in comparison to the support the NCC receives from organizations such as the OAH, it does take a large piece of our annual budget. Steve drafted a letter which Cheryl Malone will send to LRRT, GODORT, IFRT, and the History Section of RUSA asking them to each contribute $75 per year to maintain 91´«Ã½'s support of the NCC. Steve recommended that if our contributions do not decrease by at least $100 that we should consider dropping our support of the NCC. The Executive Committee agreed that we would like to have a response from the other units by the end of Annual Conference 2001. In the letter, we will set a deadline of July 1, 2001 for their response.
D. Awards Calendar: Steve Sowards has created four Web pages, one for each award, which will eventually be placed on the LHRT Web site. The Executive Committee discussed the format and the content. Fred Stielow recommended that the awards be mentioned in the Membership Brochure as part of the LHRT's activities.
E. Justin Winsor Prize: Mary Niles Maack (Chair), Lorna Peterson, and Toby
Graham comprise the committee. More entries are needed, which means more publicity is needed. The committee should coordinate with 91´«Ã½'s Public Information Office for publicity mailed to the library press. Information should also be posted on JESSE, SHARP, and H-net, by the committee, with a link to the Web page. There are columns for the announcement of prizes in publications of the OAH, AHA, and SAA. The announcement should appear in our own newsletter; perhaps we need a regular spot for award deadlines.
F. Dain Award: Robert Martin (Chair), Rebecca Knuth, and Charley Seavey are
the committee. Cheryl will ask Bob to submit to JESSE, SHARP, and listservs of other fields where dissertations in library history are sometimes written. Cheryl will also ask Bob to write letters to the LIS schools with doctoral programs. Fred Stielow suggested that 91´«Ã½ should create an e-mail announcement list.
G. Davis Award: Mary Jo Lynch handed out the proposed revised guidelines.
Andrew Wertheimer moved to accept them with corrections; Melanie Kimball seconded. The motion passed. Mary Jo Lynch will post the corrected guidelines and Steve will use them to edit the calendar.
H. Eliza Gleason Award: The committee--Sibyl Moses (Chair), Steve Sowards, and Art Young--studied awards given by ALSC and RUSA and made recommendations for award procedures. After discussion, the procedures seem to be the following:
1. Books should be reviewed every year rather than at the end of the three years. The committee chair will maintain records of discussion so that all worthy books are considered and remembered. A book will not be excluded from consideration if overlooked in the year of its publication.
2. A committee will serve a 4-year term. The last year of each committee's term will overlap with the first year of the next committee's term. Each member will serve all 4 years for continuity's sake, and the terms will not be staggered. Committee members will be appointed by the LHRT Chair and the chair of a new committee will serve ex-officio on the preceding committee.
3. There will be three members on the Gleason Award Committee, including its Chair. The newsletter editor and the Chair of LHRT will serve as ex-officio members.
4. Books to be considered will have been published between January 1st of the first year through December 31st of the last year of the 3-year cycle. The decision and the award will be made in the 4th year.
5. Titles may be submitted for the committee's consideration by authors, publishers, LHRT members, and others.
6. A title should be submitted to the committee by December 31st of the year in which it is published. Publishers who are known to publish library history will be sent letters by the chair of the Gleason committee in November each year to remind them of the December 31st deadline.
7. The award will be announced in April of the year following the last year of publications being considered. The award will be made at Annual Conference which follows the announcement.
There was discussion of the need for more committee members. The original guidelines need to be revised and posed on the Web site. The Executive Committee agreed that these procedures should be evaluated and revised after the first award is made.
Action: Cheryl will e-mail the previous committee to invited them to continue to serve and will work out the initial procedures. She will report at Annual Conference. Mary Jo Lynch and Sybil Moses will revise the guidelines.
I. Book Auction: Lee Shiflett is organizing the auction and Ken Potts is coordinating the planning at the California end. Tentatively, it is scheduled for the early evening of Saturday, June 16, 2001. Ken is looking for a bookshop, preferably in the Union Square area. Mary Jo Lynch reminded the Executive Committee that if the auction is scheduled for a no-conflict period, it cannot be published in the official 91´«Ã½ conference program (the no-conflict time on Saturday, June 16, 2001 is 5:30-7 p.m.). Michele
Cloonan recommended that the California Center for the Book mailing list be used to publicize the event. It was also suggested that the ACRL-Rare Books and Manuscripts Section be contacted for their mailing list and possibly for donations. The final plans will appear on the LHRT Website.
J. Our annual program will take place at Annual Conference in San Francisco on Sunday, June 17, 2001, from 2-4 p.m. The title of the program is "The Public Library as Public Space: Histories of Public Library Buildings and Their Uses." Melanie Kimball will assist Cheryl Malone in creating a call for papers.
VI. New Business
A. Treasurer's Report: Mary Jo Lynch and Holly Willett presented the Treasurer's report. Fred Stielow requested that a record of the progress of endowment funds be included in the reports.
B. Nominations: Steve Sowards reminded us that it is time to nominate people
for next year's officers. A number of possible names for Steve to contact in regards to the three offices (chair-elect, secretary/treasurer-elect, and member-at-large). Other names may be sent to Steve via e-mail. The Nominations Committee will report the names of those who agree to run for office to Mary Jo Lynch. Their biographical information needs to be at the 91´«Ã½ office by January 31, 2001.
C. Announcements
1. Don Davis announced that Magnus Torstenssen of the IFLA Round Table on Library History will present a program in Sweden in May 2001.
2. Cheryl Malone noted that Joy Kingsolver has done a lot of work on the LHRT Website. Members were asked to send her historical photos with permission to mount on the Website. Wayne Wiegand's columns in American Libraries will appear on the Website, eventually. Cheryl Malone expressed the group's thanks to Joy for her work. It was suggested that the pictures of award winners should also be appear on the Web site.
VII. Adjournment
Andrew Wertheimer moved, and Steve Sowards seconded, that the meeting be
adjourned. The motion passed. The meeting was adjourned at 10:53 a.m.
Liaison Reports
Liaison Report: National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History (NCC)
Submitted by Steven Sowards
In this issue's report, I'd like to highlight NCC's mission, as well as its recent activities. Those who read the LHRT Executive Board minutes know that the Board is considering whether to continue our funding commitment to NCC: in other words, deciding whether LHRT can promote its own mission more effectively by assigning that money to other projects (while relying on 91´«Ã½'s Washington Office for library-related Congressional lobbying).
NCC's stated purpose is "to serve as a central advocacy office for the historical and archival professions with special attention given to: the funding and welfare of the National Archives...; policies related to access to documents; federal support of historical research, teaching and public programs;" and other matters of interest to historians. In recent years, it has provided testimony, briefings and information on issues of federal
appropriations, declassification, copyright, and the impact of electronic records on a variety of programs (including GPO and the depository program, archival management, and an online version of Foreign Relations of the United States).
Normally, NCC is involved in tracking specific legislative initiatives or court cases. The recent installation of the new 107th Congress, combined with the change from the Clinton to the Bush presidency, means that legislative activity is only now beginning to develop in DC. While NCC has begun to report on some of the initial bills that will define the Washington agenda in the next two years, much of its attention has been devoted to
identifying new committee chairs and appointed officials in the executive departments.
Matters of interest to librarians during 2001, as projected by NCC, include funding levels for the NEH and the National Archives; the possible repeal of Executive Order 12958 dealing with the declassification of federal records; the Tasini v. New York Times case, under review by the Supreme Court; the future of the Federal Depository Library Program; and evolving standards for archiving email and similar documents.
The NCC 'Washington Updates' are online at .
Bruce Craig, the new director, has begun including a wider range of notes about the Washington scene. That site also provides information about NCC.
LHRT Website Report
91´«Ã½ Midwinter, January 2001
By Joy Kingsolver, LHRT Webmaster
I am pleased to report that the LHRT website has undergone some improvements over the past few months.
1. The Fall 2000 newsletter and bibliography are both on the website. Many thanks to Ed Goedeken for sending the files.
1. The front page has been redesigned and a simple search engine added. An advanced search option may be added in the near future. The search engine is a free service from Atomz.com. I've had some very positive feedback from members and from non-members who are using it for research papers.
2. I've put a photograph from the collections of the Chicago Jewish Archives on the front page, but I'd like to invite other members of the Round Table to submit appropriate photographs as well. They can be sent to me either in digital form or as prints, which I will scan and return. (But if the photos are not yours, please ascertain that we have permission to post them.)
3. Recently I've received permission to post Wayne Wiegand's American Libraries columns on the site. Permission came from Wayne, who holds the copyright for all columns older than 3 months, and from the editor of AL. Their length is perfect for the web, and it will be exciting to add some new content to the site.
4. Steve Soward's awards charts will either be linked or posted on the site in the future, as soon as they are complete.
5. The committees listed on the website may need to be updated. I have posted the updated officers, but I am not sure if there have been changes to committees.
If so, I'll update the page as soon as I receive the new list.
As always, I encourage people to send links, suggestions, comments, etc. The links page and other pages are still being updated. Thanks so much to all the members for their support and suggestions!
[Don't forget to take a look at the LHRT website at http://www.ala.org/lhrt/ --The Editors]
Announcements and News:
Annual Award for the best Essay on Library History published in the British Isles
The Library History Award is an annual award for the best essay on library history published in the British Isles. It is organised by the Library History Group of the Library Association. The Award aims to improve the quality and increase the quantity of writing on library history in the British Isles. It is sponsored by the MCB University Press.
Scope and Quality
Items considered for inclusion will normally come within the scope of the former Bibliography of British Library History. Normally the essay will relate to a British Isles theme but high quality contributions on foreign themes will be considered. The author should ordinarily be resident in the British Isles but need not be a UK citizen.
Essays should embody original historical research on a significant subject, should be based on original source materials if possible and should use good composition and style. Essays showing evidence of methodological and historiographical innovation will be particularly welcome.
Method
The Award will be made for the best essay on library history published in the United Kingdom within the previous calendar year (2000). Any member of the Library Association may nominate a published essay for consideration. The entries will be judged by a panel of four with a cash prize of £200.
Nominations including 5 copies of the essay, which should have been published during 2000 should be sent, by 30th June 2001, to
Dr John C Crawford,
Library Research Officer,
Glasgow Caledonian University Library,
Cowcaddens Road,
Glasgow G4 OBA
Tel : 0141-331-3847
Fax : 0141-331-3005
Email : jcr@gcal.ac.uk.
The winner of the Library History Award for 2000 is Dr Christopher Skelton-Foord who is currently Reading Rooms and Information Services Manager at the British Library Newspaper Library. Christopher's winning entry is "Surveying the Circulating-Library Scene: Popular British Fiction, 1770-1830," published in Bibliotheken in der Literarischen Darstellung / Libraries in Literature, edited by Peter Vodosek and Graham Jefcoate (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999). It is part of the fruits of his extensive research on the British circulating library and discusses, inter alia, the portrayal of circulating libraries and their users in novels of the period.
Libraries in Times of Utopian Thoughts and Social Protests: the Libraries of the Late 1960-ies and the 1970-ies
A conference organized by the Round Table on Library History and the Section Library Theory and Research of IFLA will be held May 27-29 at the Swedish School of Library and Information Studies of the University College of Boras in Sweden. Speakers include Fred Stielow, Toni Samek, Irene Owens Ole Harbo, Alistair Black, and Boris Volodin, among other international library historians. The web site for the conference is href= where there is a preliminary program and registration information. The even is being organized by Magnus Torstensson of the University College of Boras.
For more information, you can contact:
Magnus Torstensson
Secretary RTLH
Swedish School of Library and Information Studies,
University College of Borås,
S-501 90 BORÅS, Sweden.
Tel +46-33164063,
Fax +46-33164005
E-mail Magnus.Torstensson@hb.se
Studies in Book amd Print Culture
The University of Toronto Press announces the founding of a series of Studies in Book and Print Culture. This new series is both international and interdisciplinary in scope. The publisher plans to acquire manuscripts in literary history, historical bibliography, textual editing, studies of authorship and publishing, and analyses of reading, literacy, and print culture, amongst others. General editor will be Leslie Howsam, Dept. of History, University of Winsor.
For more information, or queries about manuscript submission contact Dr. Howsam at:
University of Windsor
Windsor, ON N9B 3P4
Canada
Phone 519-253-3000, ex 2330
Fax 519-971-3610
email -- lhowsam@uwindsor.ca
or Kristen Pederson, Editor, Humanities
University of Toronto Press
10 St. Mary Street, Suite 700
Toronto, ON M4Y 2W8 Canada
The Library History roundtable of IFLA will sponsor a session at the upcoming IFLA conference in Boston, August 16-25, 2001. The session is titled "The Boston Years of Early Library Profession Leaders," and will feature papers from Kenneth Carpenter on Justin Winsor, Wayne Wiegand on Melvil Dewey, and Jane Aikin on Herbert Putnam. More on the IFLA conference can be found at
Work in Progress
A somewhat informal survey of library historians has turned up several projects which should be of general interest to the LHRT membership. This is, of course, not an exhaustive listing of current work in progress. We hope to make this announcement column a regular feature of the LHRT Newsletter. If anyone wishes to "stake a claim" on a topic, plea for information about the location of resources, or simply announce to the world that you are working on something, please let us know by sending me a note at href=mailto:lsshif@lsu.edu.
Andrew Wertheimer (University of Wisconsin-Madison) is progressing on his dissertation on libraries, reading, and print culture as they relate to the forced relocation of Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II. He will be making presentations related to this at the National Conference on Asian-Pacific Librarians (on Asian American librarians and library service to Asian Americans before WWII) and the Annual Conference of the California Library Association (on West Coast librarians' reactions to the forced relocation).
Charley Seavey (University of Arizona) has two projects underway. He is continuing work on his book on public libraries in the United States and in March, 2001 did a presentation on it in Nebraska as part of the centennial of the library commission. He is also working on a sketch of libraries in the "new" navy of the 1890s.
Holly G. Willett (Rowan University) is working on "Charlemae Hill Rollins: A Voice for Equality and Diversity in Children's Literature" which traces the development of Rollins' ideas about the representation of African Americans in children's books.
Gerald Greenberg (Ohio State University) is currently working on an article about 19 th century Columbus, Ohio, bookseller/promoter John M. Kinney who, among other schemes, planned to distribute 400,000 books as part of a "gift enterprise." Proprietor of a local bookstore, Kinney was also famous as an impresario, sponsoring entertainment events such as spectacular balloon ascensions to highlight area celebrations. He had a talent for combining literary enterprises with popular spectacles.
Lee Shiflett (Louisiana State University) continues work on his study of the editorial career of William Terry Couch. Couch headed the University of North Carolina Press from the 1920s to the 1 940s when he became head of the University of Chicago Press from which he was fired after an altercation with Robert Maynard Hutchins over Hutchins' attempt to suppress a book published by the press. He then became editor-in-chief of Collier's Encyclopedia in the 1950s. He was fired in 1959 over his right-wing editorial policies. The manuscript (a short one this time) should be completed this summer and Lee is looking for a publisher.
LHRT Book Auction at 91´«Ã½ in San Francisco
The Round Table will hold its second book auction at the 91´«Ã½ Conference in San Francisco on Saturday, June 16 from 5:00-7:00 PM at the Brick Row Book Shop (49 Geary St., Suite 235 on the second floor) right off of Union Square. Proceeds of this sale will go to support the LHRT endowed lecture series by matching the contribution of Wayne Wiegand. The last auction held in New Orleans netted the LHRT close to $1,000 toward this end. Do come and bid generously and bring friends who are willing to bid generously as well.
We are soliciting contributions to the cause. Books, manuscript materials, memorabilia, or whatever in the area of library history, book history, or anything else of potential interest to potential bidders is welcome. Ken Potts is organizing the event and can be contacted at Kpotts@koko.csustan.edu for further information.
LHRT Newsletter Editors
Ed Goedeken
Iowa State University
edgoed@iastate.edu
Lee Shiflett
Louisiana State University
lsshif@isu.edu
Technical Advisor:
Andy Bock
Iowa State University
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