Spring 2002
91´«Ã½
New Series Vol. 5 No. 4
Table of Contents:
message%20from%20the%20chair
Minutes -- Old Business -- New Business
Announcements and News -- Winsor Prize Winner -- Davis Prize Winner-- Liaison Reports --
Tips on Ballot-Making -- Library History Award -- New History of Texas Libraries
Spring 2002 Bibliography of Library History, compiled by Ed Goedeken
Message from the Chair
Dear LHRT Members:
June is just around the corner, and LHRT members have the annual program at 91´«Ã½ on Sunday, June 16, 2002 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. to look forward to. The event will begin with the presentation of the 2002 Justin Winsor Essay Prize award. This prize is awarded to the best piece of original, unpublished research. The award was established in 1978 in honor of Winsor, a nineteenth century librarian and historian who was the first president of 91´«Ã½. The essays of almost all of the winners have subse-quently been published in Libraries & Culture. The 2002 winner is Marek Sroka, Assistant Professor of Library Administration at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Library. The title of his essay is "The Destruction of Jewish Libraries and Archives in Cracow during World War II."
This year the program theme is "History, Memory, and Preservation" and it will explore the preservation of the artifacts and experiences surrounding September 11th. I will begin the program by discussing the roles of preservation and memory in creating the research resources for historians. Mark Roosa, Chief of the Conservation Division at the Library of Congress will discuss the conservation of artifacts as well as the creation of a 9/11 oral history program in the LC Folk Life Center. Jim Gardner, Assistant Director, Department of History at the National Museum of American History, will describe the Smithsonian's efforts to document the events of 9/11. Elisabeth Shields, Research Specialist, Economic Development & Technology Ventures, Georgia Tech, and formerly Coordinator, Research Informa-tion Services at the Carter Center, will talk about the challenges of gathering information about a crisis in the midst of it.
Many agencies have already created short-term re-sources related to September 11th. For example, on October 4, 2001, some eighty historians representing thirty institutions met in New York City to consider "The Role of the History Museum in a Time of Crisis." In order to coordinate efforts of the historians and institutions they developed a website, . The National Task Force on Emergency Response convened a meeting in Washington, D.C. on September 18, 2001 for Washington area members. One of the results of that meeting is a website that contains practical in-formation on caring for items damaged by dust and other contaminants. The essay, "When the Dust Settles: Safely Cleaning Family treasures," is available on the National Task Force website: .
Of course historians in the future will be interested in all of the electronic resources that were created in response to September 11th. How will we preserve them? Come to our June 16th program and find out!
Michèle V. Cloonan
mcloonan@ucla.edu
Minutes
Library History Round Table
Executive Committee
Marriott, Mardi Gras BR - F
Sunday, January 20, 2002 (91´«Ã½ Midwinter)
I. Members Present:
Michèle V. Cloonan, Donald G. Davis, Toby Graham, Cheryl Gunselman, David Hovde, Joyce Jelks, Christine Jenkins, Melanie Kimball, Mary Jo Lynch (91´«Ã½ Liaison), Mary Niles Maack, Barry Neavill, Lorna Peterson, Richard Rubin, Steve Sowards, Charley Seavey, Fred Stielow, Priscilla Thomas, Andrew Wertheimer
II. Welcome & Introductions
III. Approval of Minutes
Chair Michèle V. Cloonan opened the meeting at 8:30 a.m. by calling for corrections to the minutes from the Executive meeting at the 91´«Ã½ An-nual Conference on 17 June 2001. The only correction was that Cloonan's first name was spelled incorrectly with two "l"s throughout the document. Steven Sowards moved and Christine Jenkins seconded a motion that minutes be approved as amended, which passed by unanimous consent.
IV. Old Business
A. Research Committee
Mary Jo Lynch reported that the Winsor Committee has already received four papers. Lorna Peterson reported that the committee adopted Cheryl Malone's proposals for publicizing the award.
B. Davis Award
This is the responsibility of the research committee. The only member present was Charley Seavey, who had nothing to report. Cloonan will check with the chair, Marilyn Martin, regarding progress in selecting a winner for the 2002 award.
C. Gleason Award
Mary Jo Lynch reminded the committee that although the Gleason Award will not be awarded until the 2003 annual conference she warned that a lot of work yet needed to be done. Lynch added that she's already received several books. Cloonan will revisit the issue of members for the Gleason Committee.
D. Auction Committee
Cloonan reported that the Auction Committee had not yet met, but reported on a conversa-tion with Lee Shiflett, who asked that books be sent to him as early as possible. Cloonan added that last year's auction had several good items, but that most sold at low prices compared to the previous auction. She called for more high-ticket items, and hoped we could publicize the event in the SHARP and RBMS newsletters.
One member suggested asking the University of Toronto Press to sponsor the auction in light of their new print culture series. Davis encouraged the committee to contact Peter McNally at McGill to see if he could help.
E. Executive Committee Appointments
- Cloonan noted the disconnect between the published list of appointees in the newsletter and the correct current information on the LHRT home page.
She received the following volunteers for unfilled liaison positions:
American Association for State & Local History - Melanie Kimball
ASIS&T (formerly ASIS, noting their active History SIG) - G. Barry Neavill
Freedom to Read Foundation - Fred Stielow
Organization of American Historians - Andrew B. Wertheimer
SHARP - Melanie Kimball and Mary Niles Maack
David Hovde reminded liaisons that although they needn't necessarily attend conferences, they should keep up with their organizations and send the LHRT Newsletter Editor occasional reports on their association activities. Hovde lamented that this has always been a problem.
- Cloonan raised the question of the value of the liaison positions, explaining that it is time consuming for each chair to appoint liaisons. Christine Jenkins proposed a motion that "Liaisons and other appointed positions will serve until the person's desire at the discretion of the chair." This was seconded by Stielow and unanimously approved. Lynch suggested that the minutes should reflect the duties of liaisons (as described by Hovde above). Steve Sowards so moved, and Fred Stielow seconded the motion, which was also approved.
F. Endowed Lecture Series
Don Davis announced that royalties from the publication of the second supplement to the Dictionary of American Library History may be applied to matching the Wiegand lectureship series. Davis added that DALBS2 should be launched in Philadelphia with a small party.
Cloonan also suggested that the LHRT could transfer remaining funds to help push the Wiegand lectureship endowment to $10,000 so that it could start earning interest as an en-dowment. Fred Stielow proposed that $2,000 be transferred from the LHRT fund to the Wiegand lectureship. This was seconded by Toby Graham, and then approved unanimously by the Executive Board.
V. New Business
A. Treasurer's Report
- See attached Treasurer's Report prepared by Mary Jo Lynch.
Fred Stielow asked Mary Jo Lynch if future reports could treat the Wiegand lectureship, Winsor Endowment, and other restricted funds as a separate budget line rather than as a footnote. Lynch replied that this should not be a problem.
- Cloonan and Lynch commented that the LHRT's membership is currently good, but 91´«Ã½ was predicting a decrease in revenue as the recession starts impacting libraries and librarians. Cloonan took that opportunity to encourage LIS faculty to share the LHRT membership brochures with their students, and for LHRT members attending conferences to distribute them at conferences, such as SHARP.
B. Announcements
- Don Davis shared news via John Cole that Kenneth Carpenter (Harvard, ret) will be sponsoring a conference on 11-13 April at the Library Company in Philadelphia. Davis will be the only "library historian" speaking while the others will be "traditional historians." Davis explained that the conference received some funding from the Center for the Book and that all are invited.
- Several members were disappointed by the lack of inclusion or call for papers for the conference, and encouraged that a liaison with the Center for the Book might be appropriate so as to increase communication about future opportunities.
- Davis also shared that Carpenter, along with Wayne Wiegand and Jane Aiken were speak-ers at a successful program at the IFLA Roundtable on Library History in Boston.
- Davis also passed on news that the Center for the Book is just about to publish a reprint of the L&C volume on libraries & the Cold War. This will be published with a dust jacket, and in memory of Pam Spence Richards.
- Stielow, who participates on the 91´«Ã½ Web Site Advisory Board, reported on his question to 91´«Ã½ Administration about archiving its own internet information. It seems that this is not being done, and he suggested that the LHRT should make this an agenda item for discus-sion at the Annual Conference.
- Charley Seavey reported that the LRRT has already started planning the third Library Research Seminar. He noted that the University of Missouri has proposed to host the seminar in Kansas City in 2004, and encouraged library historians to propose panels or individual papers.
C. Library History Seminar
- Stielow noted that the Library History Seminar should only be 3½ years away, and that planning should be under way for the confer-ence, starting with determining the next locale.
Wertheimer mentioned that Wayne Wiegand and Louise Robbins at the University of Wisconsin-Madison had discussed the possibility of hosting Library History Seminar XI, possibly in conjunction with the Mid-America American Studies Association or another group.
Stielow said that he would defer to Wisconsin, but expressed an interest in working with Neavill and Hermina Anghelescu at Wayne State as an alternative sponsor.
UCLA and the University of Illinois (possibly as an Allerton program) also expressed an interest in being considered. It was suggested that Purdue might also be interested. Cloonan agreed to contact Wiegand and share the re-sults with the Executive Committee, and to make this an agenda item at the Annual Con-ference.
Maack suggested that this would be an appropriate conference to honor Wiegand for his contributions to library history.
Neavill suggested that a Library History Seminar budget should be around $10,000, including donations from the LHRT, $1,000-2,000 from the sponsoring institution, and other funds from corporate sponsors, LRRT and the Center for the Book. Cloonan inquired if any Seminars ever had money left over, but no one knew of any instances.
There was some discussion on themes for the conference, Stielow suggesting unions, workers and libraries or libraries and war, but it was agreed that the institutional host has the right to select the seminar's theme.
D. Nominating Committee
Steve Sowards shared his tentative sugges-tions for LHRT nominations. Executive Board members suggested additional candidates.
Sowards explained that we always leave the nominations until the last minute, but warned that this year biographical information is due on 28 January. Davis suggested that we needn't always have two candidates for a position, but many members voiced concern that less would look poorly for the LHRT.
Cloonan thanked Sowards for the effort on what is the most difficult committee.
E. H-LIS
Steve Sowards raised the question of H-LIS, which is the library history part of H-Net (see ). Jim Niessen (a member of the H-Net board) asked LHRT to consider either reviving H-LIS (which has been inactive recently) or abolishing it. If we want to go ahead, he can suggest a candidate for editor. There was tentative interest: Jim Niessen should contact Michele Cloonan. It was suggested that add a link from the LHRT web site, if H-LIS goes ahead.
F. Program at Annual Conference
- Cloonan shared her proposed theme for the annual conference program on history, memory and preservation, particularly how the events of 9/11/01 will be preserved. She is investigating speakers from the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Program's oral history project, the Carter Center. Other potential speaker sources proposed include Columbia University and the NYPL.
David Hovde suggested contacting the American Merchant Marine Library Association. Their library and archive were in the World Trade Center. Hovde, who has written on the AMA noted that until 9/11 they were the only surviving element from 91´«Ã½'s World War I campaign.
Cloonan asked for permission to use the $500 for speakers as allocated in the budget. This passed by consent.
- Cloonan reminded attendees that the LHRT meeting will be on Sunday morning, and the program will be that afternoon.
- Mary Niles Maack asked who is chairing the Research Forum. It was determined that the Research Forum is also organized by the Chair in order to create a forum for research by new and established library historians. Maack highlighted the importance of the Forum as being one of the few conference venues devoted to library history, which often solicited calls for papers, and were occasionally published as a collection. It was agreed that it was too late to do this for 2002, but Christine Jenkins, Maack and Cloonan will discuss this later for 2003. It was agreed that the Research Forum would also be an ideal time to recognize Winsor and other LHRT award recipients.
G. Adjournment
Cloonan adjourned the meeting at 10:40.
Respectfully submitted by Andrew B. Wertheimer, Secretary/ Treasurer
Announcements and News
Justin Winsor Prize Winner
The 2002 Justin Winsor Prize Winner is Marek Sroka, Assistant Professor of Library Administra-tion at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Library. The title of his essay is "The Destruction of Jewish Libraries and Archives in Cracow during World War II." This essay uses the primary and secondary literature of Poland to tell the story of a neglected part of library history. Its use of multiple language sources is evidence of the careful and deliberate research that went into this paper. The author fills a significant gap in library history by documenting the destruction of a people's culture, intellectual capital, and memory. Very little has been written in English on the topic of Jewish libraries and archives in Poland and their destruction. This is a worthy paper that will encourage additional needed work on this subject.
Donald G. Davis Article Award
Carl Ostrowski, Assistant Professor of English and a member of the graduate faculty at Middle Tennessee State University, is the recipient of the 2002 Donald G. Davis Article Award for the best article written in English in the field of United States and Canadian library history. The award is given biennially by the American Library Associa-tion's Library History Roundtable. It is named after Donald G. Davis, whose contributions to the field of library history are myriad.
Carl Ostrowski's article, entitled "James Alfred Pearce and the Question of a National Library in Antebellum America," was published in Libraries & Culture, vol. 35, no. 2, Spring 2000. Mr. Ostrowski examines the origins of the debate over a national library and the role of Maryland Senator James Alfred Pearce in the resolution of the issue. As one of the judges for the Davis award stated, "Ostrowski describes the intellectual environment of the period and how the question of a national library was tackled. The article serves as a corrective to the conventional library history wisdom that the idea of a national library simply grew steadily in favor until the Library of Congress emerged full-blown as a wonderful thing to behold. This was not the case as Ostrowski shows so well."
The Davis award is based on quality of scholarship, clarity of style, depth of research, and the ability to place research findings in broad social, cultural, and political context. Carl Ostrowski's article exhibits all these attributes and more. His research breaks new ground and thus advances our knowledge of library history.
Liaison Report
Report to Library History Round Table for 91´«Ã½ Midwinter, 2002
By Mark Tucker, LHRT liaison to Libraries & Culture, 15 January 2002
The LHRT continues to benefit from mutually-productive relationships established by long-time editor Donald G. Davis, Jr. Don's connection with John Y. Cole of The Center for the Book (at the Library of Congress) resulted in the publication of Library History Research in America (2000) edited by Andrew B. Wertheimer and Donald G. Davis, Jr. The Center underwrote the publication of this volume in hardcover. The contents had appeared initially as a special issue of L&C honoring the Round Table's 50th anniversary. A Wayne State University class taught by Don's former student, Hermina G. B. Anghelescu, prepared the index, a project supported in part by the family of late Oivind M. Hovde, who directed the Luther College Library, and David M. Hovde, past chair of LHRT.
Similarly, The Center for the Book is underwriting the cost of another L&C special issue, this one edited by Hermina G. B. Anghelescu and Martine Poulain. Books, Libraries, Reading, and Publishing in the Cold War is in preparation for hardcover distrubution and has attracted favorable attention from James Billington, Librarian of Congress. The hardcover volume will feature Betty Turock's biographical essay (written for the Second Supplement to the Dictionary of American Library Biography) on the late Pamela Spence Richards who taught at Rutgers from 1978 to 1999 and was in-strumental in organizing the conference (IFLA in paris, 1998) on which the collection is based.
Additional issues include Don's pursuit of ISI in the interest of having Libraries & Culture indexed in Arts & Humanities Citation Index or Social Sci-ences Citation Index and his success at incorporating L&C into project Muse. In addition, the new L&C website features the 25-year index, an archive of featured bookplates and bookplate articles, and a signup form for those who would like to write book reviews. As in the past, 91´«Ã½ LHRT personal members may subscribe to L&C at a 20% discount.
Tips for Ballot-Making, by the 2001-2002 Nominating Committee
Each Spring, LHRT elects a new chair-elect, sec-retary/treasurer-elect and member-at-large. Be-fore the ballot can be mailed, the Nominating Committee has to find candidates, and then the nominees submit biographical information to the 91´«Ã½ Office in Chicago. The LHRT Chair appoints three people to the Nominating Committee, including a committee Chair. These notes may be useful for future committees.
1. Start planning in the fall: the Nominating Chair should ask past, current and incoming LHRT officers, other active members, the other committee members, and our 91´«Ã½ liaison for names.
2. Consider recent officers, members of LHRT committees, people who often attend executive board meetings, and active scholars. The Minutes and Bibliographies in the LHRT Newsletter are a source of names; so are old ballots. Move people up the ladder of responsibility. Ask the LHRT Chair whether anyone has been active in a support role and is now ready to take on a leadership role; the LHRT Chair can help develop future candidates by encouraging newer members to take an active role as members of committees. While no one can succeed themselves in office (LHRT Constitution, Article IV, Section 2), they can run for a different office: for example, an out-going member-at-large is a good candidate for secretary/treasurer-elect or chair-elect.
3. The Nominating Chair should keep a master list of names. During the actual process of crafting the ballot, keep the committee and our 91´«Ã½ Office liaison informed. Use the "91´«Ã½ Handbook of Organizations" and library Web sites to find phone numbers and email addresses.
4. Before Midwinter, ask the LHRT Chair for time on the executive board agenda. At the meeting, the Nominating Chair should report on the status of the ballot, and ask for more names. The Mid-winter meeting traditionally has been the key time for deciding who to call, and you can confirm some nominees then and there.
5. The deadline for submitting names and biographical forms to the 91´«Ã½ Office is usually a Monday in early February. This is right after the 91´«Ã½ Midwinter and ALISE conferences. Don't wait too late to start calling: some people will be away from their offices and hard to find.
6. It's best to designate one person (usually the Nominating Chair) to approach all the potential nominees. It's important to know exactly who has been called about each office and whether or not they agreed: someone being considered for one office may end up nominated for another. We want two names for each of the three slots.
7. Use the telephone, and don't be surprised if you have to leave a voicemail message. Write down what you want to say in advance, leave your phone number, say that you'll send email with details, and then back up your call with an email message.
8. Be prepared to describe the duties of each office. You can read from the summaries in the LHRT Handbook. Know when the terms of office will begin, and know which Midwinter and Annual conferences will fall to the new officers. Reassure nominees that their first year as an officer-elect gives them time to learn the system.
9. The ballot often falls into place at the last minute. This can be less tense if you can find one of the old hands in LHRT to stand in reserve, to be inserted into the ballot if needed.
10. As each name is confirmed, inform the 91´«Ã½ Office liaison. Provide phone, fax and email addresses: the office prefers to send the biographical information form as an attachment, but fax will do. Make sure the nominees have the 91´«Ã½ fax number and know the deadline for submitting the form.
The Library History Award
Annual Award for the best Essay on Library History published in, or pertaining to, the British Isles
The Library History Award is an annual award for the best essay on library history published in, or pertaining to, the British Isles. It is organized by the Library History Group of the Library Association.
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.
The value of the Award will be a cash prize of £200.
Nominations including 5 copies of the essay, which should have been published during 2001, should be sent, by 30th June 2002, 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.
New History of Texas Libraries
Eakin Press of Austin, Texas-one of the major publishers of Texana-will publish in summer 2002 a two-volume reference set that chronicles and documents the history of libraries in Texas from 1685 through 2000. The record of library development in Texas is a testament to the plant-ing and nurturing of a particular kind of cultural institution on the western frontier. While the same might be said for any libraries on the continent west of the Atlantic seaboard-the vast distances, the relative geographic isolation, and the blending of ethnic and sectional traditions cause Texans to think, with some justification, that their state has unique characteristics. A Chronology of Texas Library History, 1685-2000 documents annual events that chronicle the history of libraries in the state. A Bibliography of Texas Library History, 1685-2000 documents the extent of published material that deals with the history of libraries in the state. The compiler, Donald G. Davis, Jr., University of Texas at Austin has taught the his-tory of libraries for more than thirty years and has personally studied aspects of Texas library his-tory. The works build on the earlier efforts of Au-brey E. Skinner (1928-1985), recently honored as one the 100 Texas Library Champions, named in celebration of the centenary of the Texas Library Association. All royalties will come to the Graduate School of Library & Information Science, University of Texas at Austin.
News from the States
The Library of Congress has approved the establishment of an Iowa Center for the Book that will be affiliated with the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. The home of the Iowa center will be the State Library of Iowa in Des Moines.
Spring 2002 Bibliography of Library History, compiled by Ed Goedeken
Editors
Ed Goedeken
Iowa State University
edgoed@iastate.edu
Lee Shiflett
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
olshifle@uncg.edu
Technical Advisor
Andy Bock
Iowa State University
03/2003
