The Library History Round Table encourages research and publication on library history and promotes awareness and discussion of historical issues in librarianship. It "exists to facilitate communication among scholars and students of library history, to support research in library history, and to be active in issues, such as preservation, that concern library historians." [1] It is part of the American Library Association.
Louis Shores and Wayne Shirley were instrumental in founding the Library History Round Table in 1947. [2]
The American Library Association archives were established with input and support by the Library History Round Table. [3]
The Library History Round Table's official peer-reviewed journal is Libraries: Culture, History, and Society. [4]
LHRT News and Notes is the blog of the Library History Round Table. [5]
The Library History Round Table publishes the "Bibliography of Library History" database. [6] The database contains over 7,000 entries for books, articles, and theses in library history and related fields published since 1990.
The Justin Winsor Prize is awarded for the year's best library history essay. The award was established in 1978 and named for the American Library Association's first president, Justin Winsor, a writer, historian, and the long-time librarian at Harvard University. Honorees have included Steven Knowlton, Jennifer Burek Pierce, Robert S. Martin, Wayne A. Wiegand and John V. Richardson Jr.
The Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award is presented every third year to recognize the best book written in English in the field of library history, including the history of libraries, librarianship, and book culture. [7] The award is named after Eliza Atkins Gleason, the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in librarianship in 1940 at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School. Honorees have included Louise Robbins, Christine Pawley, and Mary Niles Maack.
Melville Louis Kossuth "Melvil" Dewey was an influential American librarian and educator, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system of library classification, a founder of the Lake Placid Club, and a chief librarian at Columbia University. He was also a founding member of the American Library Association. Although Dewey's contributions to the modern library are widely recognized, his legacy is marred by allegations of sexual harassment, racism, and antisemitism.
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world.
Justin Winsor was an American writer, librarian, and historian. His historical work had strong bibliographical and cartographical elements. He was an authority on the early history of North America and was elected the first president of the American Library Association as well as the third president of the American Historical Association.
The Justin Winsor Prize is awarded by the Library History Round Table of the American Library Association for the year's best library history essay. The award was established in 1978 and named for the American Library Association's first president, Justin Winsor. Winsor (1831–1896) was a prominent writer, historian, and the long-time Librarian at Harvard University.
Wayne August Wiegand is an American library historian, author, and academic. Wiegand retired as F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies and Professor of American Studies at Florida State University in 2010.
Jesse Hauk Shera was an American librarian and information scientist who pioneered the use of information technology in libraries and played a role in the expansion of its use in other areas throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
The Louisiana State University Press is a university press at Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, it publishes works of scholarship as well as general interest books. LSU Press is a member of the Association of University Presses.
Louise S. Robbins is an American academic and formerly director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Library and Information Studies.
Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award is presented by the Library History Round Table of the American Library Association every third year to recognize the best book written in English in the field of library history, including the history of libraries, librarianship, and book culture.
The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) is a North American organization that fosters the study of books and manuscripts. It was constituted from the earlier Bibliographical Society of Chicago as the national membership began to exceed local membership. The organization publishes the scholarly journal Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America as well as book on topics of bibliographic interest.
James Danky is an American historian, bibliographer, and culture critic. He is currently a faculty associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Danky advocated for collecting alternative and small-press publications during his tenure at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Eliza Atkins Gleason was the first African American to receive a doctorate in Library Science at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School. In 1941, she established and became the first Dean of the School of Library Service at Atlanta University and created a library education program that trained 90 percent of all African-American librarians by 1986.
Ralph Robert Shaw was a librarian, a publisher, and an innovator in library science. In 1999, American Libraries named him one of the "100 Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century". He was awarded the Melvil Dewey Medal in 1953 and American Library Association Honorary Membership in 1971.
A library and information scientist, also known as a library scholar, is a researcher or academic who specializes in the field of library and information science and often participates in scholarly writing about and related to library and information science. A library and information scientist is neither limited to any one subfield of library and information science nor any one particular type of library. These scientists come from all information-related sectors including library and book history.
Library history is a subdiscipline within library science and library and information science focusing on the history of libraries and their role in societies and cultures. Some see the field as a subset of information history. Library history is an academic discipline and should not be confused with its object of study : the discipline is much younger than the libraries it studies. Library history begins in ancient societies through contemporary issues facing libraries today. Topics include recording mediums, cataloguing systems, scholars, scribes, library supporters and librarians.
The University of Chicago Graduate Library School (GLS) was established in 1928 to develop a program for the graduate education of librarians with a focus on research. Housed for a time in the Joseph Regenstein Library, the GLS closed in 1989 when the University decided to promote information studies instead of professional education. GLS faculty were among the most prominent researchers in librarianship in the twentieth century. Alumni of the school have made a great impact on the profession including Hugh Atkinson, Susan Grey Akers, Bernard Berelson, Michèle Cloonan, El Sayed Mahmoud El Sheniti, Eliza Atkins Gleason, Frances E. Henne, Virginia Lacy Jones, William Katz Judith Krug, Lowell Martin, Miriam Matthews, Kathleen de la Peña McCook, Errett Weir McDiarmid, Elizabeth Homer Morton, Benjamin E. Powell, W. Boyd Rayward, Charlemae Hill Rollins, Katherine Schipper, Ralph R. Shaw, Spencer Shaw, Frances Lander Spain, Peggy Sullivan, Maurice Tauber and Tsuen-hsuin Tsien.
The Mississippi Library Association (MLA) is a professional organization for Mississippi's librarians and library workers. It is headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi in the Mississippi Library Commission building. It was founded October 29, 1909 by Whitman Davis, a librarian at Mississippi A & M College. In 1968, it became incorporated as Mississippi Library Association, Inc.
Mary Niles Maack was an American librarian and scholar known for her work on comparative librarianship and the history of the book.