U.S. Presidents
This President donated his personal book collection to the U.S. government after the Capitol library was burned in the War of 1812. The collection developed into the Library of Congress.
Who is Thomas Jefferson?
Source: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/sale-books-library-congress-1815
Dr. Wayne A. Wiegand and Dr. Donald G. Davis edited their first edition of this type of reference book about library history in 1994.
What is an encyclopedia?
Source: Wiegand, Wayne A., and Donald G. Davis. 1994. Encyclopedia of Library History. New York: Garland. https://books.google.com/books?id=YZpsBgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=encyclopedia%20library%20history&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=encyclopedia%20library%20history&f=false
After founding the country's first lending library in Philadelphia, he noted that libraries had "contributed in some Degree to the Stand so generally made throughout the Colonies in Defence of their Priviledges.”
Who is Benjamin Franklin?
Source: Check out the fascinating story at “Lending Library.” Benjamin Franklin Historical Society, www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/lending-library/. and Nix, Larry T. "Ben Franklin Was A Librarian." www.libraryhistorybuff.com/benfranklin.htm.
At a segregated lunch counter, a protest was often called a sit-in. At a segregated beach or pool, a protest was often called a wade-in. At a segregated library, a civil rights protest was often called this.
What is a read-in?
Source: Please see for example Chapter 4 "The Read-In Movement" in Graham, Patterson Toby. A Right to Read: Segregation and Civil Rights in Alabama's Public Libraries, 1900–1965. University of Alabama Press, 2002.
Two impressive lions, Patience and Fortitude, have stood guard over this city's public library since its construction on Fifth Avenue in 1911.
What is New York City?
Source: The pair of lion statues have a surprising history. Check it out on the official NYPL site at https://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/library-lions
His Presidential library includes documents related to the Camp David Accords and copies of his book Faith: A Journey for All. It also includes manuscripts about the "Peanut Brigade".
Who is Jimmy Carter?
Source: Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/.
For a concise history of the Presidential Libraries system, please see "Presidential Library History." National Archives and Records Administration. Accessed May 09, 2019. https://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/about/history.html.
Fill in the blank: Ed Goedeken compiles this semi-annual list of library historiography known as The B_____________ of Library History, a terrific open access resource to start researching a library history topic.
What is The Bibliography of Library History?
Source: http://www.ala.org/rt/lhrt/popularresources/libhistorybib/libraryhistory
The first of these started delivering books in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1905. It was horse-drawn.
What are bookmobiles?
Source: American Library Association. "Firsts (library-related Trivia)." Tools, Publications & Resources. November 18, 2014. http://www.ala.org/tools/atoz/firsts-library-related-trivia.
This civil rights advocate and author of The Souls of Black Folk criticized Carnegie public libraries in Atlanta, Georgia that prohibited African-Americans from entering.
Who is W. E. B. DuBois?
Source: Digital Public Library of American. A History of US Public Libraries--Segregated Libraries. https://dp.la/exhibitions/history-us-public-libraries/segregated-libraries
The public library system in this "Paris of the United States" started off in the 1840s in a house in the French Quarter.
What is New Orleans?
Source: The New Orleans Public Library has a superb visual history at http://www.nolalibrary.org/page/126/our-history. Read about how the NOPL valiantly rebuilt several branches after Hurricane Katrina.
In addition to leading Allied armies to victory in World War II, this President also signed the Library Services Act in 1956 to support the growth of rural library services. I like Ike!
Who is Dwight D. Eisenhower?
Source: Fry, James W. "LSA and LSCA, 1956—1973: A Legislative History." Library Trends (1975): 7-26. https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/6824/librarytrendsv24i1c_opt.pdf?sequence=1
Justus Lipsius initiated library historiography by writing what is regarded as the first major history of libraries in this year--the same year that the English founded Jamestown.
What is 1607?
Source: Walker, Thomas D. "Justus Lipsius and the Historiography of Libraries." Libraries & Culture 26, no. 1 (1991): 49-65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25542322.
Bonus: The work was entitled De Bibliothecis Syntagma and covered ancient libraries. John Cotton Dana translated from Latin into English in 1907 under the title A Brief Outline of the History of Libraries. The full text can be found in Hathi: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100327589
Caroline Hewins started this now ubiquitous library service for children in Hartford, Connecticut in 1882.
What is story hour? (accept story time)
Source: American Library Association. "Firsts (library-related Trivia)." Tools, Publications & Resources. November 18, 2014. http://www.ala.org/tools/atoz/firsts-library-related-trivia.
The Tougaloo Nine were a group of African-American college students who held a read-in at a public library in this Deep South state.
What is Mississippi?
Source: Be inspired by their story in Eberhart, George M. "The Tougaloo Nine Remembered." American Libraries, June 26, 2017, https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/tougaloo-nine-remembered/
The oldest library in Australia, The State Library of New South Wales, is located in this city also famous for it opera house.
What is Sydney?
Source: "History of the Library." State Library of NSW. January 23, 2019. https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/about-library/history-library.
This New York native was awarded an honorary membership by the Society of American Archivists for his efforts to preserve government documents.
Who is Franklin Delano Roosevelt?
Source:https://aotus.blogs.archives.gov/2013/08/29/fdrs-bhag/
Check out the link to see FDR's gracious letter to SAA accepting the membership.
The only scholarly journal in the United States dedicated specifically to the history of libraries.
What is Libraries: Culture, History & Society (LCHS)?
Source: http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_LCHS.html
LCHS is the official scholarly journal of the American Library Association's Library History Round Table. Members of LHRT receive a free subscription of LCHS with membership. To join, visit http://www.ala.org/membership/joinala.
The national library of this country was the first to digitize a significant portion of its collection in full-text, appropriately naming its catalog "Gallica".
What is France?
Source: Oswald, Godfrey. Library World Records. McFarland, 2017. Page 294.
Gallica is derived from Gaul, an ancient name for France. Access Gallica at https://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/en/content/accueil-en?mode=desktop
Later a Presidential Medal of Honor winner, he was arrested for the first time in his civil rights career when he organized a protest at a South Carolina library after a librarian there refused to retrieve a book he needed.
Who is Rev. Jesse Jackson?
Source: Wiegand, Shirley A., and Wayne A. Wiegand. The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism. LSU Press, 2018. Also see https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2017/06/01/greenville-eight-library-sit-in/
Opened in 1931 by Sir Joseph A. Byrne, the McMillan Library in this capital city includes a portrait of Andrew Carnegie, a rich collection of East African newspapers, and a set of elephant tusks.
What is Nairobi, Kenya?
Source: Kiereini, Douglas, Brian Ngugi, and Edwin Okoth. "McMillan Library: Treasure Chest of Knowledge Built from Labour." Business Daily. March 10, 2016. Accessed May 09, 2019. https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/McMillan-Library-is-treasure-chest-of-knowledge/539444-3111546-hg2jsp/index.html.
In a 1961 speech, this President proclaimed that "libraries should be open to all—except the censor."
Who is John Fitzgerald Kennedy?
Source: Downey, Jennifer. Public Library Collections in the Balance: Censorship, Inclusivity, and Truth. ABC-CLIO, 2017. Please see page 8 for the quotation and its context.
In 1996, she wrote in the introduction to Reclaiming the American Library Past that "library women's history is merely an add-on and this is an intolerable situation in an occupation where women are 80% of the workforce. A way must be found to make the experiences of women central to library history."
Who is Suzanne Hildenbrand?
Source: Hildenbrand, Suzanne. Reclaiming the American Library Past: Writing the Women In. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. Please see bottom of page 9: https://books.google.com/books?id=IfRuE1XatIQC&lpg=PP1&dq=women%20%22library%20history%22&pg=PA9#v=onepage&q=women%20%22library%20history%22&f=false
A true hero in the annals of library history, she was the first African-American to earn a doctorate in library science.
Who is Eliza Atkins Gleason?
Source: Please Cheryl Knott's essay about Gleason on LHRT News & Notes at https://lhrtnews.wordpress.com/summer-2016-notes/
This African-American librarian championed the resolution at the 1964 ALA Conference to end the segregation of library associations in the Southern states, founded the Black Caucus of the ALA, and rose to the Presidency of ALA in 1984-1985. "Why not?"
Who is Elonnie Junius Josey? (Accept: E.J. Josey)
Source: Find out more about Josey and the meaning of the slogan "why not?" in the essay by Catherine James on LHRT News & Notes at https://lhrtnews.wordpress.com/summer-2016-notes/
The Library of Ashurbanipal, which the British Museum cites as the world's oldest surviving royal library, is located in this ancient Assyrian capital now in present-day Iraq. I wonder if Jonah checked out any materials there?
What is Nineveh?
Source: The British Museum is currently partnering with the University of Mosul to digitize many of of the cuneiform tablets. https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/all_current_projects/ashurbanipal_library_phase_1.aspx
Also see:
Claire Cock-Starkey and Reader's Digest Editors, "10 Fascinating facts about libraries," Reader's Digest UK, 2018, https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/culture/books/10-fascinating-facts-about-libraries