It is exciting times for library history. Once confined to the biographies of eminent pioneers and local commemorative volumes of an antiquarian nature, we now find the UK journal Library History increasing its publication to thrice yearly; the Library Association’s Library History Group holding annual conferences; the Cambridge University Press preparing a triple‐decker History of Libraries in the British Isles; and book and book history studies flourishing: record membership of SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing); The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain to be in seven volumes; and new courses on Public History at Leeds University and Book History in the USA, both with a substantial library history content. The encouragement of this journal’s editor and publisher in funding an annual award for an outstanding article on library history can also be acknowledged here. A significant cause of this heightened awareness of library history comes from the work of the Library History Round Table, a group of the American Library Association, which is celebrated in this volume.
The 17 papers published here were presented at the Center for the Book, a unit of the Library of Congress in Washington, in 1998. The meeting celebrated 50 years of the Library History Round Table. The papers were subsequently published in the Winter 2000 issue (Vol. 35 No. 1) of the journal Libraries & Culture. With the sponsorship of the Center for the Book, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of the rich history of libraries in American culture, they are now published in hardback and augmented by a detailed index.
There has been a spirited and stimulating dialogue in the pages of Library History recently over the future of library historiography. Should library history integrate itself with mainstream academic history, ally itself with one or more related fields such as the history of the book or continue to plough its own lonely furrow? One of the participants in this debate was Wayne Wiegand, so it was no surprise to find his examination of the literature of American library history 1947‐1997 starting off the proceedings. Wiegand’s critical look at the literature and his challenge for others to raise standards of historical research in library history sets the tone of what follows. There are two papers on the pioneers of the Library History Round Table itself: the contribution of Louis Shores to library history is examined, with the following paper reminiscing on the pioneers of the Table’s first 25 years and commenting on recent research.
The third section of the book, “New directions for library history”, features five papers on a number of contemporary issues: “Library feminism and library women’s history” [the word order is interesting]: activism and scholarship, equity and culture”; “International dimensions of library history: leadership and scholarship”; “Toward a multicultural American public library history”; “Millennial thoughts on gay archives, gay biography and gay library history”; and “The history of youth services librarianship”. A further two papers cover the neighbouring fields of archives and historical bibliography. The substantial concluding section covers the LHRT and the State of Library History Research. This includes a documentary record of the nine LHRT seminars that have been held, who attended, where they came from, institutional affiliations etc. The role of the Journal of Library History and of Libraries & Culture is then considered. In Clio’s Workshop, the resources – bibliographic, journals, documentary sources and social groupings – for historical studies in US libraries are considered. Another documentary feature records all the programmes, talks, meetings, awards and chairs of the LHRT. Finally, there is a brief essay on “The historical sensibility”, and an even briefer tailpiece, “The bookplate essay”, to bring us back to what it is all about books. An account of the bookplate designed for the Cavagna Collection at the University of Illinois in Urbana‐Champaign leads to a consideration of the role of special collections. There is a full, 21 page index.
One of the papers is titled “The library historian’s field of dreams”. No time to dream while reading this astringent call to arms, though there is certainly food for reflective thought about how to progress. There are plenty of points to assimilate and to stimulate and inspire the reader. I was particularly struck by the re‐thinking that is going on in archives, of considering how collection and organization methods give meaning to what is collected; the distinctive “spin” of gay, multicultural, feminist and internationalist approaches goes without saying; while I am left pondering about what it is that we librarians should be doing. Nice, though, to see a growing recognition of the contribution that libraries have made to cultural and social history. Now what we need is for non‐librarians to take us on board. This stimulating collection of papers should help mightily to help us to help ourselves. Now to dream …
