This clever brochure in the shape of a bookmobile promotes bookmobile service in Maryland in 1952. Maryland was the birthplace of mobile library service in America. I have a tribute to the bookmobile located on my Library History Buff website.
Archive for the ‘Feeds’ category
Maryland Bookmobiles 1952
May 27th, 2010 Fremont Rider, Editor-Publisher-Academic Librarian-Dewey Biographer
May 26th, 2010
Yesterday was the 125th anniversary of the birth of Arthur Fremont Rider (1885-1962). I didn't want to let this anniversary pass without some acknowledgement of Rider's contribution to librarianship. Although Rider is often linked to his well known mentor Melvil Dewey, his own achievements are exceptional. They are well recorded in the Dictionary of American Biography (Libraries Unlimited, 1978) by Wyman W. Parker. Rider attended the New York State Library School (1907) founded by Dewey and then worked with Dewey at the Lake Placid Club on a Revision of Dewey's Decimal System. There followed a very successful career in publishing. He didn't actually start his library career until 1933 when he became Librarian of Wesleyan University Library in Middletown, Connecticut. Although a history of the Olin Memorial Library at Wesleyan omits any mention of Rider, he was responsible for expanding the size of the library's collection from 174,000 volumes to 389,000 volumes during his 20 year career at the library. To help deal with this growth in the collection, Rider implemented a somewhat controversial compact book storage system which sometimes involved shaving off parts of books. Rider was the inventor of the microcard, another device created to deal with the growth of academic libraries. This article in the Association of Research Libraries Newsletter goes into more detail in regard to Rider's contribution to academic libraries. Rider was the founder of the Godfrey Memorial Library, a genealogical research library. He was also the creator of the American Genealogical-Biographical Index. Back to Melvil Dewey. In 1944 Rider's highly favorable biography of Melvil Dewey was published by the American Library Association.
Alexandria Library Civil Rights Sit-In, 1939
May 25th, 2010
On August 21, 1939 five young black men between the ages of 18 and 22 walked individually into the Alexandria, Virginia "whites only" public library and asked for a library card. When they were refused they walked to the stacks selected a book and sat down quietly at a table and began to read. The police were called and they were arrested for disorderly conduct. This was the first civil rights sit-in in a public facility in America. It was organized by Samuel Tucker, a mostly unheralded civil rights activist. This story reminds us of one of the darker sides of library history. This situation didn't just exist in Alexandria, Virginia. It was prevalent throughout the Southern states. By the time I started my first professional library job at the public library in Charlotte, NC in 1967, the situation, fortunately, had changed drastically. At the Charlotte library facilities were open to all and there was an aggressive outreach campaign to reach all parts of the community with library services. I was in Alexandria recently and admired their impressive main library building which I'm sure can now be used by anyone. Extensive coverage of the Alexandria Library sit-in can be found on the Alexandria Black History Museum web site. A nice article about Samuel Tucker can be found HERE. Interestingly, very little about this historic event can be found on the Alexandria Library web site. I became aware of this story through the special event envelope produced by Pushin' the Envelope Limited Edition Cachets which is shown above. I have information on how a library can go about producing souvenir envelopes such as this one HERE.
Carnegie Library for Sale in Duluth
May 24th, 2010
For less than the cost of a small condo in a big city you can buy a restored Carnegie Library building in Duluth, Minnesota. The Duluth News Tribune reports in an article that the owners of the Carnegie Library building are offering it for sale for $862,000. The building generates revenue by renting office space. This sounds like a pretty good deal. All of the hard lifting has already been done. A listing for the property can be found HERE. A previous web article about the restoration of the building along with photographs can be found HERE. The former Carnegie Library building in Superior, Wisconsin just across the bridge from Duluth hasn't been so fortunate. It's a vacant building in search of a purpose. Thanks to Paul Nelson for a heads up on this story. Paul has an excellent blog which he calls Retiring Guy's Digest. Paul scours the Internet for stories on "libraries, publishing, technology, politics, social issues, and more". Click HERE for some of Paul's posts on Carnegie libraries. The postcard of the Duluth Carnegie Library which is shown above is from my collection.
Manchester’s Historic Public Library Building
May 23rd, 2010
I find postcards depicting the interiors of libraries particularly appealing, especially when library users are shown. This postcard shows the interior of the Carpenter Memorial Library in Manchester, New Hampshire. It is unusual to see this many library users depicted on a postcard. The building still serves as the Main Library of the Manchester City Library. The building was dedicated as the Elenora Blood Carpenter Building in 1914 in memory of the wife of Frank Pierce Carpenter who funded its construction. A nice history of the library is located HERE. The history's location on the library's web site meets my "two click" criteria for online library histories. After reaching the library's web page, one click on "About" or "About Our Library" and one more click on "Library History". Every library should have a short history of the library on its web site.
