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Holiday Letter From A Library History Buff

December 21st, 2011
Dan Lester (left) and Larry Nix, The Library History Buff
Holiday letters often receive a bad rap. My wife and I have sent one out for many years and are happy to receive them from others. They sure beat a holiday card with a written or printed signature and nothing else. So here's a holiday letter with some of my library history highlights.

Season's greetings from Middleton, Wisconsin


One of the highlights of my year was a visit with Dan Lester one of the world's great librariana collectors. My wife and I stopped for a visit with Dan on a trip to the Southwest in the Spring. Dan has donated most of his extensive librariana collection for the benefit of two library organizations, but still has one of the largest library postcard collections ever assembled.


A modified version of the philatelic exhibit on the Library of Congress which I showed for the first time last year received a number of awards this year: 4 gold medals, 1 vermeil medal, the American Philatelic Society's Research Award, and the Display Champion Award at the St. Louis Stamp Show. My Presidential Libraries & Museums exhibit received a silver medal and my Library Uses of Melvil Dewey's Postal Card received a silver medal. I made a presentation on my exhibit to the Washington (D.C.) Stamp Collectors Club in conjunction with NAPEX, the D.C. area stamp show in June.


The Wisconsin State Law Library celebrated its 175th anniversary. I was pleased to help out with a presentation on early Wisconsin library leaders and a small exhibit of Wisconsin library memorabilia. My presentation (and that of the Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court) was videotaped by the Wisconsin version of C-Span.


Congratulations to the Wisconsin Library Association on its 120th anniversary. I'm Chair of the Steering Committee for the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center. The Center sponsors the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame and we inducted our fourth group of library leaders into the Hall of Fame in November at the WLA's annual conference in Milwaukee.


The Wisconsin Library Memorabilia Exhibit which I curate for the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center was on display at the Hales Corners Public Library to help them celebrate their 35th anniversary and at the T. B. Scott Free Library in Merrill, WI to help them celebrate the 100th anniversary of their Carnegie building.


I put together an online exhibit in honor of the 135th anniversary of the American Library Association.


Melvil Dewey was among many former library leaders with significant anniversaries this year. I have an online exhibit of some of my Dewey librariana to commemorate this occasion.


I served as one of the judges for the 2011 Salem Press Library Blog Awards. I was selected for this task because of the 2nd place finish of The Library History Buff Blog in the Quirky Library Blogs category in the 2010 selections.


The Library History Buff Blog celebrated two milestones this year - its third anniversary and the 400th post to the blog.


I continue to maintain the Library History Buff website although it receives less of my attention new than in the past due to my focus on the blog.


This year was the 60th anniversary of the dedication of the Dag Hammarskjold Library of the United Nations in New York.


Congratulations to the Society of American Archivists on their 75th anniversary. I really like their trading cards project.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped celebrated its 80th anniversary this year.


This is the centennial year of the New York Public Library's iconic building at 5th Ave. & 42nd St.. I put together an online exhibit of stamps depicting the building for this occasion.


The Carnegie Corporation of New York celebrated its centennial this year.


I'm looking forward to 2012 and the library history celebration opportunities it holds.

Happy holidays to all!

The Library History Buff

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Happy 125th Birthday Pierce Butler

December 19th, 2011
Another significant December library related birthday. Today is the 125th anniversary of the birth of Lee Pierce Butler (1886-1953), library educator at the University of Chicago and author of An Introduction to Library Science (University of Chicago Press, 1933 & subsequent editions).  Like many library school students of my generation my introduction to Butler's An Introduction to Library Science classic came in my first library science course. I still have my copy of the required text which is  marked up extensively. To get an idea of how long ago this was, it only cost me $1.25. My copy has an introduction by Lester E. Asheim, another well known library educator. Basically, Butler tried to provide a theoretical basis for library science to counter the "simplicity of their [the library profession's] pragmatism". In his introduction Asheim indicates Butler's "little booklet" "seemed dangerously revolutionary to many librarians at the time [1933]".  Hard to believe any library science text could have been considered to be dangerously revolutionary.

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Happy 125th Birthday Althea Warren

December 18th, 2011

Today is the 125th anniversary of the birth of Althea Hester Warren (1886-1958), a former president of the American Library Association (1943-1944) and Los Angeles City Librarian (1933-1947). I learn about significant birth anniversaries of former library leaders from the Dictionary of American Library Biography (Libraries Unlimited, 1978) and its two supplements. The excellent entry in the DALB for Warren was written by Martha Boaz. Warren also served as Head Librarian for the San Diego Public Library (1916-1926). The book Turning the Pages: San Diego Public Library History (1882-1982) by Clara E. Breed (Friends of the San Diego Public Library, 1983) has a nice chapter about Warren and her time at San Diego. For an online biography of Warren by Leeanne Morrow check HERE. Althea Warren's career spanned two world wars and she played a significant role in each. Under Warren's leadership at the San Diego Public Library during World War I, the library provided a wide range of services to the members of the armed forces. These included supporting branch libraries at nearby military bases. During World War II Warren took a leave as Los Angeles City Librarian to head up the national Victory Book Campaign supported by the American Library Association. That effort resulted in the collection of millions of books for men and women in the armed services.  While president of ALA, Boaz indicates that Warren worked hard to get federal aid for libraries and for changes in the ALA organization. One of her major concerns was the discrimination against African Americans in hotels of some cities that hosted ALA meetings. Breed includes several quotes from Warren that reflect her administrative philosophy. I liked this one: "The welcoming attitude of a library staff is fortunately contagious, and once a librarian has rooted out all assistants with drooping mouths and snappy voices, she will find that new employees quickly absorb an equable atmosphere. Never hesitate to discharge the most competent of workers if she is incurably sulky, for one will corrupt a multitude, and only she rightly belongs in our profession who is not only willing, but glad to 'smile off her face and run off her feet for the minimum wage.'"  The postcard above showing the Central Library of the Los Angeles Public Library was mailed in 1942 while Warren was City Librarian.

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Christmas in Vladivostok 1918 Revisited

December 17th, 2011

This post is a slightly modified version of a post that I made on Dec. 14, 2008. It's a nice Christmas story about one of our librarian predecessors who went beyond the call of duty.

The caption on the rare postcard above sends Christmas [1918] Greetings from the American Expeditionary Forces in Siberia and Library War Service of the American Library Association. In December of 1918, Harry Clemons found himself in Vladivostok, Siberia as the sole representative of the American Library Association Library War Service. His role was to provide library service to the members of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Siberia. As described in one report of the circumstances on his arrival: "That there were unusual opportunities for library service was apparent. The troops were comfortably housed in winter quarters; the thrill of the war was over and the men wanted to get home." Clemons wrote to ALA War Service Headquarters on December 22,1918, shortly after his arrival: "I hope to be able to send sets [of books] to all the detachments, large and small, of the Expedition during Christmas week. Thus we introduce the short story into the long Siberian night. In my position of 'middleman' I am sure I can send to you and the others who are making the war work possible the grateful Christmas greetings of the Expeditionary Force in Siberia." A report from Clemons about his service in Siberia appeared in the Bulletin of the American Library Association for 1919.  A compilation of Clemons' letters back to the ALA headquarters were distributed to participants of the 1919 ALA Conference in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

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Greetings of Yule and New Year – Boston Public Library

December 15th, 2011
This bookmark with a seasonal tribute to the Boston Public Library was copyrighted in 1913 by Solatia M. Taylor. I don't know if it was distributed by the Boston Public Library or was sold or given away by Taylor. A neat item for this time of the year, and a welcome addition to both my collection of library bookmarks and my collection of Boston Public Library librariana.

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