Going Postal With The British

June 15th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »

At the request of Renae Satterly, the Editor of the Library & Information History Group Newsletter, I agreed to do write a brief article about libraries and postage stamps for the Summer issue of the newsletter which has just been published. The Library & Information History Group (LIHG) is a special group of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals [CILIP] of the United Kingdom. CILIP is more or less the equivalent of the American Library Association and LIHG is the British counterpart to ALA's Library History Round Table (LHRT). Along with the article I developed a supplementary web page on my Library History Buff website which is located HERE. Both the article and the web page provide an introduction to bibliophilately and postal librariana and my interest in this philatelic specialty. Also in conjunction with the LIHG article I developed a web page related to the library postage stamps of the British Isles which I mentioned in a previous post. George Eberhart gave me another opportunity to promote libraries on postage stamps in his recently published The Librarian's Book of Lists which includes my top 10 libraries on postage stamp.

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why i teach what i teach

June 14th, 2010 by david silver No comments »


(video made by Madhouse Muse)

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William Howard Brett (1846-1918), Cleveland Librarian

June 13th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »


In August 1918 Cleveland Public Library Librarian William Brett was killed by a drunken driver while trying to board a street car in front of the library. Vice-librarian Linda Eastman who was with Brett barely avoided being hit by the drunk driver. As biographer C. H. Cramer (Dictionary of American Library Biography, Libraries Unlimited, 1978) put it: "This irresponsible tippler almost succeeded in wiping out the two greatest librarians in the history of the Cleveland Public Library." I was motivated to find out more about Brett after acquiring a fragile letter written by him in May 1918 on the letterhead of the American Library Association Library War Service. It is an example of a seemingly un-impressive paper artifact leading to some interesting stories about a great library leader. Just three months before his death at age 72 Brett was taking a leave from the Cleveland Public Library to serve as the Dispatch Agent at the Newport News, VA Dispatch Office of the ALA Library War Service. It evidently had been Brett's desire to serve overseas with the Library War Service, but he had settled for the position in Newport News. This was not Brett's first involvement with the military. According to Cramer, in 1865 during the last year of the Civil War he had enlisted in the Army at age 18 only to be captured by Morgan's Raiders and taken as a prisoner to Kentucky. These interesting aspects of Brett's life serve only as a backdrop to his stellar career at the Cleveland Public Library. Part of that career is recorded on a webpage devoted to Brett Hall in the Cleveland Public Library. The image of the bust of Brett is from the Cleveland Public Library Image Collection. Other images of Brett during this period can be found HERE. It is not often that a librarian is memorialized by both a bust and a hall.

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Mary P. Aiken (1927-2010) and Project Little Kids

June 12th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »
















Hands down, the most creative and innovative segment of the library profession is public library children's librarians. In my career I have had the good fortune to know and work with some outstanding children's librarians. As a former library administrator, I like to think that I have been a consistent advocate for children's services in public libraries. However, there is no doubt that strong, dedicated, creative children's librarians have been a major force behind that advocacy. At the top of the list of those children's librarians was Mary P. Aiken, former Coordinator of Children's Services for the Greenville (SC) County Library. I came to know and admire Mary when I became Director of the Greenville County Library in 1974. One of my early indications of Mary's zeal in the promotion of children's services was when she had arranged, without my knowledge, to close off the street in front of the library for a parade to kick off the summer library program. She was one of the earliest champions of public library service to children from zero to three years of age, and was the driving force behind Project Little Kids at the Greenville County Library, a nationally recognized program for this age group. When I wrote about Project Little Kids for LISNews in February of this year, I was unaware that Mary had died earlier that month. As I indicated in my essay for LISNews, one of my primary contributions to the project was the acronym which stood for Learning by Infants and Toddlers Through Library Experiences, Kits, Information, Demonstrations, and Services. The photograph above shows Mary (on the far right) and Early Childhood Development Specialist Linda VonCannon receiving a special award on behalf of the library from Sara Craig of the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in 1979 in recognition of Project Little Kids as an "exemplary project" showing "innovation and creativity".

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William F. Poole,"The Harvard Book", and the ALA Scrapbook of 1876

June 10th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »













The government issued postal card featured in this post has multiple points of interest for a collector of postal librariana and library history buff. Postal cards in contrast to picture postcards are more closely connected to the actual work of libraries. They were instantly adopted as important tools in the conduct of library business when they came into existence in the United States in 1873. A previous post discussed one of the earlier uses of the postal card as an overdue notice. The writer and sender of this postal card was William F. Poole who at the time was the Librarian of the Chicago Public Library. Poole who sent the card on June 24, 1876 to H. A. Clark in Cambridge, MA was writing to Clark in regard to the publication The Harvard Book of which Clark was a co-author. Poole writes: "I have received several circulars calling my attention to the 'Harvard Book'. I beg to state that we have a copy of this very eloquent and entertaining book, which we bought of a party here in Chicago." Is the point of the message to praise the book or hint that Clark can stop sending any more circulars? Poole was a formidable figure during this period of library history, and was active at this very point in helping to plan the conference which took place in October 1876 where the American Library Association was formed. Library historian Edward G. Holley wrote about the correspondence which took place between library leaders including Poole and Melvil Dewey who were planning the conference in the book Raking The Historic Coals: The A.L.A. Scrapbook of 1876 (Beta Phi Mu, 1967). The scrapbook which contained both letters and postal cards covered the period May 1876 through October 1876. Unfortunately, this important artifact in American Library Association history appears to be missing, perhaps even inavertedly discarded at some point after Holley wrote his book. Fortunately the scrapbook was microfilmed and is available at the ALA Archives. I have a special interest in the scrapbook because it probably contained the first collection of postal librariana. William F. Poole was the creator of the publication Poole's Index to Periodical Literature and served as President of the American Library Association 1885-1886. As to The Harvard Book, images from this "eloquent and entertaining book" can be found HERE. The images include photographs of Gore Hall, the home of the Harvard Library which opened in 1841 and early librarian John Langdon Sibley.

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