Celebrating Two Years of Blogging
November 18th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »
Today marks the end of two years of blogging by me on The Library History Buff Blog. Time flies ... . This is blog post number 260. Highlights of this past year were the selection of LHBB as one of "10 Library Blogs to Read in 2010" by LISNEWS, its selection as second in the Quirky Library Blogs category of Salem Press' best library blogs competition, and its inclusion by George Eberhart on The Librarian's Book of Lists' "Top 10 Library Blogs" list. It's nice to get recognition for the blog, but I'm most grateful for the approximately 1,700 unique visitors who visit the site each month.
Frederick Leypoldt, Founder of Publishers’ Weekly and Library Journal
November 17th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »
Today is the 175th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Leypoldt (1835-1884). On May 17, 1876, Frederick Leypoldt, Melvil Dewey, and Richard Rodgers Bowker met in the offices of Publishers" Weekly and mutually agreed to pursue a conference of American librarians and a library journal. Both of these objectives were accomplished in that same year. The first issue of Library Journal (under the initial title of American Library Journal) was dated September 30, 1876 and the conference of librarians which resulted in the founding of the American Library Association took place in Philadelphia in October, 1876. Dewey is often given credit for these accomplishments, but both Leypoldt and Bowker also deserve much credit. Leypoldt had successfully established Publishers' Weekly as a major source of information about books and their publishing in America, and although Dewey was the first Managing Editor of Library Journal, Leypoldt was its publisher and source of financial support. Leypoldt also published the American Catalogue and Index Medicus. Leypoldt was a poor businessman and his publishing endeavors, including Library Journal, often resulted in financial loses. His close associate R. R. Bowker was more financially astute and later purchased Publishers' Weekly. The R. R. Bowker Company developed into a major American publishing house with emphasis on the book and library trades. The envelope above was mailed in 1889, five years after Leypoldt's death. The relationships between Leypoldt, Dewey, and Bowker are fascinating. They are dealt with in several publications. These include E. McClung Fleming's R. R. Bowker: Miltant Liberal (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1952), Edward G. Holley's Raking the Historic Coals: The A.L.A. Scrapbook of 1876 (BETA PHI MU, 1967), and Wayne A. Wiegand's Irrepressible Reformer, A Biography of Melvil Dewey (ALA, 1996).
Membership Law Libraries Revisited
November 17th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »
I was recently contacted by Mikhail Koulikov, Reference/Research Librarian at the New York Law Institute, in regard to a post I made last year about membership law libraries. Because of the acquisition of a couple of artifacts related to these kinds of libraries, I had already been planning another post about them. Mikhail informed me that there is still a viable role for legal libraries that are supported largely by membership fees. He has made a case for their continuing role in an article entitled "The membership library answer to new law firm realities" in the Spring 2010 issue of PLL Perspectives, the newsletter of the American Association of Law Libraries' Private Law Libraries section. In addition to to the New York Law Institute Library, Mikhail notes two other examples of legal membership libraries, the Baltimore Bar Library and San Francisco's Mills Law Library. Previously noted were Boston's Social Law Library and Philadelphia's Jenkins Law Library which receive additional funding from the state. The two artifacts shown above are a 1884 envelope mailed by the New York Law Institute Library and an 1865 certificate for one share in the Social Law Library. There were many of these libraries in the 19th century that haven't managed to survive. Laureen Adams and Regina Smith have written about the transition from membership law libraries to public law libraries in "The Evolution of Public Law Libraries". Congratulations to those membership law libraries have found a way to remain relevant in the 21st century.
I left my ‘cart’ in San Francisco
November 16th, 2010 by Matthew Collins No comments »
I left my ‘cart’ in San Francisco
Student assistants (with a little help from their staff friends) in the Access Services Department of Gleeson Library are participating in the 2010 “Unshelved: Pimp my Bookcart” contest. They created the cable car[t] which represents their love for this city. It reminds us of a little song by Tony Bennett:
“I left my heart in San Francisco
High on a hill, it calls to me.
To be where little cable cars
Climb halfway to the stars!
The morning fog may chill the air
I don’t care….”
Addison Van Name, Yale Librarian
November 15th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »
