Libraries & Culture articles from June 2005

Libraries & Culture archives from June 2005

Foreword.(evaluation of libraries)
June 22, 2005... Why do we study the history of libraries and other cultural agencies? There are many facile responses to this rhetorical question and a few substantive ones. The facile ones follow the ancient discussion about the utility and value of history...

Introduction: Donald G. Davis, Jr.: a gentleman and a scholar.(works)
June 22, 2005... This collection can be read as evidence of the connection so many library and book historians feel toward Donald G. Davis, Jr. As a respected scholar, beloved teacher, and magnanimous colleague, Don has inspired us all to work hard and to take...

The cover.
June 22, 2005... Which is your favorite Libraries & Culture cover story? You have a wide choice. One hundred and seven cover stories have been published through 2004. The first cover story appeared in 1977, when Donald G. Davis, Jr., became editor and the...

History in the Library and Information Science curriculum: outline of a debate.(Association for Library and Information Science Education's Historical Perspectives Special Interest Group )
June 22, 2005... Only a small minority of Library and Information Science (LIS) schools now schedule courses with a historical focus, and LIS faculty whose research specialty is history seem to be a vanishing breed. Yet some educators are committed to finding...

Early American imprint bibliography and its stories: an introductory course in bibliographical civics.
June 22, 2005... The stories of the bibliographies that describe our country's early books are not only engaging but also helpful to remember as we use the bibliographies and plan for their successors. The stories behind Evans, Shaw-Shoemaker, Roorbach and...

Assessing what we wrote: a review of the Libraries & Culture literature reviews, 1967-2002.
June 22, 2005... Biennial literature reviews, somewhat rare in library and historical scholarship, have become integral to the scholarly apparatus of American library history since their inception in 1967. This essay surveys the history and structure of the...

Quantifying the "goodness" of library history research: a bibliometric study of the Journal of Library History/Libraries & Culture.
June 22, 2005... Library historians use primarily qualitative research methods, unlike most in LIS, who adopt social science research methods. This contrast becomes problematic when evaluating the goodness of historical research. This article briefly explores...

In Union there is strength: the Farmers' Institute and the Western Literary Union library.(Western Literary Union)
June 22, 2005... Housed in what is now a Quaker meetinghouse in southern Tippecanoe County, Indiana, is the remnant collection of a mid-nineteenth-century library from an early academy. Unlike many of its type, it was never disbursed or absorbed into another...

Reading Hilda's Home: gender, print culture, and the dissemination of utopian thought in late-nineteenth-century America.(Hilda's Home: A Story of Woman's Emancipation)(Critical Essay)
June 22, 2005... American women published dozens of utopian novels between 1836 and 1900, yet little is known about the readers who consumed them. Hilda's Home first appeared as a serialized story in Lucifer, the Light-Bearer, a weekly filled with letters from...

Southern librarianship and the culture of resentment.
June 22, 2005... The development of library service in the southern states occurred in a supposedly reconciliatory period of American history following the Civil War, but the reforms of Reconstruction, the indigenous remnants of "southern culture," and feelings...

Changing the geography of reading in a southern border state: the Rosenwald Fund and the WPA in Oklahoma.(Works Progress Administration)
June 22, 2005... This study explores the impact of funding for library-related projects from the Julius Rosenwald Fund and the Works Progress Administration on the availability of library services and reading materials for African Americans in the South and...

Collecting contested titles: the experience of five small public libraries in the rural Midwest, 1893-1956.
June 22, 2005... This essay is an analysis of the history of how, when, and if five small public libraries in the rural Midwest acquired ten controversial books published between 1885 and 1951. My research is extracted from a database that records all titles...

The Library of Congress becomes a world library, 1815-2005.
June 22, 2005... Established as a legislative library in 1800 to support the U.S. Congress when it moved from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress--retaining its original name and primary legislative purpose--has subsequently become the...

American bookwomen in Paris during the 1920s.
June 22, 2005... Using the lens of gender, this essay examines the lives and collective contributions of American women who participated in the book world of Paris during the 1920s. The focus is on the American Library in Paris, which inherited the American...

The library as clinic: a Foucauldian interpretation of British public library attitudes to social and physical disease, ca. 1850-1950.
June 22, 2005... Characterized by the pursuit of enlightenment and progress, the municipal public libraries that began to appear in Britain after 1850 were notable cultural ingredients of modern society. Yet public libraries also displayed less liberal...

European integration: are Romanian libraries ready?
June 22, 2005... Romania is scheduled to join the European Union in January 2007. This paper examines Romanian libraries' readiness for integration into the Western European library network from various perspectives: collections, services, library science...

From Libraries & Culture to the Bibliotheque nationale.
June 22, 2005... In her work as the assistant editor of Libraries & Culture, the author has had the opportunity to learn about the value of library history as an area of scholarly research. This accumulated knowledge has contributed greatly to her continuing...

Fides et Historia: Christian sources for the professional contributions of Donald G. Davis, Jr.
June 22, 2005... The faith commitments and historical impulses of Donald G. Davis, Jr., provide distinctive foundations for his contributions to the library profession. Convinced of the authenticity of core elements in the Christian message, he has sought to...

Chronology and bibliography of Donald G. Davis, Jr.(Chronology)(Bibliography)
June 22, 2005... This chronology selectively highlights Don Davis's professional achievements and activities. The selected bibliography that follows lists publications that Professor Davis wrote or edited, alone and with others, arranged in chronological order...