After Wayne Wiegand completed his presentation at the recent Library History Seminar XII in Madison, WI, he was presented with his own library trading card by his colleagues as a token of their admiration. Wiegand is considered to be the dean of current library historians in the United States. The trading card which is shown above is supposedly #64 in a set of 100 famous librarian trading cards. The card is accompanied by a list of the 100 famous librarians as selected by by the Wayne Wiegand Library Trading Card Coordinating Committee (Jim Danky, Karen Krueger, Doug Zweizig, and Larry Nix). Using a partially tongue-in-cheek baseball metaphor the back of the card begins "Wayne's first sand lot tryouts with a library team, the Manitowoc (WI) Library Mirros, showed the promise his subsequent career demonstrated." Wiegand is perhaps best known for his biography of Melvil Dewey, Irrepressible Reformer. In his presentations he often mentions that there are more public library outlets than McDonalds restaurants. He is a strong advocate of approaching library history from the viewpoint of the "library in the life of the user" in contrast to the "user in the life of the library". The list of famous librarians includes, among others, Melvil Dewey, Herbert Putnam, Peggy Sullivan, John Cotton Dana, Margaret Monroe, Arna Bontemps, Benjamin Franklin, Lutie Stearns, Fred Glazer, Pope Pius XI, E. J. Josey, S. R. Ranganathan, Augusta Baker, and Callimachus. The Library History Seminar is an assembly of library historians that takes place every five years. This year it was hosted by the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America at the University of Wisconsin - Madison which Wiegand helped to found.
You can obtain a copy of the Wiegand trading card and a list of the 100 famous librarians by sending $5 to Larry T. Nix, 3605 Niebler Ln., Middleton, WI 53562. All proceeds from the sale of the cards will go to the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America.
3 comments:
A friend of mine & I took Wayne's History of the Book class back in the mid-90's. Professor Wiegand used the term "library land" quite often when referring to the professional culture and world view of librarians. When studying together my friend & I took to referring to library land as "Wayne's World". :) Great teacher.
I had the privilege of working knowing him when he taught at the library school at the University of Kentucky and I a librarian at the old King Library-North back in the mid 70s - mid 80s.
I took Wayne's 450 SLIS class in Madison & some of the issues we discussed I still think about today, especially circles of knowledge. I credit him for forcing me to try to force my own circles a bit wider and understanding a bit better why people do not want to accept new information. He is truly a great teacher.
(Rebecca in Middleton)
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