Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Library History Buff Website 5 Years Old
It almost escaped me that this month marks the fifth anniversary of "The Library History Buff" website. The "Library History Buff Blog" was created as a companion to the website. The LHB website which I started in March 2005 evolved from a free website offered by my Internet provider which I began in October of 2002. That site was simply called "Librariana". On the homepage of the LHB website I define a "library history buff" as an individual with a passion for library history and its artifacts who might also be described as a "library history nut". Although I am flattered when someone refers to me as a library historian, I am not in the same league with the library history scholars who do such a fantastic job of reliably documenting library history. I previously posted a tribute to those individuals on the LHB Blog. The LHB website like the LHB Blog has as a purpose "Promoting the appreciation, enjoyment, and preservation of library history". The site is divided into three broad categories. The "Library History" category includes pages with information about library history, the "Librariana" category includes pages with information about the collecting of library memorabilia and artifacts, and the "Postal Librariana" category includes pages with information about the collecting of postal artifacts related to libraries. Although its not exactly a high traffic site, if you search Google for "library history" it comes up as the number one site.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Japanese Postcard from St. Louis 1904


Sunday, March 28, 2010
"@" and the ALA

Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Charles Everett Rush 1885-1958

Monday, March 22, 2010
Spencer Iowa's Carnegie Window


The Spencer Public Library in Spencer, Iowa has become famous because of a cat named Dewey. But long before there was a cat named Dewey, there was a Carnegie library building in Spencer. Like Dewey, the Carnegie is no longer around to please or inspire. It met the wrecking ball in 1970, but a special architectural detail of the building still survives. That architectural detail is the leaded glass window with the word "Carnegie" which was above the entry to the library. The window is now in the possession of Paul Brenner, a resident of Spencer, IA. Paul is interested in finding our if this is a unique artifact or if something similar was used in another Carnegie library building. The architectural firm that designed the Spencer Carnegie building was Patton & Miller of Chicago, a firm that designed many libraries in the Mid-west. Placing his name on the building was not a condition for receiving a grant for a library building from Andrew Carnegie.
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Western Library Association

Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Princess Grace Irish Library

Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Circulating Library Trade Cards


Monday, March 15, 2010
Woodworking and Libraries


One of the pleasures of publishing a library history website and blog is being contacted by someone seeking more information about a topic or commenting positively on your efforts. Recently I was contacted by Ray McInnis who indicated that, like me, he is a retired librarian who spends part of his time on the internet writing about his interests. Ray describes himself as an "amateur woodworker and scholar of woodworking history". He maintains a website which reflects his interest in woodworking history and records his efforts to write an online history of woodworking. The connection between Ray's interest in woodworking history and my interest in library history relates to the role played by the Minneapolis Public Library (now merged with the Hennepin County Library) in developing the Index to Handicrafts which began as an in-house index file in the 1920s and was later published as a printed index by Faxon beginning in 1936. McInnis discusses the Index to Handicrafts and other reference sources on woodworking history here. In that section of his website he also highlights a 1922 article in the Vocational Education Magazine which discusses a cooperative effort between the Minneapolis Public Library and the Dunwoody Institute (now the Dunwoody College of Technology) to provide library support for the Institute. This was at a time when the outstanding librarian Gratia Countryman led the Minneapolis Public Library and initiated many outreach efforts. There is also a section on "Woodworkers Manuals in Public Libraries" on the McInnis website.
The first image shown above depicts a traveling library bookcase that was used in Dunn County, Wisconsin in the 1890s. The bookcase is now located in the Russell J. Rassbach Heritage Museum in Menomonie, Wisconsin. The second image is a replica of the bookcase created by an amateur woodworker for an exhibit at the Menomonee Falls Public Library .
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Pass it On: America's Library Heritage
I was delighted to learn that the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) of the American Library Association (ALA) is sponsoring the first Preservation Week May 9-15, 2010. That response might be expected from someone who has a website and blog that promotes "the appreciation, enjoyment, and preservation of our library heritage". Preservation of library collections is a worthy goal that is commonly accepted throughout the library community. So it is an ongoing source of personal frustration that the library community appears to have so little regard for the preservation of its own heritage. The theme for the ALCTS Preservation Week is "Pass it On". It is a great theme and can also be considered a plea from library history buffs and library historians everywhere to do your part in passing on your library's history and our collective library heritage. At the bottom of the Preservation Week website is a list of partners and sponsors that include the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), ALA, and the Library of Congress. These three library organizations are the ideal organizations to provide a leadership role in preserving our library heritage. Indeed, IMLS with its Connecting to Collections project has provided one model for how this could be done. The Wisconsin Library Heritage Center is providing a state level model for promoting and preserving our library heritage. Our library heritage consists of archives, artifacts, architecture, and the memory of those librarians and library supporters who have handed down the legacy that is today's American library community. There are lots of ideas on the Preservation Week website that can be used to highlight and promote your library's heritage. Why not undertake some of them this year.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Happy Birthday Arthur Bostwick

It is not often that someone with a Ph.D. in Physics from Yale University becomes a public librarian, but that was the case with Arthur E. Bostwick (1860-1942). Bostwick was born on this date (March 8) in 1860 making this the 150th anniversary of his birth. Bostwick's career as a public librarian is described by library historian Donald G. Davis, Jr. in the Dictionary of American Library Biography. After a stint as a high school teacher and as an editor he became chief librarian of the New York Free Circulating Library in 1895. The New York Free Circulating Library was merged with the newly created New York Public Library in the same year. After supervising branch libraries for the New York Public Library, Bostwick served as director of the Brooklyn Public Library from 1899 to 1901. He returned to the New York Public Library in 1901 in the capacity of Chief of the Circulating Department, a post he held when the postal card above was mailed on December 3, 1902. By 1909 Bostwick was overseeing the largest circulating library in the world. In 1909 he became director of the St. Louis Public Library, a post he held for the remainder of his career. Active in the American Library Association, he served as its president in 1907-1908. Bostwick went to China in 1925 as a representative of the American Library Association. His contribution to library development in China as a result of that visit was documented by Priscilla C. Yu and Donald G. Davis, Jr. in a 1998 article for Libraries and Culture. Bostwick was the author of a number of books including The American Public Library which was published in four editions. A photograph which includes Bostwick can be found here in the digital collections of the American Library Association Archives.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Charles Martel's Classification System

Charles Martel (1860-1945) was the architect of the Library of Congress Classification System. He was born on March 5, 1860 making today the 150th anniversary of his birth. Martel began his career at the Library of Congress on December 1, 1897 shortly after the opening of the magnificent new building now known as the Thomas Jefferson Building. Martel worked under J. C. M. Hanson, head of the newly created Catalog Division of LC. The sequence of events leading to the creation of the Library of Congress Classification System is well documented in the Martel entry in the Dictionary of American Library Biography which was written by James Bennett Childs and John Y. Cole. Herbert Putnam was appointed Librarian of Congress in 1899. There was little doubt at that time that the classification system used by LC was inadequate, but Putnam felt that it was desirable to use an existing classification system as its replacement. Melvil Dewey was approached about expanding his decimal system but he was not interested in adapting it for a large library like the Library of Congress. Martel and Hanson convinced Putnam that a new classification system was needed. The system they developed was influenced to a certain extent by the classification system of Charles Ammi Cutter. The LC Classification System is widely used by college and university libraries. Martel later served as chief of LC's Catalog Division and assisted the Vatican in developing its cataloging code. He died on May 1, 1945.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Roosevelt Bears at the Boston Public Library

Seymour Eaton was the founder of the early 19th century Booklovers Library and the Tabard Inn Library. He was also the author of numerous books including The Roosevelt Bears: Their Travels and Adventures, the inspiration for the "teddy bear". I've collected a number of artifacts relating to his two libraries, but recently I came across this postcard which is based on an illustration in The Roosevelt Bears: Their Travels and Adventures. The illustration is by V. Floyd Campbell and it features the two bears sitting in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library. The caption under the illustration reads: "They took the books and down they sat, To read Emerson and the Aristocrat." The postcard was mailed on September 6, 1908 from Boston to Maine.
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