Your Librarian
Bernadette Lear
she/her/hers/Ms.
Contact:
LIB 301B
Penn State Harrisburg Library
351 Olmsted Dr.
Middletown, PA 17057
Penn State Harrisburg Library
351 Olmsted Dr.
Middletown, PA 17057
(717) 948-6360
Subjects: Adult Education and Workforce Education, Applied Behavior Analysis, Campus: Harrisburg, Community Psychology and Social Change, Education, Education: Organization, Development, and Change / Training and Development, Health, Health Education, Kinesiology, Exercise, and Sport Science, Nursing, Psychology
Introduction
Penn State University Libraries faculty have attained national recognition in various areas of research. One of them is the history of libraries/librarianship. In addition to the items listed on other parts of the Library and Information Studies guide, below are some resources which are especially helpful for historical research.
Scholarly Databases
In addition to LISTA and other LIS databases, try these:
- Bibliography of Library HistoryCompiled by volunteers from ALA's Library History Round Table, this covers scholarly books and articles published from 1990 to 2022.
- America: History & Life with Full Text This link opens in a new windowUseful for information on the history of American libraries.
- Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new windowUseful for historical studies on libraries, librarians, and librarianship around the world.
- JSTOR: Library ScienceIncludes both current scholarly journals in LIS, as well as deep backfiles which may serve as primary sources.
- Cannon's Bibliography of Library EconomyAn early index that covers American and British library periodicals from 1876 to 1920. Available digitally from Google Book Search and other sources.
- MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO) This link opens in a new windowIncludes the history of libraries and books, archives, authors, publications, etc.
The following journals publish substantial numbers of historical articles in LIS and may be worth a hand-search:
Reference Sources
American Library Development by Call Number: Annex Z731.S87ISBN: 0824204182Publication Date: 1977A chronology of important events in all aspects of librarianship from 1600 to 1899.
A Chronology of Librarianship, 1960-2000 by Call Number: Z665.W65 2009ISBN: 9780810852556Publication Date: 2009Pays special attention to the progress made on technological and international fronts that have significantly altered the role and function of the librarian, especially the rise of the internet in the 1990s.- Carnegie Libraries by Call Number: Annex Z731.B67ISBN: 0838900224Publication Date: 1969Includes the definitive list of public libraries founded by Andrew Carnegie in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Davies Project, Princeton UniversityProvides founding dates, closing dates, locations, and other information for thousands of libraries existing in the U.S. before 1876.
- Dictionary of American Library Biography by Call Number: Annex Z720.A4D5ISBN: 0872871800Publication Date: 1978Brief biographies of path-breaking librarians from colonial America to the late 20th century. Supplemental volumes have also been published.
Historical Dictionary of Librarianship by ISBN: 9780810878075Publication Date: 2014Focuses on librarianship as a modern, organized profession, emphasizing the period beginning in the mid-nineteenth century.
Primary Sources: Archival Collections
- American Library Association ArchivesArchival documentation of the early years of the profession.
- Melvil Dewey Papers, Columbia UniversityMore than 100 boxes of historical documents contain much information about Dewey, the founding of ALA, the development of library education, and other topics.
- Digital Public Library of AmericaMillions of texts, images, videos, and other historical material from dozens of U.S. libraries.
- Internet ArchiveA resource for finding older versions of websites, digitized books, and other historical materials.
- Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new windowUseful for finding biographical information about librarians.
- ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new windowHelpful for identifying primary sources in archives throughout the world.
Primary Sources: Books
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans Digital Edition This link opens in a new windowBooks and other publications produced in the American colonies and the early United States (1639-1800).
- Early English Books Online This link opens in a new windowContains over 125,000 early printed works in English, and works printed in England between 1475 and 1700.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) This link opens in a new windowDigitized and searchable texts of any texts published in the UK and elsewhere in the English language during the 18th century.
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new windowContinues Early American Imprints Series I.
- Google Book SearchContains full-text for many books published before 1923. An excellent resource for historical materials
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowA searchable database of scanned books and journals. Items in the public domain are often accessible in full-text.
Primary Sources: Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers
- American Periodicals Series (1740-1900) [full page reproduction] This link opens in a new windowHistorically-significant magazines and journals from the 1740s through 1900.
- Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 This link opens in a new windowUseful for finding older articles about libraries/librarianship in popular magazines.
- Periodicals Archive Online (1770-1995) [full page reproduction] This link opens in a new windowHelpful for identifying articles published outside of the U.S.