Library Guides: Library and Information Studies: Researching Library History

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 History
Compiled 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
Useful for information on the history of American libraries.

Search for articles on all aspects of the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Articles from national, state and local historical journals are covered, as well as historical articles in major humanities and social science journals. Also includes citations to reviews, books, and dissertations. Keywords: African-American, Afro-American, Black, Hispanic, Latino, Colonial, Pennsylvania, Native Americans, women, gender, revolution, revolutionary war, civil war, Vietnam War, Cold War, World War I, World War II, Immigration, Immigrants, labor, agriculture, culture, society, politics, religion, economic, military, historiography.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text
Useful for historical studies on libraries, librarians, and librarianship around the world.

Search for articles and other publications on world history from 1450 to present, (except for the United States and Canada which are indexed in the companion work, America: History and Life). The database includes articles in journals worldwide, including a selection of major social science and humanities journals. Also included are references to dissertations and books.

JSTOR: Library Science
Includes both current scholarly journals in LIS, as well as deep backfiles which may serve as primary sources.
Cannon's Bibliography of Library Economy
An early index that covers American and British library periodicals from 1876 to 1920.

MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
Includes the history of libraries and books, archives, authors, publications, etc.

The MLA International Bibliography contains more than 1.7 million records for books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics.

The following journals publish substantial numbers of historical articles in LIS and may be worth a hand-search:

Reference Sources

American Library Development by Elizabeth W. Stone
Call Number: Annex Z731.S87

ISBN: 0824204182

Publication Date: 1977

A chronology of important events in all aspects of librarianship from 1600 to 1899.
A Chronology of Librarianship, 1960-2000 by Jeffrey M. Wilhite
Call Number: Z665.W65 2009

ISBN: 9780810852556

Publication Date: 2009

Pays 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 George S. Bobinski
Call Number: Annex Z731.B67

ISBN: 0838900224

Publication Date: 1969

Includes the definitive list of public libraries founded by Andrew Carnegie in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Davies Project, Princeton University
Provides 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 Bohdan S. Wynar (Editor); Jesse H. Shera (Editor)
Call Number: Annex Z720.A4D5

ISBN: 0872871800

Publication Date: 1978

Brief biographies of path-breaking librarians from colonial America to the late 20th century. Supplemental volumes have also been published.
Historical Dictionary of Librarianship by Mary Ellen Quinn
ISBN: 9780810878075

Publication Date: 2014

Focuses on librarianship as a modern, organized profession, emphasizing the period beginning in the mid-nineteenth century.

Primary Sources: Archival Collections

American Library Association Archives
Archival documentation of the early years of the profession.
Melvil Dewey Papers, Columbia University
More 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 America
Millions of texts, images, videos, and other historical material from dozens of U.S. libraries.
Internet Archive
A resource for finding older versions of websites, digitized books, and other historical materials.

Ancestry Library Edition
Useful for finding biographical information about librarians.

With more than 1.5 billion names in over 4,000 databases, Ancestry Library Edition includes records from the United States, UK, and Canadian censuses, beginning in the 18th and 19th century; military records; court, land and probate records; vital and church records; directories; passenger lists and more. These collections are continuously expanding, with new content added every business day.
ArchiveGrid
Helpful for identifying primary sources in archives throughout the world.

An index produced by the Research Libraries Group to finding aids and other descriptive information about the holdings of manuscript and archival collections in libraries and research institutions throughout the world

Primary Sources: Books

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans Digital Edition
Books and other publications produced in the American colonies and the early United States (1639-1800).

Evans Digital Edition (1639-1800) consists of digitized facsimiles of publications produced in the American colonies and the early United States. Derived from entries listed in Charles Evans's American Bibliography, and supplemented from other sources, it includes books, pamphlets, and broadsides on many topics, and is a fundamental resource for early American history, literature, philosophy, and religion.
Early English Books Online
Contains over 125,000 early printed works in English, and works printed in England between 1475 and 1700.

Early English Books Online contains over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard's and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661). Coverage includes the first book printed in English by William Caxton and features works by Malory, Bacon, More, Erasmus, Boyle, Newton, and Galileo. Novels, prayer books, pamphlets, almanacs, calendars, and many other types of primary sources are included. The works are presented as images that can be viewed online or downloaded in PDF format for viewing off-line.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
Digitized and searchable texts of any texts published in the UK and elsewhere in the English language during the 18th century.

Full texts and images of over 180,000 titles and editions printed in the British Isles and the Americas between 1701 and 1800. Includes books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more.
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819
Continues Early American Imprints Series I.

Early American Imprints, Series II (1801-1819) provides full-text access to some 36,000 American books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the early nineteenth century. The works cover all aspects of American life, including scientific thought, religion, politics, arts and literature, economics, Indian relations, military affairs, Westward expansion and more. The database is based on the authoritative bibliography by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker, supplemented by thousands of newly identified items. The database continues the Early American Imprints: Series I, 1639-1800.

Google Book Search
Contains full-text for many books published before 1923. An excellent resource for historical materials

HathiTrust Digital Library
A searchable database of scanned books and journals. Items in the public domain are often accessible in full-text.

Sponsored by the libraries of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, the University of California, and other partners, HathiTrust is a repository of digitized materials in all disciplines. Its content--primarily scanned books and journals-- may be searched via authors, titles, subjects, and other data elements.

Primary Sources: Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers

American Periodicals Series (1740-1900) [full page reproduction]
Historically-significant magazines and journals from the 1740s through 1900.

Search a selection of periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and many other historically-significant periodicals. Contains full-text of American magazines and journals that originated between 1741 and 1900. Digitized page images reproduce the publications as they appeared when originally published.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982
Useful for finding older articles about libraries/librarianship in popular magazines.

The online version of the original Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature offers subject access to over 3 million articles from approximately 375 leading magazines. Use Readers Guides Retrospective to find contemporary magazine accounts documenting events in politics, fashion, media, film, television, health and medicine, literature, popular culture, religion and science.
Periodicals Archive Online (1770-1995) [full page reproduction]
Helpful for identifying articles published outside of the U.S.

Periodicals Archive Online is the new name for PCI Full Text - an archive of hundreds of full-text journals published in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Though the focus is on the twentieth century, coverage of some titles dates to the eighteenth century.