"Dr. John C. Van Horne served as the Edwin Wolf 2nd Director of the Library Company from 1985 to 2014. Upon his retirement, the Library created an endowed lecture series in his honor to recognize and celebrate his many contributions to the Library Company. Each year, the Library Company invites a distinguished speaker to present the Lecture in Honor of John C.

"Abstract:Drawing on search interfaces from the past and present, I will explore the claim that online information search systems have moved through three distinct periods of development. The first period focused on helping people explore, develop, and resolve their information needs through interaction. During this period, many interfaces were modeled after the reference interview and included novel interactive features, such as relevance feedback and search result visualizations.

Pennsylvania's first National Library Week (1958) Richard W. Boss, Unsung Hero of Library Automation A $90 Million Article: Gilbert M. Gaul's Libraries in Distress (1997) From Picture Postcards to the Cat's Meow: eBaying Library History

47th Annual Conference on Book Trade History | Battling Over Books: Auction Catalogues and Their Contexts, 1676-2026 22 and 23 November 2026 Stationers' Hall, Ave Maria Lane, London, EC4M 7DD Speakers:Laura Cleaver, Meg Ford, Rhiannon Lawrence-Francis, Giles Mandelbrote, Hannah Morcos, Yelda Nasifoglu, Nigel Ramsay, and Henry Woudhuysen. History Of Libraries Seminar. Tuesday 6 October 5.30-7pm BST A ‘revolutionary’ at Lincoln College, Oxford? The seventeenth-century Arminian library of Gilbert Watts (d.1657) Alex Laar (Jonkers Rare Books) In person at the Warburg Institute in London, or online. Free.

Archives and Resistance: A Virtual Symposium on Digital Preservation and Publication in the Context of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Call for Proposals We invite proposals for a virtual symposium on February 19–20, 2027, focused on archival preservation, digital publication, and community collaboration in projects that relate to African, African American, and Diaspora studies. We seek proposals for individual 15-minute presentations or panels consisting of 3–4 presentations (15 minutes each) that focus on ways that researchers, archivists, students, community members, and others are using digital tools and methodologies to recover archival materials and make them available and accessible to expand our understanding of the past and reclaim and promote histories that have been overlooked, suppressed, or erased.

Daily Life and History: Chronicling, Narrating, and Capturing the Banal and the Extraordinary in American Periodicals (19th-21st Centuries) June, 17th and 18th 2027, Université de Rouen-Normandie (ERIAC) Co-organized with the Université Marie & Louis Pasteur (ELLIADD) This conference aims to discuss the role of American periodicals in conveying the sense of both history and daily life to their readers, from the 19th century to the present day.

Professor Andrew Pettegree, talking about his latest book, The Bookshop, which came out this year.  You can find all the details, including the zoom link, here: : October 6th, at 2pm UK time.

"But the library profession was already being transformed by technology in the early 20th century. The advent of elevators and electrical lighting, of structural steel and reinforced concrete, made it possible for the University of Michigan to build a new, larger library in 1920, with the capacity to hold one million volumes."

American Printing History Association 2026 Annual Conference Revolution In Print Kislak Center, University of Pennsylvania October 2–3, 2026 This year APHA will collaborate with the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts and the Common Press at the University of Pennsylvania to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the first printing of the Declaration of Independence at a conference entitled, “Revolution in Print.” Taking place at the Kislak Center, on October 2–3, 2026, the conference will feature invited speakers who will address the theme, drop-in visits and tours at Philadelphia area museums, libraries, and historic sites, and curated lightning talks on a variety of subjects that reflect the current research in printing history.

This is a wonderful piece, contextualized in history, that will fire us all with inspiration for the future of libraries:

The authors note that "in 2026, the role of the public library as an essential democratic institution is in profound jeopardy..."

"Using archives of the Center for the Impossible at Fondren Library, Rice University"

Greetings! Please join us online for the ALA Library History Roundtables (LHRT) media discussion group, LHRT Reads on Thursday, October 22, 2026, at 7pm Eastern Time. We will be discussing Bibliotactics: Libraries and the Colonial Public in Vietnam by Cindy Anh Nguyen. We are happy to share an update: Dr Nguyen will be joining us for the discussion!! Advanced registration is required.

He did some incredible work--and an award is named after him. Find out more about this leader of the field at his recently updated wikipedia page:

Tel-Med: an innovative 1980s telehealth service in Meadville Searching for librarians of color in PA The historical value of library newsletters Population shifts and the origins (1980s) of Palmer Township's library Find all of Bernadette's posts on her blog at

The Library History Round Table (LHRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce our 15th Library History Seminar (LHS) and we'd like to offer you an opportunity to share your research! LHS XV will take place virtually December 3-5, 2026. The theme of the conference is "A History of Modern Libraries, Warts and All: Development, Organization, and Transformation." …

Here at the blog, we've been covering an exciting story about the development of an oral history project, Librarians Navigating Change, coordinated by Ann Glusker, Librarian (retired) for Social Sciences and Research Methods, University of California, Berkeley. The project includes 15 interviews with veteran UC Berkeley library workers. For past coverage including an interview with Ann, please see these posts.

"This article argues that the DeFuniak Library (now the Walton-DeFuniak Public Library) is best understood in the context of the political, social, and technological changes that took place in the late 19th century, namely the developments of railroads and adult education programs in the postbellum South. This milieu helps explain how and why individuals from the Northeastern United States, especially New York, made their way first as tourists and then permanent residents to DeFuniak Springs."

WOW!!! That's all I can say about the Los Angeles Public Library's library history celebration. Lots of engaging web content and events. LHRTer Tiffney Sanford is in Los Angeles and writing posts for the event, and we thank her for the update below... --Brett Spencer, Editor ---------------- The Los Angeles Public Library has been celebrating their Central Library's centennial year, dubbed Central 100.

TIE contributor Jamia Williams discusses the importance of creating diverse library displays, to make sure all experiences are represented.

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw author of Backtalker, An American Memoir in conversation with Courtney Desiree Morris. Discover the story behind how one of the most influential public intellectuals in…

We are excited to share that Dr. Maxie Schreiber's book Places of Participation: The History and Architecture of Public Libraries in Germany and the United States was published this summer! The attached flier and table of contents as well as the publisher web site provide more details (the text of the book is in German but the attached materials are in English).

The Library History Round Table (LHRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce our 15th Library History Seminar (LHS) and we'd like to offer you an opportunity to share your research! LHS XV will take place virtually December 3-5, 2026. The theme is "A History of Modern Libraries, Warts and All: Development, Organization, and Transformation." …

Greetings!! Please join us online for the ALA Library History Roundtable's (LHRT) media discussion group, LHRT Reads on Thursday, October 22nd, 2026 at 7pm Eastern Time. We will be discussing by rel="noopener"> Bibliotactics: Libraries and the Colonial Public in Vietnam by Cindy Anh Nguyen. Advanced registration is required. To register, please visit: rel="noopener"> Note: This event will not be recorded.

Photo by Eren Ataselim on Pexels.com

For those of you with an interest in the Mechanics' Institute/Schools of Art/Athenaeums movement and their libraries this call for papers for the bicentenary celebrations of Australia’s institutes may be of interest. To find out more about these Australian institutes and their history a brief summary can be found in the  Dictionary of Educational History in Australia and New Zealand…

Reference "commandments" from the 1970s, 1990s, and today ALT-BLA: Altoona's first community website Librarians Seeking Ten Nights in a Barroom (rare books librarianship, 1950s} Keith Doms (former PaLA president) talks about leadership (1986)

To note the appointment of the first woman to the library of the Parliament of the State of Victoria (Australia) one hundred years ago Ellie Florence and Annie Wright from the library have written this insightful survey of the employment of women in Australia's parliamentry libraries over time. ‘Unidentified female librarian’: The women of Victoria’s Parliamentary Library.

Exciting news: an absolutely fantastic oral history project by Ruth Tillman at Penn State Libraries explores the rise of one of the early computerized catalog systems: It includes audio interviews with transcripts and a timeline, reflecting several years of research! This is not only invaluable as a history of computing in libraries, but also an example of how to do oral history in libraries.

"The 'Voices of the Colored Libraries: An Interactive Journey through History' project represents acritical effort to preserve, document, and share the untold histories of racially segregated "colored"Libraries that served African American communities during the Jim Crow era." Voices of Colored Libraries in Segregated America

The 2026 National Book Festival will be held in the nation's capital at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Saturday, August 22, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. (doors open at 8:30 a.m.). The…

Browse through this cool gallery of bookmobiles!: And, as a bonus, if you are interested in bookmobiles and their history, Derek Attig's site Bookmobility, which covers "information in motion," is a must see!

The Stonewall Book Awards, sponsored by the American Library Association’s Rainbow Round Table, are a beacon of recognition for LGBTQIA2S+ literature. Each year, these prestigious awards amplify…

This trove likely offers a lot of interest to library historians: Photo by Quang Vuong on Pexels.com

The American Library Association’s (ALA) Library History Roundtable (LHRT) Justin Winsor Award Committee is pleased to announce the winner of this year’s essay award. The recipient of this year’s award is Alex Poole for his essay “‘The Michael Jordan of library systems’: Carla D. Hayden and the Black Liberal Tradition.” Poole is an Associate Professor at Drexel University’s School of Computer and Information Sciences.