history log
BEGINNINGS
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​1. Gwynn, Lucy (2011). The design of the English domestic library in the seventeenth century: readers and their book rooms for an article that used furniture in the examination of library history. Library Trends, 60(1), 43-53.
Available through IUPUI.
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As private book collections began to increase in the 17th century, the spaces dedicated to domestic libraries were more common. The design, size, and layout of private home libraries were often used as a measurement of the owner’s status.
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It was very interesting to learn about the different architectural considerations that were made during this time. This was of such great importance that Gabriel Naudé wrote a book that was translated to “Instructions Concerning Erecting of a Library.”
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2. Lear, Bernadette A. (2008). Wishing they were there: old postcards and library history. Libraries & the Cultural Record, 43(1), 77-100.
Available through IUPUI.***
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The evolution of items, in this case postcards, from personal significance to cultural significance. Lear explores the history of postcards, how they became a popular item to collect or send as a momento to family or friends, their place in library history research, and the reliability of the postcard.
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Because of the informality of postcards, it can be hard to discern important archival information such as publisher, publisher location, date, etc. For this reason finding a postcard’s origins is extremely difficult. I will be looking at my grandparent’s postcards very differently when I have the time to revisit my family archival pursuits.
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ANCIENT
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3. Casson, Lionel (2001). Libraries in the Ancient World. Chapter 2 The Beginnings Greece, pages 17-31.
Available through IUPUI
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Casson follows the Ancient Greeks after the dark interval--where cities were destroyed or abandoned and writing was forgotten--during the 9th century BCE when intellectual achievements were once again celebrated.
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It was interesting to learn how certain aspects of popular culture, such as performances of works, relied on and encouraged literacy. Also the rampant copying of works because copyright wasn’t even a consideration or concept at the time.
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4. Finley, Susan (2014). Celsus Library of Ephesus: The man and the city behind the famous facade. Libra, 64(3), 277-292.
Available through IUPUI.
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Finley explains the history of Ephesus and what led to the need for a leader like Celsus (Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus) and his importance in the unification of Greek and Roman peoples.
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It was interesting to read about the history of Ephesus and how Celsus was uniquely equipped in uniting the Greeks and Romans. I also didn’t realize that the city is near an active fault line and has been subject to many earthquakes.
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EARLY
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5. Gameson, Richard (2015). The Image of the Medieval Library. In A. Crawford (Ed.), The Meaning of the Library: A Cultural History, Princeton University Press.
Available through IUPUI.
Gameson explores the medieval trends in book collections, the structures and spaces in which books were stored, and how they were organized.
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It didn’t occur to me how much paintings of libraries during this time were unreliable and inconsistent with existing knowledge of what items were invented/used when. While it’s not at all surprising that someone who commissioned a portrait would want some artistic license taken on the importance of themselves and their belongings, I hadn’t really considered the effect of this on our historical understanding of libraries during this time period.
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6. Satterley, Renae (2008). The libraries of the Inns of Court: An examination of their historical influence. Library History, 24(3), 208-219.
Available through IUPUI.
Discusses the origin of Inns of Court libraries between 15-18th century London. Explains the emergence of legal institutions in a setting other than established universities of the age (Cambridge and Oxford).
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Location location location! The fact that the Inns were in a prime location and the print industry followed made an impact on the relationship between bookseller and client. The Inns had so many purposes, finishing school, social meeting place for networking, before it focused on legal education.
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MODERN
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7. Gwynn, Lucy (2010). The architecture of the English domestic library, 1600-1700. Library & Information History, 26(1), 56-69.
Available through IUPUI.
Gwynn explores the considerations private collectors had to make when establishing their home libraries. Most existing domestic dwellings weren’t built with a dedicated home library space in mind, so there were several different approaches for making room for their volumes.
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The many tricks that owners used in order to make their collections appear more vast and grand than others was amusing. The idea that someone would have their entire book collection rebound so that they would match seems obscenely expensive and thus bonkers.
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8. Stauffer, Suzanne M. (2015). ‘Mr. Dewey is crazy and Katharine Sharp hates the University of Chicago’: Gender power, and personality and the demise of the University of Chicago course in library science 1897-1903. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 5(2), 101-113.
Available through IUPUI. ***
Melvil Dewey, Katerine Sharp, and Zella Allen Dixson in their power struggle for the soul of library science programs.
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I had no idea how deep the animosity was between Dewey and Dixson, and the lengths he and Sharp went to establish dominance over her program. Very compelling read. Also yikes.
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CONTEMPORARY
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9. Preer, Jean (2008). Promoting citizenship: how librarians helped get out the vote in the 1952 presidential election. Libraries & the Cultural Record, 43(1), 1-28.
Available through IUPUI.
As American voters became apathetic toward voting, many nonprofit organizations wanted to encourage civic engagement. The 1950 election was the first to attempt this model. In the lead up to the 1952 presidential election, these nonprofit organizations figured out a few changes that would reach people in their communities, grass roots style. The ALA’s primary role was to provide registration and voting information as a central and unbiased source.
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It seems weird to look back and remember that it wouldn’t have been odd for the most popular campaign item to be matchbooks (because so many people smoked and didn’t know how bad it was for their health). Also compared to our current polarized political climate, this article seems so tame and civil. Like it actually used to be totally chill for people to have constructive conversations and discussions about politics?!
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10. Schuster, Kristen (2019). Libraries and literacy: Andrew Carnegie’s Philanthropy in the American Midwest. Philanthropy & Education, 2(2), 75-94.
Available through IUPUI.
Measuring the impact of Carnegie Libraries on average communities in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio from 1900-1910.
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When I read “...social niceties like electrical systems, sewage systems, and reading rooms” (page 77) I was like one of these things is not like the other! Indiana has the most Carnegie libraries in the US at 164 libraries? So neat.
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FUTURE
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11. Edwards, Brian W. (2011). Sustainability as a driving force in contemporary library design. Library Trends, 60(1), 190-214.
Available through IUPUI.
Edwards explores the emphasis libraries are placing on their energy sources as it relates to climate change. The author also argues that as places of learning and information it is a library’s duty to display best practices in the area of sustainable design.
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The library where I work has waste receptacles that include trash and recycling (separate for paper, cans, and plastic). I have no idea what other sustainable designs are in place. But after reading this article from 2011, I’m very interested in knowing what steps my own workplace has taken in this area!
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12. Gisolfi, Peter A. (2019). Trends in public library design from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Public Library Quarterly, 38(3), 290-308.
Available through IUPUI.
Library design is ever evolving. The architectural fads change constantly, as is library technology, community needs, etc. As the library purposes and goals change, so must the design.
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It is interesting to see how the decisions/sausage is made when it comes to how libraries are designed and the considerations that make the end result.
OTHER
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13. Dutch arrest man in theft at Columbia. (1995, June 17). The New York Times, p. 23. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/17/nyregion/dutch-arrest-man-in-theft-at-columbia.html.
Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library was also a victim of looting by Daniel Spiegelman. Luckily he decided to flee to Europe with his 22 item stolen treasure and was arrested in the Netherlands after receiving a tip.
14. McDade, T. (2018, July 24). Of Rich Kids and Rare Book Theft. Medium. https://medium.com/@travis.mcdade/of-rich-kids-and-rare-book-theft-cabfbf359cac
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The 2004 Transylvania University (Kentucky) library theft. Ringleader Warren Lipka and his two accomplices, college age young men, attacked a librarian and attempted to make off with--what they hoped would be--$12 million worth of rare books. The trio were caught, all stolen items were retrieved, and Federal Sentencing Guidelines had recently been updated to add harsher punishments for stealing cultural heritage items.
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15. McDade, T. (2015, October 8). The Unseen Theft of America's Literary History. https://lithub.com/the-unseen-theft-of-americas-literary-history/ ***
In the spring of 2000, Kenyon College Library’s night time supervisor, David Breithaupt, was running an ebay store of rare and expensive books. Stolen books. The library also housed the Kenyon Review archives which was home to many items of American literary history including letters, notes, and manuscripts. The craziest thing is that not only are most of the items stolen from Kenyon College gone, but there are no records, documentation, or scans of what was in the Review archives.
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Because few items in archives across the United States are cataloged, America is particularly vulnerable to theft without knowledge of what went missing.
16. McDade, T. (2014, January 7). Rare Book Crime Capers: Forgery, Theft, Murder and the Holy Grail of American Printing. https://themillions.com/2014/01/rare-book-crime-capers-forgery-theft-and-the-earliest-american-imprint.html
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The title makes it seem like this could be the next Tiger King right? This article is about Mark Hofmann who in 1985 tried to pass off a forgery of an artifact thought to be long extinct. He was after fast money, but no reputable institution is going to shell out $750,000-$1,000,000 on something they can’t guarantee is authentic. So things got real dark and Mark panicked...real bad.
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17. McDade, T. (2012, November 5). Barry Landau's coat pockets. https://blog.oup.com/2012/11/barry-landau-book-thief-secret-coat-pocket/
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Discusses the long standing tradition of thieves using coats to hide their stolen treasures and how special pockets have helped perpetrators steal valuable documents, maps, and books.
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18. McDade, T. (2012, August 17). The difficulty of insider book theft. https://blog.oup.com/2012/08/difficulty-inside-book-archive-theft-girolamini-library/
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Girolamini Library in Naples, Italy was the victim of theft by its own director, Mariano Massimo de Caro. This article explains the many hurdles in avoiding detection when stealing from an institution where a thief is employed. It often makes catching the perpetrator even easier.
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19. McDade, T. (2012, June 28). Barry Landau and the grim decade of archives theft. https://blog.oup.com/2012/06/barry-landau-and-the-grim-decade-of-archives-theft/
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Explains the process of how theft of cultural heritage object jail sentences are decided and compares the prison time given to multiple thieves compared to the dollar amount of their crimes.
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20. Naudé, G. (1903). Instructions Concerning Erecting of a Library: Presented to My Lord the President De Mesme. United States: Houghton, Mifflin at the Riverside Press.
Available through GoogleBooks
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Amazing primary source that was discussed in The design of the English domestic library in the seventeenth century: readers and their book rooms for an article that used furniture in the examination of library history (Gwynn, 2011).
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On page 22, Naudé expresses the importance of studying other libraries catalogs in order to choose the best titles and volumes. “In order to this, you must by no means omit, and neglect to cause to be trainscrib’d all the Catalogues, not only of the great and most famous Libraries, whether ancient or modern, publike or private, with us, or amongst strangers.” Chapter 6 (p. 115) discusses “The disposition of the place where they should be kept.”
LIS 580: History or libraries
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Spring 2020 / professor annette lamb
Submitted by Amy Coleman
ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION (link here)
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You’ll find DIG DEEPER readings as well as other articles woven throughout the six sections of the course. You might also discover interesting articles or websites outside the course materials. Create a log of your favorites.
Your “history log” must contain at least 20 articles.
• These should be spread out over the semester including at least TWO articles from each of the SIX sections of the course.
• At least 12 entries must be professional journal articles as opposed to websites or blog postings.
• The rest can come from wherever you wish.
• For EACH entry, include a complete citation and a couple sentences about what you learned or why it’s so cool.
• Indicate your top THREE favorites with an emoji, icon, or color.