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American Public School Librarianship: A History
"Can I get a library pass?" Over the past 120 years, millions of American K-12 public school students have asked that question. Still, we know little about the history of public school libraries, which over the decades were pulled together and managed by hundreds of thousands of school librarians. In American Public School Librarianship, Wayne A. Wiegand recounts the unseen history of both school libraries and their librarians.
Why, Wiegand asks, did school librarianship turn out the way it did? And what can its history tell us about limitations and opportunities in the coming decades of the twenty-first century? Addressing issues of race, social class, gender, and sexual orientation (among others) as they affected American public school librarianship throughout its history, Wiegand explores how libraries were transformed by the Great Depression, the civil rights era, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs, and more recent legislation like No Child Left Behind, Common Core, and the Every Student Succeeds Act. Wiegand touches on censorship, the impact of school segregation on school libraries, disparities in funding that fall along lines of race and class, the development of school librarianship as a profession, the history of organizations like the American Association for School Librarians, and how emerging technologies affected school librarianship.
Wiegand clarifies the historical role of the school librarian as an opponent of censorship and defender of intellectual freedom. He also analyzes the politics of a female-dominated school library profession, identifies and evaluates the profession's major players and their battles (often against patriarchy), and challenges the priorities of librarianship's current agendas, particularly regarding the role of "reading" in the everyday lives of children and young adults. Filling a huge void in the history of education, American Public School Librarianship provides essential background information to members of the nation's school library and educational communities who are charged with supervising and managing America's 80,000 public school libraries.
Why, Wiegand asks, did school librarianship turn out the way it did? And what can its history tell us about limitations and opportunities in the coming decades of the twenty-first century? Addressing issues of race, social class, gender, and sexual orientation (among others) as they affected American public school librarianship throughout its history, Wiegand explores how libraries were transformed by the Great Depression, the civil rights era, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs, and more recent legislation like No Child Left Behind, Common Core, and the Every Student Succeeds Act. Wiegand touches on censorship, the impact of school segregation on school libraries, disparities in funding that fall along lines of race and class, the development of school librarianship as a profession, the history of organizations like the American Association for School Librarians, and how emerging technologies affected school librarianship.
Wiegand clarifies the historical role of the school librarian as an opponent of censorship and defender of intellectual freedom. He also analyzes the politics of a female-dominated school library profession, identifies and evaluates the profession's major players and their battles (often against patriarchy), and challenges the priorities of librarianship's current agendas, particularly regarding the role of "reading" in the everyday lives of children and young adults. Filling a huge void in the history of education, American Public School Librarianship provides essential background information to members of the nation's school library and educational communities who are charged with supervising and managing America's 80,000 public school libraries.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published October 12, 2021
3 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Wayne A. Wiegand
28 books22 followers"Wayne August Wiegand (born April 15, 1946) is an American library historian, author, and academic.
Often referred to as the "Dean of American library historians," Wiegand retired as F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies and Professor of American Studies at Florida State University in 2010. He received a BA in history at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh (1968), an MA in history at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (1970), and an MLS at Western Michigan University and a Ph.D. in history at Southern Illinois University (1974). Before moving to Tallahassee in 2003 he was Librarian at Urbana College in Ohio (1974-1976), and on the faculties of the College of Library Science at the University of Kentucky (1976-1986) and the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1987-2002). At the latter he also served as founder and Co-Director of the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America (a joint program of the University and the Wisconsin Historical Society established in 1992).
In Spring, 1994, he was William Rand Kenan Jr. Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In Spring, 1998, he was Fellow in the UW–Madison’s Institute for Research in the Humanities. In 1999 he was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society, and in Fall, 2000, he was a Spencer Foundation Fellow. Between 2004 and 2007 he served as Executive Director of Beta Phi Mu (the International Library and Information Science Honor Society). As a member of the faculty of the FSU Program in American & Florida Studies, in 2006 he co-organized the Florida Book Awards (the most comprehensive state book awards program in the United States) and until July, 2012, served as its Director. For the academic year 2009-2010 he shared time between Florida State University in Tallahassee and the Winter Park Institute of Rollins College in Orlando, where he was “Scholar in Residence." In 2011 he received a Short-Term Fellowship from the New York Public Library. From 2010 to 2014 he served as President of the Florida State University Friends of Libraries. For the academic year 2008-2009, he was on a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write a book tentatively entitled ’Part of Our Lives:’ A People’s History of the American Public Library. This book will be published simultaneously with a documentary on the American public library currently being put together by independent film makers.[1]
He currently resides in Walnut Creek, California."
~Wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_A....
Often referred to as the "Dean of American library historians," Wiegand retired as F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies and Professor of American Studies at Florida State University in 2010. He received a BA in history at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh (1968), an MA in history at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (1970), and an MLS at Western Michigan University and a Ph.D. in history at Southern Illinois University (1974). Before moving to Tallahassee in 2003 he was Librarian at Urbana College in Ohio (1974-1976), and on the faculties of the College of Library Science at the University of Kentucky (1976-1986) and the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1987-2002). At the latter he also served as founder and Co-Director of the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America (a joint program of the University and the Wisconsin Historical Society established in 1992).
In Spring, 1994, he was William Rand Kenan Jr. Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In Spring, 1998, he was Fellow in the UW–Madison’s Institute for Research in the Humanities. In 1999 he was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society, and in Fall, 2000, he was a Spencer Foundation Fellow. Between 2004 and 2007 he served as Executive Director of Beta Phi Mu (the International Library and Information Science Honor Society). As a member of the faculty of the FSU Program in American & Florida Studies, in 2006 he co-organized the Florida Book Awards (the most comprehensive state book awards program in the United States) and until July, 2012, served as its Director. For the academic year 2009-2010 he shared time between Florida State University in Tallahassee and the Winter Park Institute of Rollins College in Orlando, where he was “Scholar in Residence." In 2011 he received a Short-Term Fellowship from the New York Public Library. From 2010 to 2014 he served as President of the Florida State University Friends of Libraries. For the academic year 2008-2009, he was on a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write a book tentatively entitled ’Part of Our Lives:’ A People’s History of the American Public Library. This book will be published simultaneously with a documentary on the American public library currently being put together by independent film makers.[1]
He currently resides in Walnut Creek, California."
~Wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_A....
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 20, 2024
It was a little difficult to get into, but really did outline where school librarianship came from and how it got to where it is today. It has made me question what would be different if there had been a move to NEA from ALA. I also have more to ponder still on the Swigger vs Stripling argument regarding IP2 (standards focus on inquiry method etc) [see page 223].
Quotes:
“In the mid-1970s sociologist Barbra Heyns followed the summer reading of 3,000 Atlanta fifth and sixth graders. Regardless of socioeconomic status, children who read at least six books during the summer either maintained or improved their vocabulary test scores and reading skills. Children who read no books over the summer lost up to an entire grade level. Public library summer reading programs, which at the time has more participation than Little League baseball and a tradition dating back to the turn of the century, had data to prove their value” (p. 199).
“A three-year study released in 2010 validated what Barbra Heyns had discovered more than thirty years earlier: public library summer reading programs benefited their participants by significantly improving their reading skills and countering the normal loss of skills over summer months often referred to as ‘summer slide.’ But a 2012 SLJ survey showed only 9 percent of public librarians worked ‘directly with school librarians and teachers,’ and only 30 percent collaborated with local schools ‘to coordinate book purchases that support curriculum.’ Less than a year later an SLJ article documented the successes of several cooperative public/school library systems, including Denver, Philadelphia, New York City, Nashville, Portland (OR), La Crosse (WI), and Monterey (CA). In Nashville, for example, the public library loaned 97,000 items to the city’s fifty-four public middle and high schools in 2011-2012” (p. 248).
“By highlighting information literacy as school librarianship’s primary initiative in the 1990s, school library leaders placed placed the profession at a competitive disadvantage as the Internet evolved largely unchallenged and unchecked, its users valuing for themselves what information they found there” (p. 277).
“Unfortunately, serious and informed discussions concerning the human agency of reading—and its benefits—that the school library is especially well positioned to facilitate have largely been absent from school librarianship’s professional discourse” (p. 277).
Quotes:
“In the mid-1970s sociologist Barbra Heyns followed the summer reading of 3,000 Atlanta fifth and sixth graders. Regardless of socioeconomic status, children who read at least six books during the summer either maintained or improved their vocabulary test scores and reading skills. Children who read no books over the summer lost up to an entire grade level. Public library summer reading programs, which at the time has more participation than Little League baseball and a tradition dating back to the turn of the century, had data to prove their value” (p. 199).
“A three-year study released in 2010 validated what Barbra Heyns had discovered more than thirty years earlier: public library summer reading programs benefited their participants by significantly improving their reading skills and countering the normal loss of skills over summer months often referred to as ‘summer slide.’ But a 2012 SLJ survey showed only 9 percent of public librarians worked ‘directly with school librarians and teachers,’ and only 30 percent collaborated with local schools ‘to coordinate book purchases that support curriculum.’ Less than a year later an SLJ article documented the successes of several cooperative public/school library systems, including Denver, Philadelphia, New York City, Nashville, Portland (OR), La Crosse (WI), and Monterey (CA). In Nashville, for example, the public library loaned 97,000 items to the city’s fifty-four public middle and high schools in 2011-2012” (p. 248).
“By highlighting information literacy as school librarianship’s primary initiative in the 1990s, school library leaders placed placed the profession at a competitive disadvantage as the Internet evolved largely unchallenged and unchecked, its users valuing for themselves what information they found there” (p. 277).
“Unfortunately, serious and informed discussions concerning the human agency of reading—and its benefits—that the school library is especially well positioned to facilitate have largely been absent from school librarianship’s professional discourse” (p. 277).
July 10, 2022
find my review on Storygraph :)
March 14, 2022
I had to purchase this title for research purposes but I knew I had to have a copy for myself because this is my area of expertise. I previously never read a book on the history of school librarianship so I was excited to see what Wiegand had discovered. This book definitely was not boring. There was plenty of drama amongst the librarians particularly when trying to establish themselves as school librarians which they needed to be recognized as a separate important group of professionals. However, there were too many cooks in the kitchen and collaboration wasn't critical. Wiegand did not shy away from highlighting the systematic racism that existed in librarianship. For example, Sambo was considered quality reading and the profession was silent on civil rights and ending discrimination. The story of Juliette Morgan was one that really stuck with me and I was so glad to have learned about her in this book. One big take away from this text is that I was able to make connections to what is happening in school librarianship today with what happened in the past. I see why things are the way they are today in school librarianship. It is a great profession but there are issues. I hope my own research will add a little something to the field.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews