American Library History On the Web
Here are some sites I've come across in my pursuit of library history. No claim is made at being comprehensive. Suggest additions by contacting me at nix@libraryhistorybuff.org.
The Boston Athenaeum is celebrating its bicentennial in 2007
http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/baevents.html
General History Sites (non-library)
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
Compiled by Mark Rothenberg, Patchogue-Medford Library/Suffolk Cooperative Library System
http://pml.suffolk.lib.ny.us/Benjamin%20Franklin%20Tercentenary.htm
Library of Congress - American Memory Digital Collection
http://memory.loc.gov/amhome.html
Making of America (MOA) Digital Library of Primary Sources
http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)
http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/nucmc.html
New Deal Network (Search for "library")
http://newdeal.feri.org/index.htm
American Historic Documents (Compiled by WI State Law Library)
http://wsll.state.wi.us/lawhistory.html
Repositories of Primary Sources (Compiled by Terry Abraham)
http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html
Internet Resources for American History
University of New Brunswick Library
http://www.unbsj.ca/library/subject/history3.htm#top
Best of History Web Sites
http://www.besthistorysites.net/
New York State History Sampler
Compiled by Mark Rothenberg, Patchogue-Medford Library/Suffolk Cooperative Library System
http://pml.suffolk.lib.ny.us/new_york_state_history_month.htm
General Library History Sites (In no particular order)
Library History Round Table of the American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/lhrt/lhrthome.htm
Archives of the American Library Association
http://web.library.uiuc.edu/ahx/ala/default.asp
Libraries & the Cultural Record (Journal) Home
http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~landc/
Libraries & the Cultural Record (Journal) Bookplate Archive
http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~landc/bookplateindex.htm
The Davies Project at Princeton University
Database of American Libraries before 1876
http://www.princeton.edu/~davpro/
eBooks: US History: Libraries in the 19th Century
(Books from the Making of America digital project)
http://www.digitalbookindex.com/_search/search010histuslibraries19a.asp
The Academic Library in the American University
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/UWLDR.AcadLib
Links to Carnegie Library Sites (compiled by the Library History Buff)
http://www.libraryhistorybuff.org/carnegie-libraries.htm
200 Years of Young Adult Library Services
http://www.voya.com/whatsinvoya/web_only_articles/Chronology_200506.shtml
School Libraries - History
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/libhistory.htm
Membership Libraries
http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/memlib.htm
Presidential Libraries
http://www.archives.gov/presidential_libraries/index.html
Milestones of Academic Library History
Lengthy URL
Timeline in Library Development for African Americans
Lengthy URL
A Chronology of Events in Black Librarianship
http://www.nathanielturner.com/blacklibrarians.htm
American Federal Libraries/Information Centers Chronology
http://www.loc.gov/flicc/bicen/chron2.pdf
Army Libraries Through the Years
http://www.army.mil/CMH-pg/photos/Libraries/libraries.htm
History of Army Libraries
http://www.armymwr.org/home/Show_file.asp?fileID=604
Reader services in libraries : a day in honor of Margaret E. Monroe
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/History.BollReader
Sixty Years of the Association of Research Libraries
http://www.arl.org/arl/plus.ca.html
Confessions of a Library Historian (Haynes McMullen)
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/VALib/v48_n3/mcmullen.html
Biographies of American Library People
http://www.libraryhistorybuff.org/librarybiographies-us.htm
Web Sites of Library Historians and History Buffs
http://www.libraryhistorybuff.org/libraryhistorians-links.htm
The American Library Association and Access to Libraries and Information
(Paper by Kathleen de la Peña McCook for ALA)
Rocks in the Whirlpool
Books Go to War: The Armed Services Editions in World War Two
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/ase/
McCarthyism and Libraries (Stephen Francoeur thesis)
http://francoeur.pbwiki.com/FrontPage
Brief History of Library Instruction In the United States (Michael Lorenzen)
http://www.libraryinstruction.com/lihistory.html
Federal Library Depository Program
http://www.gpo.gov/su_docs/fdlp/history/index.html
Library History by State
[Note: Ideally, every library that maintains a Web site should have at least a brief history of the library on that site. That is far from the case. Even some very large libraries do not have the history of their library on their Web site. The examples below provide a variety of models for doing this. I have developed a more comprehensive list of sites for Wisconsin library history. I encourage other states to develop a similar list.]
Alabama
Alabama Libraries Prior To World War I: A Chronology in Progress
http://www.anes.uab.edu/alachron.htm
Fairhope Public Library
http://www.fairhopelibrary.org/history.htm
California
Bancroft Library, Univ. of California - Berkeley
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/bancroft/
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/info/lectures.html#library
Carnegie Libraries of California
http://www.carnegie-libraries.org/
Mechanics' Institute Library, San Francisco
http://www.milibrary.org/hist.html
San Francisco Public Library
http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/news/125/timeline.htm
http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/news/125/scrapbook/intro.htm
Connecticut
Connecticut State Library (takes forever to load but nice images)
http://www.cslib.org/cslpre1909.htm
Delaware
Delaware Public Libraries Centennial Brochure
http://www.state.lib.de.us/Administration/Centennial/
District of Columbia
Library of Congress (History of LOC by John W. Cole )
http://www.loc.gov/loc/legacy/
Florida
Jacksonville Public Library
http://jpl.coj.net/library/jplhistory.html
Georgia
Georgia Library History Project
http://www.georgialibraryhistoryproject.org/
Hawaii
Hawaii State Library
http://www.hawaii.gov/hidocs/hslhistory.html
Idaho
Idaho State Library
http://www.lili.org/isl/history.htm
Illinois
Chicago Public Library, Chicago, Illinois
http://cpl.lib.uic.edu/003cpl/cplhist.html
Galena Public Library
http://www.galenahistorymuseum.org/publiclibraryhistory.htm
Highland Park Public Library
http://www.hplibrary.org/library/history.html
The Illinois State Library
http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1999/il9903131.html
Milner Library, Illinois State University
http://www.library.ilstu.edu/page/1073
Kansas
Carnegie Library Legacy in Kansas
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/carnegie/intro.html
Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
http://www.tscpl.org/Information/history/index.asp
Maryland
Enoch Pratt Free Library
http://www.epfl.net/info/history/
Massachusetts
Boston Athenaeum
http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/home.html
Boston Public Library
http://www.bpl.org/guides/history.htm
Report of the Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston 1852
http://www.scls.lib.wi.us/mcm/history/report_of_trustees.html
Andover-Harvard Theological Library (Harvard University)
http://www.hds.harvard.edu/library/about/history/
Mount Holyoke College Library
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/lits/library/about/libabout.html
Minnesota
Minneapolis Public Libary
http://www.mpls.lib.mn.us/history/cg6.asp
Montana
Montana Library Association (Brief History)
http://www.mtlib.org/handbook/history.html
Nebraska
Nebraska Libraries for the Centuries
http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/docs/nlcarchives/nelibrariescenturies.html
Nebraska Carnegie Libraries
http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/docs/nlcarchives/Carnegie/Carnegie.html
New Hampshire
New Hampshire State Library
http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/nhslhistory.html
Lane Memorial Library, Hampton, NH
http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/library/history/index.htm
Peterborough Town Library
http://www.libraryhistorybuff.org/peterborough.htm
New York
Buffalo and Erie County Public Library
http://www.buffalolib.org/aboutthelibrary/history.asp
http://labecpl.bfn.org/history.html
Columbia University Library
http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/library/gl.history.html
Long Island Library Histories (Click on Library Histories)
http://pml.suffolk.lib.ny.us/long_island_history_website.htm
Mercantile Library of New York
http://www.mercantilelibrary.org/history.html
http://www.libraryhistorybuff.org/nyml.htm
Article in February 1871 issue of Scribner's Monthly at Cornell University's Making of America (MOA) digital site.
New York Public Library
http://www.nypl.org/pr/history.cfm
New York Public Library - Branch Libraries in the Bronx
http://www.nypl.org/branch/bronx/index2.cfm?d1=765&template=photodbase
North Carolina
Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County
http://www.plcmc.org/aboutUs/history.htm
Rowan Public Library (Salisbury, NC)
http://www.lib.co.rowan.nc.us/amain/history.html
Ohio
Carnegie Public Library of East Liverpool, Ohio
http://www.carnegie.lib.oh.us/history.htm
Cuyahoga County Public Library
http://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/aboutlibrary/history/HISTORY.htm
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Public Libraries
http://199.164.253.25/centennial/time.html
Oregon
Oregon State Library
http://www.osl.state.or.us/home/lib/osls.html
http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/OriginsByJim.shtml
Pennsylvania
Free Library of Philadelphia
http://libwww.library.phila.gov/75th/
Library Company of Philadelphia
http://www.librarycompany.org/instance.htm
http://www.librarycompany.org/about/history.htm
http://www.libraryhistorybuff.org/librarycompany.htm
State Library of Pennsylvania
Web site (URL too long)
Medical Library of the Pennsylvania Hospital (oldest medical library in America)
http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/timeline/1751/tline4.html
Rhode Island
Redwood Library and Athenaeum
http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/about.htm
South Carolina
South Carolina Library History Project
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/histories/
Texas
Dallas Public Library
http://dallaslibrary.org/100/100home.htm
Houston Public Library
http://www.houstonlibrary.org/hpl/libhist.html
Vermont
Ilsley Public Library (Middlebury)
http://www.ilsleypubliclibrary.org/about%20us/history.htm
Virginia
Norfolk Public Library
http://www.npl.lib.va.us/sgm/oldlobby/archives/nplchron.html
Wisconsin
Wisconsin Library History Web Sites
http://www.libraryhistorybuff.org/historylinks-wi.htm
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