LHRT NEWS AND NOTES

The USA holds National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15–October 15 each year. At the blog we’ll plan to cover articles about the history of libraries and Latinx during this time.

Here are several sources to start us off. Many thanks to Kathleen de la Peña McCook for helping us compile these links!:

Long, Alicia K., and Lucia M. Gonzalez. “Changing the Face of Librarianship: REFORMA and Library Services to Latino Communities.” USF School of Information Alice G. Smith Lecture. (December 16, 2021). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaHu70VoAVo

Long, Alicia. “Library Services to Latino Communities in the U.S.: REFORMA’S Legacy as an Agent of Change.” Florida Libraries 65, no. 2 (Fall-Winter 2022-2023): 26-30. https://journals.flvc.org/flalib/article/view/134417

“The Legacy of REFORMA: the First 50 Years,” a documentary produced by Mario A. Ascencio and Carlos Rodriguez for REFORMA’s 50th Anniversary includes interviews with REFORMA’s founders and leaders including Elizabeth Martinez, John Ayala, Roberto Trujillo, Cesar Caballero, Luis Herrera, Albert J. Milo, Sandra Rios Balderrama, Roxana Benavides, Lucia M. Gonzalez, Tess Tobin, Romelia Salinas and Nicanor Diaz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kevlI8pMliI

Guerena, Salvador, and Edward Erazo. “Latinos and librarianship.” Library Trends 49, no. 1 (2000): 138-181. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4817666.pdf#page=145

Watch for more posts about Latinx library history over the next month!

Join us!

Former students, colleagues, and friends will gather to celebrate Professor Emerita Linda C. Smith’s contributions to the field of LIS at a virtual symposium on Thursday, September 28, at 12:00 p.m. Central Time. The event will feature a discussion with the authors of “Library and Information Science, Interdisciplinary Perspectives: A Festschrift in Honor of Linda C. Smith,” which comprises Volume 71, Issue 1, of Library Trends.

“Linda Smith modeled and trained her students in interdisciplinary scholarship, blending computer and library sciences among other disciplines, to do good. Using the tricolon of research, teaching, and service, the webinar brings together different generations of Linda’s former doctoral students and colleagues from her four decades as a professor. It is a rare chance to listen, learn, and celebrate lovely stories of success,” said Anita S. Coleman (PhD ’96), who coedited the Festschrift and organized the symposium with Martha Kyrillidou (PhD ’09).

The symposium will highlight Smith’s teaching, research, and service. Panel moderators (and topics) include Colin Rhinesmith (PhD ’14), founder and director of the Digital Equity Research Center (teaching); Jian Qin (PhD ’96), professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University (research); and Bharat Mehra (PhD ’04), professor and EBSCO Endowed Chair in Social Justice in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama (service).

All are cordially invited. More details and registration information are available on the Library Trends Linda C. Smith Festschrift website and symposium webpage.

Library Trends is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal published for the School of Information Sciences by The Johns Hopkins University Press. The journal explores critical trends in professional librarianship through practical applications, thorough analyses, and literature reviews.

CINDY BRYA
Director of Communications and Content Strategy
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
School of Information Sciences

501 E. Daniel Street
Champaign, IL 61820
217.333.8312 | brya@illinois.edu
ischool.illinois.edu

Did you know September is library card month in the USA? Take in some fascinating library history artifacts at the Library Card Museum!:

https://thelibrarycardmuseum.com/

Interesting article relating to the history of race and LIS recruitment:

Click to access EJ1311881.pdf

September 4th is Labor Day in the USA, accordingly here are some links about librarian unionism as well as library services to unions:

Latham, J. M. (2011). Memorial Day to Memorial Library: The South Chicago Branch Library as cultural terrain, 1937–1947. Libraries & the Cultural Record, 46(3), 321–342.

Union Library Workers blog: http://unionlibraryworkers.blogspot.com/

Daniel, Dominqiue. “Knowledge is Power: The Rise and Fall of the Libraries of the United Automobile Workers’ Union,” Libraries: Culture, History, and Society 3 no. 1 (2019): 72-96. DOI: 10.5325/libraries.3.1.0072 [Available for free to LHRT members].

Biblo, Herbert. “Librarians and Trade Unionism: A Prologue.” (1976). Library Trends 25, no. 2 (1976).

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/6870/bitstreams/25239/object?dl=1

McCook, Kathleen de la Peña. “Unions in Public and Academic Libraries.” Adopted from Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences (3rd ed.) New York: Taylor and Francis (2010).

https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&context=si_facpub

ALA Statement–Unions and Collective Bargaining

https://www.ala.org/tools/atoz/unions

https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2023/09/rare-books-rarer-history-inside-the-library-thats-older-than-michigan.html

The United Nations has declared August 31st of each year to be an International Day for People of African Descent, a time to honor the accomplishments of peoples descended from the African Diaspora. As such, please check out:

Finally, A Library That Functions As An Archive Of Books, Music And Film For Black People (By Daysha Loppie, ByBlacks.com)

https://byblacks.com/entertainment/books/item/3305-finally-a-library-that-functions-as-an-archive-of-books-music-and-film-for-black-people

Turning Nairobi’s Public Libraries Into ‘Palaces for the People’–A Kenyan nonprofit is restoring iconic public libraries, leaving behind a segregated past and turning them into inclusive spaces (By Abdi Latif Dahir, New York Times)

.https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/04/books/nairobi-kenya-books-library.html

Haitian Immigrants’ Information Needs and Behaviors: Libraries,
Information Professionals and Haitians in the United States (By Natasha Finnegan, San Jose School of Information Student Research Journal)

https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1447&context=ischoolsrj

Work begins on Liberia’s first post-war public library (By David Rogers, Global Construction Review)

https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/work-begins-on-liberias-first-post-war-public-library/

Library of Africa and the African Diaspora, Accra, Ghana–Digital Collections

Digital

Here at the blog, we’re always on the lookout for virtual tours of historic libraries! Here’s a new one from Architectural Digest focusing on historic university libraries:

26 Stunning University Libraries Around the World You Need to See (by Jessica Cherner)

“From an early 14th-century reading room in the Sorbonne to an ultramodern library at the University of Chicago, AD surveys the most stunning university libraries around the world”

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/stunning-university-libraries-slideshow

Check out our compilation of virtual tours of historic libraries at https://lhrt.news/virtual-tours-of-historic-libraries/

“This session uses a disability justice framework to explore the historical context of disability, which connects to the importance of disability as a part of EDI work in libraries.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1WNfpvneUo

Library historians interested in architecture will enjoy this piece:

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/218986609/posts/9253