pennsylvania Library History Project
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The Pennsylvania Library History Project launched in May 2007. Bernadette A. Lear, a librarian and faculty member at Penn State's Harrisburg campus, is the coordinator (and at this point, the only person involved in the project!). Bernadette welcomes collaboration with other librarians, scholars, students, and volunteers. Contact her if you have questions or would like to help.
PHLP envisions a future where Pennsylvania libraries are active in collecting, organizing, and preserving documentation about their history; where historical information about every library in Pennsylvania is easily accessible; and where practitioners, scholars, and the general public are aware of the contributions Pennsylvania libraries, librarians, and library workers have made to society. To this end, PHLP has prioritized the following areas:
Advising and assisting library practitioners in collecting, organizing, and preserving documentation about their institutions' histories.
Recognizing that Pennsylvania has hundreds of public, academic, school, and other libraries, PHLP realizes that it does not have the resources to record the history of every library in the state. Therefore, PHLP will empower librarians, students, and volunteers to do this necessary work.
Authoring high-quality professional and scholarly literature that draws deeply from Pennsylvania's experiences, while also ensuring that historical information about Pennsylvania's libraries is easily accessible to everyone.
PHLP recognizes the importance of academic rigor and constructive criticism that is part of the peer-reviewed publishing process. However, PHLP also understands that many libraries and the general public cannot afford to subscribe to scholarly journals. Therefore, whenever possible, PHLP will publish in resources that:
Are freely available on the open Internet, OR
Are distributed free with association membership (such as PaLA Bulletin and Pennsylvania History), OR
Are available in full-text through Pennsylvania's POWER Library, OR
Are accessible through nonprofit cooperatives like Project Muse or JSTOR, OR
Are widely available in Pennsylvania's libraries.
Informing scholars and practitioners nationwide about the contributions Pennsylvanians have made toward the development of librarianship and print culture in the United States. Also, raising public awareness about the unique contributions libraries have made to the cultural and social history of Pennsylvania.
Whenever possible, PHLP will present at conferences, contribute to encyclopedias, and undertake other efforts to "get the word out" about the history of Pennsylvania's libraries.
Facilitating historical research and scholarly communication by providing a digital library of free resources relating to Pennsylvania library history (see below).
How-to's and samples (these are most appropriate for smaller-scale libraries):
Documenting, Celebrating, and Using Your Library's History (PowerPoint presentation [with notes] given at PaLA Annual Meeting, October 2007). Emphasizes archiving historical documents, and researching library history)
Bibliography/Resources for Organizing Your Library's Archives
Sample Questions About Your Library's History (do you know the answers?)
Checklist of Library History Resources (items to keep in your library's archives)
Favorite Library History Research Tools (national indexes, statistics, and tools)
Mega-sites (these have a variety of research resources, from many historical eras, in various formats):
Digitized Collections at Penn State ¾ digitized books, maps, photographs, and other items from Penn State's collections.
Pennsylvania Library Histories on the Web ¾ links to library histories that are freely available online. Compiled by Bernadette A. Lear.
Primary sources:
Pennsylvania Library and Museum Notes (1935-1941 only) ¾ a searchable, digital copy of a periodical that was published by Pennsylvania's State Library and Museum. Digitized by Penn State University Libraries. Let's hope someone digitizes 1908-1934 someday!
Photographs and images:
Carnegie libraries in Pennsylvania, Allegheny-Northampton ¾ historic postcards showing Pennsylvania's Carnegie libraries. Compiled by Donald Brown and hosted by Pennsylvania Commonwealth Libraries. Arranged alphabetically by county.
Carnegie libraries in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia-Venango ¾ historic postcards showing Pennsylvania's Carnegie Libraries. Compiled by Donald Brown and hosted by Pennsylvania Commonwealth Libraries. Arranged alphabetically by county.
Maps:
Literary and Cultural Heritage Map of Pennsylvania ¾ a treasure-trove of information about Pennsylvania authors. Created by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book at Penn State.
Maps ¾ maps from the Library of Congress' American Memory project. The maps of "Cities and Towns," "Cultural Landscapes," and "Transportation and Communication" can help put a library's location in context with other resources in its town, county, or region.
Maps in PDF ¾ current maps from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Pennsylvania County Maps ¾ includes county atlases (mostly from the 1870s) as well as modern USGS maps. Provided by volunteers from the USGenWeb United States Digital Map Library.
Copyright 2007, Bernadette A. Lear. Please contact me for permission to use this page.