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The mission of the Pennsylvania Library History Project is to document the history of Pennsylvania's public, academic, school, and other libraries. The project also seeks to inform scholars and practitioners nationwide about the contributions Pennsylvanians have made toward the development of librarianship and print culture in the United States. Another goal is to raise public awareness about the unique contributions libraries have made to the cultural and social history of Pennsylvania. PLHP envisions a future where every Pennsylvania library is active in collecting, organizing, and preserving documentation about its history. The Project also strives to create high-quality professional and scholarly literature that draws deeply from Pennsylvania's experiences, while developing freely-available web sites that make historical information about Pennsylvania's libraries easily accessible to everyone.
PLHP does not currently have the resources to record the history of every library in Pennsylvania. Therefore, the Project will offer free advice to library staff, volunteers, and students who wish to research, preserve, or write about their library's history. The Project will also facilitate historical research and scholarly communication by providing a digital library of free resources relating to Pennsylvania library history.
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!). However, Mrs. Lear welcomes collaboration with other librarians, scholars, students, and volunteers. Contact her if you have questions or would like to help.
Mega-sites (these have a variety of resources, from many historical eras, in various formats):
Google Books: digitized books, including many pre-1920 materials, from dozens of research libraries nationwide.
Digital Collections at Penn State: digitized books, maps, photographs, and other items from Penn State's collections.
Pennsylvania Library Histories on the Web: links to library histories that are freely available online. Compiled by Bernadette A. Lear, derived from the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Libraries' list of libraries by county.
Primary sources:
Pennsylvania Library and Museum Notes (1935-1941 only): 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: 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: 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: a treasure-trove of information about Pennsylvania authors. Created by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book at Penn State.
Maps: 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: current maps from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Copyright 2009, Bernadette A. Lear. Please contact me for permission to use this page.