"How civil liberties triumphed over national insecurity"

Between the two major red scares of the twentieth century, a police raid on a Communist Party bookstore in Oklahoma City marked an important lesson in the history of American freedom.

In a raid on the Progressive Bookstore in 1940, local officials seized thousands of books and pamphlets and arrested twenty customers and proprietors. All were detained incommunicado and many were held for months on unreasonably high bail. Four were tried for violating Oklahoma's "criminal syndicalism" law, and their convictions and ten-year sentences caused a nationwide furor. After protests from labor unions, churches, publishers, academics, librarians, the American Civil Liberties Union, members of the literary world, and prominent individuals ranging from Woody Guthrie to Eleanor Roosevelt, the convictions were overturned on appeal.

Shirley A. Wiegand and Wayne A. Wiegand share the compelling story of this important case for the first time. They reveal how state power--with support from local media and businesses--was used to trample individuals' civil rights during an era in which citizens were gripped by fear of foreign subversion.

Richly detailed and colorfully told, "Books on Trial "is a sobering story of innocent people swept up in the hysteria of their times. It marks a fascinating and unnerving chapter in the history of Oklahoma and of the First Amendment. In today's climate of shadowy foreign threats--also full of unease about the way government curtails freedom in the name of protecting its citizens--the past speaks to the present.

Sponsored by the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America, this volume features a selection of ten papers compiled from the Center's second national conference, accompanied by a detailed introduction. Presented by scholars from diverse backgrounds, the essays center on the emerging, interdisciplinary field of print culture. They examine children's literature and related print materials from a cultural perspective and discuss the influence of ideological, political, and material factors on the reader. Moreover, the authors join a cultural debate over the nature of childhood in specific historical periods. About the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America A joint project of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, the Center is an interdisciplinary organization devoted to scholarship in American print culture from 1875 to the present.

The first comprehensive history of American public school librarianship. "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.

This work records the accomplishments of the leaders of library science with 51 thoroughly researched biographies of individuals whose contributions have profoundly influenced the profession's history. The biographical sketches, ranging in length from 1,400 to 4,000 words, were researched, written, and reviewed by noted authorities in the library and information science community.

First Published in 1994. This book focuses on the historical development of the library as an institution. Its contents assume no single theoretical foundation or philosophical perspective but instead reflect the richly diverse opinions of its many contributors. This text is intended to serve as a reference tool for undergraduate and graduate students interested in library history, for library school educators whose teaching requires knowledge of the historical development of library institutions, services, and user groups, and for practicing library professionals.

This study effectively addresses the question: What was the involvement of the American public library community in "The Great War?" A comprehensive introduction provides an overview of public library history prior to World War I, touching on such topics as the growth of the public library from the genteel, early nineteenth-century social libraries of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states and the founding of the American Library Association in 1876. The A.L.A. provided for an exchange of information and a means to address common problems encountered in librarianship. It facilitated the adoption of the Dewey classification system, pressed for the publication of periodical indexes, and began publishing its own collection guides. Wiegand details the socioeconomic characteristics of turn-of-the-century library professionals and their determination to address industrialization, urbanization, and immigration as these issues came within their sphere of influence. He identifies two perplexing problems of the period: the inability of public librarians to force Americans to actually use their libraries, and the challenges posed by new forces in the cultural, intellectual, and literary worlds. It is against this background that American public librarians and their institutions responded to the call for united action during World War I. Chapter 1 deals with the response to the Great European War before the United States entered on the allied side in 1917, while Chapters 2 and 3 analyze library-initiated wartime activities on both the local and national levels. The role of the public library in food conservation and the infrequently addressed issue of censorship and book burning are scrutinized inChapters 4 and 5. Chapter 6 outlines programs for the Americanization of immigrants. A concluding chapter offers a synthesis of the volume. An essay on primary sources is included in the bibliography. An Active Instrument for Propaganda inaugurates the Beta Phi Mu's Monograph Series that, in the tradition of the International Library Science Honor Society's Chapbooks, will add significantly to the scholarly literature of the library profession. The book will be an important addition to collections dealing with World War I, and a valuable resource for historians of that period. Because wide coverage has been given to the wartime activities of hundreds of public libraries across the nation, many local public library collections will be enriched by this important volume.

In the modern era, there arose a prolific and vibrant print culture-books, newspapers, and magazines issued by and for diverse, often marginalized, groups. This long-overdue collection offers a unique foray into the multicultural world of reading and readers in the United States. The contributors to this award-winning collection pen interdisciplinary essays that examine the many ways print culture functions within different groups. The essays link gender, class, and ethnicity to the uses and goals of a wide variety of publications and also explore the role print materials play in constructing historical events like the Titanic disaster. Contributors: Lynne M. Adrian, Steven Biel, James P. Danky, Elizabeth Davey, Michael Fultz, Jacqueline Goldsby, Norma Fay Green, Violet Johnson, Elizabeth McHenry, Christine Pawley, Yumei Sun, and Rudolph J. Vecoli

How civil liberties triumphed over national insecurity Between the two major red scares of the twentieth century, a police raid on a Communist Party bookstore in Oklahoma City marked an important lesson in the history of American freedom. In a raid on the Progressive Bookstore in 1940, local officials seized thousands of books and pamphlets and arrested twenty customers and proprietors. All were detained incommunicado and many were held for months on unreasonably high bail. Four were tried for violating Oklahoma's "criminal syndicalism" law, and their convictions and ten-year sentences caused a nationwide furor. After protests from labor unions, churches, publishers, academics, librarians, the American Civil Liberties Union, members of the literary world, and prominent individuals ranging from Woody Guthrie to Eleanor Roosevelt, the convictions were overturned on appeal. Shirley A. Wiegand and Wayne A. Wiegand share the compelling story of this important case for the first time. They reveal how state power-with support from local media and businesses-was used to trample individuals' civil rights during an era in which citizens were gripped by fear of foreign subversion. Richly detailed and colorfully told, Books on Trial is a sobering story of innocent people swept up in the hysteria of their times. It marks a fascinating and unnerving chapter in the history of Oklahoma and of the First Amendment. In today's climate of shadowy foreign threats-also full of unease about the way government curtails freedom in the name of protecting its citizens-the past speaks to the present.

Despite dire predictions in the late twentieth century that public libraries would not survive the turn of the millennium, their numbers have only increased. Two of three Americans frequent a public library at least once a year, and nearly that many are registered borrowers. Although library authorities have argued that the public library functions primarily as a civic institution necessary for maintaining democracy, generations of library patrons tell a different story. In Part of Our Lives, Wayne A. Wiegand delves into the heart of why Americans love their libraries. The book traces the history of the public library, featuring records and testimonies from as early as 1850. Rather than analyzing the words of library founders and managers, Wiegand listens to the voices of everyday patrons who cherished libraries. Drawing on newspaper articles, memoirs, and biographies, Part of Our Lives paints a clear and engaging picture of Americans who value libraries not only as civic institutions, but also as public places that promote and maintain community. Whether as a public space, a place for accessing information, or a home for reading material that helps patrons make sense of the world around them, the public library has a rich history of meaning for millions of Americans. From colonial times through the recent technological revolution, libraries have continuously adapted to better serve the needs of their communities. Wiegand demonstrates that, although cultural authorities (including some librarians) have often disparaged reading books considered not "serious," the commonplace reading materials users obtained from public libraries have had a transformative effect for many, including people such as Ronald Reagan, Bill Moyers, Edgwina Danticat, Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, Sonia Sotomayor, and Oprah Winfrey. A bold challenge to conventional thinking about the American public library, Part of Our Lives is an insightful look into of America's most beloved cultural institutions.

A broad, comparative history of librarianship, this intriguing work goes beyond the standard focus on institutions and collections to help you explore the part modern librarianship played-and continues to play-in forming Western cultures. Previous histories of libraries in the Western world-the last of which was published nearly 20 years ago-concentrate on libraries and librarians. This book takes a different approach. It focuses on the practice of librarianship, showing you how that practice has contributed to constructing the heritage of cultures. To do so, this groundbreaking collection of essays presents the history of modern librarianship in the context of recent developments of the library institution, professionalization of librarianship, and innovation through information technology. Organized by region, the book addresses the widely recognized, international impact of Anglo-American librarianship and its continuing influence over the past century, combining critical analysis with chronological histories of modern librarianship in Europe, North America, Australia/New Zealand, and Africa. An introductory chapter explains the origins of the project, and a concluding chapter examines the effects of digitization on modern librarianship in the 21st century. Discusses the cultural role of libraries and the role of information in shaping modern society Deepens readers' understanding of the history of the 20th century and modern librarianship, including digital convergence of the past two decades Analyzes the cycles of "information explosion" and multiple information eras as part of the development of librarianship over more than a century Explores tensions around professional neutrality in the provision of public access to information and knowledge in a democratic society