The Library Historians are Coming

On September 10-12, 2010 library historians from around the nation (and further afield) will gather in Madison to share their research on the history of libraries and print culture.  They will be participating in the Library History Seminar which  occurs only once every four years.  This year is the twelfth such event. Library History Seminar XII is being hosted by the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.  The event will take place at the Pyle Center on the UW-Madison campus. The information for registering for the Seminar and the program is located at http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~printcul/.  If you’re a library history buff (or even if you’re not) this is a great opportunity to rub elbows with the premier library historians of our time. If you can’t attend the entire program try to catch one of the two public lectures. On Friday, Sept. 10 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in Room 325-326 of the Pyle Center Janice A. Radway, Northwestern University, School of Communication, will present “Can the Underground be Saved?: Girl Zines, the Librarians Who Love Them, and the Reconfiguration of the Literary Sphere.” On Saturday, Sept. 11 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Wayne A. Wiegand, Florida State University, School of Library and Information Studies, will present  “Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1865-1956.” Wiegand is a native of Manitowoc and former Professor at UW SLIS. He co-founded the  Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America with Jim Danky.  I’m looking forward with great anticipation to the event and to meeting some of the people I admire the most.