Blog – Page 7 – Wisconsin Library Heritage Center

February 26, 2016

I Love Libraries and I Vote

On February 3, 2004 on Library Legislative Day the Wisconsin Library Association kicked off an election year campaign, “I Love Libraries and I Vote”. The campaign was designed to encourage library users to vote and to remind those running for public office that many voters cared deeply about libraries of all kinds. The proposal for the campaign came from WLA’s Library Advocacy Round Table (LART). The idea for the campaign was based on a study sponsored by the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium and partially funded by WLA that determined that 80% of library users voted in the 2002 gubernatorial election compared with 65% on nonusers. WLA developed a website for the campaign along with tips for libraries to promote the campaign. Buttons (see left) and other promotional materials were distributed to libraries throughout the state. Part of the campaign involved having library patrons mail postcards, similar to the one below from the Beloit Public Library, to elected officials. On the back of the card, the sender provided a personal message about why the library was important to him or her. After this initiative the Library Advocacy Round Table was disbanded because of overlap with other WLA units, and the WLA Foundation embarked on an even more ambitious library marketing campaign, the Campaign for Wisconsin Libraries, in 2005.

February 24, 2016

The Wisconsin Historical Society

The Wisconsin Historical Society was founded in 1847 and it quickly began to establish one of Wisconsin’s earliest library collections. Led by the vision of Lyman Copeland Draper and succeeding secretaries of the Society, that collection developed into one of the country’s largest and most important North American historical collections. The leaders and staff of the Society played an important role in the creation and development of the Wisconsin Library Association. In addition to Draper, these individuals included: Daniel Steele Durrie; Reuben Gold Thwaites; Minnie M. Oakley; and Benton H. Wilcox among others. A symbol of the early library history of the Wisconsin Historical Society is a bookcase that housed the original library. The collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society was housed in several buildings over time including the State Capitol. In 1900 the Wisconsin Historical Society and the University of Wisconsin Library jointly occupied a newly completed building. That building with expansions continues to house the Society. The UW Library moved into its own building in 1953. The Society completed a major renovation of its impressive reading room in 2010. In 2015 the Wisconsin Historical Press published The Wisconsin Historical Society: Collecting, Preserving, and Sharing Stories Since 1846 by John Zimm.

February 16, 2016

Founders of WLA

The following individuals were either instrumental in supporting the idea of a state library association for Wisconsin and/or attended the organizational meeting for the Wisconsin Library Association on February 11, 1891 in the Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

From the State Superintendent’s Office:

Oliver E. Wells, State Superintendent

Charles A. Hutchins, Assistant State Superintendent

Frank A. Hutchins, Township Library Clerk

From the University of Wisconsin:

Walter M. Smith, University Librarian

E. A. Birge, Professor of Zoology

(also member of the Madison Public Library Board of Trustees)

John C. Freeman, Professor of Literature

From the State Historical Society:

Reuben G. Thwaites, Secretary

Isaac S. Bradley, Librarian

From the Milwaukee Public Library:

Klas A. Linderfelt, Librarian

Theresa West Elmendorf, Assistant Librarian

Others:

Minnie M. Oakley, Librarian, Madison Public Library

Lorenzo D. Harvey, President of the Wisconsin Teacher’s Association

Albert O. Wright, Secretary of the State Board of Charities and Reform

February 13, 2016March 13, 2020

Bunge Remembers Kee

Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame member Charles Bunge made an excellent presentation about the creation of Wisconsin’s public library systems law on February 8. In the open discussion period following his presentation Bunge recounted meeting S. Jan Kee, another Library Hall of Fame member in the late 1960s. Kee had served as Secretary of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission from 1956 to 1965, an important period leading up to the public library systems law. Bunge was heavily involved in the actual development of the legislation which was signed into law in 1971. In talking at their chance meeting, Bunge and Kee discovered that they had a remarkable connection. While working on the bookmobile in a State Library of Missouri library demonstration project in the 1940s Kee had provided a young boy in Gasconade County, MO a copy of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. That boy was Charles Bunge. The audience expressed a desire for Bunge to share this amazing story more widely. He has graciously written up a fuller account of their meeting and it is now located on the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center website.

February 11, 2016March 13, 2020

Happy 125th Birthday WLA!

On this date 125 years ago a group of individuals gathered in the office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (located in Wisconsin’s second Capitol, shown above) for the purpose of establishing a state library association. At that meeting, a constitution was adopted and officers were elected. The officers included K. A. Linderfelt, president; R. G. Thwaites, vice-president; and F. A. Hutchins, secretary-treasurer. By this action the Wisconsin Library Association became the sixth state library association created in the nation. The 125 years of library leadership and support by the association has had a positive impact on all types of Wisconsin libraries and on the library service delivered by those libraries to the people of Wisconsin. As Wisconsin libraries look to the future, it is also a time to acknowledge the tremendous library growth and development that has occurred in the last 125 years. Through good times and hard times Wisconsin libraries have persevered in meeting the information and knowledge needs of the state’s residents, and they will continue to do so long into the future. That’s something to celebrate, and WLA along with Wisconsin libraries will be doing this throughout 2016.

February 10, 2016March 13, 2020

WLA’s 125th Capitol Ceremony

A public kick-off of the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the Wisconsin Library Association took place on February 9th at the State Capitol. The celebration event took place in conjunction with Wisconsin Library Legislative Day. The ceremony at the Capitol included presentations by Plumer Lovelace, WLA Executive Director; Pamela Westby, WLA President; Tony Evers, State Superintendent of Public Insturction; and Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. Lt. Governor Kleefisch read a proclamation from Governor Scott Walker designating February 11, 2016 as Wisconsin Library Association Day.

Photo credit: Paul Nelson

February 6, 2016

Wisconsin’s Oldest Library

In 1836 when the United States Congress created the Territory of Wisconsin it appropriated $5,000 for a library. This was the origin of the Wisconsin State Library (now the Wisconsin State Law Library) making it Wisconsin’s first and oldest library. At the first meeting of the territorial legislature in Belmont, Wisconsin, a resolution was passed creating a committee to select and purchase books for the library. The first librarian was James Clark, publisher of the Belmont Gazette and the territorial printer. It was not until 1851 that additional money ($2,500) was appropriated to expand the library. Initially, the collection was designed to support the territorial legislature and the state legislature and contained ” law books, books of reference, and works on political science and statistics”. Emphasis on legal materials increased and in 1876 the library became part of the judicial branch of state government. The need for more general library materials by the legislature was met first by the Library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and later by the Legislative Reference Library of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission (now the Legislative Reference Bureau).

The law library survived the Capitol fire of 1904 due to quick action by University of Wisconsin students and Supreme Court Justice R. D. Marshall. In 1999 the Wisconsin State Law Library moved out of its home in the Capitol due to a major renovation of the building. In 2011 the library celebrated its 175th anniversary. A history of the State Law Library is located on its website. The postcard above shows Wisconsin’s first capitol in Belmont, Wisconsin.

February 2, 2016

Library Legislative Day 1895

WLA’s Library Legislative Day for 2016 will occur next week on February 9th. Library legislation like everything else connected to Wisconsin libraries also has a heritage. In his 1966 history of the Wisconsin Library Association Benton H. Wilcox wrote about WLA’s first legislative victory. Lutie Stearns attended the American Library Association meeting in Lake Placid New York in 1894 where she was introduced to the idea of a state library commission. Stearns brought back copies of legislation establishing such commissions in New Hampshire and Massachuttes and was enthusiastic about establishing such a commission in Wisconsin. Wisconsin’s first library legislative champion Senator James Huff Stout introduced the necessary legislation early in the 1895 legislative session. According to Wilcox this legislation was the principal subject of discussion at WLA’s conference in Madison on February 13 and 14, 1895. At that conference, WLA enorsed the legislation and appointed a committee to work for its enactment. Wilcox writes: “The legislature was less than enthusiastic but by holding the requested appropriation to only $500 per annum for expenses, Senator Stout was able to bring it through, and it became law late in April, 1895. The Association had achieved its first notable victory.” So WLA has been involved in library legislation for 121 years. The result of that early success was the creation of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission which is now the Division for Libraries and Technology. Both Stearns and Stout were inducted into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame in 2008.

Information about this year’s legislative day can be found HERE. An important feature of this year’s legislative day will be the kickoff of WLA’s 125th Anniversary Celebration in the rotunda of the State Capitol at 12:00 noon.

wla125logo-small

February 2, 2016March 13, 2020

WLA’s Greatest Legislative Victory

In December of 1971, the Governor signed into law SB 47. This bill substantially revised the laws related to public libraries in Wisconsin and enabled the creation of single-county and multi-county public library systems in Wisconsin. It was largely responsible for ensuring that every citizen in Wisconsin not only has access to public library service but has access to the shared resources of all public libraries in Wisconsin. The bill was passed after years of effort on the part of the Wisconsin Library Association (WLA), the Wisconsin Division for Libraries in DPI, and the Wisconsin library community. It was undoubtedly WLA’s greatest legislative victory. Next week, one of the key players in making that happen, Charles Bunge, Professor Emeritus, School of Library and Information Studies, UW-Madison, will present a program titled “Portrait of a Legislative Success Story: The Development and Passage of Public Library System Legislation in Wisconsin”. The program will take place on Monday, February 8, at 7:00 p.m. at the Madison Public Library. It precedes Library Legislative Day which takes place on February 9. The program is sponsored by the Task Force on WLA’s 125th Anniversary and the Legislative Day Planning Committee of WLA. Bunge is a member of the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame.

The text of Bunge’s presentation can be found HERE.

January 31, 2016

WLA and the American Library Association 1886

The American Library Association was founded in 1876, fifteen years before the Wisconsin Library Association was established. In 1882 Theresa West (later Theresa West Elmendorf), assistant librarian of the Milwaukee Public Library, became the first member of ALA from Wisconsin. In July, 1886 the American Library Association held its annual meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There were 131 men and women in attendance making it the largest meeting of the association up to that date. The site of the conference was Milwaukee’s Plankinton House hotel (see postcard above). Over twenty presentations were made on a wide variety of topics at the meeting by the most prominent librarians in America at that time. A major topic under discussion at the meeting was cooperative cataloging. Although the meeting was substantive from a professional point of view, it was the post-conference excursion that was the most interesting aspect of the meeting. Melvil Dewey described the excursion at length in the October, 1886 issue of his publication Library Notes (pages 95-99. The eight day train excursion was arranged by Klas Linderfelt, Librarian of the Milwaukee Public Librarian. The excursion traveled almost 1,500 miles from Milwaukee to Madison to Kilbourn City (now Wisconsin Dells) to La Crosse to Minneapolis to Bayfield and the Apostle Islands to Oshkosh and back to Milwaukee and Chicago. The stop at Kilbourn City included a trip through the Upper Dells (before it was dammed) by steamboat and a float trip back down by row boats.

In appreciation of the efforts of Klas Linderfelt in arranging the excursion, those who participated gave him a small gold plated book inscribed “From the A.L.A. to K.A. Linderfelt In grateful recognition. Milwaukee, 1886”. Linderfelt became the first president of WLA in 1891 and was also elected president of ALA. However, six years later ALA accepted Linderfelt’s resignation in disgrace as President of the ALA. Linderfelt is a member of the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame.