Wayne Wiegand’s Library Trading Card

wiegand-card-front-72.jpgDuring the Library History Seminar XII, a national meeting of library historians, which was held in Madison, WI, in September. Wayne Wiegand was surprised after his keynote presentation when he was presented with his own library trading card.  Wiegand is the F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies at Florida State University, and is considered to be the dean of current library historians in the United States.  Wiegand is also a native of Manitowoc, Wisconsin and a former Professor at the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies. The trading card which is shown above is supposedly #64 in a set of 100 famous librarian trading cards.  The card is accompanied by a list of the 100 famous librarians as selected by by the Wayne Wiegand Library Trading Card Coordinating Committee (Jim Danky, Karen Krueger, Doug Zweizig, and Larry Nix).  Using a partially tongue-in-cheek baseball metaphor the back of the card begins “Wayne’s first sand lot tryouts with a library team, the Manitowoc (WI) Library Mirros, showed the promise his subsequent career demonstrated.”  Wiegand is perhaps best known for his biography of Melvil Dewey, Irrepressible Reformer.  In his presentations he often mentions that there are more public library outlets than McDonalds restaurants.  He is a strong advocate of approaching library history from the viewpoint of the “library in the life of the user” in contrast to the “user in the life of the library”.  Wiegand plans to retire next year. The list of famous librarians includes, among others, Melvil Dewey, Herbert Putnam, Peggy Sullivan, John Cotton Dana, Margaret Monroe, Arna Bontemps, Benjamin Franklin, Lutie Stearns, Fred Glazer, Pope Pius XI, E. J. Josey, S. R. Ranganathan, Augusta Baker, and Callimachus. It also includes former librarians at the Manitowoc Public Library.

You can obtain a copy of the Wiegand trading card and the list of the 100 famous librarians by sending $5 (check or cash) to Larry T. Nix, 3605 Niebler Ln., Middleton, WI 53562.  All proceeds from the sale of the cards will go to the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America at UW-SLIS which Wiegand, along with Jim Danky, founded.