Happy May, all!
Omnibus updates for upcoming events, activities, and opportunities via the Library History Round Table:
*The finalized minutes from our March 20 Midwinter Meeting are attached to this post. Take a gander for updates from our awards committees, budget information, and larger ALA issues that will affect us at LHRT down the road. Thanks to our secretary Tom Glynn for his work putting these minutes together!
*Join us Thursday, May 18 at 7:00p ET for our virtual bookclub LHRT Reads! discussion of the Dee Garrison's libhist classic, The Apostles of Culture: The Public Librarian and American Society, 1876-1920. Register in advance here! More information is also available on Michele Fenton's recent ALA Connect post. Can't wait to see you there!
*Our annual Research Forum, this year themed "Unpacking Access," will be held virtually on Tuesday, June 13 at 3:00p ET. Our two selected speakers will be:
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Amanda Rizki (University of Virginia Library), "Carceral Fees: a History of Racism at Circulation Desk"
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Ethan Lindsay (Wichita State University Library), "Extending Library Access to Readers Across the Plains: The Early Traveling Libraries Program in Kansas"
Keep your eyes peeled for registration information!
*LHRT will also be in-person at ALA Annual in Chicago! Our Edward G. Holley lecturer is bookseller, author, (and consulting rare book expert on the HISTORY Channel's television show Pawn Stars) Rebecca Romney! Rebecca's lecture, "Cultural Memory, Community Work: Why Every Librarian Should Care About Rare Books," is on Sunday, June 25, from 10:30-11:30a CT at McCormick Place. For all those attending ALA in person, we'll see you there.
Volunteer Opportunities (LIS students, you're especially welcome!)
*Our next Library History Seminar (LHS)--a quinquennial conference celebrating the histories of libraries, their workers, and users--will be held online in 2026. Virtual conferences, although online, still require considerable work. Curious what our last LHS was like? You can browse the conference website here. If you have experience or simply interest! in conference planning and would like to help put together LHS XV, please contact @Emily Spunaugle
*LHRT Website Review--Our beloved website, https://www.ala.org/rt/lhrt, is due for a review! Our website is the first point of contact we have with you, our current members, with prospective members, and others. We're looking for members interested in joining our current volunteer webmaster to review our site for broken links, incorrect information, and inconsistent formatting. If you have a sharp eye, a flair for public-facing writing, or are simply willing to click through pages with us, contact @Emily Spunaugle
*LHRT Oral History Project--To help document our own history, the LHRT Executive Committee has approved an LHRT Oral History Project to interview some of our longtime members. If you've experience (or simply interest!) in taking oral histories, contact Andrew Wertheimer, who has graciously agreed to head up this important work.
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Emily Spunaugle
Humanities and Rare Books Librarian
Oakland University
She/Her/Hers
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