For SEX, See the Librarian

If you haven't read Jeanette C. Smith's The Laughing Librarian: A History of American Library Humor (McFarland, 2012), you're m...

50 Years of Working in Libraries

This month marks a significant personal anniversary for me. Fifty years ago this month I took a job at the Nashville (TN) Public Library ( ...

George Washington's Inauguration and the New York Society Library

It is inauguration day in our Nation's Capital so I thought it would be a good opportunity to highlight a photograph in my collection. I...

Early Harvard College Library Bookplate

The design of the bookplate shown here was used by the Harvard College Library from the 1760s through the first part of the 19th century. Th...

Postmaster Burleson's Magazines and the ALA Library War Service

During World War I Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson implemented a program that allowed used magazines from individuals to be placed in...

Port Elizabeth (South Africa) Library Postcard, 1905

American Libraries Direct has been featuring "Great Libraries of the World" for more than a year (in one of the sidebar sections)...

Andrew Carnegie and a Library Fire in Seattle

There was nothing like a fire to motivate Andrew Carnegie to donate money for a library building. On the morning of New Year's Day in 19...

Postcard Promoting Holdrege, NE and its Public Library

Multi-view postcards that depict prominent community buildings often include the public library. The one above for Holdrege, Nebraska is an ...

100 Years of Parcel Post

Since today marks the 100th anniversary of the provision of parcel post by the U.S. Post Office Department (now the United States Postal Se...