Welcome from the Editors

Imaginative literature encourages us to reflect on real and desired worlds. Among sci-fi authors, Ursula Le Guin’s work is particularly evocative for LCHS because the effects of political and social structures on everyday people frequently appear in her narratives. In the collection Four Ways to Forgiveness, for example, there are colonies, there is slavery, there is patriarchy, and there are questions about postwar reconciliation. As editors of LCHS, we publish or hope to publish material on these concerns as well. The quote from the story “A Man of the People” is also relevant because the character who utters it is Havzhiva, an ambassador between two planets. We, too, strive to be bridge-builders within the special universe we have tried to create where authors from diverse backgrounds, employing perspectives and methods from various disciplines, are welcome to tell library stories from around the world and help our profession make sense of moments that could otherwise wear us out. Le Guin’s use of river imagery also suggests that the flow of library history will continue even after our own roles as editors of LCHS come to an end.As readers of the Fall 2023 issue will notice, aftereffects of COVID-19 continue to be felt in that it remains difficult for many authors to bring manuscripts to fruition. Nonetheless, we are glad to present two research articles. In “Vivian Davidson Hewitt: A Special Librarian’s Advocacy,” Tara Murray Grove adds to the growing body of literature highlighting the contributions of Black women in librarianship. Hewitt served as the first Black president of the Special Libraries Association. This biography emphasizes her considerable accomplishments while acknowledging the broader social and institutional factors that influenced her and other Black librarians in the United States. While special librarians often receive less attention than their academic and public library peers, Hewitt’s story demonstrates how understanding special librarians contributes to a fuller understanding of library history. Our second research article is “‘Neighborhood Library Modernization’: Public Library Development and Racial Inequality in Milwaukee during the 1960s,” by Maddi Brenner. The story of the Milwaukee Public Library expansion and its effects on the African American community in the 1950s and 1960s provides insights into the ongoing racially influenced policy practices in a northern city. Brenner’s account supplements the literature of libraries and African American communities during a transformative time in America’s history.Following Grove’s and Brenner’s work, the “LHRT at Seventy-Five” section continues our yearlong effort to document and reflect upon the round table’s anniversary. While our multiple calls for contributions did not result in as many or as diverse essays as we had hoped, we are thrilled to hear from Donald G. Davis, who served as LHRT chair in the 1978–1979 season, was the editor of LCHS’s intellectual predecessors—the Journal of Library History from 1977 to 1987 and Libraries & Culture from 1988 to 2006—and remains a leading light after whom the round table’s article award is named. Drawing from his diaries and recollections, he shares his involvement in the round table’s name change, early Library History Seminars, and bringing thirty years’ worth of library history scholarship to fruition. He also offers words of wisdom for current and future LHRT members.After Davis’s fascinating personal account, Dominique Daniel provides in-depth details about round table events during the 2010s from her perspective as chair of the round table’s Publication Task Force, focusing especially on efforts that led to the founding of LCHS. Her work complements and expands upon the brief account we provided in volume 2, number 1, and more properly acknowledges the people, debates, and activities that preceded the founding of the journal. More than setting the record straight or engaging in additional navel-gazing, Daniel’s article provides valuable points of consideration for other small societies that are thinking of establishing a scholarly publication, thus contributing a practical resource that didn’t seem to exist in the LIS literature up until this juncture.Prompted by Bernadette Lear’s essay “Library History as a Community” (LCHS 7.1), Anthony Bernier argues that the round table must support multiple library history communities. Bernier advocates for a round table that provides a welcoming home to history enthusiasts and scholars alike. Drawing on his experience as LHRT chair and as an LIS educator, Bernier offers a few concrete suggestions for how the round table can leverage and amplify the different strengths and interests of the diverse community of library historians.Following these personal reflections, the section concludes with a carefully researched chronology of the round table’s history from 1998 to 2023, bringing up to date the previous work of Andrew B. Wertheimer and John David Marshall.1 Drawn from LHRT’s election records, conference programs, newsletters, blog posts, press releases, and email archives, then crowdsourced and fact-checked with the current membership, it represents a good-faith effort and the most complete record available of LHRT’s leaders, educational programs, and award recipients. In addition to capturing hundreds of happy moments along LHRT’s “great river,” we hope it will inspire someone to write fuller descriptions of the individuals and events that have influenced the library history community and its scholarship.With our reviews editor, Brett Spencer, we invite you to explore diverse works that examine the dizzying variety of libraries across the ages. In our book review section, readers will find titles that offer sweeping tours of ancient libraries, private libraries in the form of domestic bookrooms, and libraries that existed within the French Third Republic and the early modern Roman Curia.As a final note, two decades after Le Guin published Four Ways to Forgiveness, she added another novella to the series and Penguin republished the grouping as Five Ways to Forgiveness (2016). Besides reminding us that new chapters can always be added to well-established stories, the title suggests to us the role history can play in social reconciliation and the grace we should aim to extend to each other as we navigate changes in life. Bernadette and Eric are now in the process of passing the pens to Nicole Cooke and Carol Leibiger, who were selected by the LHRT Executive Committee to lead the journal in new directions after we step down. We couldn’t have asked for a better team to further LCHS’s efforts to become a more inclusive and equitable publication. Dr. Cooke, who guest edited our recent special issue on Black female librarians (volume 6, number 1), is the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. She is the author of dozens of books, chapters, and articles on diversity and social justice in librarianship. Dr. Leibiger is Information Literacy Coordinator at the University of South Dakota, has extensive experience as a reviewer and member of journal editorial boards, and had expertise with German language and literary scholarship that will strengthen our publication’s international outlook and reach. Dr. Cooke and Dr. Leibiger have already begun to recompose the journal’s editorial board, recruit associate and managing editors, reexamine editorial practices, and cultivate new authors. We’re very enthusiastic about the fresh energy and new ideas they are bringing to the enterprise. Stay tuned for future “Welcomes from the Editors” which will further introduce their team and their vision for LCHS. The river of library history continues to flow and bend.