The American Public School Library: A History

FAIN: FT-254468-17

Wayne A. Wiegand
Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL 32306-0001)

Participating institutions:
Unaffiliated Independent Scholar () - Participating Institution

Preparation of a monograph about the American public school library and its history.

As of this writing, more than 94,000 school library/media centers exist in the United States, 80,000 of which are public school libraries. For the 20th century alone the American public school library can boast a rich history of service to tens of thousands of schoolteachers and administrators and millions of K-12 users of both sexes, all creeds, races, sexual orientations, ethnicities, and social classes. Despite the fact that the American public school library is ubiquitous, however, no one from the education or the library and information science (LIS) research communities has yet written a comprehensive history of the institution to help identify and deepen understanding of its multiple roles, and to provide perspective to leaders now creating policy, planning its future, and fighting for its funding. I intend to write a 300-page history of the American public school library.

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