Internet Reviews

Dawn Behrend

Bibliography of Library History, 1990–Present. Access: https://openpublishing.psu.edu/blh/.

The Bibliography of Library History, 1990–Present is a publication of Penn State Libraries Open Publishing, the open-access imprint of Penn State University Libraries. This database of library history resources is based on bibliographies created by Ed Goedeken, emeritus, Iowa State University, and David Lincove, emeritus, The Ohio State University, and work completed by a number of Pennsylvania State University employees, including Eric Novotny, database project editor, and Ashoo Kumar, who supervised data entry. Complete access to the works on which this resource is based is available through ALA’s Library History Round Table and the Duke University Press Scholarly Publishing Collective websites. This resource can also be accessed through the Penn State Open Publishing website, its parent site.¹

The actual bibliography itself contains 7,464 items at the time this review was written, comprised of books, articles, and theses related to libraries over the past thirty-five years. The site appears to be relatively easy to navigate, and users can access resources easily after verification through CAPTCHA. Once verified, users are taken to a standard search screen, similar to a library catalog, where they can begin searching for library history resources from 2025, moving backward in time. To assist users in using the bibliography, they may consult a “How to Search” section with tips for searching the webpage, a comments and suggestions section, and the option to download an Excel file containing all currently available resources in the bibliography.

This resource will be most useful to LIS students, early career LIS professionals, and students and professionals in related fields such as history, English, and other similar fields of study. Outside these fields, it is not anticipated that many will find this resource particularly useful. —Aaron Khan, Tennessee State University, aaronkhan41@gmail.com

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Access: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/.

Founded in 1994 by philanthropists Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is an independent nonprofit organization that aims “to promote the knowledge and understanding of American history through educational programs and resources.” Despite the politically conservative views of its founders, the institute has a solidly nonpartisan, mainstream approach to history. The institute’s website features its many programs as well as hosts a robust digital collection of primary sources.

The institute’s American history education programs reach 14 million K–12 students and 97,000 educators at 36,000 schools globally, including 30% of all US schools. It offers lesson plans, classroom resources, and professional development for K–12 teachers; study guides and enrichment for K–12 students; and self-paced courses (seventy of them) and lectures for all audiences, including the general public. Courses are taught by leading academics and feature video lectures, readings, and quizzes, with teachers receiving up to fifteen professional development contact hours per course. The institute created a Hamilton Education Program in partnership with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. Ninety interactive exhibits cover topics from “Black Lives in the Founding Era” to “Spanish Influence on American History.” These resources are free or available at a reasonable cost to individual users. The institute also awards numerous prizes and scholarships and publishes a free magazine, History Now.

The institute owns the Gilder Lehrman Collection, providing access to 87,000 digitized letters, diaries, maps, pamphlets, printed books, newspapers, photographs, and ephemera that cover 500 years of American history. To view or download images of these primary sources, individual users must subscribe to the collection for a month ($25) or a year ($100). However, anyone can search the collection, view the object-level metadata and thumbnails, and consult the research guides for free. Users benefit from a powerful advanced search and extensive metadata with subject tagging and content summaries. However, the institute’s description of this small but informative collection as “one of the great archives in American history” stretches a point.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute facilitates a deeper understanding of American history. Its website connects students, teachers, and members of the public with enriching learning opportunities, teaching aids, historical documents, and other resources. Although optimal for K–12 constituencies, lower-division undergraduates may benefit too. The curricular applications are endless. —Michael Rodriguez, Lyrasis, topshelvr@gmail.com

Note

1. The parent website for the resource, “Bibliography of Library History, 1990–Present,” and through which one can gain access to the resource, can be accessed at https://openpublishing.psu.edu/bibliographies. The article “The LHRT Bibliographies: The First Thirty Years” can be accessed on the following website: https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/libraries/article-abstract/4/1/81/198785/The-LHRT-Bibliographies-The-First-Thirty-Years?redirectedFrom5fulltext. The work American Library History: A Comprehensive Guide to the Literature can accessed on the following website: https://www.ala.org/lhrt/popularresources/amerlibhis.