2025-2026 Gryphon Lecture
Wayne A. Wiegand, the F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies Emeritus at Florida State University, will present "Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Missing Stories in American Library History."
A reception will follow the lecture.
Abstract:
Despite ALA’s 1939 Library Bill of Rights asserting commitments to intellectual freedom and non-discrimination, the school library profession has remained largely silent during pivotal moments of racial injustice, particularly in the two decades following Brown v. Board of Education. In this talk, Wiegand centers the experience of Black public school librarians during this period, including the racial violence they endured. He argues that school librarianship’s traditional culture of “politeness” has led to a collective historical amnesia about their response to the Civil Rights Movement, making possible the continued perpetuation of professional myths.
Wiegand is colloquially known as the “Dean of American Library Historians,” among many other titles. He is the author of The American Public School Library: A History and In Silence or Indifference: Racism and the Jim Crow Segregated Public School Libraries.
This event is sponsored by The Center for Children's Books