Libraries Without Borders: New Directions in Library History, Steven A. Knowlton, Ellen M. Pozzi, Jordan S. Sly, and Emily D. Spunaugle (eds.), ALA Editions, 2023. 216p. $69.99. 9780838936634

From calls for censorship of library materials to debates over community inclusion and confronting racial injustice, libraries in the United States face considerable challenges today. Libraries Without Borders: New Directions in Library History, from ALA Editions, provides instructive historical context to these and other current conflicts. Collectively, the essays in this book present a discussion of the evolving ways libraries have defined themselves through their communities, collections, services, and social responsibilities. 

The book is an outgrowth of the 2021 Library History Seminar, sponsored by the Library History Round Table of the ALA, designed around the theme of Libraries without Borders. As the editors describe in their introduction, the theme encouraged authors to consider how libraries, or rather the people involved in running libraries, worked across defined boundaries to extend services and information through their communities, redefining those borders in the process. Because of its own historical context, Libraries Without Borders itself stands as an example of how librarians pushed beyond the limitations sometimes inherent in librarianship. The conference was first scheduled for August 2020, and as conference organizer Bernadette Lear describes in the book’s afterword, pandemic travel restrictions meant the conference met virtually, but a year later than scheduled. Additionally, as the 2020 George Floyd protests prompted conversations on race in America, conference organizers chose to continue the conversation into the history of library institutions, as seen in Renate Chancellor’s keynote essay.

The book’s organization follows these library borders in four parts, arranged almost concentrically, narrowing from the outside in. Part one, “Community Formation and Centers of Literacy,” looks at the creation of new libraries in response to community needs, in part by defining the locale and the population served. Chapters here examine how libraries choose what to collect and promote, in the cases of advocacy for local public libraries in the 1960s Civil Rights era, and collections outreach to build a new Catholic library in the 20th century. Part two brings the boundary within the walls of the library and its host institution, looking at the expansion of a new library service (bibliographic instruction) in academic libraries. Part three, “Boundary-setting and Conflicts in Library History,” reviews debates within LIS around the social responsibilities to promote equity in access, specifically conflicts over the public perception of library fines and library anti-censorship advocacy. Part four positions the boundary within the practice of library history itself with a how-to chapter on conducting library history research and a necessary critique of the lack of diversity in voices represented in LIS history.

The primary strength of this collection is its placing contemporary challenges within an historical context. Renate Chancellor’s forward, adapted from the conference’s keynote address, sets the collection’s tone, critically examining how LIS as a profession has advanced or ignored equity and social justice. Turning attention on ALA itself, Chancellor traces a history from state library associations’ exclusion of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) librarians in the twentieth century to today’s calls for removal of books featuring the experiences of BIPOC individuals. Chapter one, “Locating Activism and Memory,” also examines libraries’ roles in devaluing or preserving knowledge from African American communities, specifically by sharing and situating narratives of library advocacy from the Civil Rights era. Addressing the similar challenge of confronting censorship, Emily D. Spunaugle’s chapter, “Defining the Boundaries of Propaganda,” examines how librarians—from small public libraries to the Library of Congress—tried to ease governmental restrictions on information from foreign countries in the 1930s-1950s. Kelly Hangauer’s chapter, “Uncharted Waters,” explores the development of bibliographic instruction as a new service in academic libraries, echoing ways librarians today navigate how instruction services should respond to generative AI and other changes in the information landscape.

An additional strength of this book is its breadth not only of content, but also methodology. A tour through the chapters is a demonstration of the wide range of methodological approaches currently used in LIS historical scholarship. Chapter one for example, mentioned above, applies an autoethnographic approach, looking at authors’ family histories or micro-narratives. The next chapter, by Henry Handley, uses a more traditional archival approach, reviewing correspondence and newsletters to describe how a Catholic research center built its collection through targeted outreach. John DeLooper applies another creative approach in “Better Late than Never,” analyzing media narratives of fine enforcement and returns of long-overdue materials to better understand how patrons perceive library practices and policies. The book ends with an example of critical historiography, in which authors Loriene Roy and Rea N. Simmons note the ways BIPOC voices have been sidelined in library history; they make efforts to rectify this by incorporating numerous examples of indigenous librarians, past and present, whose stories should be told to enrich LIS literature.

This book is highly recommended for LIS educational programs as well as academic libraries more broadly. It may be too library-specific for general collections, but it is a valuable read for any librarian interested in conducting historical research. Overall, it stands as a valuable and timely contribution to the understanding of how libraries evolve to meet the times and needs of their communities. — John Taylor, United States Institute of Peace Librarian
George Washington University Libraries & Academic Innovation