Public Library History on the Lewis and Clark Trail

Abstract

The history of public libraries in the United States is not long. But what do current libraries know about their own history? To find out I drove the Lewis and Clark Trail to visit public libraries between St. Louis and the Pacific Ocean. The purpose of the research trip was to discover the historical knowledge that public libraries along the trail were able to share about themselves. Local history and genealogy proved to be very important in public libraries, while knowledge of their own history was less so. The libraries, however, did manage to blend their institutional histories with their current services.