My involvement in the American Library Association (ALA) and the Library History Round Table (LHRT), roughly from 1995 to 2011, was extremely valuable to my career as an academic librarian. It also afforded me valuable opportunities to write, speak, interact, and grow as an individual. When I first came up for tenure and promotion as a librarian at Ohio State University, it was difficult for me to identify others who were knowledgeable and appreciative of my research and publications in the area of library history. At the time I was not active in any organizations outside of Ohio. As a result, when it came time for me to propose names of prospective outside evaluators of my research for my tenure review, I had little to offer. Although I did succeed in achieving tenure and promotion after some difficulty, it became apparent that I would do well to avoid such problems in the future by networking with others of similar research interests. Accordingly, I joined ALA and LHRT, attended annual meetings, and became acquainted with many other librarians across a wide variety of universities. These librarians became valued professional colleagues. Several were to serve as external evaluators of my research during future promotion reviews, and some became friends. David Hovde, Ed Goedeken, Jim Carmichael, Christine Jenkins, Andrew Wertheimer, and Bernadette A. Lear come immediately to mind.For several years I edited LHRT’s newsletter, and I was a candidate for office on a couple of occasions. I also was provided the opportunity to present a paper at ALA, “On the Roof of the Library Nearest You: America’s Open-Air Libraries, 1905–1944,” that became part of a published collection, Libraries to the People: Histories of Outreach, edited by Robert S. Freeman and David Hovde (McFarland, 2003). In 2005 I was able to participate in LHRT’s Library History Seminar XI, “Libraries in Times of War, Revolution, and Social Change,” held at the University of Illinois’s Robert Allerton Conference Center in Monticello, Illinois. My presentation, “The Paris Commune of 1871 and the Bibliotheque National,” was published as an article in a special edition of Library Trends (55, no. 3 [Winter 2007]). At this point, it should be clear that involvement in a group like LHRT can yield great professional and personal benefits. Connections are made, opportunities appear, and service, presentations, and publications can result. All these possibilities are most welcome but not entirely unexpected if one is willing to put forth the effort. At Library History Seminar XI, however, a surprising development occurred. I noticed that Donald G. Davis, professor emeritus of library history at the University of Texas and LHRT elder statesman, was presenting a paper with Professor Cheng Huanwen from Zhongshan University in Guangzhou, China. My wife, who was still waiting for her visa to join me in America, lived in Guangzhou. Thanks to an introduction from Don Davis, I was invited to speak at Zhongshan University’s School of Library and Information Science. Ohio State University arranged for me to also speak at Wuhan University, OSU’s sister school, and they largely financed my trip. As a result, I was able to obtain valuable international teaching experience that was of considerable assistance in securing my final promotion to full professor, as well as spend time with my wife, who joined me in my China travels.All these experiences that grew out of my involvement with LHRT were both professionally and personally life changing. They occurred at a time when I was already well into my second career. (I had spent seventeen years as a public school teacher in New York City and Columbus, Ohio, before entering library school.) During the years of my first marriage, I was busy helping raise a family, and I considered that there was little time to become involved in professional organizations and attend out-of-town conferences. I came to realize that such associations and travel are indispensable for professional growth and advancement. We should never stop learning and experiencing. LHRT was a crucial element in my continuing and ongoing education, and I am grateful for the many opportunities it offered me. I encourage all librarians with an interest in the history of their profession to seriously consider becoming involved in the LHRT.Librarianship has undergone great changes in recent decades, and much has been said and written about the profession’s identity. I like to reflect on Jesse Shera’s definition of the librarian as a mediator in the use of cultural records. That description situates the librarian as a valuable professional at the heart of interdisciplinary endeavor. Today, there is wide acknowledgment that virtually all academic research is interdisciplinary in nature. Discipline boundaries are largely artificial constructs. All subjects have a history, follow laws and regulations, and develop a literature. All can be investigated from philosophical, psychological, sociological, and anthropological perspectives. The librarian is well-equipped to facilitate all this because the librarian is a generalist with unique skills. Full appreciation of the librarian’s role requires knowledge of the profession’s history. LHRT exists to provide such insight.Relationships and connections are often not apparent to new librarians who might believe that concentrating on one’s job duties will be sufficient for retention and advancement. Some find research and writing daunting, tedious, and burdensome. Others are uncomfortable speaking before groups, especially large ones. Virtually no one is equally strong in all aspects of one’s job, but gradually one discovers that seemingly discrete elements are in fact interconnected. In preparing an oral presentation, the teacher thinks through a subject in a new way and research questions present themselves. While researching an article, one comes upon historical situations that have applications to one’s job duties. Colleagues encountered at conferences engage one in discussions that open up new possibilities. Just as there are no hard-and-fast lines of demarcation between subject disciplines, the boundaries between service, teaching, and writing prove to be arbitrary and often illusory. The key is to explore available options and welcome new challenges. Success is not always guaranteed, but experience is, and growth often follows.
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