Remarks for Dictionary of American Biography, 2^nd Supplement Reception

 

Friday, 24 January 2003, 8:30-10:00 p.m.

 

 

 

With sincere appreciation to Donald G. Davis, Jr. for service to the Library History Round Table of the American Library Association through editorship of Libraries & Culture:  A Journal of Library History and its predecessor, The Journal of Library History, Philosophy & Comparative Librarianship.

 

 

From his first issue—Volume 12, Number 1, 1977—and continuing for more than twenty-five years, Don raised the standard for scholarly communication in the library, book-related, and historical professions.

 

 

Don quickly met and exceeded the initial goals of the quarterly’s first eleven years:

 

            To provide “a means of communication between historians, librarians, and the

academic community at large.”

 

            To give librarians the “historical and philosophical grounding and continuity to

move forward intelligently.”

 

 

He advanced the journal far beyond these initial concepts, enhancing its reputation and expanding its readership.  He envisioned Libraries & Culture as:

 

            “interdisciplinary,” exploring the “significance of collections of recorded

knowledge—their creation, organization, preservation, and utilization—in the

context of cultural and social history, unlimited as to time and space.”

 

 

Under Don’s leadership, book review sections and special issues became rich with international perspective.  Library history seminar proceedings became excellent examples of cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural research, and Don became a model of judicious and diligent scholarship.  He deserves the abiding respect of a grateful Round Table.

 

 

 

Library History Round Table

American Library Association

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

24 January 2003