Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award is presented by the Library History Round TableGreenberg, Gerry (2023), "On LHRT's Seventy-Fifth Anniversary. Libraries: Culture, History, and Society 7 no.1:77-79. of the American Library Association every third year to recognize the best book written in English in the field of library history, including the history of libraries, librarianship, and book culture.
The award is named after Eliza Atkins Gleason, the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in librarianship in 1940. Her Ph.D. was earned at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School under advisor, Carleton B. Joeckel. The dissertation was revised and published in 1941 by the University of Chicago Press as The Southern Negro and the Public Library; a Study of the Government and Administration of Public Library Service to Negroes in the South.
The Library History Round Table also sponsors the Justin Winsor Prize (library).
The Library History Round Table, was established in 1947. Historical articles appeared on the 50th anniversary in the journal, Libraries & Culture Wertheimer, Andrew B., and John David Marshall. “Fifty Years of Promoting Library History: A Chronology of the ALA (American) Library History Round Table, 1947-1997.” Libraries & Culture 35, no. 1 (2000): 215–39. and the 75th in the journal, Libraries: Culture, History, and Society .Greenberg, Gerry (2023), "On LHRT's Seventy-Fifth Anniversary. Libraries: Culture, History, and Society 7 no.1:77-79.Lear, Bernadette A. "LHRT Leadership, Programs, and Awards, 1998–2023."Libraries: Culture, History, and Society. 7, No. 2, 2023: 181-215.
Recipients +Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award Book Award RecipientsYearAuthorTitlePublisherRef.2004Louise RobbinsThe Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown: Civil Rights, Censorship, and the American LibraryUniversity of Massachusetts Press2007Carl OstrowskiBooks, Maps, and Politics: a Cultural History of the Library of Congress, 1783-1861University of Massachusetts Press2010David AllanA Nation of Readers: The Lending Library in Georgian EnglandBritish Library2013Dr. Christine PawleyReading Places: Literacy, Democracy, and the Public Library in Cold War AmericaUniversity of Massachusetts Press2016Dr. Cheryl KnottNot Free, Not for All: Public Libraries in the Age of Jim CrowUniversity of Massachusetts Press2019Wayne A. Wiegand and Shirley A. WiegandThe Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow SouthLouisiana State University Press2022Rebecka Taves Sheffield Documenting Rebellions: A Study of Four Lesbian and Gay Archives in Queer Times Litwin Books, LLC 2020Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award Library History Round Table.2025Laura E. HeltonScattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade HistoryColumbia University Press 2024Laura E. Helton's Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History selected as the winner of the Gleason Book Award in 2025. Library History Round Table.
External links Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award American Library Association, Library History Round Table
References