In their July 2011 article in The Library Quarterly, “Wayne A. Wiegand and the Library: A Passionate Engagement,” co-authors Arthur P. Young and John C. Bertot accurately anticipated that retirement would not be “a retiring activity for Wayne…”

Earlier this year, the Florida State University F. William Summers Emeritus Professor of Library and Information Studies and Professor of American Studies was one of 25 applicants (out of more than 250) to receive a New York Public Library Short Term Fellowship for 2011–2012. His goal is to mine the culturally rich and ethnically diverse archives of the NYPL branch library system for stories about patron use for his upcoming book, “This Hallowed Place: A People’s History of the American Public Library.

Wiegand is currently supporting University Libraries at FSU by donating the royalties from his  recently published book, “Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876-1956,” to an endowment created by FSU President and Mrs. Barron.

On Oct. 26, Wiegand presented a graduate seminar at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information. The presentation traced the history of librarianship through an examination of critical events in the profession’s development (see photos from the presentation).

In a recent issue of the American Library Association’s Library History Round Table Newsletter (vol. 10, issue 2), former chair and Wiegand mentee, Christine Pauley, summed up this period of Wiegand’s career by saying, “It is hard for us to imagine library history scholarship without him; but luckily we don’t have to do that yet.”