Wayne A. Wiegand, F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies at the Florida State University College of Information, received one of 64 “Fellowships for University Teachers, College Teachers, and Independent Scholars” announced by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) on Dec. 20, 2007.

Wiegand’s project, “A People’s History of the American Public Library, 1850-2000” is one of eight with the NEH We the People designation, “aimed at reinvigorating the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture.” Its focus will be research for a book about the 150-year history of the American public library that will interweave analysis of the library’s roles as an information provider, as a community cultural space, and as a supplier of books to reader groups.

Notes collected from primary sources like personal correspondence and diaries will provide data but a perspective provided by current humanities research on the public sphere and the social nature of reading, coupled with keyword searchable historical newspapers only recently made available, will help Wiegand document community use of the libraries and identify the patrons. With that detail he will connect the scholarship on reading with the specific readerships that American public libraries have served for 150 years.

Records indicate that Wiegand’s proposal represents the first NEH “Fellowship for University Teachers” issued to a library and information studies education faculty member at an American Library Association-accredited institution since the NEH was established in 1965.