Wayne Wiegand is a writer and retired professor from Florida State University, with many publications and awards celebrating his work. One of his publications, Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library, was translated to Chinese in 2021, and was listed as one of the “Ten Best Books of 2021” by the National Library of China Publishing House.

Wiegand received his BA in history at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1968 and his MA in history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He continued his learning at Western Michigan University and Southern Illinois University, earning his MLS and Ph.D. before becoming a librarian at Urbana College in Ohio. Once at Florida State and with (now retired) English Professor John Fenstermaker, Wiegand organized a coalition of Florida organizations and writing programs. He shared, “among my accomplishments at Florida State was helping to set up the Florida Book Awards in 2006, which has grown to become the largest book awards program in the United States.”

Wiegand’s publications often surround under-represented storylines within history, with his and Shirley A. Wiegand’s 2018 publication, The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South, winning the American Library Association (ALA) Award’s Eliza Atkins Gleason Award in 2019 and inspiring ALA to address and apologize for their inaction during the Civil Rights movement, outlined within the book. In 2008-2009, the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship allowed Wiegand to write Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library, which focuses on the culture surrounding their libraries, their progression over time, and the essential places that libraries hold within America culture.

For more information on Wiegand and his publications, click here.