The University Libraries' Diversity Advancement Committee invites you to attend this year's lecture series titled Weeding out Neutrality Lecture Series: The Past, Present, and Future of Social Justice in Libraries. We'll explore these accounts, hosting scholars and librarians from across the country that will address their respective work to transform our institutions.

In our first lecture, we will be joined by Wayne A. Wiegand, library historian and F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies Emeritus at Florida State University, for a moderated discussion of his latest book American Public School Librarianship: A History. Our goal in this moderated discussion is to unpack the history of inequality of access and information in U.S. public school libraries to understand what has changed, and what the role of libraries is today in social justice movements.

This is a virtual talk. Please register, and a Zoom link will be sent to you 3 hours before the event (registration closes 3 hours before the event).

If you require an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), please contact Marisol Moreno at marisol.moreno@library.tamu.edu to communicate your needs by November 23 to allow us to facilitate a reasonable accommodation.

About the Speaker:

Wayne A. Wiegand, Ph.D., often referred to as the “Dean of American Library Historians,” is F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies Emeritus at Florida State University. Now retired from teaching, he received a BA in history at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (1968), an MA in history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1970), and an MLS at Western Michigan University and a Ph.D. in history at Southern Illinois University (1974). Before moving to Florida in 2003 he was Librarian at Urbana College in Ohio (1974-76), and on the faculties of the University of Kentucky (1976-86) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1987-2002).

Amongst his numerous publications, Dr. Wiegand, along with his co-author and wife Shirley A. Wiegand, published The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South, which won the American Library Association's 2019 Eliza Atkins Gleason Award for best book in library history published in the previous two years. He embarked on a 26-city book tour in the spring of 2018; to view one of his talks co-sponsored by the Jackson/Hinds Library System and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum please follow this link.

Additional Information about this Event

Can't attend the live event? All registrants will receive a link to the recorded event for later viewing at their convenience.

TAMU Students: You can earn MaroonBase points for attending this event. Use the MaroonBase App to check-in and check-out to earn points for this event, then use your points to win up to $2,000. For a complete list of prizes, rules, FAQs, and how to redeem your points for prizes, please visit the MaroonBase Student App page.

Next lecture: Join us for the second lecture titled Pedagogy at the Podium: Social Justice In (or Lacking In) Library Education. To register, please visit https://tamu.libcal.com/event/8506765.