In my work in international and comparative librarianship and information work, I make much use of historical material. Some comparative work is purely synchronic, considering  situations across cultures, societies or countries as things stand at a given moment in time, mostly the present or very recently. But if we want to know why things are the way they are and why they differ between the units being compared, we need a diachronic element as well. This lends much more depth to a comparative study.

So I’m grateful to Brett Spencer, editor of the American Library Association Library History Round Table’s blog, for drawing my attention to “International Library History News“. This is the International history page of LHRT News and Notes, the newsletter of the History Round Table.  Checking through the issues of January to March this year I found a good number of  news items gleaned from library history groups and the professional and popular press. My only complaint would be that the bulk of the news comes from the developed English-speaking countries: Australia and New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the USA.

I suppose it’s up to the rest of us to add to these. Submissions must be directed to the editorial board at lhrtnewsandnotes@gmail.com.

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