Wayne A. Wiegand

Who is Wayne A. Wiegand?

Wayne A. Wiegand is an American library historian, author, and academic.

Often referred to as the "Dean of American library historians," Wiegand retired as F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies and Professor of American Studies at Florida State University in 2010. He received a BA in history at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, an MA in history at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and an MLS at Western Michigan University and a Ph.D. in history at Southern Illinois University. Before moving to Tallahassee in 2003 he was Librarian at Urbana College in Ohio, and on the faculties of the College of Library Science at the University of Kentucky and the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. At the latter he also served as founder and Co-Director of the Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America.

In Spring, 1994, he was William Rand Kenan Jr. Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In Spring, 1998, he was Fellow in the UW–Madison’s Institute for Research in the Humanities. In 1999 he was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society, and in Fall, 2000, he was a Spencer Foundation Fellow. Between 2004 and 2007 he served as Executive Director of Beta Phi Mu. As a member of the faculty of the FSU Program in American & Florida Studies, in 2006 he co-organized the Florida Book Awards and until July, 2012, served as its Director. For the academic year 2009-2010 he shared time between Florida State University in Tallahassee and the Winter Park Institute of Rollins College in Orlando, where he was “Scholar in Residence." In 2011 he received a Short-Term Fellowship from the New York Public Library. From 2010 to 2014 he served as President of the Florida State University Friends of Libraries. For the academic year 2008-2009, he was on a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write a book tentatively entitled “’Part of Our Lives:’ A People’s History of the American Public Library.” This book will be published simultaneously with a documentary on the American public library currently being put together by independent film makers.