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Alistair Black Joins GSLIS Faculty

January 16, 2009

Alistair Black has been hired by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois. Black joins the GSLIS faculty as a professor in January 2009.

Black's scholarly interests include the history of libraries and information, public librarianship, and library buildings and architecture.

"Alistair Black, widely acknowledged as the preeminent British historian of the public library and the information society, has been charting a new field of scholarly endeavor—the history of information—that includes and integrates the history of books and libraries but goes beyond them. His work on the early information society in Britain has been groundbreaking in its conceptualization, approach, scope and meticulous scholarship. The appointment of this distinguished scholar to GSLIS will add a great strength in research and teaching to the area of History, Policy and Economics that is one of the major foci of the School's programs," said Professor Emeritus Boyd Rayward.

Black is the author of five books, including his forthcoming, Buildings, Books and Social Engineering: The Past and Present Roles of Early Public Library Buildings in Britain to be published by Ashgate Publishing in June 2009. He is also the editor of the final volume of the monumental Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland and author of numerous articles in a wide range of major LIS and history journals. He was for many years editor of the journal now called the History of Libraries and Information.

Most recently, Black was a professor in the School of Information Management at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Black earned his master's degree in social and economic history from the University of London in 1981. He earned his doctorate from London Metropolitan University (formerly Polytechnic of North London) in 1989. His dissertation was titled, "The Public Library as an Agency of Social Stability 1850-1919."

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