Wayne A. Wiegand, F. William Summers professor of library and information studies and professor of American studies, Florida State University, retires this year. For more than three decades, Wayne's sustained involvement with librarianship reenergized the profession's historical studies and brought new conceptual frameworks to the debate.…

This report describes several linked empirical studies that examine the activities of public libraries in increasing the financial literacy of their service population. A qualitative field study examines librarians' perceptions of the challenges in offering information and services in this domain; a second set of interviews centers on the…

Because of an absence of dialogue, a tense relationship appears to exist between Wisconsin's gay men's book discussion groups and their local public libraries. Public library directors express interest in accommodating these groups if approached but face budget restrictions and local communities that may oppose these gatherings; gay men's book…

This article examines the topicality of Library and Information Science (LIS) dissertations written between 1930 and 2009 at schools with American Library Association (ALA)--accredited university programs in North America. Dissertation titles and abstracts were examined for the presence of library-related keywords drawn from the core curricula of…

Analysts frequently credit prominent politicians with the avant-garde direction taken by the state government, though a powerful force in Wisconsin was the often overlooked Legislative Reference Library, brain child of the historian-librarian Charles McCarthy. (JB)