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Daniel F. Ring

Professor Emeritus


 
Research Interests:

I write library history. I view libraries, and especially public libraries, as "barometers" of social and cultural thought.They reflect and mirror what is going on in American society. Library history is an "aspect" of social and cultural history.As such it is best approached by archival research.I am also interested in the status concerns of librarians as expressed in faculty status and other issues related to what may be called "status anxieties".Finally, I have a deep interest in American military history,especially the USMC.

Favorite Quotes:

"Clio,the muse of history,is as permeated with lies as a street-whore with syphllis." Arthur Schopenhauer

"There are no accidents in life" Father Alexandr El 'caninov Diary of a Russian Priest

"Whereof one cannot speak,thereof one must remain silent." Wittgenstein

"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.".
George Orwell

Favorite Historian:Jackson Lears


Personal Interests:

Reading history and biography, doing historical research.


Publications

Books:

Studies in Creative Partnership: Federal Aid to Public Libraries During the New Deal.  Scarecrow Press, 1980, 145 pages.Editor and contributor.

Book Chapters

"Carnegie Libraries" in The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2007): 659-660. Invited

"A Period of Peace and Harmony: The Bunge Years, 1971-1981" in Tradition and Vision: Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin, A Centennial History (Madison: School of Library and Information Studies 2006): 110-129.Invited

"Arthur Curley" in Dictionary of American Library Biography.  Second Supplement.  (Westport, Conn.:  Libraries Unlimited, 2003):  60-64.Invited

"Women's Club Culture and the Failure of Library Development in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio" in Carnegie Denied (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992): 53-78.Invited

"Ralph Ulveling" in Supplement to the Dictionary of American Library Biography.  Englewood, Colorado:  Libraries Unlimited, 1990: 138-144.Invited

Articles

"Men of Energy and Snap:  The Origins and Early Years of the Billings Public Library." Libraries & Culture 36 (Summer 2001):  397-412. Peer Reviewed

"Outpost of New England Culture:  The Ladies’ Library Association of Kalamazoo, Michigan.”  Libraries & Culture 32 (Winter 1997): 38-56.Pe
er Reviewed

“The Librarian as a "Bookman.”  Public Libraries 35 (Jan./Feb. 1996): 60-63.Peer Reviewed

"Richard Krug: the Bookman as a Librarian."  Libraries & Culture 29 (Summer 1994): 257-281.Peer Reviewed

"Has the American Public Library Lost Its Purpose?  Defending the Intended Mission."  Public Libraries 33 (July/Aug. 1994): 191-193.Peer Reviewed

"The Origins of the Butte Public Library:  Some Further Thoughts on Public Library Development in the State of Montana."  Libraries & Culture 28 (Fall 1993): 430-444.Peer Reviewed

"Carnegie Libraries as Symbols for an Age: Montana as a Test Case."  Libraries & Culture  27 (Winter 1992): 1-19.Peer Reviewed

"Ervin Gaines: Synthesizer, Rationalizer, and Apostle of Cultural Elitism."  Libraries & Culture 24 (Fall, 1989): 403-435.Peer Reviewed

"Some Speculations on Why British Libraries Didn’t Go to War.”  Journal of Library History 22 (Summer 1987): 249-271.Peer Reviewed

"Notes Between Two Worlds: The Diary of Roger Lansbury, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, CIX (Summer 1985), 257-297. Peer Reviewed

"Two Cultures: Libraries, the Unions, and the 'Case' of the Jefferson School,"  Journal of Library History (Fall 1985), 287-306.Peer Reviewed

“Fighting for Their Hearts and Minds: William Howard Brett, the Cleveland Public Library and World War I,” Journal of Library History, XVIII (Winter 1983), 1-20.Peer Reviewed

"The Michigan Imprints Inventory of the Historical Records Survey " Detroit in Perspective A Journal of Regional History IV (Winter 1980):111-117. Peer Reviewed

"Professional Development Leaves as a Stepping Stone to Faculty Status," Journal of Academic Librarianship, IV (March 1978), 19-20.Peer Reviewed

"New Deal Works Projects in the Milwaukee Public Library,"  Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, LXV (Fall 1977), 29-40.Peer Reviewed

"The Cleveland Public Library and the W.P.A.: A Study in Creative Partnership,"  Ohio History, LXXXIV (Summer 1975), 158-64.peer Reviewed

"The Temperance Movement in Milwaukee:  1872-1884."  Historical Messenger, Milwaukee County Historical Society, 31 (Winter 1975):  98-105 Peer Reviewed. Reprinted, in part, in The Badger State: A Documentary History of Wisconsin. Grand Rapids:Eedrmans,1978.

Essays

 “On Why Librarianship Isn’t a Profession.”  RQ 35 (Fall 1995): 145-146.  This essay was published as a letter

"Some Thoughts on National Character and War and Human Progress."  Journal of Library History 22 (Fall 1987): 470-475. This essay was published as a response to Paul Sturges' essay "British Librarianship and the First World War: A Commentary." Journal of Library History 22 (Summer 1987)285-293. .

"Searching for Darlings: The Quest for Professional Status."  College & Research Libraries News 54 (December 1993): 641-643.

“Bibliographic Instruction in a Collegial Setting”,  LIRT News, VI (December 1983),  3-5.Invited

Reviews:

Apostles of Culture: The Public Librarian and American Society, 1876-1920.
Libraries & Culture 39, no. 3 (2004): 332-333.

Libraries as Agencies of Culture. Libraries & Culture 39, no.2 (2004): 219-222.

Winsor, Dewey, and Putnam: The Boston Experience. Libraries & Culture 38, no. 4 (2003): 417-419.

The Changing Culture of Libraries. Libraries & Culture 37, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 406-7.

Civic Space/Cyberspace: The American Public Library in the Information Age Libraries & Culture 36, no. 4 (Fall 2001): 529-30.

Libraries, Immigrants, and the American Experience. Libraries & Culture 35, no. 3 (Summer 2000): 468-9.

No silence! Libraries & Culture 34, no. 4 (Fall 1999): 428-30.

Henry Hobson Richardson and the Small Public Library in America.;Carnegie Libraries across America. Libraries & Culture 33, no. 4 (Fall 1998): 464-7.

Encyclopedia of Library History. Libraries & Culture 30 (Spring 1995): 204-5.

The River Ran Red: Homestead 1892 ;The Battle for Homestead,1880-1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel . Libraries & Culture 28 (Fall 1993): 488-492.

Academic Librarianship, Past, Present, and Future. Libraries & Culture 27 (Winter 1992): 97-8.

An Active Instrument for Propaganda: The American Public Library during World War 1. Libraries & Culture 25 (Spring 1990): 302-3.

Richmond Rejects A Library: The Carnegie Library Movement in Richmond, Virginia in the Early Twentieth Century. Library & Information Science Research 16 (Winter 1994): 78-80.

Investigation and Responsibility:Public Responsibility in the United States. Libraries & Culture 24 (Spring 1989)250-251.

The Great War and the British People. Libraries and Culture 23 (Summer 1988) 390-391

American Education and the European Immigrant:1840-1940 Journal of Library History19(Fall 1984):554-557. 1982);

Materials and Methods for History Research. College and Research Libraries 41 (March 1980): 148-151.

Archive-Library Relations. American Archivist 40(April 1977): 242-243

Other Scholarship:

"Making Faculty Status Meaningful." Feb. 2002.

Co-editorship: Association for the Bibliography of History Bulletin. 1984-89.

 “The Encouragement of the Fine Arts at Oakland University: The Meadow Brook Music Festival, 1964-1972."  This research was the result of a four-month Professional Development Leave awarded for April-August 1977.

Editorial Work

Libraries and the Cultural Record Occasional Referee

Michigan History Occasional Referee

Utah State University Press

Presentations:

“Women’s Club Culture and the Failure of Library Development.”  Library History Round Table.  San Francisco.  1986.Invited

"Carnegie Libraries as Symbols for an Age: Montana as a Test Case.” Montana Library Association  Great Falls Montana 1991.

Theses:

Some reform elements in Milwaukee politics, 1872-1890 /
Author: Ring, Daniel F., 1945- Publication: 1971 Dissertation: Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, 1971. Document: English : Book : Thesis/dissertation/manuscript

The Milwaukee Socialists' attitudes toward the public schools, 1907-1915 /
Author: Ring, Daniel F. Publication: 1968 Dissertation: Thesis (B.S.)--University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1968. Document: English : Book : Thesis/dissertation/manuscript

 

 

Who has cited my research

Books.Google:

SSCI

1   CARNEGIE DENIED COMM 1993
3 RING DF COLL RES LIB NEWS 1993 54 641
1 RING DF DETROIT PERSPECTIVE 1980 4 111
1 RING DF ELECTION 1884 CAMPAI 37 MS thesis
1 RING DF J ACADEMIC LIBRARIAN 1978 4 19
3 RING DF J LIB HIST 1985 20 287 View Record
1 RING DF J LIBR HIST PHILOS 1987 22 249 View Record
1 RING DF J LIBRARY HIST 1983 18 1 View Record
1 RING DF J LIBRARY HIST 1983 18 16
2 RING DF LIB CULTUE 1993 28 430
1 RING DF LIBR CULTURE 1989 24 403 View Record
4 RING DF LIBRARIES CULTURE 1992 27 1 View Record
2 RING DF OHIO HIST 1975 84 158
1 RING DF PUBLIC LIB 1994 33 191
1 RING DF SOME REFORM ELEMENTS CH3 MS Thesis
1 RING DF SOME REFORM ELEMENTS CH4 MS thesis
7 RING DF STUDIES CREATIVE PAR 1980
1 RING DF WISCONSIN ACADEMY SC 1977 65 28

Google Scholar

Google

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Service:

Kresge Library:Sometime member of Merit, CAP,Social and Executive Committees.Chair ad-hoc Committee to Review the Constitution.

University:Sometime member of University Research Committee, Academic Standing and Honors Committee(Chair 1981-1983), and Academic Conduct Committee

 

Awards and Honors:

National and Regional

Who’s Who in the Midwest 1996-1997,1998-1999

Contemporary Authors, v. 113

University Awards:

Sabbatical, Winter Semester, 2005

Honoree at Board of Trustees meeting, April 5 2001

Nominee for University Research Award 2001

Sabbatical, August 14, 1998-January 3, 1999

Nominee for University Research Award 1998

Sabbatical, January 3, 1992-April 24, 1991

Sabbatical, August 26, 1985-February 1, 1986

Professional Development Leave, April 23-August 14, 1977

Other: Going the Extra Mile award From the Board of Trustees Rochester Hills Public Library This was for my work as a Reference Librarian.

Grants:

Travel To Collections Grant $300 UW SLIS 2006

Research Grant, $660, from Oakland University, 2004

Research Grant, $997, from Oakland University, 1994

Research Grant, $500, from Oakland University, 1993

Research Grant, $1,000, from Oakland University, 1991

Research Grant, $1,000, from Oakland University, 1989

Research Grant, $400, from Kresge Library, 1988

Research Grant, $300, from Kresge Library, 1987

Research Grant, $150, from Kresge Library, 1986

Research Grant, $500, from Oakland University, 1985

Research Grant, $600, from Oakland University, 1979

Research Grant, $500, from Oakland University, 1977

 

Educational Background:

M.S. Library Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1973

M.S. History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1971
(Specialized in American urban history and modern European history)

B.S. History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1968
(Minor: political science)

Graduate Study, School of Education, 18 Graduate credits, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1971-72

Employment:

Cleveland Public Library History Department 1974-1975

Oakland University Kresge Library 1975-

Rochester Hills Public Library (p-t) 1988-2001

 

Academic Distinctions:

High Honors in History; Senior Honors; Senior Honors Thesis; Gardiner P. Stickney Scholarship; Wisconsin Leadership Scholarship; Wisconsin State Tuition Grant; Phi Alpha Theta History Fraternity

Created by MH / Updated on February 15, 2019 by MH

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