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Want to foment a revolution or win a war? Fight for justice, freedom, and civil rights? Make sure women have a safe social space? Or just leave your mark on the world? We recommend you start at the library. As this collection of stories shows, libraries (and librarians) can be both quiet witnesses to and active participants in social change and history-making events. In the nineteenth century, for instance, libraries offered some women the freedom to explore, learn, and work, challenging social norms that styled (some) women as too frail to earn a living outside the home. Moving into the twentieth century, libraries and their caretakers became as important to the Allies in the Great War as they would be during World War II and the Cold War (which is to say: very important).

“Collaborate”“Collaborate”

But as Nella Larsen discovered in the 1920s, American libraries codified and preserved knowledge classification systems that contributed to the oppression of members of Black communities. Soon rose the freedom libraries, undermining those systems and building safe spaces for Black Americans tor read and learn. And let’s not overlook those bold librarians of the 1970s who found a way to challenge a card catalogue that aligned homosexuality with deviance.

Libraries are important for all these reasons and more, and we invite you to read some of our favorite JSTOR Daily stories that have featured them.

Libraries in Times of Crisis

Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28550903

How American Librarians Helped Defeat the Nazis

Katie McBride Moench
November 29, 2023
Recruited to the war effort thanks to their deft research skills and technological know-how, librarians used microforms to gather and share intelligence with Allied forces.
War Camp Community Service. Newport News. American Library Association. c. 1919

Uncle Sam Wants You to Donate Books!

Kristen Finch
April 19, 2023
During World War I, the American Library Association built libraries on military training camps in a project that championed patriotism, literacy, and self-improvement.
Library fallout shelter

Preparing Libraries for Nuclear War

Erin Blakemore
June 6, 2018
During the Cold War, America's libraries helped patrons prepare for nuclear war, from stocking reference materials to providing fallout shelters.
Caravans in Los Alamos, New Mexico

Los Alamos Had a Secret Library

Erin Blakemore
September 23, 2015
The Manhattan Project needed an instant library in Los Alamos built from scratch and in secrecy—this is how it was done.

Libraries and Social Change

Freedom House library, September 1964

Freedom Libraries and the Fight for Library Equity

Ashawnta Jackson
January 10, 2022
Freedom libraries in the south provided Black residents with access to spaces and books, whether in church basements or private homes.
Carla Hayden

Carla Hayden: Librarian of Congress

Allana Mayer
April 13, 2016
Carla Hayden has a history of social justice work in public libraries.
Boston Public Library

Out of the Card Catalog Closet

Matthew Wills
October 14, 2022
Librarians gathered in 1970 to challenge Library of Congress classifications and catalog subject headings that aligned homosexuality with deviance. 
women in a reading room at Smith College in 1898

The Reading Rooms Designed to Protect Women from “Library Loafers”

Erin Blakemore
January 19, 2018
In the late 1800s, American women began to move more freely in public. In response, public libraries created sex-segregated reading rooms, intended to keep women in their proper place.
The Children's Reading Room at the 135th street Branch of the New York Public Library

Nella Larsen’s Lessons in Library School

H.M.A. Leow
August 20, 2024
Larsen’s novels were influenced by her training in the New York Public Library system, where she faced rigid ideas about the racial classification of knowledge.
Bernie Sanders sitting in front of the New York Public Library with his mittens crossed

A Vintage Op-Ed from Bernie Sanders

The Editors
May 11, 2016
Bernie Sanders’s February 2003: “On My Mind: The Patriot Act’s Threat to Libraries” published in American Libraries.

Extraordinary Librarians

Library of Alexandria

Mostafa El-Abbadi

The Editors
March 2, 2017
Mostafa A. H. el-Abbadi was the visionary behind the revival of the Great Library of Alexandria, the vast Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
Black and white photograph of Augusta Baker seated at a desk with papers spread out before her.

The Legendary Children’s Librarian of Harlem

April White
September 15, 2025
Raised in a family of storytellers, Augusta Baker continued that tradition, imparting a love of books to readers of all ages.
Mao Zedong, circa 1930s

Mao Zedong: Reader, Librarian, Revolutionary?

Catherine Halley
April 25, 2023
Before becoming leader of communist China, Mao was an ardent library patron and then worked as a library assistant.
Dangerous Librarians

Being a Victorian Librarian Was Oh-So-Dangerous

Livia Gershon
August 7, 2018
In the late 19th century, more women were becoming librarians. Experts like Melvil Dewey predicted they would suffer ill health, strain, and breakdowns.
librarian obituaries

Overlooked: How the New York Times Covers Librarians’ Obituaries

Erin Blakemore
March 22, 2018
In 2004, two researchers analyzed the New York Times obit section between 1977 and 2002 in an attempt to understand how the obituary section portrayed American librarians.

Libraries Through History

Black and white photo of The Boston Athenaeum by Southworth & Hawes

The Boston Athenæum

Emily Zarevich
January 13, 2023
Founded in 1807, the subscription library was a gathering place for local scholars, “men of business,” and members of the upper classes in search of knowledge.
Galen by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

Library Fires Have Always Been Tragedies. Just Ask Galen.

Caroline Wazer
June 7, 2021
When Rome burned in 192 CE, the city's vibrant community of scholars was devastated. The physician Galen described the scale of the loss.

How Libraries Stand the Test of Time

Maria Papadouris
August 21, 2025
The digital era builds upon millennia of librarianship as humans strive to preserve our cultural heritage.
US President Ronald Reagan waves as he stands at the top of a stairway, preparing to board Air Force One, Dothan, Alabama, 1986

Ronald Reagan’s Library Legacy

Sarah Thomson
May 29, 2024
Archival material shows the hefty and careful investment the president and his team put into crafting his image for perpetuity.

Inside the Library

Graffiti Limbo

April White
March 21, 2025
A University of Virginia professor enlisted students to document the messages—profane, hopeful, despairing—left on library carrels by previous generations.
Librarians in Gary, Indiana protect themselves with masks in October 1918 during the flu pandemic

Libraries and Pandemics: Past and Present

Julia Skinner
April 14, 2021
The 1918 influenza pandemic had a profound impact on how librarians do their work, transforming libraries into centers of community care.
Illustration of a woman walking with a book

The Library That Walked Across Belgium

Matthew Wills
May 19, 2020
What two scholar-artists learned from taking ninety books on a very, very long walk.
A selection of pages from the The Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries Bibliotheca Fictiva collection

Enchanting Imposters

Sara Ivry
October 15, 2025
Johns Hopkins University’s Bibliotheca Fictiva Collection of Literary and Historical Forgery shows that humans have been creating fan fiction and fake news for millennia.
A computer set to the JSTOR homepage

Tips from a Librarian on Using JSTOR for Research

Kristen Finch
April 21, 2025
Follow these first steps toward success with your new research project.
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