Libraries Archives - The Travelin' Librarian

May

26

2017

May 26th, 2017 by Michael Sauers

In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy declared that the State Department was a haven for communists and traitors. Among famous targets, like Alger Hiss, the senator also named librarian Mary Jane Keeney and her husband Philip, who had been called before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee to account for friendships with suspected communists, memberships in communist fronts, and authorship of articles that had been published in leftist periodicals. Conservative journalists and politicians had seized the occasion to denounce the pair as communist sympathizers and spies for the Soviet Union. If the accusations were true, the Keeneys had provided the Soviets with classified information about American defense and economic policies that could alter the balance of power between those rival nations. If false, the Keeneys had been shamefully wronged by their own government, for the accusations tumbled them into grief and poverty.

In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy declared that the State Department was a haven for communists and traitors. Among famous targets, like Alger Hiss, the senator also named librarian Mary Jane Keeney and her husband Philip, who had been called before The House UnAmerican Activities Committee to account for friendships with suspected communists, memberships in communist fronts, and authorship of articles that had been published in leftist periodicals. Conservative journalists and politicians had seized the occasion to denounce the pair as communist sympathizers and spies for the Soviet Union. If the accusations were true, the Keeneys had provided the Soviets with classified information about American defense and economic policies that could alter the balance of power between those rival nations. If false, the Keeneys had been shamefully wronged by their own government, for the accusations tumbled them into grief and poverty.

This book draws on a wide range of archival materials, especialy FBI files, interviews, and extensive reading from secondary sources to tell the story of Philip Olin Keeney and his wife Mary Jane, who became part of the famed Silvermaster Spy Ring in the 1940s. It paints a picture of two ordinary people who took an extraordinary path in life and, while they were never charged and tried as spies, were punished through blacklisting. It also reaveals the means by which the FBI investigated suspected spies through black bag jobs, phone tapping, and mail interceptions. Spies compromise national security by stealing secrets, but secrets can be defined to suit individual political designs and ambitions. Philip and Mary Jane Keeney constantly tested the boundaries of free access to information – to the point of risking disloyalty to their country – but the American government responded in a manner that risked its democratic foundations.

Posted in Books, Libraries Tagged with: #fridayreads

Jan

06

2017

January 6th, 2017 by Michael Sauers

Posted in Libraries, video Tagged with: #fridayvideo, archives, doctor who

Dec

23

2016

December 23rd, 2016 by Michael Sauers

From Amazon.com:

Welcome to the Library. It’s here that every story ever written is catalogued and monitored by a single man, who’s begun to notice something strange: the books are rebelling.

Image Comics proudly presents this experimental graphic novella from writer W. Maxwell Prince and artist John Amor, which recounts a troublesome week in the Library via seven short stories—one for each day—that use comics, infographics, prose, and poetry to play with the graphic medium and explore the multivalent world of living narrative.

Posted in Books, Libraries Tagged with: #fridayreads, comics

Dec

16

2016

December 16th, 2016 by Michael Sauers

Check out our Littles Lab!

Posted in Fun, Libraries, video Tagged with: #fridayvideo, Do Space

Dec

15

2016

December 15th, 2016 by Michael Sauers

Laramie County Public Library, Cheyenne, WY
September 29, 2011

Posted in Libraries, Photos Tagged with: #TBT, Mary

Dec

09

2016

December 9th, 2016 by Michael Sauers

Published on Oct 16, 2016

What to do with a huge seventeenth century map found up a chimney in the North East of Scotland? A jigsaw of paper, fabric, pictures, text and images which needs to be conserved and presented. Follow the Claire Thomson’s painstaking conservation project at the National Library of Scotland.

Published on Nov 25, 2016

The continuing story of a huge 17th century map found stuffed up a chimney is told by a conservator, a map curator, a historian and an explorer.As the map is painstakingly conserved at the National Library of Scotland, it unfolds stories of exploration, battles, slavery, kingship and knowledge.

Posted in Libraries, video Tagged with: #chimneymap

Nov

10

2016