The University of Southern Mississippi (University of Southern Mississippi, School of Library and Information Science)

This three-year Early Career Development research project at the University of Southern Mississippi will examine how public libraries in the past have been used as community learning spaces by members of marginalized and minority groups in order to better understand the mechanisms and conditions required for creating and fostering a sense of community among library users. The project will consider, as a series of historical cases, the twelve segregated Carnegie libraries for African Americans (or "Carnegie Negro Libraries" as they were known in the past), which operated as community learning spaces for African Americans in the pre-Civil Rights American South. The project will include a website, reports, contributions to BlackPast.org, and an online toolkit of assessment and planning materials for librarians to help with the review and enhancement of present library service and program design, collection development, and outreach practices.