Bernadette A. Lear
Pennsylvania State University Libraries
United States

Bernadette A. Lear is Behavioral Sciences and Education Librarian and Coordinator of Library Instruction at the Penn State Harrisburg Library. Her professional service and research focus on the history of public libraries, especially in Pennsylvania. She is currently Chair of the Pennsylvania Library Association's Archives and History Committee, as well as the immediate Past-Chair of the American Library Association's Library History Round Table (LHRT). Her 2012 article, "Yankee Librarian in the Diamond City: Hannah Packard James, the Osterhout Free Library of Wilkes-Barre, and the Public Library Movement in Pennsylvania" won both LHRT's Donald G. Davis Award for best article in Library History, and the Pennsylvania Historical Association's Robert G. Crist Prize for best article in Pennsylvania History. In 2013-2014, she undertook a major study of the history of public libraries from the 1860s to 1940s, visiting more than 20 libraries through the state. This is the first scholarly article developed from that effort.