Publications by Ralph D. Wagner

1. Books

A History of the Farmington Plan. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002. The Farmington Plan was a national cooperative foreign acquisitions program sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries. This history is based on extensive research in primary documents at the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, and five university libraries, as well as the published record.

Anatomy of a Conflict: The Peoria Film Controversy, 1950-52. Accepted for publication in the Occasional Papers series of the School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois. The history of a library censorship controversy derived from newspaper accounts and archival materials.

2. Articles

“Not Recommended: A List for Catholic High School Libraries, 1942.” Libraries and Culture: A Journal of Library History 30 (Spring 1995): 170-98. A committee of the Catholic Library Association made negative recommendations on 70 titles in the fourth edition of the Standard Catalog for High School Libraries. The article identifies the criteria applied and traces their source to the conflict between Progressive Education and Catholic educational theories.

“From the Archives: The Battle of Punxsatawney.” American Libraries, vol. 25, p. 124, January 1994. A brief account of a library censorship controversy with an amusing ending.

“Manuel Sanchez: Librarian behind the Lines,” American Libraries, vol. 20, pp. 962-964, November 1989. A popular account of the experiences of the Library of Congress' representative in Europe during World War II, including his undercover work to obtain enemy publications.

“Walter Lichtenstein in South America: Books, Voyages, and the End of a Career,” Libraries and Culture: A Journal of Library History, vol. 23, no. 8, pp. 295-331. Lichtenstein, Librarian of Northwestern University, toured South America in 1913 to 1915 as acquisitions agent for a group of U.S. libraries. His pro-German activities there at the outset of World War I led to the confiscation of his passport and the his dismissal from Northwestern.

3. ERIC Document

“Africana Librarianship in the United States to 1960.” A historical survey of the social and intellectual factors affecting the development of Africana librarianship as a professional specialty. Presented at the Illinois Library Association annual meeting, November 8, 1990. Published as ERIC document 329294.