Bernadette A. Lear

• Education, Behavioral Sciences, and Social Sciences Librarian, Penn State

Bernadette Lear has three decades of experience working in libraries. Currently, she is an Education Librarian at University Park and the library liaison for the School of Behavioral Sciences and Education at Penn State Harrisburg.

Ms. Lear has wide-ranging intellectual interests. One area of her research, service, and leadership is the history of libraries, which she studies as an intersection of U.S. cultural, labor, social, and women's history. Her book,“Made Free and Thrown Open to the Public: Community Libraries in Pennsylvania from the Colonial Era through World War II,” was published in 2021 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. She has published various scholarly articles relating to nineteenth and early twentieth century librarianship.

Another area of Ms. Lear's research, service, and leadership is children's and young adult librarianship and literature. Her publications focus on holdings of children's and young adult titles by various types of libraries, past and present.

Ms. Lear cites library interactions with children, formerly incarcerated persons, international students, LGBTQ+ students, military veterans, students with disabilities, and other diverse clientele as enriching her understanding of what college librarianship can be (and should be).

Ms. Lear recently served on ALSC's Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal committee (2024-2025). She has also served on the Editorial Advisory Committee of Children and Libraries (2022-23), as Chair of the American Library Association's Library History Round Table (2020-21, 2013-14, and 2009-10), as Chair of the Education and Behavioral Sciences Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries 2015-16), and Chair of the Archives and History Committee of the Pennsylvania Library Association (2008-17).

In 2015, she was the founding co-editor of Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, where she served until 2023.

• –present Education, Behavioral Sciences, and Social Sciences Librarian, Penn State

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