UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #801
LUNDIN, ANNE

LUNDIN, Anne (1944-  )
Professor, School of Library and Information Studies 
At UW: 1993-2008

Interviewed: 2006	
Interviewer: Sandy Pfahler
Length: 1 hours, 26 minutes

Abstract: Childhood and education in New Jersey, Egypt, Pennsylvania and Connecticut; family life; undergraduate studies at Ohio Wesleyan, career as an English teacher in various states; graduate studies and research; Ph.D. work at the University of Alabama; Faculty position at the UW School of Library and Information Studies; teaching and research at UW; tenure process; service on campus committees; family and personal life.

Interview Session (August 7, 2006): Tapes 1-2

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:31	Lundin was born in New Jersey.  Her father worked for the YMCA and was in 
Egypt.  She has one sister who is two years older.  They sailed to Cairo and lived there for two years.

00:03:55	Her father became a Presbyterian minister and the lived in Pittsburgh.  They 
moved frequently.  She talks about her father’s personality and career.

00:05:13	They lived in Connecticut and New Jersey during her middle school and high 
school years.

00:06:21	She believes she had a good education and that her parents tried to place her in 
good schools.  She wasn’t encouraged to develop many outside interests.  

00:07:16	She talks about writing stories as a young girl.

00:08:33	She talks generally about her high school experience.  Her parents divorced 
around the time of her graduation.  She knew she would attend college.

00:09:30	She discusses her plans for college and possible careers.  Her trouble with math 
and science.

00:10:54	She talks about her mother’s life and career.

00:14:18	Deciding which college to attend.  She went to Ohio Wesleyan.  Her mother 
married a professor there who had been her boyfriend in the 1930s.

00:18:46	She talks about going to college at Ohio Wesleyan.  The origins of her problem 
with drinking.

00:21:45	Help from the UW and SLIS to recover.  Its effect on her life and career.

00:25:00	She talks about getting married to a man she met at Ohio Wesleyan.  He was an 
English teacher and she went into teaching.  She taught 7th grade English.

00:25:37	She talks about their relationship and his education.  She had two children.  

00:27:14	Teaching English in a girl’s school in Pittsburgh.  Creative writing and poetry.

00:29:30	She moved to Atlanta, where the children were born.  She worked for 1 year at an 
educational program for female prison inmates.

00:31:54	End of Side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:31:55	She talks about her new awareness of women’s issues and increasing feminism, as 
well as the liberating power of writing.  Women in prison.

00:37:13	They moved to Detroit.  Marital problems and drinking problems.  She quit 
drinking in 1978 after they separated and got back together.

00:39:04	She talks about balancing motherhood and her teaching career.  They lived in 
New Orleans for about 5 years.

00:40:54	She decided to become a librarian.  She took courses at LSU.  

00:44:14	Taking a position as a curator at the University of Southern Mississippi in the De 
Grummond Collection of children’s literature.  Her interest in the history of children’s literature.

00:45:13	Education and outreach work with the De Grummond Collection.

00:46:09	She talks about working on a Ph.D. in library science at the University of 
Alabama.  

00:48:03	She discusses her dissertation research on the illustrator/author Kate Greenaway.  

00:50:37	Return to Mississippi and problems with her marriage after completing her degree.

00:52:18	Help from Kathleen Heim McCook in finding an academic position.

00:53:29	Interview for a position at UW.  She talks about how her research and 
background fit with the department’s needs.

00:56:03	She talks about the differences between Madison and Hattiesburg, MS.  

00:57:04	She talks about her teaching at UW.  

00:57:57	She discusses an NEH fellowship she won and her summer studying at Princeton 
during her Mississippi years.  She incorporated aspects of this seminar in her own teaching.

00:59:47	Developing a course on contemporary children’s literature.

01:01:41	Teaching storytelling.

01:03:50	End of Side.  End of Tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

01:03:51	Lundin talks about her research on children’s libraries and literature between 1880 
and 1920. The Kindergarten Movement.

01:04:54	She talks about her tenure process.  Support from colleagues.  Wayne Wiegand.  
Affirmation of her historical research.

01:07:05	She discusses how she fits into the department and how the field is changing.  
Technological changes.

01:08:28	Lundin talks about changes in the students during her time at UW.  Many of them 
tend to be young and have less job experience and a different idea about professional issues. 

01:10:23	She talks about the Children’s Literature Association and other professional 
organizations that she felt have been helpful in her career.  Research on the cultural formation of children’s literature and her concern that the field of library science isn’t interested in her kind of work.

01:14:14	She discusses her work on campus committees and organizations.  “Paying back” 
the university for its support.

01:15:38	The Advising Center.

01:16:19	The Library Committee.

01:16:53	She talks about the difficulty of meeting people outside of the department.

01:18:08	She discusses her thoughts on the climate for women at UW.  She has never had 
any gender-related problems in her time at UW.  

01:19:34	Lundin talks about some honors and awards she’s won.  Grants.

01:21:52	She talks about her close relationship with her children and her mother.  She has 
a new relationship and is considering getting married again.

01:25:40	End of Side.  End of Tape.  End of Interview.

END