Archival Adventures - Episode 11: Books that Made the Difference Project (Ms1985-003)
Channel: VTLibraries
Date: 2021-06-04

On this episode, we explore the Books That Made the Difference Project Collection (Ms1985-003). The collection consists of subject files, clippings, correspondence, manuscript drafts, and audio-visual materials. The project was conceived in 1980 by Ann Heidbreder Eastman, formerly of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and executed by Gordon A. Sabine, formerly a professor at this university, and his wife Patricia, who interviewed people across the country, asking what book made the greatest difference in their lives, and what was that difference. The responses were collected for a book, Books That Made the Difference: What People Told Us, published by Shoe String Press in 1983. The theme of "Books Make a Difference" has been, and still is, used by public libraries for public relations campaigns. Noteworthy aspects of the collection include the 1983 book and the 1985 abridged version published by the Book-of-the-Month Club, and the original cassette tapes used by the Sabines to record the interviews.