Pioneers in Librarianship

Sixty Notable Leaders Who Shaped the Field

Christian A. Nappo

Pioneers in Librarianship profiles sixty notable librarians who made significant contributions to the field. Librarians chosen for inclusion in this volume met one or more of these three criteria:

The librarian conceived a new method for improving library services, invented their own method of book cataloging, or devised an administrative system for libraries to operate under.
The librarian is historically famous because he/she was notable historically.
The librarian was the first woman or minority to make significant achievements within the field of LIS.

The achievements of the librarians profiled here are important because they shaped the field. Many of their theories, ideas, and contributions are still being utilized in libraries today.

Librarians profiled here include Melvil Dewey, Carla Hayden, S. R. Ranganathan, Justin Winsor, Charles Coffin Jewett, Katharine Sharp, Pura Belpré, Allie Beth Martin, and John Cotton Dana.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 404 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-5381-4875-4 • Hardback • July 2022 • $95.00 • (£73.00)

978-1-5381-4876-1 • eBook • July 2022 • $90.00 • (£69.00)

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Library & Information Science / General

Pioneers in Librarianship

Sixty Notable Leaders Who Shaped the Field

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Pioneers in Librarianship profiles sixty notable librarians who made significant contributions to the field. Librarians chosen for inclusion in this volume met one or more of these three criteria:
- The librarian conceived a new method for improving library services, invented their own method of book cataloging, or devised an administrative system for libraries to operate under.
- The librarian is historically famous because he/she was notable historically.
- The librarian was the first woman or minority to make significant achievements within the field of LIS.
The achievements of the librarians profiled here are important because they shaped the field. Many of their theories, ideas, and contributions are still being utilized in libraries today.
Librarians profiled here include Melvil Dewey, Carla Hayden, S. R. Ranganathan, Justin Winsor, Charles Coffin Jewett, Katharine Sharp, Pura Belpré, Allie Beth Martin, and John Cotton Dana.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 404 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-5381-4875-4 • Hardback • July 2022 • $95.00 • (£73.00)

978-1-5381-4876-1 • eBook • July 2022 • $90.00 • (£69.00)

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Library & Information Science / General

Author

Christian A. Nappo teaches for the Lee County, Florida School District and holds an MA in library and information science from the University of South Florida. He also holds an MS in criminal justice from the University of Alabama and an MA in history from the University of Nebraska-Kearney. Previous books include Librarians of Congress (2016) and Presidential Libraries and Museums (2018), both published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Pura Belpré: Librarian, Author and Puppeteer
2. Henry Evelyn Bliss: The Bliss Bibliographic Classification
3. Thomas Fountain Blue: The Louisville Free Public Library
4. Alfred Kaiming Chiu: Harvard-Yenching Classification System Librarian
5. John Young Cole: First Official Historian of the Library of Congress
6. Andrea Crestadoro: The Manchester Free Library
7. Charles Ammi Cutter: The Cutter Expansive Classification
8. John Cotton Dana: Progressive Librarian and Museum Director
9. Sadie Peterson Delaney: Librarian and Bibliotherapist
10. Melvil Dewey: The Dewey Decimal Classification
11. William Isaac Fletcher: The Amherst Librarian
12. Herman Howe Fussler: Librarian & Microphotographer
13. Amelia Gayle Gorgas: Librarian and Nurse
14. Richard James Horatio Gottheil: Middle Eastern Collections Librarian at the New York Public Library
15. Samuel Swett Green: The Father of the Library Reference Service
16. Abdel Kader Haidara: The Heroic Librarian of Timbuktu
17. Mary Evelyn Hall: Pioneering High School Librarian
18. James Christian Meinich Hanson: Pioneering Cataloger
19. Adelaide Rosalie Hasse: The Superintendent of Documents Classification
20. Carla Diane Hayden: Pioneering Librarian of Congress
21. Frederick Charles Hicks: Titan of Law Librarians
22. William Herbert Ifould: The Librarian Down Under
23. Hannah Packard James: The Osterhout Free Library of Wilkes-Barre
24. Thomas James: First Librarian of the Bodleian Library
25. Charles Coffin Jewett: Trailblazing American Librarian
26. Waldo Gifford Leland: The Archivist Behind the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
27. George Herbert Locke: Transforming the Toronto Public Library
28. Flora Belle Ludington: Head Librarian at Mount Holyoke College
29. Carleton Bruns Joeckel: Library Advocate
30. Nita Bernice Kibble: Trailblazing Australian Librarian
31. Frederick G. Kilgour: The Online Computer Library Center
32. Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya: The Revolutionary Librarian
33. Margaret Mann: Librarian, Cataloger and Professor
34. Allie Beth Martin: Advocate for Library Change
35. Frederic Melcher: Trailblazer in Children’s Librarianship
36. Aubertus Miraeus: Librarian by Royal Appointment
37. Foster Edward Mohrhardt: National Agricultural Library
38. Anne Carroll Moore: Innovative Children’s Librarian
39. Ralph Munn: Global Librarianship
40. Gabriel Naudé: The Cardinal’s Librarian
41. Margaret Cross Norton: Librarian and Archivist
42. Marcia Crocker Noyes: The Medical Library Association
43. Sir William Osler: Physician, Medical Historian, and Bibliophile
44. Antonio Panizzi: The British Museum in London
45. Carlos Victor Penna: Developing Latin American Libraries
46. Annette Lewis Phinazee: Trailblazing Cataloger
47. Pope Pius XI: Pope and Librarian
48. Bartolomeo Platina: Gastronomist and the First Vatican Librarian
49. William Frederick Poole: Administrative Librarianship
50. Herbert Putnam: America’s Librarian
51. Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan: The Five Laws of Library Science
52. Rebecca Browning Rankin: The Municipal Reference Librarian
53. Frank Bradway Rogers: The Transformational Medical Librarian
54. Arturo Alfonso Schomburg: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library
55. Katharine Lucinda Sharp: Armour Institute of Technology
56. Alexandre Vattemare: Library Exchange
57. Eva Verona: Trailblazing Croatian Cataloger
58. Edward Christopher Williams: Trailblazer in Library Education
59. Justin Winsor: The Great Academic Librarian
60. Mary Elizabeth Wood: The Boone Lib

Reviews

The field of librarianship is young and rapidly evolving, but there are people who laid the foundations for the profession. In this volume, Nappo pays tribute to these pioneers. The 60 profiles appear in alphabetical order. Each entry is six to eight pages long with notes and a bibliography. The well-known contributors (Melvil Dewey, Charles Ammi Cutter) appear along with older contributors such as the 16th-century Belgian Aubertus Miraeus, who first made books available to the public, and Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya, Lenin’s wife and the founder of Soviet librarianship. Pura Belpré, the first Puerto Rican librarian at the New York Public Library, and Carla Hayden, the first Black woman to serve as Librarian of Congress, are included as well. The entries cover the lives, educations, and major contributions of the subjects. They do not shy away from shortcomings, noting, for instance, that Dewey was known to be a racist, an antisemite, and a sexual harasser who did not give due credit to the colleagues who helped him. A useful work that gives long overdue recognition to the library profession. Recommended for all library school professional development collections.

— Library Journal

In this treasure of a book, Christian A. Nappo offers succinct, fascinating biographical sketches of sixty men and women whose grit, intellectual curiosity, spirit of innovation, and devotion to the profession have shaped the evolution of librarianship. It should be required reading for anyone enrolled in a graduate LIS program. Practicing librarians, also, will treasure the connection this book offers them to the giants of the past. Highly recommended.

— Jeff Weddle, associate professor of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama, and author of the Welty Award winning Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of the Outsider and Loujon Press

Social and environmental forces may be the major drivers of history, but often the influence of individuals as a factor in historical development is also critical. Librarians are no exceptions in this regard. Just as libraries have been both conduits and agents of change, their most prominent librarians, as Pioneers in Librarianship illustrates, have at once mirrored society’s ideas and helped shape them.

— Alistair Black, Professor Emeritus, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This ready reference tool provides a snapshot of the history of librarianship and libraries themselves. Each of the 60 entries provides a brief but succinct overview of a notable library leader's life and contribution. Nappo notes in the foreword that he based his selection of individuals on three criteria (and an eye toward diversity): the individual created a new method for library services, was a notable person in the history of library science, or was the first woman or minority to make significant achievements in the field of library and information science. Some of the individuals chosen may be virtually unknown, and this text sheds light on these individuals and their accomplishments. This is a useful addition to the literature on library science. Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals.

— Choice Reviews