Tag Archives: librarians

William Frederick Poole: pioneering indexer and librarian

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These days, municipalities all over the US have tax-supported public libraries. Public libraries, academic libraries, and others offer patrons indexes to help them find articles in periodicals. We have William Frederick Poole to thank for both. He first became famous for the first index to periodicals and later became a founding member of the American Library Association. For most of his career as a librarian, he advocated for public libraries.

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The Newberry Library: building a great library from nothing

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The Newberry Library in Chicago is one of the world’s great research libraries. Most other libraries have started with a core collection, or at least a plan for developing one. The Newberry Library, founded in 1887, started with a codicil in the will of Walter L. Newberry, who died in 1868. There never would have been a library if either of his daughters had borne children. Since they did not, Newberry bequeathed his money to found a public library. His private book collection, which should have formed its nucleus, burned in the Chicago Fire of 1871. How was anyone supposed to create a library with no books, little instruction, and a big pile of money?

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Melvil Dewey: brilliant father of librarianship and mad man

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Melvil Dewey was born in 1851 in a part of New York known as the “Burned Out District.” It got the name from the evangelical fervor that led to so many religious reform movements. His parents shared that fervor. (Of course, they spelled his name Melville. He changed it later.) As a young boy, he had a passion both for learning and organization. He organized his mother’s pantry to make it more efficient when he was 5. At age 13, he bought an unabridged dictionary for himself, declaring it the most essential book. At age 15, he decided on a career as reformer, although he had no idea yet just what to reform. 

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Virtual reference services: opportunities for libraries and patrons

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hundred years ago, anyone who wanted to speak with a reference librarian had to go to the library and approach the reference desk. Or perhaps call on the phone, but probably not all libraries offered that service. In the 1990s, the introduction of the public internet caused a great disruption of library services. Slowly but surely, libraries started to offer virtual reference services (VRS) by email, instant messaging, chat, Skype, videoconferencing, etc. Most of these technologies proved best for short, uncomplicated questions and unsuitable for in-depth research questions. At the same time, much information became available electronically, either on the web or library subscriptions to various proprietary databases. To this day, though, a lot of information remains available only in print. Every library mounted a web site. Its reference department page would provide all kinds of helpful resources and instructions. When the pandemic forced closure of library buildings, these 20 or 30 years of experience with VRS became critical to maintaining any kind of reference service at all. Before the pandemic, VRS supplemented face-to-face reference service. At some libraries, it was little used and little known. Some libraries didn’t offer it at all. These libraries soon learned the value of … Continue reading →

Henriette Avram and the modern library catalog

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In the late 1960s, the Library of Congress started work on two major achievements. The massive National Union Catalog Pre-1956 Imprints eventually reached 754 volumes and took 130 feet of shelf space. Computerizing library cataloging soon rendered it obsolete. Henriette Avram, who never went to library school, led the team that devised MARC (MAchine Readable Cataloging). The primary purpose in developing MARC was to automate printing library catalog cards, but Avram and her team also intended it for libraries to be able to print their lists of  new acquisitions. The Library of Congress supplied card sets for its entire holdings to any American library that ordered them. That saved libraries the expense of cataloging those materials themselves. Avram did not envision putting the entire library catalog online and making cards obsolete, but her work made it possible. In fact, MARC enabled the online public access catalog, which saves so much time and space. Patrons had to visit the library at times when it was open in order to use it. Now, anyone with internet service can use the catalog and interact with it without leaving home. Or use it anywhere in the library without leaving where they’re working. The MARC … Continue reading →