Izetta Roberts Cooper

Last updated

Izetta Roberts Cooper (born 1929) is a Liberian librarian and writer. [1]

Contents

Life

Izetta Roberts was born on October 13, 1929. Her father, the Liberian Senator Isaac Roberts, had died earlier that year. She attended St Teresa Convent elementary school, followed by high school at the College of West Africa, where she graduated with a Diploma in 1948. She proceeded to Boston University, graduating with a B.Sc. in education in 1954. She married the doctor Henry Nehemiah Cooper on 11 July 1953. [2] She then completed an M.S. in library science from Case Western Reserve University in 1955. [3]

After completing library training, Cooper worked in the library of Fisk University, [4] before returning to Liberia to become Librarian at the University of Liberia. She also served as consultant for President William Tubman's Presidential Library. From 1978 to 1980 she hosted and produced a Liberian TV show called The World of Books. [1]

After Cooper met the African-American quilting expert Kyra E. Hicks in the Washington, D.C., area in 2008, the pair collaborated on Liberia: a visit through books, a bibliography of Liberia combined with Cooper's autobiographical reminiscences. [1]

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nella Larsen</span> American novelist (1891–1964)

Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen was an American novelist. Working as a nurse and a librarian, she published two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, she earned recognition by her contemporaries.

Cynthia Rylant is an American author and librarian. She has written more than 100 children's books, including works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Several of her books have won awards, including her novel Missing May, which won the 1993 Newbery Medal, and A Fine White Dust, which was a 1987 Newbery Honor book. Two of her books are Caldecott Honor Books.

The College of West Africa is a Methodist high school in Monrovia, Liberia. The school was opened in 1839, making it one of the oldest European-style schools in Africa. It has produced many of Liberia's leaders. Alumni include Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman elected as president in an African state, and Liberian Vice President Joseph Boakai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathaniel Barnes</span> Liberian diplomat (born 1954)

Milton Nathaniel Barnes is a Liberian diplomat, politician and member of the Liberian Destiny Party (LDP). In early 2022, he announced his intention to run as an independent candidate in the 2023 Liberian presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy B. Porter</span> American librarian

Dorothy Louise Porter Wesley was a librarian, bibliographer and curator, who built the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University into a world-class research collection. She was the first African American to receive a library science degree from Columbia University. Porter published numerous bibliographies on African-American history. When she realized that the Dewey Decimal System had only two classification numbers for African Americans, one for slavery and one for colonization, she created a new classification system that ordered books by genre and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert B. Downs</span> Author and librarian

Robert Bingham Downs was an American writer and librarian. Downs was an advocate for intellectual freedom. Downs spent the majority of his career working against, and voicing opposition to, literary censorship. Downs authored many books and publications regarding the topics of censorship, and on the topics of responsible and efficient leadership in the library context.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Lacy Jones</span> American librarian

Virginia Lacy Jones was an American librarian who throughout her 50-year career in the field pushed for the integration of public and academic libraries. She was one of the first African Americans to earn a PhD in Library Science and became dean of Atlanta University's School of Library Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Francis</span> British librarian

Sir Frank Chalton Francis was an English academic librarian and curator. Almost all his working life was at the British Museum, first as an Assistant Keeper in the Department of Printed Books, and later as Secretary of the museum, Keeper of Printed Books and, from 1959 to 1968, Director and Principal Librarian of the museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph R. Shaw</span>

Ralph Robert Shaw was a librarian, a publisher, and an innovator in library science. In 1999, American Libraries named him one of the "100 Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century".

Kyra E. Hicks is an author, quilter and quilt historian. She writes about African-American quilt history and encouraging quilt documentation. She has created story quilts, such as Black Barbie, which is in the permanent collection of the Fenimore Art Museum in New York City.

Carolyn L. Mazloomi is an American curator, quilter, author, art historian, and aerospace engineer. She is a strong advocate for presenting and documenting African-American-made quilts. Her own quilts are designed to tell complex stories around African-American heritage and contemporary experiences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David A. Randall</span> American book dealer and librarian

David Anton Randall was an American book dealer, librarian and bibliographic scholar. He was head of Scribner's rare book department from 1935 to 1956, librarian of the Lilly Library and Professor of Bibliography at Indiana University. Randall was responsible for the sale of two copies of the Gutenberg Bible. As a practitioner of bibliology with a bibliophiliac addiction, a raconteur of history of books, and an avid collector, he developed a keen appreciation for books as physical objects—including the tasks of collecting, cataloging, finding and preserving them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effie Lee Morris</span> American librarian

Effie Lee Morris was an African American children’s librarian, educator, and activist, best known for her pioneering public library services for minorities and the visually-impaired. Morris developed Cleveland Public Library's first Negro History Week and was New York Public Library's first children's specialist for visually-impaired patrons. She was the first coordinator of children's services at San Francisco Public Library, where she was also the first African American to hold an administrative position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatima Massaquoi</span> Liberian educator

Fatima Massaquoi-Fahnbulleh was a Liberian writer and academic. After completing her education in the United States, she returned to Liberia in 1946, making significant contributions to the cultural and social life of the country.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Monrovia, Liberia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Ann Erskine Ricks</span> Liberian quilter

Martha Ann Ricks was an Americo-Liberian woman who was among the early colonists there. Born into slavery in Tennessee, she was freed by her father George Erskine and emigrated at age 13 with him and her family to Liberia in 1830.

Jane Elizabeth Norton was an English librarian and bibliographer, bibliographer of Edward Gibbon and editor of his correspondence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Kinney Cooper</span> First Lady of Ohio from 1929 to 1931

Martha Norma Kinney Cooper was the First Lady of Ohio. After her husband Myers Y. Cooper was elected governor of Ohio in 1929, Kinney Cooper decided to create a library housing the works of Ohioans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Roberts (first lady)</span> First Lady of Liberia

Jane Rose Waring Roberts emigrated as a child with her free African-American family to the Colony of Liberia, where she was educated and grew up as a member of the Americo-Liberian community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greta Linder</span> Swedish librarian (1888 – 1963)

Greta Linder was a Swedish librarian. She became the first woman to work as a library manager, and the first librarian to advocate the importance of library publicity. She was an activist for librarians' union rights.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Fred van der Kraaij, Liberia: A Visit Through Books, Liberian Perspectives, 15 Decemnber 2008. Accessed 3 January 2021.
  2. Adell Patton, Jr. (2012). "Cooper, Henry Nehemiah". In Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong; Henry Louis Gates (eds.). Dictionary of African Biography. OUP USA. p. 124. ISBN   978-0-19-538207-5.
  3. Izetta Roberts Cooper; Kyra E. Hicks (2008). Liberia: A Visit Through Books. pp. 74–. ISBN   978-0-557-02053-9.
  4. Harold Lancour (1960). The University of Liberia Library: Report of a Survey. p. 11.