Peggy Sullivan was an American librarian and educator. She was elected president of the American Library Association and was a scholar of the history of librarianship.
Frances Lander Spain was a children's librarian and an instructor of school library services. In 1960, she became the first children's librarian to ever hold the position of president of the American Library Association (ALA). Spain was named one of the library's "100 Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century."
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.
Eliza Atkins Gleason was the first African American to receive a doctorate in Library Science at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School. In 1941, she established and became the first Dean of the School of Library Service at Atlanta University and created a library education program that trained 90 percent of all African-American librarians by 1986.
Clara Stanton Jones was the first African-American president of the American Library Association, serving as its acting president from April 11 to July 22 in 1976 and then its president from July 22, 1976, to 1977. Also, in 1970 she became the first African American and the first woman to serve as director of a major library system in America, as director of the Detroit Public Library.
Alethia Annette Lewis Hoage Phinazee was the first woman and the first black American woman to earn the doctorate in library science from Columbia University. She was called a trailblazer for her work as a librarian and educator.
The Alice G. Smith Lecture, established in 1989, is sponsored by the University of South Florida School of Information. The lecture is an annual recognition of a scholar or author whose achievements have been instrumental in the development of librarianship or information studies. The lecture series honors the memory of the School's first director, Alice Gullen Smith, known for her work with youth and bibliotherapy. The Lecture Fund was created with the purpose of memorializing the work of Smith, who was central to the School's first accreditation by the American Library Association in 1975. Florida Library Association archivist, Bernadette Storck has provided an oral history of the development of libraries in Tampa, Florida that details the contributions of Smith including her establishment of the Tampa Book Fair that encouraged thousands of children to foster a love for books and reading
Gloria Long Anderson is the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Chemistry at Morris Brown College, and its vice president for academic affairs. She has served as interim president of Morris Brown, and as vice chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She was a pioneer in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and is known for her studies of fluorine-19 and solid rocket propellants.
The Southeastern Library Association (SELA) is an organization that collaborates with different library associations within the Southeastern United States, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Martha Boaz was an American librarian. She earned a B.S. in Library Science in 1937 from George Peabody College. She was the assistant librarian at Carrier Library, then known as Madison Memorial Library, from 1940 to 1949. The library was at James Madison University, then known as Madison College. She received her master's degree in library science in 1950 and her PhD in library science in 1955, both from the University of Michigan. She was the first woman and the third person to earn a PhD in library science from the University of Michigan. She was the dean of the University of Southern California School of Library Science from 1955 to 1978, its longest-serving dean as of 2005, and some of her records are held at the University Archives of the University of Southern California. She also served as president of the California Library Association from 1962 to 1963, chair of its Research Committee from 1958 to 1960, chair of its Intellectual Freedom Committee from 1964 to 1966, president of its Library Education Division from 1968 to 1969, on its board of directors in 1972, and as its chair of the Council of Deans from 1977 to 1978.
Elizabeth W. Stone was an American librarian and educator and president of the American Library Association from 1981 to 1982. In 1988 she was awarded Honorary Membership in the American Library Association. In 1998 she was honored with the Beta Phi Mu Award for distinguished service to education for librarianship.
Jean Elizabeth Lowrie was an American librarian, educator, and president of the American Library Association from 1973 to 1974. She received a bachelor's degree from Keuka College in 1940 and a second bachelor's degree in library science from Western Reserve University in 1941. She went on to receive a master's degree in elementary education from Western Michigan University in 1956 and her doctorate from Western Reserve University in 1959.
Margaret Elizabeth Chisholm was an American librarian and educator and served as president of the American Library Association from 1987 to 1988. She promoted librarians as skilled in information technology.
Annie Lou McPheeters was an African American librarian and civil rights activist. She was known for starting the Negro History Collection at the Auburn Carnegie Library, in Atlanta Georgia. The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System named the Washington Park/Annie L. McPheeters Branch Library in honor of her work.
Barbara Stripling is an American librarian and is the President of the Freedom to Read Foundation, a non-profit legal and educational organization affiliated with the American Library Association. Stripling served as president of the American Library Association from 2013 to 2014. During her term as president, she stressed that "Libraries Change Lives."
Beverly P. Lynch is an American scholar, professor, librarian, and administrator. She was president of the American Library Association from 1985 to 1986.
Betty J. Turock is an American librarian and educator who served as president of the American Library Association from 1995 to 1996. She was a member of the faculty of the Rutgers School of Communication and Information for 22 years. Turock is best known for her advocacy for equity of access to electronic information via the Internet as well as for championing diversity in the library profession.
Tommie Dora Barker was an American librarian and founding dean of Emory Library School in Atlanta, Georgia. She also served as a regional field agent, representing southern libraries, for the American Library Association.
Lucile Nix was an American librarian. She was Georgia's head of public library services for 23 years.
Lucille Cole Thomas was an American librarian. Thomas had a long career supporting library services for children with the New York City Board of Education. She was the first African American president of the New York Library Association. She also served as president of the International Association of School Librarianship and the American Association of School Librarians.