This is a timeline of women in library science throughout the world.
1796: Cecilia Cleve became the first female librarian in Sweden. [1]
1852: The first female clerk was hired for the Boston Public Library. [2]
1858: The first female library clerk was appointed to the Smithsonian Institution in 1858, and was also the Smithsonian's first female employee. [3]
1880: Mary Foy became the first woman head librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library. [4]
1890: Elizabeth Putnam Sohier and Anna Eliot Ticknor became the first women appointed to a United States state library agency—specifically, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
1911: Theresa Elmendorf became the first female president of the American Library Association. [5]
1912: Lillian Helena Smith became the first trained children's librarian in Canada. [6]
1921: Alice Dugged Cary served as the first nonprofessional librarian and branch head of the Auburn Branch of the Carnegie Library, the first branch to serve Atlanta's African American citizens under segregation. [7]
1921: Pura Belpré became the first Puerto Rican librarian to be hired by the New York Public Library System. [8]
1923: Virginia Proctor Powell Florence became the first black woman in the United States to earn a degree in library science. [9] She earned the degree (Bachelor of Library Science) from what is now part of the University of Pittsburgh. [10] [11] [12]
1940: Eliza Atkins Gleason became the first black American to earn a doctorate in library science, which she did at the University of Chicago. [13]
1947: Freda Farrell Waldon became the first president of the Canadian Library Association, and thus, as she was female, its first female president. [14] [15]
1963: Shanti Mishra became the first Nepali female librarian. She was appointed as the chief librarian in Tribhuvan University Central Library, after returning from the United States with a Master of Arts in library science. She was the first female librarian of Tribhuvan University Central Library. [16] [17]
1970: Clara Stanton Jones became the first woman (and the first African American) to serve as director of a major library system in America, as director of the Detroit Public Library. [18] [19]
1970: The American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table Feminist Task Force (FTF) was founded in 1970 by women who wished to address sexism in libraries and librarianship. [20]
1971: Effie Lee Morris became the first woman and black person to serve as president of the Public Library Association. [13]
1972: Zoia Horn, born in Ukraine, became the first United States librarian to be jailed for refusing to share information as a matter of conscience (and, as she was female, the first female United States librarian to do so.) [21]
1973: Page Ackerman became University Librarian for the University of California, Los Angeles, and thus became the United States' first female librarian of a system as large and complex as UCLA's. [22]
1976: Mary Ronnie became the first female national librarian in the world, due to becoming New Zealand's first female National Librarian. [23]
1976: The Council of the American Library Association passed a "Resolution on Racism and Sexism Awareness" during the ALA's Centennial Conference in Chicago, July 18–24, 1976. [24]
1976: The Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship (COSWL) of the American Library Association [25] was founded in 1976. [26]
1985: Susan Luévano-Molina became the first female president of REFORMA. [27]
1993: Jennifer Tanfield became the first female Librarian of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. [28]
1999: Elisabeth Niggemann became the first female director general of the German National Library. [29]
2000: Lynne Brindley was appointed as the first female chief executive of the British Library. [30]
2002: Inez Lynn was appointed as the first female librarian in the London Library's history. [31]
2004: Anjana Chattopadhyay became the first Director of the National Medical Library in India.
2009: Anne Jarvis became the first female librarian in Cambridge University's 650-year history. [32]
2012: Sonia L'Heureux became the first female Parliamentary Librarian of Canada. [33]
2016: Laurence Engel became the first female head of the French National Library. [34]
2016: Carla Hayden became the first female Librarian of Congress. [35]
2019: Leslie Weir became the first female Librarian and Archivist of Canada. [36]
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world.
Mary Salome Cutler Fairchild was a pioneering American librarian, educator, and school administrator. She is known for her contributions to the establishment of library science in the United States through her work at the Columbia College library and New York State Library School, as well as her service in the American Library Association.
REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, more commonly known as REFORMA, is an affiliate of the American Library Association formed in 1971 to promote library services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking. It is registered in Washington, D.C. as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Anne Carroll Moore was an American educator, writer and advocate for children's libraries.
Camila Alire is an American librarian and was president of the American Library Association from 2009 to 2010. She was the first Hispanic president of the ALA. She was previously the president of REFORMA, National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking, in 1993-1994.
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.
Henrietta M. Smith was an American academic, librarian, and storyteller, who edited four editions of the Coretta Scott King Award collection published by the American Library Association. In 2008, she was honored with the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes significant contributions to library service to children and ALSC. She is also the recipient of the 2011 Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement for her body of work as a significant and lasting literary contribution. She was honored during the 2014 Carle Honors Celebration by the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art for her life's work as a champion of diversity in children's literature.
Lotsee Patterson is a Comanche librarian, educator, and founder of the American Indian Library Association. She has written numerous articles on collection development, tribal libraries and Native American Librarianship. A Native American, Lotsee Patterson first became interested in collecting Native American objects, as her mother was a collections director. In the late 1950s, she read the 1983 publication The Museum Handbook of Native American History. She saw that Native Americans were less well documented than other cultures and often paid exorbitant prices for materials that were soon obsolete. Patterson is a University of Oklahoma Professor Emeritus of Library and Information Studies.
Carla Diane Hayden is an American librarian who is serving as the 14th librarian of Congress. Since the creation of the office of the librarian of Congress in 1802, Hayden is both the first African American and the first woman to hold this post. Appointed in 2016, she is the first professional librarian to hold the post since 1974.
Librarianship and human rights in the U.S. are linked by the philosophy and practice of library and information professionals supporting the rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), particularly the established rights to information, knowledge and free expression.
Kathleen de la Peña McCook is a library scholar and librarian. Much of her work centers around human rights, First Amendment issues, and the freedom of information.
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library, and may hold a degree in librarianship.
The field of library science seeks to provide a diverse working environment in libraries. Ways to change the status quo include diversifying the job field with regards to age, class, disabilities, ethnicity, gender identity, race, sex, and sexual orientation.
The Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) is an affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA) that focuses on the needs of African-American library professionals by promoting careers in librarianship, funding literacy initiatives, and providing scholarships.
Barbara J. Ford is an American librarian who served as president of the American Library Association from 1997 to 1998. She earned a bachelor's degree from Illinois Wesleyan University, a master's degree in International Relations from Tufts University and a master's degree in library science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Loida Garcia-Febo is a Puerto Rican American librarian and library consultant. Garcia-Febo served on the Governing Board of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) 2013-2015 and 2015-2017 and she was a member of the executive board of the American Library Association 2015-2020 serving as a board member and president. She was president of the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking (REFORMA) from 2009 to 2010.
Elizabeth Martinez is a librarian whose career has focused on bringing diversity, multiculturalism and equality to public libraries and information policy. In 1966 she was the first Mexican American librarian to serve in the state of California. Martinez has served as a library administrator, professor, Executive Director of the American Library Association, and other roles throughout her career.
Oralia Garza de Cortes is a librarian, advocate, bibliographer, and scholar. She has been honored by REFORMA with the Lifetime Achievement Award which recognizes excellence in librarianship over a career for one who has made significant and lasting contributions to Latino and Spanish-speaking communities.
The American Library Association Equality Award has been given annually by the American Library Association since 1984 in recognition of achievement for outstanding contribution toward promoting equality in the library profession, either by a sustained contribution or a single outstanding accomplishment. The award may be given for an activist or scholarly contribution in such areas as pay equity, affirmative action, legislative work and non-sexist education. The inaugural award was bestowed on Margaret Myers, Director, Office of Library Personnel Resources of the American Library Association in 1984.
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