Thursday, November 1, 2012

Who Has Made a Difference in Librarianship to Today’s Librarians?


Who Has Made a Difference in Librarianship to Today’s Librarians?—

(Clara Stanton Jones- first African American to serve as president of the American Library Association. She also was the first woman and the first African American director of the Detroit Public Library system.) 


 Results of a 4-day discussion in October 2012.—compiled by 
Kathleen de la Peña McCook. PLG member. October 29, 2012.

I am preparing to teach a course in library history and reviewed all the major historical surveys including a  new scarecrow press book:   Valentine, Patrick M. A Social History of Books and Libraries from Cuneiform to Bytes. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press, Inc, 2012.

I was struck by the fact that even after decades of protesting the male majority voice that the male majority voice dominates in the historical narrative. So I tried the experiment of  sending out a request on the Progressive Librarian Guild  and StanleyK discussion lists asking for input on October 24-29, 2012.
The result from librarians is a list that was split nearly even between men and women and  included many people of color.  I know the parameters were vague, but it seems to me that the results are a  basis for thinking about the structure of meaning and values in 21st century librarianship.
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Post on October 24, 2012
Advice....
I'm readying a new course and want to do a class on "Librarians Who Made a Difference." Suggestions?

Suggestions made by members of the “Progressive Librarians Guild discussion list and the Stanley K discussion list.

         Ismail Abdullahi;

 Augusta Baker; 

Sandra Ríos Balderrama;
Pura Belpré; 
Sanford Berman;  
John N. Berry III;
 Arna Wyndell Bontemps;
 Miriam Braverman;
 Clara Estelle Breed;
 Ruth W. Brown ; 
Mary Lee Bundy; 
Jean E. Coleman;
 Clara Chu; 
Connecticut Four[George Christian, Peter Chase, Barbara Bailey and Janet Nocek];
 Cuban librarians [Marta Terry, Eliades Acosta, and Tomas Fernández Robaina, Rebeca Brull], Margaret D'Adamo; 
Jim Danky;
Hal Draper; 
Shiraz Durrani ; 
Saad Eskander;
 Barbara Gittings;
John W. Ellison; 
 Maurice J. "Mitch" Freedman;
 Jennie Maas Flexner; 
Barbara J. Ford; 
Jeannette Howard Foster;
 Edmund and Ruth Frow;
 Barbara Gittings;
 Eliza Atkins Gleason;
 Zoia Horn; 
Agnes Inglis; 
Sidney Jackson; 
St. Jerome (342-420) patron saint of librarians; 
Clara Stanton Jones;  
E. J. Josey; 
Gretchen Knief;  
Dita Kraus; 
Judith Krug; 
Stanley Kunitz; 
Ladies of the many Ladies Library Associations; 
 Ann Lipow; 
George W. Loveland; 
Helen Lyman;
 Elizabeth Martinez; 
Margaret E. Monroe; 
Eric Moon; 
Maud Malone; 
Helen Marot; 
William (Bill) Miles; 
 Occupy Wall Street Librarians;
 Satia Orange; 
Maureen O'Reilly; 
Atonio Panizzi;  
Lorna Peterson;  
Members of the Progressive Librarians Guild [esp. founders: Elaine Harger, Mark Rosenzweig] ;
 Members of Radical Reference; 
Dudley Randall; 
Sirkali Ramamrita Ranganathan; 
 Marvin Scilken;  
Ralph Shaw; 
Anita Schiller;
 Jesse Shera; 
Glennor Shirley; 
 Ann Allen Shockley; 
Ann Sparanese; 
Lutie Stearns; 
Nettie Taylor; 
Arnulfo D. Trejo; 
Members of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of ALA; 
Toni Samek; 
Yongyi Song;  
Fred Stoss; 
Kathleen Weibel;
 James C. Welbourne;
 Celeste West;  
Ken Yamashita;  
AND members of ALA Ethnic Caucuses: AILA, APALA, CALA, BCALA, REFORMA

·        Influential others: Julian Assange; Eva Golinger; Stanley Kunitz;  Frederick Leypolt; Arthur Schomburg


·        Suggestors:  Gerardo "Gary"  Colmenar, Lincoln Cushing, Chuck D.Adamo , Isabel Espinal, Jenna Freedman,  Lia Friedman, Anita Galanopoulos,  Andrea Gallucci,  Andrea Grimes, Mark Hudson, Faith Jones, Seth Kershnerm, Joyce M. Latham, Rory Litwin, Rebecca Martin, Kathleen de la Peña McCook, Lisa McCracken, Peter McDonald, Kelly McElroy, Adam Mizelle, Vanessa Morris, Rhonda L Neugebauer, Melissa Riley, Laurie Spurling; Martin Wallace; Karen Weaver.

Progressive Librarians Guild  discussion list. 
StanleyK discussion list. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StanleyK/  for those who interested in issues relating to the education of librarians