The Library History Buff

Promoting the appreciation, enjoyment, and preservation of library history

Biographies of American Library People

Disclaimer:  The Web sites below vary in quality. The three volumes of the  Dictionary of American Library Biography and other printed resources should be consulted for better documented and more thorough biographies. If you would like to suggest additional or alternative Web sites, please contact me at nix@libraryhistorybuff.org .

See also: Biographies of Library People of the World

Compilations

Black Women Public Librarians (article by Cheryl Knott Malone)
http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/801/

Librarians Dedicated to Human Rights (article by Katharine J. Phenix and Kathleen de la Pena McCook in PDF format)

Librarians of Congress
(From Jefferson's Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress)
http://www.loc.gov/loc/legacy/librs.html

Library Advocates of the 20th Century
http://www.ala.org/ala/alta/honorrollbanquet/honorees2000/Honorees2000.htm

Oklahoma Library Legends
http://www.library.okstate.edu/dean/jpaust/legends/

Pioneers of the Library Profession (Article by Josephine Adams Rathbone)
http://www.hwwilson.com/Databases/PDFsample/WLB/pioneers.pdf

South Carolina History Project Biographies
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/sp/history/booklets.htm

Texas Library Champions
http://www.txla.org/html/pr/releases/champs.html

Wikipedia Category for American Librarians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_librarians

Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame
http://heritage.wisconsinlibraries.org/hall-of-fame.html

World Libraries - The Pioneers
Biographical articles published in the magazine World Libraries
http://www.worlib.org/virtual/pioneers.shtml

The "Dead Germans Project" - Univ. of Tenn. at Knoxville
(Many links don't work, but a great idea in any case)
http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/germans.html

Librarian Trading Cards
http://librariantradingcards.blogspot.com/

Individuals

Sarah Byrd Askew (New Jersey library leader)
http://www.wpunj.edu/library/bio.shtml

Augusta Baker (1911-1998)
http://kids.nypl.org/parents/ocs_centennial_baker.cfm
http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/kidlit/baker.html 

Sanford Berman (Legendary Cataloger)
http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr517/02-03-wt2/projects/berman/index.htm

Anne Morris Boyd (Library Educator, 1884-1969)
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/people/alumni/betaphimu/boyd.html

Thomas Bray (Father of American Libraries?)
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/histories/biographies/bray/index.html

Andrew Carnegie (The Patron Saint of Libraries)
http://www.carnegie.org/sub/about/biography.html
http://andrewcarnegie.tripod.com/

Virginia Carter Castleman (Drexel Library School Graduate 1899)
http://www.library.drexel.edu/archives/exhibits/castlemanexhibitbio.html

Charles Ammi Cutter (Library Systematizer Extraordinaire)
http://www.forbeslibrary.org/about/cacutter.shtml
http://www.geocities.com/curmudgeony_librarian/articles/cutter.html

John Cotton Dana (Library leader and promoter)
http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/dana_lib/danabio.shtml
http://www.hwwilson.com/jcdawards/about_jcd.htm
http://www.hwwilson.com/databases/PDFsample/WLB/libLeaders.pdf