mydaguerreotypelibrarian:

thehannahmachine:

Women, Mobility, and Libraries by Beverly Goldberg

“Long before there were such devices as smartphones and tablets—or personal computing, for that matter—women in librarianship were bringing reading material to people beyond the four walls of a physical library.”

About the photo: Kentucky trails are hard and riding for this Pack Horse Librarian is dangerous, except at such points where the Works Progress Administration has completed its farm-to-market road program. Photo taken January 12, 1938, part of the National Archives and Records Administration collection, reproduced courtesy of the New Deal Network photo gallery. Control number: 69-NS-BN.

Holla pack horse librarian! An A+ historical librarian.

My Daguerreotype Librarian both CAN’T stop and WON’T stop.

My Daguerreotype Librarian: Mabel Zoe Wilson →

womenoflibraryhistory:

Tamara Belts sent us this article (with permission) by Marian Alexander (Associate Professor Emeritus, Western Washington University Libraries), about Mabel Zoe Wilson’s role in their library’s history. The image is from WWU’s Special Collections.

Leading Lady: Miss Wilson Makes a Library

It’s hard to imagine Western without the Mabel Zoe Wilson Library. Its elegant, Italianate brick façade has graced the south end of the green swathe in front of Old Main since 1928. But when the famously feisty, determined woman for whom the building is now named first set foot on campus, there was no separate structure serving as a library, and there was barely a library collection at all.

“There just wasn’t a library,” Mabel Zoe Wilson was to exclaim many years later, recalling her reaction on February 1, 1902, her first day on the job. On the uppermost floor of the institution’s only building at the time (now Old Main), she saw a few reference books, a great pile of disorganized magazines shoved into a corner,  and perhaps 400 to 500 additional books. A sheaf of bills from book firms and some lists of items to be ordered constituted the official records.

For the next 43 years, Mabel Zoe Wilson made it her life’s work to wrest a functioning, well stocked, superbly organized academic library from virtually nothing. “Her dedication to one library was total,” remarked a colleague, and her leadership nothing short of remarkable in the face of significant challenges as Western grew and as its mission and purpose evolved throughout the first half of the 20th century.

Born in 1878 in Athens, Ohio, Mabel Zoe Wilson was not trained as a librarian; rather, her degree from Athens’ Ohio University, earned in 1900, resulted from a course of study that included Greek, political economy, and rhetoric.

Read More

MyDaguerreotypeLibrarian + WomenofLibraryHistory = nonstop badass feminist historical tumbling.

mydaguerreotypelibrarian:

Writer and bad-ass librarian, Regina M. Anderson helped jumpstart the Harlem Renaissance. From Wikipedia:

Born in Chicago, she studied at Wilberforce University, University of Chicago, and Columbia University before becoming a librarian at the 135th Street (Harlem) branch of the New York Public Library. In 1924 she organized a dinner for black New York intellectuals and writers, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes. The dinner was one of the coalescing events of the Harlem Renaissance.

Um, so, yes I actually did this.

librarianpirate:

othemts:

thepierglass:

thepinakes:

youtastelikenachos:

kellymce:

mydaguerreotypeboyfriend:

Melvil Dewey, creator of the Dewey Decimal System of library classification. This advocate of spelling reform changed his name from Melville to Melvil to avoid unnecessary letters.

Once again for you librarians in the back, the creator of the Dewey Decimal System was totally hot and didn’t take crap from silent letters. 

Submitted by childhoodoutfits

Too bad he was also a sexist. 

Melvil Dewey is that bro in your high school gym class that makes fun of you for using the word diphthong. He then goes on to graduate from an Ivy League school thanks to a high school crew scholarship. You see him again in a bar seven years later and he has red eyes and a beer gut. He works in “finance” and says he thinks he knows you from somewhere. You roll your eyes and get back to your nachos. He is pretty but boring.

If you’re looking to date a 19th century librarian, might I suggest John Vance Cheney instead? 

First off, Cheney’s beard blows away Dewey’s hipster ‘stache.

John Vance Cheney was a librarian and a romantic poet. He expanded the early San Francisco Public Library and organized the first ever west coast conference of the ALA. He later ran the Newberry Library in Chicago until he retired. His heart was broken when his first wife left him for a sex cult — that she founded. However, with his second wife, he toured Europe and made a point of visiting all the great continental libraries.

He also gets bonus points for not being a creep and a sexual predator, as Melvil Dewey was.

A crush-worthy 21st century librarian recommends a crush-worthy 19th century librarian to love instead of Melville Dewey. This is why I love my dash. 

I’m a fan of Sam Walter Foss myself since he worked at Somerville Public Library, was instrumental in founding the West Somerville branch in Davis Square, and had time to write a ton of poetry.

“…let me live by the side of the road / And be a friend to man.”

If we are talking about sexy male librarians in history can I bring your attention to:

Casanova.  THE sexy male librarian in history.  He is known for being a womanizer, yes, but as far as my reading shows it was consensual and happy.  To crib shamelessly from his wikipedia page, Casanova believed that “alcohol and violence were not proper tools of seduction. Instead, attentiveness and small favors should be employed to soften a woman’s heart, but ‘a man who makes known his love by words is a fool.’  Verbal communication is essential—’without speech, the pleasure of love is diminished by at least two-thirds’—but words of love must be implied, not boldly proclaimed.”

This is where we start up My Daguerreotype Librarian, right?