Bob Sink is "researching the lives of the 150+ librarians who headed a neighborhood branch of the New York Public Library during the first 50 years of its branch system, 1901-1950." He started a blog last year, NYPL-Librarians to report his research.
He writes:
"The blog will include information on my demographic study of the librarians; the autonomy the branch librarians (all but 6 were women) achieved within a male-run institution and then lost beginning in the 1930s; the process of racially integrating the staff starting in 1920; and the librarians' publication patterns.
"I’m also writing short profiles of the librarians and post them on their birthdays. The hope is that a descendant doing family history research might contact me after coming across the entry, and I may be able to get access to additional personal data, or reminiscences or even letters.
"I’ll also use the blog as an outlet for interesting vignettes, such as the post about a librarian’s assessment of the impact of the Milton Berle TV show on the High Bridge neighborhood in the Bronx in 1950.
"I welcome any comments or suggestions you might have."
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1 comment:
Thanks for the mention of my blog. FYI, several of the librarians I am studying had connections to Albany.
Alma Rogers Van Hoevenberg (1865-1956) worked in the Albany Public Library in 1894.
Katherine Lord O’Brien (1907-1998) worked there in 1929-1930.
Marion Helen Larbey (1911-2003) was born in Albany and graduated from Albany High School in 1928.
Augusta Baker (1911-1999) moved to Albany in the 1930s, studied librarianship at the NY State College for Teachers, and was reported to be the first African-American to do her student practice at the Albany Public Library. She went on to become one of the nation’s most prominent children’s librarians.
Finally, more than a dozen of the NYPL librarian received their library training at the NY State Library School in Albany.
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