Librarianship: A Profession

1887:  Melvil Dewey founds the first library school at Columbia College in New York and the profession becomes more and more open to women through library education.

The late 19th and early 20th century also saw an explosion in professional literature for librarians and and further organization with the founding in 1909 of the Special Libraries Association. This growth in the profession was especially needed at this time because 1884 marked the year of the first public library funded by Andrew Carnegie and well over 1600 libraries would be funded by the philanthropist and his foundation down into the 20th century.
(From:  A Brief History of Librarians and Image)

Librarians in the 20th Century

1923:  Charles Williamson criticizes the training of librarians and what the 'feminization' of the profession.

As much as 90% of all library school students were female by that time but despite the still growing number of libraries and their importance to U.S. society librarianship as a profession was of relatively low status.
(From:  A Brief History of Librarians and Image)

1928:  First PhD in Library Science awarded by the University of Chicago

The library profession was becoming increasingly technical and what had started out as 'library economy' under Dewey was fast becoming 'information science' through the influence of George Boole's principles upon scientists like Claude Shannon and Mortimer Taube. Cultural stereotypes about librarians were being ingrained during the middle of this century in movies and popular culture and they tended to fall along the lines of the 'spinster' for women and the 'egghead' for men. The educational and technical advances of the profession only seemed to build on these unfortunate stereotypes.
(From:  A Brief History of Librarians and Image)

Millennial Librarians?

The further growth in electronic media available to the general public and its supposed ease of use have caused many to claim that librarianship as a profession will soon be obsolete. But the number of students attending library schools has increased over the last ten years and through changes in curricula library schools seem to be adapting to the new information landscape. The status of librarianship has remained a concern throughout this century as evidenced by the professional literature we have gathered but, stereotypes to the contrary, librarians have proven to be an adaptable profession that is especially concerned with its image and its future.
(From:  A Brief History of Librarians and Image)

 

And finally, watch the following video from the Thinking Ahead Symposium - 2005

(Windows Media Player (or equivalent MMS player) is required to watch)

Practicing Democracy: What does that mean for Libraries?
Nancy Kranich: Past ALA President

And see, also, Competencies for Information Professionals of the 21st Century.

The Librarian Action Figure

Famous Librarians in History
(From:  A Brief History of Librarians and Image)

Throughout history, many people who later became well known in other capacities served as librarians. In 1979, the journal Library News reprinted this section of The Book of Lists. Unfortunately, all the "famous people" listed are men. A comparable list for women would balance this view. (One example would be the recently deceased novelist, essayist, and poet Audre Lourde; another would be current First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush).

However, even with this gender bias, the following list does show the variety of people who have chosen to work in the field.

Casanova (1725-1798) was not only a great lover. At the climax (!) of his career in 1785, the famous womanizer began 13 years as librarian for the Count von Waldstein in the chateau of Dux in Bohemia.

Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) was a librarian before he became Pope. He served 19 years as a member of the College of Doctors of the Ambrosian Library in Milan, and then became chief librarian. In 1911 he was asked to reorganize and update the Vatican Library and four years laer became prefect of the Vatican Library. From 1922 until his death in 1939, the former librarian served as pope.

Mao Tse-Tung (1893-1976) worked as an assistant to the chief librarian of the University of Peking. Overlooked for advancement, he decided to get ahead in another field and eventually became chairman of the Chinese Communist Party.

FBI Head J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972) was a Library of Congress messenger and cataloger in his first job.