Famous librarians who have passed through Omaha

Mildred Batchelder, Mount Holyoke
College Yearbook
(Llamarada), 1922, p. 132.

I recently discovered something I feel I should have known all along (and I feel sure that EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD already knew this!): Mildred Batchelder, famous librarian in whose honor the American Library Association's Mildred L. Batchelder Award for children's books in English translation was established, began her professional life as a children's librarian at Omaha Public Library, though she spent only three years there. I have a specially warm feeling about Mildred--since I was a translator myself in my previous life.

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1901, she was awarded a Bachelor of Library Science degree from the New York State Library School in Albany, New York, in 1924. She then, at the age of 23, 

with no experience, became Supervisor of Children's Services in Omaha, Nebraska, a job that included the main library, four branches, and 34 grade schools. In Omaha she developed a training class for her staff, published a periodical on buying books for children, and used her personal savings to take staff members with her to her second American Library Association (ALA) conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey.¹

This part of her career is lightly touched on in various accounts of her life--see Barbara Bader's depiction in The Horn Book, for example.  What did she do in Omaha?

Strangely enough, we did not have a biography file on her at the library, so I had to start from scratch. I began by trawling through Library Notes for the relevant years. Library Notes was Omaha Public Library's periodic bulletin covering library news and, primarily, lists of new books. Staff were seldom mentioned by name in this publication (except for the head librarian), but I did find this:

She was already showing her strong belief in the importance of library training.

At that time, the Omaha Public Library System consisted of the Main Library, 4 branches, 4 high school libraries, 37 class room libraries, and 11 businesses, clubs, and hospitals. The Main Library, where Mildred worked, was on the southeast corner of 19th and Harney Streets (it is now an office building), and was one of the first libraries in the country to set up a separate children's department.  Here it is--very spacious! And the children look very well-behaved.

Children's room, Main Library



Omaha Public Library, 1898

I found Mildred in the 1925 and 1926 Omaha city directories. No directory was published in 1927, and she doesn't appear in 1928, having presumably moved on to her next position, as children's librarian at the Minnesota State Teacher's College in St. Cloud (where she did not last long--according to both Bader and Davis, her energetic outspokenness quickly got her fired). In both 1925 and 1926, she lived at 308 S. 38th St., in a building that also housed C.J. Palmer and Mrs. Bertha Palmquist. That address no longer exists, but it would be between Farnam and Harney.

 

I'd like to say I planned this post to coincide with Children's Book Week, which would be so appropriate, since Mildred Batchelder orchestrated OPL's Children's Book Week celebrations for three years (back then, it was celebrated in November; in 2008 it moved to May); however, I must confess my post has been stagnating for two months already, and I'm now pretty much desperate to get it out.  Nevertheless, Children's Book Week is the perfect occasion. Children's Book Week was Mildred's first major event as the new supervisor of the Omaha Public Library's children's department:

Evening World-Herald, 29 Oct. 1924, p. 14

The following year, 1925, Mildred presided over "the largest party ever given" in honor of Children's Book Week at Omaha Public Library:

Omaha World Herald, 14 Nov. 1925, p. 17.

That's what I call a party! I'm not sure we will be able to top it this year....



1. Davis, Donald G., Dictionary of American Library Biography, Vol. 3 (Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2003), p. 22.