Women, Mobility, and Libraries

March 27, 2013

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. As Women’s History Month draws to a close this March, American Libraries celebrates the library workers, most of them women, whose mobile devices for delivering literacy consisted of wagons and horses bearing books door to door in rural America.

According to the Western Maryland Regional Library, “the first bookmobile in the United States was introduced in Washington County, Maryland, in 1905. Mary L. Titcomb, the first librarian of Washington County Free Library, considered seriously the need for the library to become a county library. Her task was to get books in homes throughout the county, not just in Hagerstown, the county seat. The first step was to send boxes of books on the Library Wagon to the general store or the post office in small towns and villages throughout the county.”

Reminiscing in The Story of the Washington County Free Library, Titcomb wrote, “As well try to resist the pack of a peddler from the Orient as the shelf full of books when the doors of the wagon are opened by Miss Chrissinger at one’s gateway.” Although Washington County’s Library Wagon, driven by WCFL janitor Joshua Thomas, met its end when a freight train hit it in 1910, an automobile took its place in 1912, driven and staffed by women.

Of course, it wasn’t feasible to deploy an automobile into areas lacking roads, as was the case in parts of rural Kentucky until public works projects funded by the New Deal connected remote population areas to urban hubs. In the 1930s, FDR’s Works Progress Administration funded the Pack Horse Library Project, which enabled rural Kentuckians to have books delivered to them by women librarians who brought them in packed saddlebags.

Over at the Women of Library History blog of ALA’s Feminist Task Force, Jennifer Koth notes the contributions these women made, which is also acknowledged at Josephine’s Journal. Down Cut Shin Creek: The Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky, by Kathi Appelt and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer (HarperCollins, 2001), tells their story in more detail.

Tagged Under

Advocacy

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Max Eddy writes: “It’s a nightmare scenario: You’ve protected all of your online accounts with two-factor authentication (2FA), but then your phone is broken, lost, or stolen, and you’re locked out of everything. Past You’s effort to protect Future You has made Present You’s life a living hell. 2FA is supposed to keep attackers and scammers out of your online accounts, but what if something happens to your second factor? With a little planning, you can reduce that risk and still keep your accounts safe.”

New York Times Wirecutter, Apr. 12
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Nik Altenberg writes: “About 100 librarians and their supporters rallied outside San Francisco Public Library’s Main Library on April 9 to demand the city hire security guards for every branch. Workers decried a lack of security at most of the city’s branches and said they are often forced to de-escalate volatile situations and step into the role of providing security themselves. The rally is the latest in a series of union actions [from 10 unions representing more than 25,000 city workers across city departments] seeking to draw attention to what they say is a pervasive understaffing crisis.”

KQED-TV (San Francisco), Apr. 9
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“Two years after Brooklyn Public Libraries’ (BPL) launch of Books Unbanned, an initiative to protect the freedom to read for young people, In Their Own Words: Youth Voices on Books Unbanned gives new insight into the impact of censorship on teen and young adults across the US and how restrictions and other barriers to access build upon and reinforce each other. The new report, published April 11 by BPL and Seattle Public Library, analyzes 855 stories shared by young people who signed up for a free Books Unbanned ecard from April 2022 through December 2023.”

Seattle Public Library, Apr. 11
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Samantha Guss, Sojourna Cunningham, and Jennifer Stout write: “Recruitment and retention are both critical to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in academic libraries, and failing to improve retention has and will continue to derail these initiatives. Research that addresses retention tends to focus on proposed strategies, such as stay interviews (structured interviews aimed at strengthening employee and employer relationships) and mentorship programs. But there is no agreed-upon definition of retention that would allow us to assess these strategies. We should recognize that involuntary staying can be just as negative an outcome for the individual and the organization as leaving, setting the stage for legacy toxicity.”

In The Library With The Lead Pipe, Apr. 10
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Jackie Edwards writes: “As spring rolls around, seasonal allergies can flare up among library workers, resulting in symptoms like sneezing; runny or stuffy nose; itchy eyes, ears, and nose; coughing; and asthma. Not only are these symptoms detrimental to well-being and productivity, but they can also mean you’re less able to provide excellent customer service to library users. Fortunately, by purifying the air, preventing mold, and keeping your work area clean, you can improve indoor air quality and combat allergies in your library.”

Library Worklife, Apr.
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In Episode 94, Call Number celebrates Preservation Week, to be held this year April 28–May 4. The week’s events aim to raise awareness of the role libraries and cultural institutions play in protecting historic and culturally significant collections. Segments include Traci Sorell, honorary chair of this year’s Preservation Week, discussing the role of preservation through storytelling; Kathleen Monahan, special collections public services supervisor at Boston Public Library, addressing the importance of security in preservation; and Rosie Grayburn and Melissa Tedone, cofounders of the Poison Book Project, talking about their research on potentially toxic bookbinding materials from the 19th century.

AL: The Scoop, Apr. 15
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Leigh Kunkel writes: “The legalization of marijuana in many states and municipalities in recent years has created a newly legal industry and budding entrepreneurs who can benefit from the expertise of business librarians. As soon as Washington state introduced an initiative to legalize recreational cannabis use in 2012, Seattle Public Library librarian Jay Lyman started fielding questions from potential entrepreneurs. Since then, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis use, and 14 more have legalized medical use of cannabis. This cultural shift brings a new opportunity for libraries to step in with support services.”

American Libraries Trend, Mar./Apr.