
Here are some facts about female achievers who improved and advocated for our libraries. The 135th Street branch of New York Public Library was where librarian Sadie Peterson Delaney pioneered the technique of bibliotherapy, the therapeutic use of reading materials, to help immigrants and troubled children in the 1920s. Also, in 1857 Jane Wadden Turner was hired as a library clerk by the Smithsonian. She was the first woman to secure a paid position at the institution.