Thursday, May 18, 2006

Im Juni erscheint folgendes must-have-Buch bei Scarecrow: "The New Woman as Librarian: The Career of Adelaide Hasse" (ISBN 0-8108-5106-7) von Clare Beck, Government Documents Librarian der Eastern Michigan University. Von Beck erschien schon in der Ausgabe Jänner 1996 der "American Libraries" der Artikel "A 'Private' Grievance Against Dewey", der "reviews archival letters which shed light on Dewey's shady reputation with women colleagues and in particular, Adelaide Hasse", und das Kapitel "Adelaide Hasse: The New Woman as Librarian" im Sammelband "Reclaiming the American Library Past: Writing the Women In", erschienen 1996 bei Ablex.
Zum Buch: "At the time of her death, it seemed that Adelaide Hasse would simply pass from memory and be forgotten. However, by the turn of the century, American Libraries would sanctify her as one of its hundred library leaders of the twentieth century, one of only thirty women given this honor. Thus, the unsinkable Adelaide Hasse has risen to the status of a giant of the profession and has been established as a sort of patron saint of documents librarians. The Government Printing Office even named a room in her honor in 1985.
Though much of her career has remained obscure, Hasse did leave records that could provide a more balanced understanding of her life and work. Besides the extensive print record in periodicals and The Compensations of Librarianship, there were the long submerged archival records awaiting discovery in the New York Public Library Archives, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the files of the FBI, as well as in the papers of various contemporaries.
Hasse spoke and wrote about issues that are as relevant today as they were a century ago. How should librarians be recruited and educated? What is the nature of their professional expertise? How do libraries function as organizations? What services do they provide? How do they provide access to government information? What are the dynamics of a feminized profession? Hasse tried to stir such discussion, but her ideas were often submerged in allegations that she was a difficult, disloyal woman. This biography brings to light Hasse's achievements, setting aside enigmas of personality, and examines the impact of her work, her values, and her experience in a gendered system".

1 comment:

  1. As the author, I'm pleased to see this on a German librarian's blog. Adelaide Hasse's life is of interest to German librarians for the way in which she combined elements of German and American cultures and for her links to German history through her family and her experience as a German American during World War I.
    Clare Beck, mbeck2@emich.edu

    ReplyDelete