For Librarians across the world. The article present number of heroes in the field of librarianship who won the laurels by their services and repute

1. September 22, 2019
Librarians who won the laurels
By Abid Hussain
The Librarianship is a profession which is an ancient and honourable one. Its
sole purpose is to provide right information to the right person at the right
time. History is replete with innumerable testimonies that those who
contributed in different fields are still remembered. Albeit, many of them are
no more with us, but their names would be remembered forever. The
Librarians, who won the laurels in their career are more in numbers but only
a few are discussed here:
(1) Mao Zedong: Mao Zedong is considered to be the revolutionist of China
who united China in the 1940s and 50s. In 1918 he lived in Peking (now
Beijing) and was selected as an Assistant Librarian at the Peking University.
The Chief Librarian of Peking University was believer of Marxist but, he
converted Mao to Communism.
(2) Laura Bush: She was the first lady of George W. Bush in 2001-2009 and
earned her master degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She
supported G.W. Bush throughout his campaign and succeeded him in the
election. She supported librarians in their recruitment process and time scale.
During her stay in the office, she visited many libraries around the world. She
was running educational project during her tenure as first lady.

2. (3) Golda Meir: who is known to be the most influential librarians before her
political career. She was the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from 1969-74
who signed the Israeli declaration of independence in 1948. She remained an
Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Labour Minister in 1949-56.
(4) J. Edgar Hoover, Edgar is the legendary Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), who started investigation at domestic level from 1924-
72. He headed the FBI in 1935 as a founder leader. Prior to this career, he
remained a messenger, cataloguer in the Library of Congress in 1919. He left
the Library of Congress and started his new career as Special Assistant to the
Attorney General.
(5) Seyd Mohammad Khatami, He was the fifth President of Islamic
Republic of Iran and also remained Minister for Culture in Iran. He headed
the National Library and Archive Organization prior to his political career.
He was one of the most influential persons in the cultural and political affairs
of Iran.
(6) Marcel Proust, He is a French writer born in 1871 and is known to be the
most influential novelist and critic of all times. His most famous work is in
search of Lost Times is still studied today. He remained a school Librarian in
France.
(7) Joanna Cole, who is a popular producer of BBC Children’s TV show Bod.
She is renowned writer by writing the Magic School Bus series to entertain
the elementary-aged children about the human body, space and more. She
remained a school teacher, book editor and writer. Above all, she was a
renowned librarian of that time.
(8) Benjamin Franklin, he is regarded to be the founding father of the USA,
who was born in 1706. God bestowed upon him with multiple talents. He
served as librarian for a brief period of time who also credited with founding

3. the first American Library (A private subscription Library called the library
company of Philadelphia. He died in 1790.
(9) Pope Pius XI, he was born in 1857 and established the feast of Christ the
king and spoke out against crimes, social justice and unethical financial
corruption. He also reorganized Archives, scholars, artistes and philosophers.
Prior to being XI Pope at 1929-39, he was a chief librarian at the Milan
Seminary of the Vatican Library. He also developed his own classification
system for books and other reading material.
10. Jacob Grimm, a well-known writer who won many awards in writing. His
fairy tales were first published in 1812. Her other popular stories are Hansel
and Gretel, Cinderella and Snow White are still classic children stories and
reinvented as plays. He also presented the ever best Disney movies. He
worked as a librarian in Kasel. The Jacob and his brother collected a folk
tales from the ordinary citizens of Germany in hopes of uniting area kingdom
for sharing a similar culture.
11. Professor Dr Anis Khurshid died on 4 January 2008. Obtained PhD
Degree from Pittsburgh University in 1969. In recognition of his great
achievements in the field of Library and Information Sciences, he was
awarded a pride of performance award by the then President of Pakistan. He
is known to be the father of Modern Librarianship in Pakistan.
The writer works as Library Officer at Institute of Strategic Studies, a think-
think based in Islamabad.