The document provides a timeline of important events in the history of American libraries from 1731 to 1967. It summarizes key developments such as Benjamin Franklin opening the first subscription library in 1731, the burning of the Library of Congress in 1814 and Thomas Jefferson subsequently selling his personal library to replace it, the Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 establishing land grant colleges and academic libraries, and the establishment of the first library school by Melvil Dewey in 1887.

1. Timeline of Important Events in the History of American Libraries Susan Sharpe LIS 5020 Foundations of Library and Information Science Summer 2008

3. A Basic Historical Timeline Of Important Events for U.S. Libraries 1731 1814 1862 1870 1960 1887 1897 1967 1876 1934

6. Clara M. Edmunds and the first modern government documents library: In today’s info-centric world in which news is delivered live and from around the globe each and every minute, and data is uploaded and downloaded by the terabyte into personal computers, PDA’s, and cell phones it can be hard pressed for one to remember back to more distant times in which the information that we seek was not readily available. This transition from letter to email, from telegraph to radio and radio to telephone, from phone to cell phone, and etc was largely the result of the technological advances brought about by the last half of the 19th century and beginning of the twentieth. Most notably it was the invention and subsequent improvement of the computer which contributed to the way of which we view and access information today. However in the early 1930’s the computer was just an oversized calculator and the vast databases which house today’s documents, news, and etc were largely incomplete or in most cases simply did not exist. During this time period the public was at best alerted to recent news worthy developments via their local newspaper, radio, or television; while their information seeking needs was met by their local library, who in turned attempted to keep on top of the latest updates as fast as the technology of the times allowed. The 1930’s were a tumultuous era, the country was in the midst of a depression, a new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had been elected, and strange events were happening abroad. The first days of Roosevelt’s administration, aptly named the “Hundred Days,” oversaw the creation, formation, and overhaul of much of the antiquated government and in his attempt to single handedly bring the country out of its economic depression via his “New Deal” Roosevelt inadvertently sparked the creation of a modern government documents library, which during its peak was capable of updating its records hourly and answering thousands of inquiries on a variety of subjects (Lee, 216). In 1934 the United States Information Service (USIS) was created to help disseminate, “interpret, and explain” the “extent … of the expansion and multiplication of administrative agencies” which were part of Roosevelt’s “New Deal” (Lee, 213-217). These agencies issued daily publications of information that was vital to the public interest, but little of the public had access to it, or knew which agency to direct their queries (Lee, 214). Out of the chaos of the first “Hundred Days” and under the wing of the newly created USIS emerged a small “technical library” within the USIS headed by Clara M. Edmunds, which sole purpose was to disseminate and direct “officials, students, and other accredited persons” to the correct agencies through which their questions may be answered, or immediately provide the current answer on a variety of topics (Lee, 221). This small library, whose staff consisted of never more than seven paid librarians and clerks, focused on creating “a systematic database of legislative developments” that was “organized by subject matter (with appropriate cross-listing and indexing information) so that material was available in a way that would make sense to a lay citizen” (Lee, 216). Although the library was at first restricted to “accredited” personnel it eventually began fielding public questions and developed into a resource that as Edmunds said “was open to a great number of ordinary people who have found information not available in other libraries” (Lee, 216).

7. The genius of this “Congressional Information Section” library was in the fact that the information it contained had not been previously categorized or deemed noteworthy by current institutions. The range of its documents covered “official releases, [and] statements or speeches by other government officials” as well as “a progressive record of establishments of boards, commissions, and committees; decisions of the Supreme Court, Congressional bills, hearings, reports, Etc; the Congressional Record; (…) Executive orders (and etc)” (Lee, 218). These documents were not traditionally stored together, and in some cases, as with the executive letters written by Roosevelt to various agency directors they were not even stored at all (Lee, 218). Under Edmund’s directorship this small library became a hub to information seekers who wished to get the most recent and often the most clarifying explanation or summation of what the government was doing at that time. Not only was the library capable of fielding and directing a host of different questions on a variety of subjects, but it did so while providing monthly, daily, and hourly updates on a variety of materials- a feat that many an institution was hard pressed to duplicate (Lee, 212). Somehow without the computers of today, or microfilm, or any other of our modern and more convenient methodologies Edmund’s library operated on a level of interconnectivity that is rivaled only by today’s “information highway.” Her approach to cataloguing and indexing the various government documents by subject and office eventually inspired the creation of several of our modern government information sources such as the “Code of Federal Regulations” (Lee, 216). Unfortunately Edmund’s library failed to stand the test of time and by 1948 Congress officially dismantled the library, not because of any lack of functionality but simply out of politics as Roosevelt’s various administrations were demolished by Truman’s supporters (Lee, 224). In spite of this the policies on which it operated and the methodology lives on in the current forum of government documents, and although it has taken several decades of development today’s government document librarian has access to nearly much the same information as Clara Edmunds did without being privy to direct contact with the White House. The creation and eventual destruction of Edmund’s catalogue is a small but important footnote in the monumental changes brought about by Roosevelt’s reforms of the 1930’s. Mordecai Lee, author of the only recent and perhaps only paper on Miss Clara Edmunds, writes that “this forgotten chapter” “transformed the librarianship of government documents” and he notes that after the absorption and dismantling of the library’s collection it took nearly a “half century” and the creation of “digitized databases” for the government to duplicate what Miss Edmund’s “Congressional Information Section” accomplished in the 1930 through the 1940’s (Lee, 212 & 225). In many small ways Edmund’s forgotten library opened the door for all government documents libraries, and paved the way for the interconnected databases we enjoy today. Timeline