Plummer Alston Jones

The Awakening of the Social Conscience: Jane Maud Campbell, 1869–1947

Jane Maud Campbell’s career demonstrated her commitment and passion for library services with immigrants and minorities as one of the first advocates for multiculturalism in librarianship. She began her career working in the Newark Public Library and soon was employed as the librarian of the Passaic Public Library. She was the first woman employed by a state library commission to serve the needs of immigrants in Massachusetts. A prolific writer and champion of immigrants’ rights within the American Library Association, she served for a brief time on the ALA Committee on Work with the Foreign Born in its initial years. She spent the later years of her career as a public librarian in Lynchburg, Virginia, during a period of segregation in the South. She worked around the edges of the law to make library service available to the African American community of Lynchburg.

Cleveland’s Multicultural Librarian: Eleanor (Edwards) Ledbetter, 1870–1954

AbstractEleanor (Edwards) Ledbetter, who served immigrant populations in Cleveland throughout most of the Progressive Era and the Great Depression, was one of the first librarians to advocate for multiculturalism (then called cultural pluralism) as opposed to Americanism. In providing multicultural and multilingual library services for immigrants, Ledbetter was active locally as librarian at the Broadway Branch of the Cleveland Public Library and member of the Cleveland Americanization Committee and nationally as chair of the American Library Association’s Committee on Work with the Foreign Born. She was recognized internationally as a bibliographer of Polish literature and translator of Czech folktales, for which she was awarded honors by the Polish and Czechoslovak governments, and as an unofficial ambassador for the American public library in eastern and southeastern Europe, specifically the countries of the former Yugoslavia.Eleanor (Edwards) Ledbetter, who served immigrant populations in Cleveland throughout most of the Progressive Era and the Great Depression, was one of the first librarians to advocate for multiculturalism (then called cultural pluralism) as opposed to Americanism. In providing multicultural and multilingual library services for immigrants, Ledbetter was active locally as librarian at the Broadway Branch of the Cleveland Public Library and member of the Cleveland Americanization Committee and nationally as chair of the American Library Association’s Committee on Work with the Foreign Born. She was recognized internationally as a bibliographer of Polish literature and translator of Czech folktales, for which she was awarded honors by the Polish and Czechoslovak governments, and as an unofficial ambassador for the American public library in eastern and southeastern Europe, specifically the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

From the Editor: Love's Labor Reconsidered

What’s happened to North Carolina Libraries?” The simple answer is that North Carolina Libraries has been undergoing a physical transformation from print to electronic. The more complex answer is that the NCL Editorial Board has been involved in a process of introspection/reconsidering NCL’s mission and discussing how NCL could be more efficiently and less expensively produced.

From the Editor: Annual v. Biennial Conferences

The North Carolina Library Association was organized at the State Normal and Inudustrial College in Greensboro on May 14, 1904, with seven founding members and forty-nine charter members. The first annual meeting, held November 11–12 of the same year in Charlotte, was attended by sixty-seven people.

From the Editor: The Electrnic Biennium: North Carolina Libraries, 2001-2003

During the 2001-2003 biennium, seven electronic issues of North Carolina Libraries were published: Spring/Summer 2002, Fall 2002, Winter 2002, Spring 2003, Summer 2003, Fall 2003, and Winter 2003 (NCLA Biennial Conference issue) and the 2002 print annual, including the three 2002 electronic issues. The 2003 print annual will be mailed to NCLA members and North Carolina Libraries subscribers in early 2004.

From the Editor: Reflections on Going Electronic

Calendar year 2002 was a year of transition for North Carolina Libraries. We published three electronic issues in Volume 60: Nos. 1 & 2 (Spring/Summer 2002); No. 3 (Fall 2003); and No. 4 (Winter 2002). All three issues were cumulated into the print annual for 2002.

Passing the Torch: Reminiscences with Frances Bryant Bradburn, Editor Emerita, North Carolina Libraries, 1985–2002

This article features an interview between the author and North Carolina Libraries Editor Emerita Frances Bryant Bradburn.

Between us: Serving the silent: We are still a nation of immigrants

This article discusses the needs of North Carolinas immigrant population and how libraries can best accommodate them.