"On my very first day of library school, Dr. Irving Lieberman turned me from a dilettante into a committed professional librarian..." --Jonathan Betz-Zall
Dr. Irving Lieberman, 1914-1998
"On my very first day of library school, Dr. Irving Lieberman turned me from a dilettante into a committed professional librarian. Dr. Lieberman, whose stellar professional accomplishments included setting up the network of libraries serving US military people in Europe during and after the Second World War and organizing numerous professional development courses for librarians, devoted the first class session of "Introduction to Libraries" to all the many ways library work benefits society, especially for marginalized people. My family had pushed me reluctantly into the field because I wanted to change society more directly, but needed a paying career. Dr. Lieberman's sincere passion ignited my heart too, and kept me involved for the next fifty one years." --Submitted by Jonathan Betz-Zall
Please find a photo of Dr. Lieberman and his pitch for the graduate school of librarianship in his entry on the LHRT digital memorial.
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In honor of the Sesquicentennial (150th Anniversary of ALA) in 2026, the Library History Round Table is hosting Librarians We Have Lost, Sesquicentennial Memories -1976-2026. This collage of tributes seeks to honor librarians who died between 1976-2026. The tributes are published to ALA Connect, a digital memorial on LHRT News & Notes, and ALA's institutional repository (ALAIR).
We invite tributes from anyone about any library worker who passed away between 1976-2026. To submit a tribute, please use the form at https://lhrt.news/librarians-we-have-lost-sesquicentennial-memories-1976-2026-2/
For questions or comments, please reach out to Dr. Kathleen McCook (kmccook@usf.edu) or Brett Spencer (dbs21@psu.edu).
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Brett Spencer
Reference Librarian
Thun Library, Penn State Berks
He/Him/His
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