Redmond Kathleen Molz (1928-2019) was Melvil Dewey professor of library service at Columbia University. The Dewey professorship, the first endowed chair of librarianship in an American university, was established by Columbia in 1938 with an endowment fund from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Molz was an educator, librarian, scholar and editor. Her focus was the role of libraries in society, particularly in the context of public policy, education, and the information age.
Service to the American Library Association
Long active in ALA:
- Molz was an member of the ALA Council
- She served a four-year term as a member of the ALA Executive Board.
- She was chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committee in 1973-75.
- She was president of the Freedom to Read Foundation in 1977-79.
Career and Education
Molz earned the BA and MA from Johns Hopkins University, a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from the University of Michigan, and Doctor of Library Science (DLS) from Columbia University (1976).
- She was a librarian at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore (1953–1956).
- She was public relations officer at the Free Library of Philadelphia (1958–1962).
- She was editor of the Wilson Library Bulletin (1962–1968).
- She was chief of the planning staff for the Bureau of Libraries and Learning Resources at the U.S. Office of Education in Washington, D.C. (1968–1973).
- She was a professor at the School of Library Service at Columbia University of library science at Columbia University (1976–1993), and when the School of Library Service closed in 1992 she was a professor of public affairs at the School of International and Public Affairs Columbia University (1993–1999) retiring as professor emerita in 2000.
Selected Publications:
- Civic Space/Cyberspace: The American Public Library in the Information Age (1999), co-authored with Phyllis Dain), which explored the challenges and opportunities for public libraries in the digital era. MIT Press.
- Civic Networks in the United States. (1994). U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science.
- Library Planning and Policy Making : The Legacy of the Public and Private Sectors. (1990). Scarecrow Press.
- The Knowledge Institutions in the Information Age : The Special Case of the Public Library. (1988). Library of Congress, Center for the Book.
- National Planning for Library Service, 1935–1975 (1984), which examined federal policy and library development.
- Federal Policy and Library Support. (1976). MIT Press. For this book Molz received the Ralph R. Shaw Award in 1977 as the year's most distinguished contribution to the literature of the profession.
- The Metropolitan Library (1972) co-authored with Ralph W. Conant. MIT Press.
- Libraries and the Right to Read : A Summary of USOE-Funded Programs and Projects Illustrative of the Library's Concern for the National Right to Read Effort. (1973) Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Education Division, Office of Education.
- The Public Library : The People's University. 1965. [Washington, DC]: [Phi Beta Kappa Society].
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Kathleen de la Peña McCook
Distinguished University Professor
School of Information
University of South Florida
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