Rev. Dr. Richard L. Darling (1925- 2003) was Dean of the School of Library Science at Columbia University. Late in life was ordained an Episcopal priest.
Dr. Darling served in the U.S. Army during World War II on the Pacific Front. He completed an M.A. degree at the University of Montana in 1950 then earned two library science degrees from the University of Michigan: an A.M.L.S. in 1954 and a Ph.D. in 1960.
After earning the doctorate, Dr. Darling moved to Washington, D.C., to work as a school library specialist at the U.S. Office of Education's Library Service Bureau. During the late-1960s, Darling was a supervisor of libraries for public schools in Rockville, Maryland, and director of educational media and technology from 1966 to 1970. He was president of the American Association of School Librarians.
He was president of the American Library Association Freedom to Read Foundation
Dr. Darling was appointed Dean of School Library Service at Columbia University (the world's first library school) in 1970. The School Library Service was located in Butler Library. He served from 1970 until 1985. In 1972 Dean Darling invited Terry Belanger to develop a master's program for the training of rare book and special collections librarians. The program's laboratory, the Book Arts Press, provided a space where students could set type and print the result on a hand press; make relief cuts, dry points, and etchings.
In 1982 Dean Darling wrote a history of the School Library Service at Columbia University. (attached).
Dean Darling retired early to earn a Master of Divinity from the General Theological Seminary in New York City. He was ordained an Episcopal priest, and he became an assistant at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Dean Darling was author of several books concerning library science, including Public School Library Statistics, 1962-63 (1964) and The Rise of Children's Book Reviewing in America Bowker. (1968).
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Darling, Richard L(ewis) 1925-2003 | Encyclopedia.cominks to an external site.
*Darling, Richard L., and United States Office of Education. 1964. Survey of School Library Standards. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of Education.
*Richard L. Darling and Terry Belanger. Extended Library Education Programs: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the School of Library Service, Columbia University, 13–14 March 1980. New York: Columbia University School of Library Service, 1980.
*Belanger, Terry (2007). "The Rare Book Program at Columbia University, 1972–1992." In The Commonwealth of Books: Essays and Studies in Honour of Ian Willison (pp. 197–208). Ed. Wallace Kirsop. Melbourne: Centre for the Book, Monash University, 2007.
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Kathleen de la Peña McCook
Distinguished University Professor
School of Information
University of South Florida
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