LHRT (Library History Round Table)

Sister Lauretta McCusker, O.P, DLS,   Dean of Rosary College Graduate School of Library and Information Science (now the School of Information Studies at Dominican University) in River Forest, Illinois, from 1970 to 1982, died February 23. 1997.

She was President-elect of the Catholic Library Association.

A native of Sillery, Quebec, Canada, Sister McCusker earned the bachelor's degree from Western Maryland College and attended the School of Library Science at Columbia University where she earned the master's degree and Doctor of Library Science.

She served from 1942 to 1944 as a librarian at Annapolis High School and from 1944 to 1947 at McDonough Military School, both in Maryland.

From 1947 to 1959, she was an assistant professor at Iowa State Teachers College. She taught at Iowa for eleven years, until she entered the Sinsinawa Dominican Order in 1959.

Four years later, Sister Lauretta began her career at Rosary College as an associate professor in the Master of Arts in Library Science program.
The special Mission of Rosary College derived from its Catholic and Dominican heritage and the perceived need to provide an opportunity for the Catholic religious, particularly sisters, to obtain  knowledge and skills necessary to enter the profession librarianship. Under the leadership of Sr. Peter Claver, the school offered its first master's degree in 1949, and the master's program was accredited in 1962. 

Shortly afterward under the leadership of Sister Lauretta McCusker, a close associate of Sr. Peter Claver, the school offered its first master's degree in 1949, and the master's program was accredited in 1962.

Sister Lauretta was Dean of Rosary College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in River Forest, Illinois, from 1970 to 1982.  In 1973/74 Rosary participated with the American Library Association in a special Minorities Manpower Project funded by the Illinois State Library.

After her deanship, Sister Lauretta taught courses in international librarianship and library building planning.

Sister Lauretta McCusker was active with the American Library Association and served on several of its committees.

The McCusker Memorial Lecture was established at the renamed Dominican University in her honor. At the first lecture, Prudence W. Dalrymple, Dean, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University stated, 

"The paths that bring us together this evening are varied. We come from many rooms of life to a shared presence that joins past and future. Students, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, religious - all of us come to honor the memory of a great woman, and also to look into the future of this profession and of this school."

Subsequent McCusker Lecturers have been Terry Belanger, Howard Besser, John Chrastka, Linda Hofschire, James LaRue,  Kathleen McCook, Sara Paretsky , and Sr. Mary Paynter, O.P. 

Publications
McCusker, Sr. Lauretta. "Rosary College Graduate School of Library Science." In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, 26:154–59. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1979.
Papers Presented at the Seminar on Library Automation. Edited by Sister Mary Girolama McCusker, O.P. River Forest, Ill.: Rosary College, 1966.
McCusker, Lauretta G. "Accessibility of Books in Elementary Schools without Libraries." DLS diss., Columbia University, 1963.

Sources

Kenan Heise TRIBUNE, STAFF WRITER. . 1997., Feb 26 "Sister Lauretta McCusker, 78, Professor Emeritus at Rosary." Chicago Tribune (1997-), 1.

Dalrymple, Prudence W. (Spring 1998). "Sr. Lauretta McCusker Memorial Lecture: Share the Past, Shape the Future". World Libraries. 8 (2): 5–11. Also published at ERIC. "A memorial lecture for Sister Lauretta McCusker of Rosary College, this paper reflects on the history of the institution, where she was a professor in the Master of Arts in Library Science program, and offers thoughts on the future of education for the library and information professions. "ERIC Number: EJ572188.

"Deaths," 1997. School Library Journal 43 (4): 18.
Freedom to Read Foundation- cosponsoring Dominican University GSLIS's 16th Annual McCusker Memorial Lecture Oct. 24, 2012featuring author Sara Paretsky.

McCook, K. (2004). McCusker lecture: "The Librarian and Human Rights: Protecting Discourse Against Repression." An essay based on the McCusker Lecture at
Dominican University November 11, 2003-. In honor of Sister Lauretta McCusker, O.P. Catholic Library World, 75(1), 23–28., 75.

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"Librarians We Have Lost, Sesquicentennial Memories -1976-2026" is a project of the Library History Round Table.