Pakistan Observer , October 22, 2019
Librarians who won the Laurels
by Abid Hussain
https://pakobserver.net/index.php/2019/09/22/librarians-who-won-the-laurels/?fbclid=IwAR0t2vS3ETMGZ330oGxv18tspOFlik90op7bqNoO_gD-sWSDijvCgLWX1c
The Librarianship is a profession, which is an ancient and honourable one. Its sole
purpose is to provide right information to the right person at the right time. History is
replete with innumerable testimonies that those who contributed in different fields are
still remembered. Albeit, many of them are no more with us, but their names would be
remembered forever. The Librarians, who won the laurels in their careers are more in
numbers but only few are discussed here:
(1) Mao Zedong: Mao Zedong is considered to be the revolutionist of China who united
China in 1940s and 50s. In 1918 he lived in Peking China and was selected as an
Assistant Librarian at Peking University of China. The chief Librarian of Peking
University was believer of Marxist but, he converted Mao to Communism.
(2) Laura Bush: She was the first lady of George W. Bush in 2001-2009 and earned her
master degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She supported G.W. Bush
throughout in his campaign and succeeded him in the election. She supported librarians
in their recruitment process and time scale. During her stay in the office, she visited
many libraries around the world. She was running educational project during her tenure
as first lady.
(3) Golda Meir: who is known to be the most influential librarians before her political
career. She was the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969-74 who signed the Israeli
declaration of independence in 1948. She remained an Ambassador to the Soviet Union
and labour’s minister in 1949-56.
(4) J. Edgar Hoover, Edgar is the legendary director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), who started investigation at domestic level from 1924-72. He
headed the FBI in 1935 as a founder leader. Prior to this career, he remained a
messenger, cataloguer in the Library of Congress in 1919. He left the Library of
Congress and started his new career as special assistant to the Attorney General.
(5) Seyd Mohammad Khatami, He was the fifth president of Islamic Republic of Iran
and also remained Minister of Culture in Iran. He headed the National Library and
Archive Organization prior to his political career, he was one of the most influential
person in the cultural and political affairs of Iran. w.
(6) Marcel Proust, He is a French writer born in 1871 and is known to be the most
influential novelists and critics of all time. His most famous work is in search of Lost
times is still studied today. He remained a school Librarian in France.
(7) Joanna Cole, who is a popular producer of BBC Children’s TV show Bod. She is
renowned writer by writing the Magic School Bus series to entertain the elementary aged children about the human body, space and more. She remained a school teacher,
book editor and writer. Above all, she was a renowned librarians of that time.
(8) Benjamin Franklin He is regarded to be the founding father of the USA, who was
born in 1706. God bestowed upon him with multiple talents. He served as librarian for a
brief period of time who also credited with founding the first American Library (A
private subscription Library called the library company of Philadelphia. He died in 1790.
(9) Pope Pius XI, he was born in 1857 and established the feast of Christ the king and
spoke out against crimes social justice and unethical financial corruption. He also
reorganized Archives, scholars, Artists and Philosophers. Prior to being XI Pope at
1929-39, he was a chief librarian at the Milan Seminary of the Vatican Library. He also
developed his own classification system for books and other reading material..
10. Jacob Grimm , a well-known writer and won many awards in writing. His fairy
tales were first published in 1812. Her other popular stories are Hansel and Gretel,
Cinderella and Snow White are still classic children stories and reinvented as plays. He
also presented the ever best Disney movies. He worked as a librarian in Kasel. The
Jacob and his brother collected a folk tales from the ordinary citizens of German in
hopes of uniting area kingdom for sharing a similar culture.
11. Professor Dr. Anis Khurshid died on 4 th January 2008. Obtained PhD Degree
from Pittsburgh University in 1969. In recognition of his great achievements in the field
of Library and Informaiton sciences, he was awarded a pride of performance award by
the then president of Pakistan. He is known to be the father of Modern Librarianship in
Pakistan .
The writer is working as a Library officer at Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad
(ISSI). He can be reached at abidhussain@issi.org.pk.