Login

Publications  •  Project Statistics

Glossary  •  Schools  •  Disciplines
People Search: 
   
Title/Abstract Search: 

Dissertation Information for Claude Glenn Sparks

NAME:
- Claude Glenn Sparks
- (Alias) Claude G. Sparks

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA) (1967)

ADVISORS:
- Russell E. Bidlack

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Wallace J. Bonk
- Robert Mark Warner
- Raymond L. Kilgour

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: WILLIAM WARNER BISHOP, A BIOGRAPHY

Abstract: William Warner Bishop, 1871-1955, attained eminence in the library profession through his accomplishments as a library director; as an educator of librarians; as a leader in national and international intellectual activities and professional organizations; and, to a lesser extent, as a writer. The purpose of this biography is to present a study of his career and contributions in all these areas of endeavor, together with an account of Bishop the man. Since he participated in many of the important events in librarianship during the first half of the twentieth century, the biography is secondarily a minor record of these events and the people involved in them.

The study is based upon examination of printed and manuscript materials and on interviews with persons who knew Bishop. The Bishop Papers in the University of Michigan General Library Archives have been utilized as a principal source.

Chronological in arrangement, the study begins with Bishop's youth in Hannibal, Missouri, and Detroit 1871-89 and his college days 1889-93 at the University of Michigan, where he received both bachelor's and master's degrees. Then follows an account of his employment 1893-98 as a Greek and Latin Instructor at Missouri Wesleyan College, the Academy of Northwestern University, and Garrett Biblical Institute, where he also served as Assistant Librarian. Summer work as a teacher at Chautauqua assemblies 1896-98 and a year as a student at the American School of Classical Studies in Rome 1898-99 are described, as is his service as a librarian and teacher at Brooklyn Polytechnic Preparatory School 1899-1902, as Cataloger and Reference Librarian at Princeton University 1902-7, and as Superintendent of the Reading Room at the Library of Congress 1907-15.

It was as Librarian of the University of Michigan 1915-41 that Bishop attained prominence as a Library Science at Michigan and as its Chairman 1926-40, he made his reputation as a library educator. His accomplishments in both these capacities are treated in the study.

Bishop's activities and influence in the American Library Association, which he served as President 1918-19, and other professional organizations in the United States are accorded a prominent place in the biography. Attention is given to his work with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Rockefeller Foundation as adviser on their library interests in the United Sates, notably his chairmanship of successive Carnegie Corporation Advisory Groups which recommended and distributed grants totaling about $2,600,000 to college libraries in the period 1929-43.

Given special attention are Bishop's activities in the area of international intellectual cooperation, including his work as chief American adviser in the reorganization of the Vatican Library beginning in 1927 and his leading role in the birth and development of the International Federation of Library Associations and its executive body, the International Library Committee, of which he was President 1931-36. His other contributions to international understanding and good will through service on the library committees of the league of Nations and the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, as well as through promotion of international exchange of librarians and students of librarianship, are set forth in some detail.

His prolific writing is treated non-critically.

Considering the catholicity of his activities, the record of his significant accomplishments, and his internationally- recognized qualities of leadership, Bishop was pre-eminent among librarians of scholarly libraries of the United States at the time of his retirement from active work in 1941. Among American librarians, he had no equal in the area of international intellectual cooperation. During his career, he exerted a profound, enduring influence on the development of librarianship.

MPACT Scores for Claude Glenn Sparks

A = 2
C = 6
A+C = 8
T = 2
G = 1
W = 2
TD = 2
TA = 0
calculated 2008-07-25 19:29:09

Advisors and Advisees Graph