The Education of Alice M. Jordan and the Origins of the Boston Public Library Training School

Abstract

The pioneering supervisor of work with children at the Boston Public Library, Alice M. Jordan (1870-1960), is primarily remembered as a book woman. She was also a patient and astute institutional politician whose determination to build a qualified cadre of children's librarians led her to teach at Simmons College in Boston and organize a round table of children's librarians. After 1917, under the administrations of Charles Belden and Milton Lord at the BPL, her efforts gained institutional support, and she helped found the BPL Training School, becoming a recognized player in the professionalization of the BPL staff.