This year the Library Services Act turns 50. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed on June 19, 1956.The history of the act provides insight into the political process.
The House support from John Fogarty is of special interest and I have added a few items about Fogarty relating to international health (for which he is more broadly remembered) at the end of this entry.
======
John E. Fogarty, worked with Senator Lister Hill to establish the Library Services Act.
===========
Lister Hill.
==========
Julia Bennett Armistead, ALA Washington Office, another key player, Washington Office Subject File, 1939-1996.
===================
Elizabeth Myer, Rhode Island State Librarian.
Elizabeth Myer
.
Myer is credited in Healey (pp.78-81) as playing a crucial role in Fogarty’s library interest. Healey quotes John Humphry,
“I have little doubt but what he [Fogarty] was greatly impressed with the pioneer work that Betty Myer did in reaching people through bookmobile and other local outlets; her active and aggressive public relations programs; and her ability to relate effectively to legislators, government officials, librarians and the people who benefitted from library services…”(p. 81).
Elizabeth Gallup Myer died at 81 July 8, 1993. It was noted in American Libraries that she became the first woman to serve in Rhode Island’s governor’s cabinet during her 1964-1975 tenure as director of the Rhode Island Department of State Library Services.
Source: American Libraries v. 24 (October 1993) p. 872
Subject(s): Myer, Elizabeth Gallup, d. 1993
============
Additional background on the Library Services Act.
Fry, James W. “LSCA and LSCA, 1956-1973: A Legislative History,” Library Trends 24 (July 1975): 7-26.
Healey, James S. John E. Fogarty: Political Leadership for Library Development< Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1974.
Lipscomb, C. E. Lister Hill and his influence. Journal of the Medical Library Association v. 90 no. 1 (January 2002),p. 109-10.
McCook, Kathleen de la Pena, Introduction to Public Librarianship. New York, Neal-Schuman, pp. 65-70.
McCook, Kathleen de la Pena, Rocks in the Whirlpool.
Molz, Redmond Kathleen. Federal Policy and Library Support.
MIT Press, Cambridge, 1976.
Raber, Douglas. “Ideological Opposition to Federal Library Legislation: The Case of the Library Services Act of 1956.” Public Libraries (May/June 1995): 162-169.
=========
More on Fogarty.
American Library Association. Fogarty spoke at the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.,June 16, 1959.
He also gave the address, “Laws, Law-Makers, and Librarians” to the American Library Association on January 29, 1965.
On July 1, 1968 President Lyndon Johnson issued an Executive Order establishing the John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. Fogarty at 35. The Fogarty International Center, the international component of the NIH, addresses global health challenges through innovative and collaborative research and training programs and supports and advances the NIH mission through international partnerships.
The Fogarty Center in Rhode Island is a private, non-profit organization incorporated in 1952 which is committed to providing quality services to adults with developmental disabilities. Our focus is always to strengthen and insure dignity, respect, and choice to those we support.
John E. Fogarty papers are at Providence College in Rhode Island. In 1968 Providence College received grant from the National Library of Medicine to develop an inventory and other finding aids for this nationally important Collection of primary source material re: the history of health science legislation.
Interview with John E. Fogarty at the National Archives.
“Health for peace: John E. Fogarty’s vision American leadership in health care and international biomedical research. A 25th year perspective.” JP Crowley, Rhode Island Med.1992 Dec;75(12):561-82.