Sarah Byrd Askew
Sarah Byrd Askew
Sarah Byrd Askew was in many ways a very modern librarian. Her mission was to get books out to all the citizens of New Jersey any way possible, even to creating and designing one of the very first book mobiles. She had a Model T Ford truck adapted to her specifications for the purpose of traveling around New Jersey to bring books in remote areas.
Sarah, or rather Sallie as she was known to her friends and family, Askew didn’t start out as a librarian. She was a Southern girl who had gone to business school in Atlanta and worked as a stenographer. She became a librarian almost by accident. In 1902, when she was 39, Sarah was on an extended holiday in Cleveland visting her sister, when she met the director of the Cleveland Public Library, William Howard Brett. Her interest was piqued by his enthusiasm for librarianship, so when he offered her a temporary job in one of the library branches, she accepted.
Sarah must have enjoyed library work to stenography, because shortly there after, with encouragement from Mr. Brett, she applied to and then attended Pratt Institute Library School. So her story is not that different than many librarians and library students today. She held one job for many years, and nearing midlife, she decided to change careers and entered Library School.
When she finished at Pratt School, Sarah returned to work in Cleveland for only a few months. She was then hired by the New Jersey Public Library Commission to help with the creation of new libraries in the state. Except for one year she worked as the New Jersey State Library’s Reference librarian, she spent the rest of her life working for the Commission. When she started in 1905 there were fewer than 70 libraries in the state.
Sarah Askew was described as a magnetic, energetic, enthusiastic, persevering, charismatic, and charming. Her sister is quoted calling Sallie “quicksilver” She had to be all of these. In her work for the Commission she traveled all over New Jersey in her horse and buggy, or rode trucks to remote areas trying to, and succeeding in, drumming up interest in creating local libraries.
She had a reputation as a mesmerizing storyteller. She would go to schools to tell stories to the students to promote library use, and she would fill her speaches with entertaining anecdotes to help get her point across.
She must have many adventures. One such adventure inspired her to write a story about how she helped create a library in a remote seaside town, and got stuck there in a storm, and told stories to the town folk to pass the night away. Her complete adventure can be found in The Place, the Man and the Book .
Sarah was a woman with some political savy, and realized that she couldn’t create libraries on her own, so she used worked her Southern charm and gained the support of the PTA, the State Federation of Women’s Clubs, the State Teachers’ Association, and local grange groups in her quest to develop new libraries.
Sarah realized early on in her career that creating libraries was not enough, that these new libraries would need trained staff, so she established a summer school to teach practical library skills.
When the US entered WWI in 1917, Sarah saw a need, and a whole new group of prospective readers. She organized a statewide program to supply books to the 42 military camps, stations and hospitals in NJ. She also made sure books were supplied to the troopships before they left for overseas. She did this during WWI, and when WWII broke out, she helped organized the Victory Book campaign once again, sending books out to the troops. She was put in charge of these programs and through her efforts collected books from throughout the state. She then used 15, 000 of these donated books to furnish the new library at Fort Dix.
Sarah Askew also fostered the growth of school libraries while at the commission. She saw to it that books from the commissions reserve bookstock were sent out in bookmobles to be “chosen by the students and teachers from the shelves of the book car.”
She, it appears, is almost solely responsible for the development of the County Library System in New Jersey. She encourage this because she realized that municipal libraries could not always meet the needs of the people, and that they should “try and get for each district the kind best suited to its needs”. Her County Library System was a model for similar programs through out the country.
She developed an extensive interlibrary loan system which borrowed materials from the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, local industries, as well from other out of state libaraies, and even from private libraries. She paid attention to each request for material. She was so successful that in 1940, using only telephones, and the US postal service, the Commission filled 96,000 interlibrary loans requests.
She did have a mission which many librarians today might not agree with. Her mission was “to purchase and to circulate as widely as possible books ...that will lead to right thinking and right living”
In 1930 Rutgers gave her an honorary Doctor of Library Science. She was the vice President of ALA for one term, and the president of the New Jersey Library Association twice.
When she died from cancer in 1942, 12 of the 21 counties in NJ had county libraries. There were 316 public libraries in 1942.
Barbaranne M. Warner
October 2003
Sources
Askew, Sarah B Book Sevice For All The People. Library Journal Vol. 66, No. 3, February 1, 1941. pg. 115 - 119.
Askew, Sarah "Sallie" (1863?-1942) http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Biographies/MainBiographies/A/askew/askew.html
Bartle. Lisa R. Sarah Askew ( 18 ?? - 1942) "Sallie" Women in the History of American Libraianship. created February 2001. http://www.pe.net/~ellerbee/women/askew.html
Sarah Byrd Askew (1863 - 1942). Dictionary of American Library Biography, Libraries Unlimited, Littleton Colorado. 1978 pgs. 14-16.
Smith, Edith L. Sarah Byrd Askew. Library Journal, Vol. 67, No. 19. November 1, 1942. pg.
Tingling, Marion. Sarah Askew. Women remembered: A guide to Landmarks of women's Histiry in the U.S. Glenwood Press, Westprot, CT. 1986. p. 364.
Sarah Askew
Sarah Askew
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