Mary Eileen Ahern
Librarian, Deceased Person
1860 – 1938
Who was Mary Eileen Ahern?
Mary Eileen Ahern was a librarian and leader of the modern library movement.She has been selected as one of the "100 of the Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century" in the American Libraries list published in 1999. She was an important influencer and early organizer of libraries in America. Mary Ahern was a crusader for the value of public libraries in educating the public. In the first issue of the journal she edited, Public Libraries, as reported in the World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services Mary said, “There is only one solution of all social problems, an increase in intelligence, a gradual education of the people.” The best source of this education, she believed, was potentially the public library. This was a time in history when Andrew Carnegie was building libraries across the nation and Melvil Dewey created the Dewey Decimal System and founded the American Library Association. Mary wrote and spoke about this optimistic vision in the same editorial, the public library “is the broadest of teachers, one may almost say the only free teacher. It is the most liberal of schools; it is the only real people’s college.”
We need you!
Help us build the largest biographies collection on the web!
- Born
- Oct 1, 1860
Indiana - Nationality
- United States of America
- Profession
- Lived in
- Indiana
- Died
- 1938
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
Use the citation below to add to a bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Mary Eileen Ahern." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/mary_eileen_ahern>.
Discuss this Mary Eileen Ahern biography with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In