Soviet-American Librarian Intersections: Harriet G. Eddy and the California Unified Library Plan

1. Soviet-American Librarian Intersections: Harriet G. Eddy, First California County Library Organizer and the California Unified Library Plan John Richardson Jr., PhD UCLA Professor of Information Studies Moscow, 4 September 2006

2. Harriet G. Eddy

3. HGE Early Chronology • Born in Lexington, Michigan on 19/II/1879; grew up in Adrian, Michigan • B.A., classical studies, Albion College, 1896 • Delta Gamma, fraternity member • Post-graduate study, University of Chicago, 1901-1903 • Studied in Europe; Teacher in Michigan and Montana • High School Principal in Elk Grove, California

4. HGE’s Librarianship • Progressive Reform Acts • The Library Acts of 1909 and 1911 • Elk Grove Union High School (CA) Library • California Library Association • Political Connections • James L. Gillis, CA State Librarian • Hiram W. Johnson, CA Governor and United States Senator

5. HGE’s Modesty • “By profession I was a high school teacher….I was asked to tell about it at the state library convention and at once the State Librarian [Gillis] asked me to join his staff and organize county libraries. When I said, ‘But I am a teacher, not an organizer.’ He said, ‘It will be the same thing. You will teach the county officials how to establish one.’ It seems so simple that I agreed, and thus became another ‘First’, the first county organizer in California, and probably in the U.S.A.”

6. Command and Control (C2) • Command center (i.e., California State Library) • Financial Resources • Library Materials • Professional Knowledge • Vision and Mission • Effectiveness of organization (i.e., county level) • Structure versus Decentralization • Close Communication • Ad Hoc Advice and Consultation

7. 40 of 58 California Counties

8. Free County Library System • “The County was the unit; • The supervisors were ex officio the library board; • A trained, certificated county librarian was appointed • with salary fixed by law; • Headquarters at the county seat; • Branches were established throughout the county;… • The Union Catalog assured supplementary service.” • SOURCE: County Free Library Organizing in California 1909-1918, p. 21

9. HGE’s Talents and Characteristics • Liberally educated, but modest • Politically astute enough to get “resolutions of intention” • Women’s clubs, Elected officials (Mayor, Town and City Councils, County Supervisors, Attorneys General), Chambers of Commerce, Granges, City Library Boards, Newspaper editors, Largest taxpayers, PTAs, Improvement Clubs, Business Men’s Clubs • Adventurous and persevering • Bad roads, bus, stage coach, steamer, row boat, horseback • Labor union sympathizer (the 1916 Tom Mooney Question—serving prison time; guilty or innocent?) • Pacifist tendencies expressed in late 1930s

10. Opposition and Resistance to Organizing Efforts • Monopoly (only one library in the state) • Loss of individuality— “being absorbed” • in terms of collections • Chance for graft (in library purchases) • Increased tax rate or levy: • Assessment evaluation: mill on $1 or 2 cents on $100 • Too high pay rate for county librarians ($2K as per law) • Professional envy or jealousy from city librarians • California State Library would appoint only Eddy’s friends • North-South rivalry • Water from Inyo County • Part of Sacramento’s county library machine • “The Outsider”

11. “A special person…” • Anatol V. Lunacharsky, Commissioner of Education (1917-1929), invites HGE to Russia due to the Sacramento Star’s newspaper reporter’s previous Moscow trip—of Lunacharsky, she says he’s “rated one of the most brilliant men in Europe” • 23 January 1927 to August 1927 in Russia

12. Anatol V. Lunacharsky SOURCE: wwww.wikipedia.com

13. All-Union Lenin Memorial Library

14. Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya • “Loveliest smile we have seen in Russia. The most intelligent, kind face, too. Made me think at once of Mr. Gillis [former California State Librarian]. Looks like him. Acts like him. She’s big [two underscores].”

15. Genrietta K . Abele-Derman • “I enjoy her very much as she has a good head and is absolutely open-minded”

16. Anatol V. Lunacharsky • 13 July 1927: “Thanked me in name of Russia for coming. Said suggestions would be followed as fast as possible” (Box 2487, folder 6) or “The plan is good for the Soviet Union and we will adopt it as fast as possible” whereupon she remarked “which means never unless you send a person to California to observe the system in action” on page [6] of “Spread of Influence” or on 5 August: “He thanked me most heartily in the name of Russia for coming, and said my articles and report would be given widest publicity, and that the suggestions would be carefully studied and put into use as fast as possible.” (Box 2493, folder 10).

17. Anna G. Kravchenko in USA • Autumn 1928, Anna G. Kravchenko visits California (Alameda, Fresno, Contra Costa, Monterey, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Solano counties) due to influence of Senator Johnson, former Governor of California when the Library Act passed; she writes “Toward an Integrated and Large Library Economy” (Moscow, 1929) • Herbert Putnam “is against the general plan in the library work. He preferred, like he told me ‘individual’ libraries. He against the one system for whole U.S.”

18. Orechovo-Zuevo Efforts • November-December 1929, Anna Kravchenko organizes Orechovo-Zuevo • Her strategy is to get trade union libraries unified into the municipal system, in turn, other municipal libraries into the rayon system, and then other libraries into this system.

19. Eddy Returns in 1930-1931 • This time to teach in the Library Institute (located at Moxovaja 6 in Khimki, 18 miles from downtown Moscow) • See “The Library Institute,” a 29-page photo-essay; • and staying at the Hotel Savoy, Room 334 (“The Legend of Russian Hospitality” set in neo-classical architectural style

20. The Institute (MGUKI at Khimki)

21. “The Beginnings of Unified Library Service in the U.S.S.R.” (1932) • Library Journal 57 (15 January 1932): 61-67. • Written “in collaboration with Mrs. [Genrietta K. Abele-] Derman (1882-1954), director of first Library University,” and Mrs. [Anna] Kravtchenko (sic), Department of Education of Russia and director of the Institute of Library Science, p. 61; note the 5 photographs

22. Acknowledgements • UCLA’s ASCOR international travel funding; • Dr. Edward Kasinec, NYPL Slavic Collection; • Dr. Cindy Mediavilla, UCLA Department of Information Studies and California State Library; • Mr. Gary Strong, University Librarian at UCLA; • John R. Gonzales and Gary Kurutz, California History Room, CSL, Sacramento; • Matt Weflen, University of Chicago Registrar’s Office, Chicago; • Paige Berry, Harriet G. Eddy Middle School, Elk Grove, California; • Elena V. Valinovskaya, NNZ.RU; and • Robert and Vivianne Younker of Lincoln, CA.