Mildred Leona Batchelder (September 7, 1901 – August 25, 1998) was an American librarian, named by American Libraries in December 1999 as among “100 of the most important leaders we had in the 20th century”. “In the mid-twentieth century, her forceful advocacy pushed children’s services to the forefront of the profession and brought the best library materials and services to generations of young people.” She is the namesake of the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for outstanding children's books.
Biography
Early life
Mildred Batchelder was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on September 7, 1901, to George P. and Blanche E. Batchelder. George was a businessman, Blanche, a school teacher and Mildred was the oldest of their three daughters.
The family spent their summers at “Camp”, which was an island surrounded by marshlands that Mildred's father owned. Mildred called camp the “most exciting place in the world!” She spent those summers exploring and playing in the natural surroundings that would instill in her a lifelong appreciation of nature. Evenings at camp ended with the girls listening to their mother read to them as they washed the dishes.
Mildred's mother provided the “cultural and literary stimulus” for Mildred and her sisters. They would travel to Boston where they experienced theatre and films and would stock up on books before leaving the city.
Mildred was considered the academic child but wouldn't start school until she was seven years old. She was a “small and sickly child” who suffered with allergies, asthma, eczema and a suspected thyroid condition however, she seemed to adopt her mother's stoic strength despite her physical challenges. Mildred left for college when she was seventeen years old.
Education
Mildred L. Batchelder received her B.A. from Mt. Holyoke College in 1922 and her B.L.S. from New York State Library School, Albany, in 1924. As a library student at New York State Library School, Batchelder chose to go on a month-long “practice work” assignment assisting Effie L. Power in the children's department of the Cleveland Public Library. She had not previously planned on going into children's work however; this month birthed in her an excitement for children's library services, was one of the highlights of her schooling and the “crossroad” of her career.
Career
Batchelder's long and productive career within the library profession began in 1924, when the inexperienced, 23-year-old held her first professional position as the Head of Children's at the Omaha Public Library in Nebraska. There, she was responsible for children's library services for 5 branches and 32 schools. After 3 years of experience and many accomplishments, she took a job as the Children's Librarian at State Teachers College in Saint Cloud, Minnesota however; her forcefulness was not well received by her boss and she was fired after only a year.
In 1928, Evanston, IL became her permanent home when she accepted a position as the librarian at Haven Middle School, which doubled as a community library in the evenings. This new role afforded her the chance to work with the public librarians and she did so enthusiastically, as it became part of her lifelong vision to see schools and public libraries working alongside one another. The American Library Association (ALA) was close in proximity to Evanston and she began building professional relationships with some of the important people at ALA.
Batchelder became part of the ALA staff in 1936, serving as the newly created School Library Specialist. She was then, after just one year, appointed chief of the School and Children's Library Division. She was extremely driven and had a special ability to motivate those around her. Because her focus was the school library initially, she discovered inadequate library facilities in more than half of the schools across the country –which put her in high gear. The field of library services to children was at a “critical time” when Batchelder began her ALA career and the profession needed strong leadership to realize the vision of the fields’ former pioneers. She had a fierce temperament that was considered “tyrannical and tactless” to some and the “embodiment of professional excellence to many”. “She had an unshakeable sense of herself as being ‘right’, and she was not afraid of being disliked. The cause itself was paramount”.