John Cotton Dana

I'm writing this on August 19, 2014. John Cotton Dana was born on August 19, 1856 in Woodstock, Vermont. I looked him up after I came across this snappy graphic on the Web:

I was surprised to learn the extent that he had influenced my life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cotton_Dana

Wikipedia says he died in New Jersey on July 21, 1929. I did find another web page that says he died in Manhattan, not New Jersey, so once again we see that Wikipedia is not a definitive source, even if it is darn informative.

So how did this long dead person influence me? Well, for starters, in 1909, he founded the Newark Museum. I grew up in Union, NJ, about 9 miles by car from Newark Museum. My Mom would take me there for an easy day trip when we had nothing specific to do. I particularly enjoyed the science and technology exhibit of simple machines. I haven't been there in many years now and surely there has been turn-over of the exhibits, if nothing else, to make up for mechanical wear and tear.

Besides founding that museum, John Cotton Dana also was a librarian. I think my favorite line from the Wikipedia article was this:

He would have found a library school curriculum intolerable, and doubtless a library school would have found him intolerable.

Before John Cotton Dana, libraries tended to have closed stacks. A librarian would go fetch the book that you wanted to look at. Dana pioneered the radical concept of open stacks. The main library of the Rutger's-Newark campus is named after him. I'll leave it to you to forage around the Internet or your favorite local library to learn more about this man. Hey! At least read through the Wikipedia article, please.

Not all of his point of view would be accepted today. For example, Wikipedia says that he organized the first ever children's library room, but he believed its proper role was to help provide material to teachers. He was opposed to "story-time" at the library.

If you have kids, remember John Cotton Dana today by taking them to your local children's library, where I wager, you will find open stacks for easy browsing of the book collection. Even if you don't have kids, today would be a good day to make sure you know where your library card is. (You do have a library card for your local public library, don't you?) Make sure your card is up to date. If not, renew it, and use it.

Speaking of children's libraries, here in Westbury, NY, the founding of the local children's library pre-dates the establishment of the local public library for adults. The 2 only joined together since 1965. History of Westbury Children's Library

Revised 08/19/2014 to correct a wretched typo: Dana was born in 1856, not 1956!

Revised 09/22/2020 to put the missing graphic back into the page.