Lillian Lewis Batchelor

Lillian Lewis Batchelor
Batchelor in 1930
Born	(1907-11-17)November 17, 1907 Camden, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	June 28, 1977(1977-06-28) (aged 69) Moorestown, New Jersey

Lillian Lewis Batchelor (November 17, 1907 – June 28, 1977) was an American librarian, known for her advocacy for the creation and proper staffing of elementary school libraries.^[1] She was president of the American Association of School Librarians and served as a councilor to the American Library Association.^[2]

Batchelor had worked in libraries since high school, and was a public and school librarian in New Jersey and Pennsylvania before becoming the supervisor of high school libraries for the Philadelphia School District's Board of Education.^[1] She served in this position from 1948 through 1966 when she became the Assistant Director of Libraries for the district.^[1] She was also an adjunct professor at Drexel University's School of Library Science.^[1] She was formative in creating the American Library Association's Standards for School Library Programs in 1960.^[1]

Batchelor is also credited with creating 166 elementary school libraries within Philadelphia throughout the mid 1960s.^[1] These libraries were created, but were difficult to staff with trained librarians; Batchelor, through her work with Drexel University, created an internship program to educate school librarians, a position partially funded by the Philadelphia School District's Board of Education.^[1]

Batchelor wanted librarians to look at books as "the gunpowder of the mind" to encourage and excite young people.^[1] She was an early advocate of instructional materials centers, which combined traditional libraries with ways to access multimedia materials useful for teaching.^[3] She was particularly interested in students who were motivated and/or gifted and edited and assembled a collection of papers entitled Reading Guidance for the Gifted in 1962. Designed to be useful to the non-specialist, this collection combined theory and practice to encourage schools to have enrichment activities for their gifted pupils.^[4]

Early life and education

Batchelor was born in Camden, New Jersey to parents Albert Kirk and Estella May Lewis.^[1] Her husband was Howard I. Batchelor, a podiatrist.^[1] She earned both a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a library science degree from the Drexel Institute of Technology in 1930.^[1] She earned her masters of arts degree from Columbia University in 1946 and her doctorate in 1952 from the same university.^[1]

Death

Batchelor died on June 28, 1977, at her home in Moorestown, New Jersey.^[5]

References

1. Miller, M.L. (2003). Pioneers and Leaders in Library Services to Youth: A Biographical Dictionary. Libraries Unlimited. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-59158-028-7. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
2. Woolls, B.; Loertscher, D.V. (2005). The Whole School Library Handbook. ALA editions. American Library Association. ISBN 978-0-8389-0883-9. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
3. Baas, Alan M. (February 1973). "Libraries and Instructional Materials Centers. Educational Facilities Review Series Number 13". ERIC. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
4. Gunn, M. Agnella; Batchelor, Lillian L. (1962). "Reading Guidance for the Gifted". The English Journal. 51 (5). JSTOR: 365. doi:10.2307/810027. ISSN 0013-8274. JSTOR 810027.
5. "Lillian Batchelor, 69, educator and librarian". Philadelphia Inquirer. June 30, 1977. p. 24. Retrieved 14 March 2021.