Faith Edith Smith (October 10, 1873 – March 5, 1957) was a librarian on the Education Committee of the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world. History 19th century ...

Education and career

While at College, Smith was the president of the

Young Women's Christian Association The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swit ...

from 1894 to 1895 and assistant at

Northwestern University Library Northwestern University Libraries is the main academic library system of Northwestern University. Northwestern Libraries host a total of 8,198,268 printed or electronic volumes. In addition, its libraries contain 229,198 maps, 211,127 audio fi ...

from 1896 to 1898. She was a graduate student in French (1896–97) and in History (1897–98) and won the Alumni Merit Award in 1896. From 1898 to 1900 she was a student at

New York State Library The New York State Library is a research library in Albany, New York, United States. It was established in 1818 to serve the state government of New York and is part of the New York State Education Department. The library is one of the large ...

School, where again she was assistant at the Library from 1898 to 1900, and obtained a Bachelor of

library science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...

. Faith Edith Smith was the principal of the Philosophy and Religion Department at

Los Angeles Public Library The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California, operating separate from the Los Angeles County Public Library system. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million resid ...

. She was on the Education Committee of the American Library Association and was a member of the California Library Association and was a member of the Philosophical Union. In 1922, Smith co-edited ''Best Books of 1921 Selected for a Small Public Library''.

Personal life

Faith Edith Smith was born on October 10, 1873, in

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in northeastern Illinois, United States. It is located along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River west of Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, second-most populous city in Illinois, with a popul ...

, the daughter of William B. Smith and Mary Margaret Ferner. Smith attended Aurora High School and then obtained a Ph. B. at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, where she joined the

University Women's Club The University Women's Club, originally the University Club for Ladies, is a British private members club founded in 1886. As the popular Gentlemen's club (traditional), gentlemen's clubs did not accept any women as members, its creation was int ...

. Faith Edith Smith started as librarian at

Sedalia, Missouri Sedalia is a city located approximately south of the Missouri River and, as the county seat of Pettis County, Missouri, Pettis County, Missouri, United States, it is the principal city of the Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 ...

, in 1900, and lived at 219 Clark St., Aurora. She then moved to California, in 1917 and lived at 5007 Townsend Ave., Los Angeles, California. Smith died on March 5, 1957, and is buried at Spring Lake Cemetery, Aurora.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Faith Edith 1873 births 1957 deaths Northwestern University alumni American librarians American women librarians People from Aurora, Illinois