Women and North Carolina’s Libraries: Promoting the Library Idea

Women have a very special place in the history of North Carolina’s libraries, as well as libraries throughout the United States. Librarians were usually male until after 1876 when female library assistants became more numerous. In 1887 Melvil Dewey established the first library school at Columbia College in New York. He went against tradition at Columbia by letting women enter his first class. North Carolina’s first professional librarian was Annie Petty. She became librarian at the State Normal College in Greensboro after she earned a library degree in Pennsylvania in 1899. For many years, librarianship was one of the few occupations, along with teaching and social work, that was considered suitable for educated women