The following is a report to be delivered at the Library Joint Powers Authority (LJPA) Board meeting on 6 February 2025 at Aptos Branch Library.
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STAFF REPORT
DATE: February 6, 2025
TO: Library Joint Powers Authority Board
FROM: Christopher Platt, Library Director
RE: Bulletin Publication
...
BACKGROUND
A staff librarian here at Santa
Cruz Public Libraries (SCPL), Hui-Lan Titangos, has authored two articles
published by the California State Library Foundation (CSLF) that we would like
to highlight. Her latest article has been printed as a four-part series in the Bulletin, a CSLF quarterly publication.
Hui-Lan has also authored a special edition entitled Harriet G. Eddy and California County Libraries. The Library would
like to congratulate Hui-Lan on her professional accomplishments as well as
announce them to the Board and the community. These publications can be found
at the Library for a further reading.
DISCUSSION
After reading this very article on Laura Steffens Suggett, a friend of ours observed, “We all grew up taking libraries for granted, but of course there’s a lot of history to learn about how they were developed out here in the west.”[i] Interestingly, her comment is a perfect entrĂ©e into the story of Laura.
At the turn of the 20th century, libraries in California were at a critical crossroads. Unlike today, the California State Library (CSL) was a closed entity, serving exclusively state legislators and officials; a handful of tax-supported town/city libraries were in their infancy, barely able to support themselves fiscally or geographically. There were more people living outside the city/town boundary than within. It was not until the ninth State Librarian James L. Gillis (1857-1917) took the office in 1899 when fundamental changes started to take place in California. He modernized the CSL by opening it to all Californians, hiring professional staff, correcting the prevalent nepotism, and establishing library schools. Moreover, he unified a supermajority of new public libraries to the county library system, so as to create a far more financially sustainable model surviving and thriving up to now in the state of California. Despite his untimely death in October 1917, Gillis succeeded in modernizing and developing California libraries, in large part due to his two able assistants, Laura Steffens Suggett (1874-1946), and Harriet G. Eddy (1876-1966) who assisted him in implementing the county library system.
As Second Assistant State Librarian, Laura is one of the most important pioneers in the history of California libraries. She was Gillis’s very first hire in 1902. After graduating from Stanford University and four years’ graduate study in Germany, Laura helped him to transform the CSL into a true leader of all California libraries, and assisted him in planning and launching the California county library system. As head of the Extension Department, she led a series of library experiments to reach out to underserved residents through her four divisions, Traveling Libraries, Study Club, Public Libraries, and Books for the Blind. In addition, she created California’s first union catalog that enabled the beginning of interlibrary (ILL) service in the state. Today, we can still trace her resulting work when using WorldShare of OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), or Link+ in California.
To celebrate their lives and achievements for the first time in history, two biographical projects came into being. They are A bright Star over the California State Library: the Life and Work of Laura Steffens Suggett (published in four parts in 2024 Bulletin, #141 through #144), and Harriet G. Eddy and California County Libraries: a New Interpretation (published as 2021 Special Edition). The projects are made possible through collaboration between publisher CSLF, and author Hui-Lan Titangos, a librarian at SCPL.
We hope that you will enjoy our biographical projects. We also hope that more projects will be added to the list, so that we can remember the past, savor the present, and plan for a better and brighter future.
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[1] Bone, Deborah. Laura Steffens Suggett. Email; Sun, 5 January 2025,
10:50 PM
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