Joseph Henry Reason

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Joseph Henry Reason
professor
Known forDirector of the Howard University library system
Board member ofFirst African-American to serve as president of the Association of College and Research Libraries
ChildrenJ. Paul Reason

Joseph Henry Reason (March 23, 1905 – July 26, 1997)[1] was an American librarian. He was director of the Howard University library system for 25 years. He was the first African-American to serve as president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and to be nominated for president of the American Library Association (ALA).[1] In 1999, American Libraries named him one of the "100 Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century".[2] His son, J. Paul Reason, was the first African-American four star Admiral in the United States Navy.[3]

Early life and education

Reason was born in

Tacna-Arica.[1]

Career

Reason entered the library field with the support of

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, a black university in Tallahassee. Lee obtained a General Education Board fellowship for Reason so he could earn a BS in library science from Columbia University in 1936. Following a change in FAMU's organizational structure, Lee appointed Reason first director of FAMU's library. Under Reason's administration, the library began its "Negro Collection" preserving African-American cultural materials. This was the genesis of what eventually became the Southeastern Regional Black Archives Research Center and Museum in 1977.[1]

In 1938, Reason was hired as a reference librarian by Howard University. In 1946 he became director of their library system, a post which he held until his retirement in 1971. (In 1946, the post was called University Librarian, changed to Director of Libraries in 1957.) During his lengthy tenure at Howard, Reason oversaw significant increases in the budget, collections, and prestige of the library. The library joined the Federal Depository Library Program in 1963 and the Association of Research Libraries in 1971.[1]

During his time at Howard, he was contributing editor of

Burma. He was very active in professional organizations, serving in a variety of capacities, including being the first African-American to be nominated as president of the ALA in 1965 and the first African-American to serve as president of the ACRL in 1971.[1]

In his retirement, he was a visiting professor of library science at Florida State University in Tallahassee and a trustee of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. He died in Tallahassee in 1997.[1]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-56308-868-1
    .
  2. ^ Leonard Kniffel, Peggy Sullivan, Edith McCormick, "100 of the Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century," American Libraries 30, no. 11 (December 1999): 43.
  3. American Forces Press Service
    . Retrieved October 20, 2013.

External links

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