Professor Margaret E. Monroe

I have just learned that Margaret E. Monroe has died.
Professor Monroe was Director of the Library School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1963-1970 and remained on the faculty as professor until 1981. Her 1963 book, Library Adult Education:The Biography of an Idea, established broad understanding of the history of adult education and public libraries. A festschrift in honor of Professor Monroe appeared in 1982, The Service Imperative for Libraries: Essays in Honor of Margaret E. Monroe (ed. Gail S. Schlachter). A president of the American Library Association's Adult Services Division, Monroe is remembered by the Margaret E. Monroe Adult Services Award given annually by the Reference and User Services Association. Professor Monroe received the Beta Phu Mu Award for Distinguished Service to Education for Librarianship.
Dr. Monroe's bibliography compiled by Miriam Pollack is included in The Service Imperative (pp. 189-210). Among my favorite writings of Dr. Monroe:

• "Educating Librarians for the Work of Library Adult Education." Library Trends 8 (July 1959): 91-107.
• "The Library's Collection in a Time of Crises," Wilson Library Bulletin 36 (January 1962) included in Landmarks of Library Literature (Scarecrow, 1976).
  
• "Public Libraries and Museums. " In Handbook of Adult Education (New York: MacMillan, 1970), pp. 245-263.
• "Reader Services to the Disadvantaged in Inner Cities." In Advances in Librarianship, 1971, pp.253-274.
• "Education in Librarianship for Serving the Disadvantaged." Library Trends 20 (October 1971): 445-462.
  
• "Community Development as a Mode of Community Analysis." Library Trends 24 (January 1976): 497-514.
• "The Cultural Role of the Public Library." In Advances in Librarianship, 1981.
  

I will try and write more about Dr. Monroe, but right now I am a bit too wistful about what her writings and research mean to our profession and the need for us to continue to know about her work.