Tommie Dora Barker

{{short description|American librarian}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix =  | name = Tommie Dora Barker | honorific_suffix = | image = Tommie Dora Barker - Agnes Scott College, Silhouette (1927 yearbook) (page 21 crop).jpg | image_size = | alt = A white woman wearing glasses | caption = Tommie Dora Barker, from the 1927 yearbook of Agnes Scott College | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth date|1888|11|15}} | birth_place = [[Rockmart, Georgia]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1978|02|06|1888|11|15}} | death_place = | death_cause = | citizenship = | residence = | occupation = Librarian, Dean | period = | known_for = Regional field work for the American Library Association | home_town = | title = | boards =  | parents = | relatives = | awards =  | website = | education = | alma_mater = [[Agnes Scott College]] | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline =  | sub_discipline =  | workplaces =  | doctoral_students =  | notable_students =  | main_interests = | notable_works = ''Libraries of the South: a report on developments 1930-1935'' | notable_ideas = | influenced =  | signature = | signature_alt = | signature_size = | footnotes = }} '''Tommie Dora Barker''' (Nov. 15, 1888 – Feb. 6, 1978) was an American librarian and founding dean of [[Emory University|Emory]] Library School in [[Atlanta|Atlanta, Georgia]]. She also served as a regional field agent, representing southern libraries, for the [[American Library Association]].

== Early life == Barker was born in [[Rockmart, Georgia]] to parents Thomas Nathaniel and Medora Elizabeth Lovejoy Barker. She attended Atlanta Girls' High School before pursuing higher education at [[Agnes Scott College]]. In 1909, she graduated from [[Carnegie Library School of Atlanta]].<ref name="Wiegand" />

== Career == Barker was hired in 1909 by the [[Alabama Department of Archives and History]] as an assistant manager of Alabama's traveling libraries. This included reference work, maintaining the organizational structure of the department's library, overseeing a training course for library students, and serving as Secretary of the Alabama Library Association.<ref name="Wiegand">{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SqpJMeDXMwUC&dq=Tommie+Dora+Barker&pg=PA11|title=Supplement to the Dictionary of American Library Biography, Volume 1|last=Carmichael, Jr.|first=James V.|editor-last=Wiegand|editor-first=Wayne A.|publisher=Libraries Unlimited|year=1990|isbn=9780872875869|pages=5–11|chapter=Tommie Dora Barker}}</ref>

Barker returned to Atlanta in 1911 to work as a reference assistant for the Carnegie Library School. In 1915, she became the Director of [[Carnegie Library (Atlanta)|Carnegie Library]] and its training school.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Callaham|first=Betty E.|date=1967|title=The Carnegie Library School of Atlanta (1905-25)|journal=The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy|volume=37|issue=2|pages=149–179|issn=0024-2519|jstor=4305760|doi=10.1086/619528|s2cid=147945806}}</ref> During these years, the library faced budget cuts, which caused a series of problems from overworked staff to lack of support from local government, and ultimately restricted expansion.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1saWAwAAQBAJ&q=Tommie+Dora+Barker|title=Historical Dictionary of Librarianship|last=Quinn|first=Mary Ellen|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2014|isbn=9780810875456|pages=52, 234–235}}</ref>

A recommendation to the Board of Education for Librarianship (BEL) of the American Library Association (ALA), submitted by C.C. Williamson, advocated the shutting down of schools working with public libraries, specifically Atlanta. He argued the lack of demand for professional librarians in the South and believed Northern librarians could satisfy the needs of the South. In response to this challenge, Barker fought to improve the Carnegie Library School with the help of BEL. By 1925, the school had a loose partnership with Emory University, with a larger curriculum and staff. The school achieved junior undergraduate status by BEL in 1926, and graduate status in 1928.<ref name="Wiegand" />

Along with promoting the Carnegie Library School, Barker advocated for the improvement of Southern libraries in general. She alongside [[Charlotte Templeton]] and [[Mary U. Rothrock|Mary Utopia Rothrock]] co-formed an association in 1920 to be a regional voice in policy-making; this association was named the [[Southeastern Library Association]] (SELA) in 1922.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carmichael|first=James V.|date=2005|title=Southern Librarianship and the Culture of Resentment|journal=Libraries & Culture|volume=40|issue=3|pages=324–352|issn=0894-8631|jstor=25541934}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bowker|first1=Richard Rogers|last2=Cutter|first2=Charles Ammi|date=1922|title=Library Journal, Volume 47|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5cfgAAAAMAAJ|journal=Library Journal|publisher=R. R. Bowker Company|volume=47|via=Google Books}}</ref> Barker served as the association's third president from 1926 to 1928.<ref name="Wiegand" />

Among her other duties, Barker served as president of the [[Georgia Library Association]] from 1920-1921.<ref name="Wiegand" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cutter|first=Charles Ammi|date=1921|title=Library Journal, Volume 45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vktVAAAAYAAJ&q=Tommie+Dora+Barker|journal=Library Journal|publisher=R. R. Bowker Company|volume=45|pages=561|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Barker became the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate by Emory in 1930 for her work in securing funding for the Carnegie Library School. She requested the [[Carnegie Corporation]] and [[Rosenwald Fund]] to each donate $50,000 ($730,137.14 comparatively, after inflation) a year as it moved into Emory and became a professional library. In 1940, the Carnegie Foundation endowed the school with $100,000 ($1,825,342.86 after inflation).<ref name="Wiegand" />

Barker opened the [[Atlanta–Fulton Public Library System#Black Atlantans and the public library|Auburn Avenue Branch Library]], the first African-American branch library in Atlanta, in the [[Sweet Auburn]] neighborhood in 1921.<ref name="Wiegand" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism|last1=Wiegand|first1=Wayne A.|last2=Wiegand|first2=Shirley A.|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|year=2018|isbn=9780807168677|location=Baton Rouge, Louisiana|pages=27}}</ref>

===Membership and regional field agent for ALA===

Barker began her membership with ALA in 1909, and served on its Membership Committee from 1921-1922. She also served on the ALA Council from 1923-1928. In 1927, she was nominated for honorary vice-president, but lost to Charles Rodan. The nomination was the second given to a southerner, and the loss "reflected the South's lack of voting strength in the ALA".<ref name="Wiegand" />

Barker left the Carnegie Library School in 1930 to work as a regional field agent for the American Library Association, representing Southern libraries.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1930|title=Regional Field Agent for the South Appointed|journal=Bulletin of the American Library Association|volume=24|issue=6|pages=251|issn=0364-4049|jstor=25687203}}</ref>

== Personal life == Barker never married or had children. She lived for many years with her mother and two of her sisters, including [[Mary Cornelia Barker]].<ref name="Wiegand" />

== Death == Barker died February 6, 1978, three months after suffering a stroke.<ref name="Wiegand" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cherry|first=Susan Spaeth|date=1978|title=Library Personnel|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25623304|journal=American Libraries|volume=9|issue=4|pages=252|jstor=25623304|issn=0002-9769}}</ref> She is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in [[Rockmart, Georgia]].<ref name="Wiegand" />

==References== {{reflist}}

== Selected bibliography == *{{Cite book|title=Libraries of the South : a report on developments, 1930-1935|last=Barker|first=Tommie Dora|publisher=American Library Association|year=1936|location=Chicago, Illinois|oclc=575634}} *{{Cite book|title=Report of a Survey of the Library of the Young Men's Library Association of Augusta for the Board of Directors|last=Barker|first=Tommie Dora|publisher=American Library Association|year=1945|oclc=6721214}} *{{Cite book|title=Tommie Dora Barker and Southern Librarianship|last=Carmichael|first=James Vinson|publisher=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|year=1987|oclc=862116331}} *[http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8xzgz Papers] at [https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library.]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Tommie Dora}} [[Category:1888 births]] [[Category:1978 deaths]] [[Category:Agnes Scott College alumni]] [[Category:American Library Association people]] [[Category:Emory University faculty]] [[Category:Librarians from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:20th-century American women academics]] [[Category:20th-century American women librarians]] [[Category:20th-century American librarians]]