{{Short description|American librarian}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}} {{infobox officeholder | name = Walter Lewis Brown | image = Walter L. Brown 1916 (page 568 crop).jpg | office = [[List of presidents of the American Library Association|President of the American Library Association]] | term_start = 1916 | term_end = 1917 | predecessor = [[Mary Wright Plummer]] | successor = [[Thomas Lynch Montgomery]] | birth_date = {{birth date|1861|01|04}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1931|10|16|1861|01|04}} | occupation = [[Librarian]] }}

'''Walter Lewis Brown''' (January 4, 1861 – October 16, 1931) was an American librarian. Brown served as president of the [[American Library Association]] from 1916 to 1917.<ref>{{cite web|title=ALA's Past Presidents|url=http://www.ala.org/aboutala/history/past|publisher=American Library Association|access-date=10 February 2016}}</ref> Brown was instrumental in establishing a public library in [[Buffalo, New York]], now the [[Buffalo and Erie County Public Library]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Walter Lewis Brown, Buffalo Librarian|url=http://libraryhistorybuff.blogspot.com/2011/01/walter-lewis-brown-buffalo-librarian.html|website=Library History Buff Blog|access-date=10 February 2016}}</ref><ref>Rooney, Paul M. (1978). "Walter Lewis Brown," pp. 65-66. In ''Dictionary of American Library Biography,'' eds. Bobinski. George S.; Jesse Hauk Shera and Bohdan S Wynar. 1978. Littleton Colo: Libraries Unlimited.</ref> Brown led the American Library Association at the beginning of the first World War. In that role, Brown initiated a partnership between the [[American Library Association]] and the [[Library of Congress]] to create the [[Library War Service|ALA War Service Committee]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rosenberg|first1=Jane Aiken|title=The Nation's Great Library|date=1993|publisher=University of Illinois Press|pages=86–87}}</ref>

==See also== * [[Buffalo and Erie County Public Library]]

==External links== * Photograph: [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-e9f3-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 Walter L. Brown, President-elect of the American Library Association, 1916-17], Digital Collections, [[New York Public Library]]

==References== {{Reflist}}

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{{ALA Presidents}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Walter Lewis}} [[Category:American librarians]] [[Category:1861 births]] [[Category:1931 deaths]] [[Category:Place of birth missing]] [[Category:Place of death missing]]

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