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Elva Sophronia Smith was an authority on both children's literature and on
cataloging children's literature. She was born on April 28, 1871, in Burke
Hollow, Vermont. She began her professional life as a teacher. Then
in 1899 she earned a certificate from the Los Angeles Public Library training
class. She relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1901 to enter the
first class of the Carnegie Library Training School for Children's
Librarians. She graduated in 1903 and became an instructor in the program
one year later. During the rest of her career, she split her time between
teaching in the Training School and working in the Boys' and Girls' Department
of cataloging. She taught a number of different subjects: cataloging,
children's library work, book selection, bibliography, storytelling, and even
the history of children's literature. She also wrote throughout her career
publishing professional articles for librarians as well as special collections
of poems, stories, and histories for children. She served on the American Library Association
Council from 1926 to 1930. Then in 1945 she retired but she continued to teach
courses at the Pennsylvania State College during the summers. She died on
October 26, 1965, in Concord, New Hampshire.
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