Jean Carolyn Roos

1891 - 1982

Librarian


Divider

Jean Carolyn Roos
 Jean Carolyn Roos was born on March 9, 1891, in Buffalo, New York.  She is one of the four pioneers of library service to young adults.  She received a B.A. from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in 1925.  Three years later, she received a Certificate of Library Training from the same university.  During her career with the Cleveland Public Library she held a number of different positions: children's librarian, school librarian, director of the Robert Louis Stevenson Room, and supervisor of the Office for Service to Youth.  When the Robert Louis Stevenson Room opened in 1925 it was one of the first rooms devoted entirely to library service for young adults.  Throughout her career, she emphasized the need for collaborations between agencies serving young adults: However, she also believed that most of the work in the schools should be left to the school librarians.  In fact, it was not until much later in her career that she even admitted that curriculum-related materials should be collected by public libraries. 

Photograph from The ALA Yearbook: A Review of Library Events of 1982 (Ross, Jean Carolyn section, 1983, p. 202).

Selected Works
  • Patterns in Reading: An Annotated Book List for Young Adults, American Library Association, 1954
  • Patterns in Reading: An Annotated Book List for Young Adults, 2nd ed., American Library Association, 1961
Bibliography
  • Atkinson, J. (1986, Fall). Pioneers in public library service to young adults. Top of the News, 43 (1), 27-44.
  • Hannigan, J.A. (1996, Spring). A feminist analysis of the voices for advocacy in young adult services. Library Trends, 44 (4), 851-874.
  • Polacheck, J. G. (1994, June). Jean Roos in Memory. Voices of Youth Adovocates, 17 (2), 78-79.
  • Roos, Jean Carolyn. (1983). The ALA yearbook: A review of library events of 1982 (Vol. 8, pp. 202-203). Chicago: American Library Association.
  • Steinfirst, S. (1990). Roos, Jean Carolyn. In W. A. Wiegand (Ed.), Supplement to the dictionary of American library biography (pp. 115-119). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
  • Steinfirst, S. (1994). Young Adult Services. In W. A. Wiegand & D. G. Davis, Jr. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Library History (pp. 663-665).

Back to Home

Last Modified: May 5, 2002