Episode 26:Stanton Biddle on Community, Representation, and Leadership

LibVoices

Dr. Stanton F. Biddle holds a bachelors degree in government (Howard University, 1965), a masters degree in Library Service (Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA, 1966), a masters degree in Public Administration (New York University, New York, NY 1973), and a doctorate in Library and Information Studies (The University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 1988). He spent his entire working career as a librarian beginning as a library page in the Rochester (NY) Public Library while in high school and as a library assistant at the U.S. Library of Congress while completing his undergraduate work in college. Upon receiving his library degree, he held increasingly responsible positions at the Municipal Reference and later the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library. In 1973 he was appointed Associate Director of Libraries at Howard University in Washington, DC; in 1979 Associate Director of Libraries at the State University of New York at Buffalo; and in 1984 Chief Librarian at Baruch College of the City University of New York. Between 1988 and his retirement in 2011, he held a number of senior positions within the College and City University of New York system. Stanton has been an active member of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association for 48 of its 51 years. He served on the Executive Board for three terms, as president from 1994-96 and Treasurer from 2002-2008. He edited the proceedings of the first two National Conferences of African American Librarians and served as Conference Treasurer for five of the ten conferences. Dr. Biddle lives in New York City, where he volunteers with a number of genealogy and family history research organizations and institutions and is still actively involved with the Black Caucus of ALA.