Prepare for a visit to AAMLO with these special topic resource guides.
This resource guide is intended to help users locate holdings at AAMLO related to the field of library and information science and librarianship as a profession.
It highlights holdings in the following areas:
● Selected Library Material at the Oakland Public Library
● Selected Archival Collections at AAMLO
Other collections may contain relevant materials. Please contact AAMLO (aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org) with any questions or to schedule an appointment to view materials in person.
Selected Library Materials
The Black Librarian in America / The Black Librarian in America Revisited by E.J. Josey
Handbook of Black Librarianship
Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History
Black Academic Libraries and Research Collections: An Historical Survey by Jessie Carney Smith
Black History: a Guide to Civilian Records in the National Archives
Library Guide for Black Americans [Oakland Public Library]
From the Archives [African American Museum & Library at Oakland]
African American Librarians in the Far West: Pioneers and Trailblazers edited by Binnie Tate Wilkin
Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Black Bibliophile & Collector by Elinor Des Verney Sinnette
E.J. Josey: Transformational Leader of the Modern Library Profession by Renate Chancellor
Untold Stories: Civil Rights, Libraries, and Black Librarianship edited by John Mark Tucker
Not Free, Not for All: Public Libraries in the Age of Jim Crow by Cheryl Knott
The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism by Wayne A. Wiegand
Freedom Libraries: the Untold Story of Libraries for African Americans in the South by Mike Selby
The 21st-century Black Librarian in America: Issues and Challenges
Selected Archival Collections
East Bay Negro Historical Society Records. The East Bay Negro Historical Society (EBNHS) was organized on July 2, 1965 in the home of Marcella Ford. In attendance at the first meeting were the seven founding members of the society: Marcella Ford, Jesse Ford, Eugene Lasartemay, Ruth Lasartemay, E. Harold Mason, Morrie Turner, and Madison Harvey Jr. The society’s mission was to “collect, preserve, record, and disseminate information related to the history, culture and experience, of persons of Black American and African descent, especially those in the East Bay, the State of California and throughout the West.” The EBNHS consisted of members, officers, and an executive board and included library, museum, publications and publicity, program, membership, finance, and nomination committees which met on the third Saturday of every month. Initially, the society operated as a unit of the Oakland Unified School District Volunteer Program, with members giving lectures on black history to students that would visit the library and museum.
In 1970, the EBNHS moved to a storefront located at 3651 Grove Street in Oakland, California and remained there for six years before moving to 4519 Grove St., where it established a museum and library. In 1982, the society was invited into the Golden Gate Branch of the Oakland Public Library, making it the first Oakland library branch with a collection dedicated to African American history and culture. Following the appointment of Dr. Lawrence Crouchett as its executive director in 1988, the society changed its name to the Northern California Center for Afro-American History & Life (NCCAAHL). In 1994, the City of Oakland and the NCCAAHL merged to create the African American Museum & Library at Oakland (AAMLO). The East Bay Negro Historical Society Records include meeting minutes, correspondence, reports, program flyers and brochures, financial ledgers, and scrapbooks documenting the activities of the society between 1965-2001.
Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection. Born in 1905 in Pensacola, Florida to Reuben Hearde and Fannie (Elijah) Matthews, Miriam Matthews (1905-2003) was the Los Angeles Public Library's first professional African American librarian and an important preservationist and collector of African American art and history. Matthews earned degrees in librarianship from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Chicago and served as a branch and regional library manager for the Los Angeles Public Library for 33 years between 1927-1960. She was active in professional and civic organizations and received numerous awards for her contributions to African American history. The Miriam Matthews Photographic Collection consists of 121 photographic prints collected by Miriam Matthews largely related to African American history in California. Roughly half of the collection is photographs of notable African American politicians taken by photographer Harry A. Adams in Southern California between 1955-1964
Oakland Post Photograph Collection. Photographs appearing in the Oakland Post newspaper between 1963-2005 include portraits of various Bay Area librarians and library directors, as well as library users in a variety of settings.
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection. Selected items include
- Oral history interview with Miriam Matthews conducted by Billy Field (undated)
- Material documenting the history of the East Bay Negro Historical Society
- Oakland Public Library Association, Friends of the Oakland Public Library, and Oakland Public Library staff newsletters
- Volumes of Bay Area Library and Information System News
- Fact sheets on the renaming of the Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library
- Ephemera related to the California Librarians Black Caucus
- California Black Librarians directory (1976)
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture program flyers and activity reports
- Various bibliographies and reading lists on African American Literature and Black Studies compiled by library staff
- Library program flyers
- A history of the Negro Literature Collection at the Oakland Public Library (1941)
- Peoples Librarians Task Force flyer (1975)
Royal E. Towns Papers. Royal E. Towns (1899-1990) worked as an amateur historian after his retirement from the Oakland Fire Department. His interest in the history of African Americans in California spurred him to give numerous lectures on African American history to students, and he also served on the Allensworth Advisory Committee to establish Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, and he served as treasurer of the Oakland Negro Historical Society. The Towns Papers include photographs of Eleanor Carroll Watkins, one of the earliest African American professional librarians in Oakland. Watkins was born in Oakland in 1912 and attended the University of California, Berkeley, obtaining a degree in Library Science in 1934. While at Berkeley, Watkins was a charter member of the Kappa Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, serving as a Regional Director from 1932-1933. Watkins was hired by the Oakland Free Library in 1935 as a Library Clerical Assistant, quickly becoming a Junior Librarian the following year. As reported in a 1939 Activities Among Negroes column, Watkins was "the only woman of her race holding the position as a staff member of the institution in Alameda County" at the time.
Gladys Jordan Papers. Gladys Meriwether Jordan was a pioneer educator and first African American woman to teach at the Emeryville High School. Students of her Emeryville High School Negro History class would go on to join the Black Panther Party. The Gladys Jordan papers include teaching notes, lesson plans, bibliographies and handouts, and material related to her Social and Negro History course taught at Contra Costa College. Selected bibliographies include "Books in the McClymonds Library by and about negroes" and "The American Negro in the Berkeley Public Library."
Rhonda White-Warner Papers. The papers of publisher and media consultant Rhonda White-Warner (1951-2014) include subject files related to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture between the years 1986-1990.
Additional Information
Search the library using the catalog.
Consult AAMLO's finding aids in the Online Archive of California.
We are working to create new resource guides. Have an idea for a new guide? Contact us at aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org.
