Catherine Allen Latimer
Librarianship
Librarianship
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Latimer worked as a library assistant for a year (1919–1920\) at [Tuskegee Institute](/wiki/Tuskegee_Institute "Tuskegee Institute")'s library and then returned to Brooklyn.

When the New York Public Library (NYPL) hired her in 1920 as a substitute librarian, she became the library's first African\-American librarian. She transitioned to being a full\-time librarian at the end of 1920 and remained at the 135th Street branch–termed "Harlem's cultural center"—for the entirety of her career.

Latimer is known for having established and maintained a clippings file to document black history and in 1924, Latimer and [Ernestine Rose](/wiki/Ernestine_Rose_%28librarian%29 "Ernestine Rose (librarian)") (the branch's head librarian) started a drive to build a collection of reference books about [black history](/wiki/African-American_history "African-American history"). As the books became damaged with frequent use, Latimer and Rose decided to move the collection to the library's fourth floor. A year later, the growing collection—supported by community leaders such as historian [Arturo Alfonso Schomburg](/wiki/Arturo_Alfonso_Schomburg "Arturo Alfonso Schomburg") and activists [James Weldon Johnson](/wiki/James_Weldon_Johnson "James Weldon Johnson") and [Hubert Harrison](/wiki/Hubert_Harrison "Hubert Harrison")—became the Division of Negro History, Literature and Prints. The object of the new division was to "preserve the historical records of the race... \[and] to give information to everyone about the Negro." Latimer was named as its head. Latimer, working alongside Schomburg to provide user services, wanted patrons to learn how to use the card catalog and fill out library request slips themselves. The library was frequented by many artists, thinkers and writers during the Harlem Renaissance and Latimer often assisted them with research during this time. When reflecting on his early days in Harlem, Langston Hughes remembers Latimer, calling her a "luscious cafe\-au\-lait." and Latimer was in frequent correspondence [WEB Dubois](/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois "W. E. B. Du Bois"). Dubois advocated for Latimer and [Regina Anderson Andrews](/wiki/Regina_M._Anderson "Regina M. Anderson"), calling on administrators at the New York Public Library to stop discriminatory hiring and promotion practices and to retain and promote Black librarians. Latimer collaborated with [Dorothy Porter](/wiki/Dorothy_B._Porter "Dorothy B. Porter") to create new vocabularies to describe their collections since terms they needed were often missing in the authorized Library of Congress Subject headings and worked to reorganize books on the shelf since the Dewey Decimal System made it difficult to find works related to Black culture. She moved books on Africa that had been shelved in the travel section to the ethnology and history sections and assigned new call numbers to books that had been shelved under slavery to sections covering race relations and economic history.

In 1926, NYPL acquired [Schomburg](/wiki/Arturo_Alfonso_Schomburg "Arturo Alfonso Schomburg")'s own collection of printed matter, which Latimer worked on integrating into the division. She was not an expert in rare books, however, and a few years later NYPL hired Schomburg himself as [curator](/wiki/Curator "Curator") of the [Schomburg Collection](/wiki/Schomburg_Center_for_Research_in_Black_Culture "Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture"), with Latimer serving as his assistant. Many authors give credit and thanks to the librarians Rose and Latimer for their work in the creation and maintenance of this division. Latimer worked at the 135th Street library for 26 years and worked to promote the collection. She provided lectures for students attending Columbia, Vassar, Smith, Hunter and Pratt Institute. She also organized numerous public programs and exhibits that helped connect the public to topics covered in the collection. In 1934 she published "Where Can I Get Material on the Negro" in [The Crisis](/wiki/The_Crisis "The Crisis"). Following Arturo Schomburg's death, Latimer again resumed overseeing the collection until Dr. [Lawrence D. Reddick](/wiki/Lawrence_D._Reddick "Lawrence D. Reddick") was named curator in 1939\.


What did Latimer want patrons to learn how to do?