Anne Carroll Moore

Anne Carroll Moore (July 12, 1871 – January 20, 1961) She described her childhood as a happy one and wrote about growing up in My Roads to Childhood.

Early career 1895–1913

In 1896, Moore graduated from Pratt, and accepted an offer to organize a children's room at that same institute, partly due to a paper which Lutie E. Stearns had presented at the 1894 meeting of the American Library Association (ALA), "Report on the Reading of the Young". When Moore opened the children's room it drew a line of children circling the block awaiting entry.

Moore remained at the Pratt library for ten years. In 1906, she moved to the New York Public Library, having accepted the position of Superintendent of the Department of Work with Children, which Director John Shaw Billings had offered to her. This rather unwieldy title placed her in charge of children's programming at all NYPL branches as well as overseeing the Central Children's Room, which opened in 1911. This six-month program included practical training, readings and discussion.

Four Respects

Moore developed a set of standards that she called "The Four Respects":

Respect for children. She wanted children to be treated as individuals and to be treated seriously. Respect for children's books. Moore was adamant that books for children should be well-written, factually accurate and should not mix fact and fantasy. Respect for fellow workers. She insisted that the children's library be viewed as an integral and equal part of the complete library. Respect for the professional standing of children's librarians. Moore felt that the profession must recognize children's librarianship as a professional specialty.

In 1921, Moore gave a series of lectures and toured the libraries of England and France for the ALA. During this tour, she met Walter de la Mare, L. Leslie Brooke, and Beatrix Potter. She is credited with introducing all three to the American public. She wrote of her own childhood in My Roads to Childhood.

During this period, Moore began to regularly review children's books, writing for The Bookman for six years.

Moore was forced to retire in 1941, at the age of 70. Initially refusing to cede control to her successor, Frances Clarke Sayers, Moore continued to attend meetings of the New York Public Library. The Three Owls (1924) Three Owls (Volume II) (1924) Cross-Roads to Childhood (1926) Nicholas and the Golden Goose, illus. Van Everen (1932) – sequel novel Reading for Pleasure (1932) A Century of Kate Greenaway (1934) The Choice of a Hobby (1935) New Roads to Childhood (1946) Joseph A. Altsheler and American History (1961)

Mentors and mentees

Moore credited two women as her most influential mentors, Mary Wright Plummer (the library director at Pratt) and Caroline Hewins,

Moore became good friends with fellow library pioneer Valfrid Palmgren, sent by the Swedish government in 1907 to study public libraries in the United States. Moore later visited the Stockholm Children's Library which Palmgren founded and wrote about it in Library Journal. Palmquist referred to Moore as an inspiration and the two kept in contact until Moore's death.

Children's Book Week

With Franklin K. Mathieus, chief librarian for the Boy Scouts of America and Frederic G. Melcher, editor of Publishers Weekly, Moore founded "Children's Book Week" in 1918. She was dubbed the "Grande Dame of Children's Services"; a pioneer in the newly emerging specialty of children's literature, librarianship, and publishing.