Foster E. Mohrhardt

Foster Edward Mohrhardt (7 March 1907 – 7 June 1992) was a United States librarian. He had a long and illustrious career in library and information science as a scholar, organizer and diplomat, and was listed by American Libraries among "100 Leaders we had in the 20th Century". Mohrhardt is also known for his work to have the United States Department of Agriculture Library re-designated as a national library.

Early life Foster E. Mohrhardt was born in Lansing, Michigan, on 7 March 1907, to Albert Mohrhardt and Alice (Bennet) Mohrhardt. He attended high school in Lansing and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Michigan State College (now Michigan State University). He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Library Service in 1930 from Columbia University. While there, he worked as a general assistant in the New York Public Library. In 1931, he returned to Michigan and worked in the library at the University of Michigan while he completed a Master of Arts degree in English and Library Service. During that time he earned a diploma from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in 1932, while also taking courses at other universities as a special student (including North Carolina, New York, Purdue, and Indiana Universities). While at the University of Michigan, Mohrhardt met Dr. William Warner who would go on to become his mentor and he would marry Katherine Selina Kivisto in 1936, whom he also met during his time there. Through his travels he would gain expertise in library evaluation which he would draw on and publish about throughout his career. From 1938 until 1946, Mohrhardt would become librarian of Washington and Lee University in Virginia. During his tenure there he was responsible for completing renovations to the Library building as well as developing special collections.

Military career During World War II, the Library of Congress was interested in protecting some of its more valuable collections and Mohrhardt offered surplus space available at Washington and Lee University for this purpose. During the war Mohrhardt performed military service in the U.S. Army Air Force, U.S. Navy and was involved in civilian duty. During this time he moved often, was stationed at Fort Lee for army service in 1942, then went to Indianapolis as a civilian instructor in electronics (during his education Mohrhardt received some training from General Electric) In 1948, Mohrhardt briefly took the position of assistant to the director of the 450 libraries of the Veterans Administration, but he became director soon after. These changes to the library streamline technical services and along with the designation, enabled them to expand the service obligations beyond the USDA and strengthen cooperation with the land-grant colleges and universities, as well as with international libraries. With his work with Japan, and other international organizations, particularly the International Federation of Library Associations, he demonstrated his reputation as an international diplomat. This can be characterized by one incident that occurred during a board meeting when an Eastern-bloc representative became distraught at the course of dialogue. Mohrhardt reportedly left the room and returned with a flower for the woman and was able to defuse the tense situation with his charm. Foster Edward Mohrhardt papers, 1934–1968; archive collection of published papers, speeches, studies, book reviews, and biographical articles at the National Agricultural Library Foreign Library Periodicals; A Bibliographic Record of Current Library Periodicals in All Countries Except the United States, Canada, and the British Isles (1935) Manuscript prepared for the School of Library Service, Columbia University A list of books for junior college libraries. [A Bibliography] (1937) Compiled for the Carnegie Corporation Junior College Library Budgets (1938) from The Junior College Journal VA Libraries Reach From Ocean to Ocean (1951) from Library Trends National Systems (1953) from Library Trends Federal Library Systems; Their Development and Trends (1953) A Librarian Looks At Documentation (1956) from Special Libraries The Library of the United States Department of Agriculture (1957) from The Library Quarterly Critique On Developments in the Mechanization of Information Systems (1958) from College and Research Libraries The International Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists: Cooperation in Serving Scientists (1961) from the Tenth Pacific Science Congress, Section of Scientific Information Current Status of Written Communications (1961) from Biological Abstracts IAALD International Library (1962) from IAALD Quarterly Bulletin Guides to Information Sources in Science and Technology: Space Science and Technology (volume 1) (1963) Edited with Bernard Fry The Flow of Scientific Information (1963) Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Association of Agricultural College Editors Guides to Information Sources in Science and Technology (1965) Edited with Bernard Fry Special Libraries, Pioneers in Documentation (1965) from Special Libraries Current Developments in the Communication of Scientific Information in the United States (1966) from ASLP Bulletin Librarianship and Documentation: Relationships in the United States (1966) Paper presented at the 32nd session of the IFLA General Council (later published in Libri ) Personnel Administration in Libraries (1966) 2nd edition "Revised and largely rewritten by Foster E. Mohrhardt" (Kathleen B. Stebbins was the original author) The Emergent Library: Hybrid or Sport? (1966) from Garden Journal Libraries and People: 40 Years of Library Development (1967) from Oklahoma Librarian Meeting National and International Library Needs (1967) from the Schwing Library Lecture Series No. 9 A National Network of Biological-Agricultural Libraries (1967) from College and Research Libraries (written with Blanche L. Oliveri) Science Abstracting Services - Commercial, Institutional, and Personal (1968) Report of the Second American Library Association Delegation to Japan, September 1–21, 1968 Report for the American Library Association From Quarterback to Wide Receiver: Observations on Foundations and Libraries (1969) Reading in a Changing World: Papers Presented at the 38th Session of the IFLA General Council, Budapest (1972) International Library and Information Service Developments As They Relate to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (1974) The Touch of Time - Observations on Foundations and Libraries (1975) Conference Publication for IFLA USA librarians and the IFLA (1977) in IFLA's First Fifty Years: Achievement and Challenge in International Librarianship (edited by W.H.R. Koops and J. Weider) National Planning for Library and Information Services Written with Carlos Victor Penna