Mary Niles Maack

Mary Niles Maack (December 1945 – January 23, 2023) was an American librarian and scholar known for her work on comparative librarianship and the history of the book.

Early life and education Maack was born in Paris, Illinois in 1945 to Augustus and Lillie Niles. She graduated with a degree in history from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earned her master's degree and Doctorate of Library Science from Columbia University. She worked at New York Public Library.

She was a tenured professor at the University of Minnesota for ten years and later at UCLA in the Department of Information Studies beginning in 1986.

Maack's work often focused on gender issues. Her research on the decrease of women faculty in LIS programs in the United States raised awareness of the tension between technological change and the historical role of women in librarianship. She wrote in 2002 that she felt that "library feminism is alive and... feminist librarians are still engaged in the struggle for equalization in one profession." Her published papers, Women in Library Education: Down the Up Staircase and Toward a History of Women in Librarianship: A Critical Analysis with Suggestions for Further Research examined the relationship between feminization and professionalism within librarianship.

Honors and awards Justin Winsor Prize of the American Library Association Library History Round Table in 1981 Jesse Shera Award from the American Library Association Library Research Round Table in 1992. The UCLA Department of Information Studies Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005. Feminist and Global Perspectives on an Evolving Profession: Papers Honoring Mary Niles Maack, edited by Michèle Cloonan and Suzanne M. Stauffer. Library Trends 72 (February, 2024).

Publications Libraries in Senegal: continuity and change in an emerging nation (1981) Feminization Of Librarianship In France: A Silent Revolution (1987) Maack, Mary Niles and Joanne Ellen Passet. (1994). Aspirations and Mentoring in an Academic Environment : Women Faculty in Library and Information Science. Westport Conn: Greenwood Press. Maack, Mary Niles. 1994. “The Public Library Inquiry: Reminiscences, Reflections, and Research.” Libraries & Culture 29: 1–132. Maack, M. N. (2000). International dimensions of library history: Leadership and scholarship, 1978-1998. Libraries & Culture, 35(1), “The Lady and the Antelope: Suzanne Briet’s Contribution to the French Documentation Movement.” Library Trends 52, no. 4 (2004): 719–47. “American Bookwomen in Paris during the 1920s.” (2005) Libraries & Culture 40 (3): 399–415. “‘I Cannot Get Along Without the Books I Find Here’: The American Library in Paris During the War, Occupation, and Liberation, 1939-1945.” Library Trends 55, no. 3 (2007): 490–512. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2007.0013. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences (ed. 2009) The Library of Congress and the Center for the Book: Historical Essays in Honor of John Y. Cole (ed. 2011) Anne Morgan: Photography, Philanthropy and Advocacy (2016)