Rudolph Hjalmar Gjelsness

Rudolph Hjalmar Gjelsness (October 18, 1894 – August 16, 1968) was a prominent American librarian and literary translator who served as Dean of the University of Michigan's Library Science Department from 1940 to 1964. He was the first recipient of the Beta Phi Mu Award recognizing distinguished service to education for librarianship.

Additionally, Gjelsness held positions at a variety of public and university libraries, including the New York City Public Library, the University of Arizona, and the University of California-Berkeley, as well as several others both in the United States and abroad. He also contributed articles to numerous scholarly journals within the library field, including Public Libraries, The Library Quarterly, and the Journal of Education for Librarians. In 1999, American Libraries named him one of the "100 Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century."

Early life and education: 1894–1925 Rudolph Hjalmar Gjelsness was born in the farming community of Reynolds, North Dakota on October 18, 1894. A first-generation American, Gjelsness was raised by his Norwegian immigrant parents Marius and Karoline Gjelsness to speak both the Norwegian and English languages. in Beaune, France.

After his time in Europe, Gjelsness returned to the University of Illinois to finish his education, earning a bachelor's degree in library science in 1920. He was also the group's treasurer between 1941 and 1947. Among Gjelsness's achievements with the ALA was his work as editor-in-chief revising the standard Anglo-American Cataloging Rules between 1935 and 1941 and the subsequent publication of ALA Catalog Rules: Author and Title Entries in 1941.

He was elected president of the Association for Library and Information Science Education in 1948-1949.

In 1954 he was honored with the inaugural Beta Phi Mu Award by the American Library Association for distinguished service to education for librarianship. The printer's mark of Aldus Manutius is the insignia of Beta Phi Mu. Gjelsness was the inaugural recipient of the Beta Phi Mu Award

During his tenure as dean, he also began to aid in the establishment and progress of libraries and library science department in foreign countries. Among these were a program he helped set up in Bogota, Colombia, and Mexico City's Benjamin Franklin Library, where he served as director between 1943 and 1944. In October 1962, he went to Iraq to act as consultant to the President of the University of Baghdad, as part of a Ford Foundation project to develop the University’s libraries. However, he never managed to establish a relationship with the President, and seems to have done little other than organise some training on cataloguing and classification for 5 of the Central Library’s staff over a 2-month period in 1963. His appointment was for 2 years, but he had taken sabbatical leave only for a year, and his departure surprised the Foundation.

Gjelsness also contributed many articles to various scholarly journals on a variety of topics regarding libraries and the role of library schools. During his tenure as dean at the University of Michigan, Gjelsness observed in one such article originally published in 1945 that library science departments were improving but more still needed to be done to attract better candidates to careers in the field. He recommended increases in salaries to remedy the situation, putting the minimum figure at three thousand dollars per year.

Retirement and death: 1964–1968 In 1964, Gjelsness retired from the University of Michigan. Still, he continued to serve the library profession, including a return to the University of Arizona's Special Collections Division. His final appointment sent him to San Juan, Puerto Rico where he was hired to assist in the foundation of the University of Puerto Rico's Library Science Department. However, the day after his arrival, Gjelsness was killed in a hit-and-run traffic accident on August 16, 1968.

Personal papers A collection of Gjelsness' personal papers, including some material written by members of his family, is housed at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.