Stephen A. McCarthy

Stephen Anthony McCarthy (1908 – March 18, 1990 ) was a notable American librarian and advocate for research libraries. As such, he was named by American Libraries as one of the 100 most influential people in Library Sciences in the last 100 years in 1999.

Background McCarthy was born in 1908 in Eden Valley, Minnesota and attended St. Thomas College in St. Paul, Minnesota; he earned his BA from Gonzaga University, and his PhD at the University of Chicago.

Career Primarily known for his work in academic libraries, he was one time executive director of the Association of Research Libraries. McCarthy himself was an important player in advocating the revision of copyright laws, and he also “served on the USOE (US Office of Education) Advisory Committee on the Publication of Copyrighted Materials in 1968 and 1969.”

While he is most recognized for his influence on fair use laws, he was first and foremost a champion of libraries and librarianship. In his lifetime McCarthy served as assistant director of the University of Nebraska Library, assistant director of the Columbia University Library, Director of the Cornell University Libraries, President of the New York Library Association, and President of the Nebraska Library Association. He also undertook a major reclassification project at Cornell, moving the cataloguing system from the Harris system to the Library of Congress Catalogue. The American Library Association classifies him as one of the most influential librarians in the past 100 years.