author
Ernest Cushing Richardson
1860–1939
A pioneering American librarian, theologian, and scholar, he spent his career finding better ways to organize knowledge and open research libraries to wider use. His ideas about cataloging and cooperation helped shape modern librarianship in the United States.
1 Audiobook
The Beginnings of Libraries
by Ernest Cushing Richardson
About the author
Born in Woburn, Massachusetts, on February 9, 1860, Ernest Cushing Richardson built an unusual career at the crossroads of books, scholarship, and theology. He studied at Amherst College and Hartford Theological Seminary, then began library work early, serving at Amherst before becoming librarian and professor of bibliology at Hartford Theological Seminary.
Richardson is best known for his long tenure at Princeton, where he served as university librarian from 1890 to 1925. There he developed a library classification approach often called the Richardson or Princeton system, and he pushed for better cataloging and broader access to research materials. He was also active nationally in the profession, including service as president of the American Library Association.
More than a caretaker of books, Richardson was an energetic thinker about how knowledge should be arranged and shared. He later worked as a consultant to the Library of Congress, and his legacy endures in the history of American research libraries and library science. He died on June 3, 1939.