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William Frederick Poole
1821–1894
A pioneering American librarian, he helped make libraries easier to use by creating one of the first major indexes to periodical literature. He also led important libraries in Boston and Chicago during a period of rapid growth in public learning.
2 Audiobooks
The Popham Colony : a discussion of its historical claims, with a bibliography of the subject
by Edward Ballard, Frederic Kidder, William Frederick Poole
Anti-Slavery Opinions before the Year 1800
by George Buchanan, William Frederick Poole
About the author
Born in Salem, Massachusetts, on December 24, 1821, William Frederick Poole became one of the most influential librarians of the 19th century. He is best known for creating Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature, a landmark reference work that helped readers and researchers find articles across many magazines and journals at a time when such material was otherwise difficult to track down.
Poole studied at Yale and began his library career there, later serving as librarian of the Boston Mercantile Library, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Cincinnati Public Library. In 1873 he became the first librarian of the Chicago Public Library, where he helped build the institution in the years after the Great Chicago Fire.
Alongside his library work, he wrote and edited on historical subjects and was widely respected for his ideas about making collections more useful to the public. He died on March 1, 1894, and is still remembered as an early leader in modern library service.