Peggy Sullivan was an American librarian and educator. She was elected president of the American Library Association and was a scholar of the history of librarianship.
From 1952 to 1977, Sullivan held positions of increasing responsibility in public and school libraries. She directed the national Knapp School Libraries Project for the American Association of School Librarians which had received $1,130,000 to raise the standards of school libraries. She served on the faculties of the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Chicago Graduate Library School. She also taught on part-time, summer or interim bases at six other library education programs and directed the American Library Association’s Office for Library Personnel Resources. Highlights of Sullivan’s career include being President of ALA’s Children’s Services Division , Chair Centennial Celebration of the American Library Association, assistant commissioner for extension services at the Chicago Public Library, ALA president, ALA executive director, Dean of the LIS Program at Rosary College, Dean of the College of Professional Studies at Northern Illinois University, and numerous university teaching positions. Sullivan served as director of the Knapp School Libraries Project. This project had great national impact on convincing the public of the need for high quality school library media programs. Sullivan was the 1991 recipient of ALA’s Joseph W. Lippincott Award, and was an alumnus of the University of Chicago, Catholic University and Clarke College. In 2004, Sullivan established the Sullivan Award for Public Library Administrators. This award is presented annually to an individual who has shown exceptional understanding and support of public library service to children while having general management/supervisory/administrative responsibility that has included public library service to children in its scope. She also presented the Sullivan Award to a faculty member in the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences for achievement in research. It is presented every fall on the NIU campus.
Education
Ph.D., University of Chicago Graduate Library School. 1972
M.S. in L.S., Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, 1953; Thesis:. Work of public libraries with trade unions in the United States.
More than 100 articles on various aspects of librarianship, education, administration, and history
Reviews of books and other media, also numbering in excess of 100, for a variety of educational and library publications, as well as for The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, and The Chicago Tribune
Recognitions and special assignments
UNESCO Consultant on School Libraries, Australia, 1970
President, American Library Association, 1980–1981. Theme: "Libraries and the Pursuit of Happiness."
Numerous committee appointments and elective offices in the American Library Association, 1959 and continuing, including the presidency of the Children’s Services Division, 1976–1977, and membership on the ALA Council
Consulting assignments and the presentation of speeches, workshops, storytelling programs, as well as participation in ALA accreditation of library education programs have taken Peggy Sullivan to every one of the fifty US states and every continent except Antarctica.
Donor, the Sullivan Award for Public Library Administrators, American Library Association, 2004 and continuing annually
Awards and recognition
In 2008, Sullivan was named an honorary member of the American Library Association. She was nominated in recognition of over 50 years of dedicated librarianship during which she wrote the definitive scholarly history of the tenure of Carl Milam and the growth of the American Library Association to an international organization." Sullivan was the only honorary member to have a giant image of her book on a parking garage in the Kansas City Library District. The facade includes her 1956 children’s book, The O’Donnells, as a title on the Community Bookshelf.
