Frances E. Henne

Henne died on December 21, 1985 at the age of 79 after suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Even though no family survived her death, Henne’s legacy has lived on in the world of School Libraries. A year after her death, the American Association of School Librarians set up the AASL Frances Henne Award. According to AASL, the award “recognizes a school library media specialist with five years or less experience who demonstrates leadership qualities with students, teachers and administrators.” Recipients of this award are given funds to travel to their first AASL conference or ALA Annual. Even after her death, Henne is helping librarians further their education and stay current in their field. Henne recognized the fact that continual education and self-improvement was essential to librarians in helping them keep libraries constantly evolving to meet the needs of patrons.

Henne understood that for children and young adults to fully benefit from school and public libraries, the libraries themselves needed to evolve and change. She saw a need for change in the traditional school libraries of her time. Many libraries during this time focused on building a collection primarily with print materials because parents and administrators did not understand the teaching and educational benefits of non-print materials. Even in the 1960s, Henne was concerned that school and public libraries needed to contain more than just printed books and materials. She realized that new technologies of her time such as 16mm film, filmstrips, and phonograph records were essential to keeping libraries current for educating children and adults alike.

Henne left the University of Chicago and joined the library and information science faculty of Columbia in 1954. For over 20 years, she taught and created courses on how to design and implement programming for children and young adults in both the public and school library. She also promoted librarians who trained both in the education and in library science fields. Henne wrote, “The successful elementary school librarian knows children, likes children, and enjoys working with them…” She believed that not just anyone could run a library successfully.

Also a member of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), Henne worked with other members to create a set of standards for School Libraries so they could become accredited. In 1945 Henne and other Members of the AASL published the very first set of national school library standards. According to Diane Kester and Plummer Alston Jones, Jr., these standards helped to delineate and distinguish the responsibilities of school librarians and public librarians and they pushed for school librarians to work with teachers and educators on “teaching library skills education in the context of subject-based learning”.

After completing her Library schooling, Henne taught in school librarianship at Albany from 1937 to 1939. In 1939 Louis Round Wilson, a dean at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School, invited Henne to teach at the university’s graduate library school. Henne accepted the offer, and in doing so, she became the first woman faculty member at the university. Always committed to her studies and pursuing higher education, Henne did not limit her career to teaching at the university. Henne herself wrote, "Education, including professional training, is a life long process." She practiced what she preached and began her doctoral studies in 1939 and obtained her doctorate degree in 1949. Her doctoral studies were focused on school libraries and school library standards, and she continued to focus on school libraries and reshaping and revising standards throughout the rest of her career.

Frances E. Henne (October 11, 1906 – December 21, 1985) was an American librarian. Henne pursued a life of education and became a leader and expert in creating standards for school librarians. In 1999, American Libraries named her one of the "100 Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century."

Henne was born in Springfield, Illinois in October 1906. Henne graduated from the University of Illinois in 1929 with a BA degree, and then went on to receive her masters in English in 1934. During her schooling, Henne was introduced to the library profession while working at the Lincoln Public Library.