The Role of the State in the Organization of Statewide Library Service: Essae M. Culver, Louisiana's First State Librarian

Abstract

In 1925 the Carnegie Corporation granted $50,000 to Louisiana, a state then “backward in library development,” to fund a demonstration of rural public library development. Essae M. Culver, a California librarian, was chosen to direct the project. Culver arrived in Louisiana to fi nd that the entire state needed organizing. She concluded that the parish (county) was the appropriate unit upon which to base a system of libraries and adapted California’s demonstration system to the southern state’s needs. Key to Culver’s method was local funding after the demonstration period, and she convinced legislators to fi nance the state library agency. Similarly, voters concurred that their parish libraries were worth keeping, and, despite some early failures during times of fl ood and economic depression, parish libraries eventually were established throughout the state. Culver’s demonstration method was credited with greatly infl uencing library development both in the United States and abroad.

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