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Mary Niles Maack

Mary Niles Maack is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mary Niles Maack rather than just read about it. In short: Mary Niles Maack (December 1945 – January 23, 2023) was an American librarian and scholar known for her work on comparative librarianship and the history of the book. Early life and education Maack was born in Paris, Illinois in 1945 to Augustus and Lillie Niles.

Mary Niles Maack — main illustration
Mary Niles Maack — illustration

Key takeaways

  • Mary Niles Maack belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
  • Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
  • Connect Mary Niles Maack to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
  • Reproduce the core statement of Mary Niles Maack from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mary Niles Maack (December 1945 – January 23, 2023) was an American librarian and scholar known for her work on comparative librarianship and the history of the book.

Early life and education Maack was born in Paris, Illinois in 1945 to Augustus and Lillie Niles. She graduated with a degree in history from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earned her master's degree and Doctorate of Library Science from Columbia University.

Career Maack did her doctoral research in West Africa which resulted in her first book, Libraries in Senegal. She worked at New York Public Library. She was a tenured professor at the University of Minnesota for ten years and later at UCLA in the Department of Information Studies beginning in 1986. She served as a Fulbright Professor at the French National Library School (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Bibliothèques) in Villeurbanne from 1982 to 1983 and received grants to do research at the Bibliothèque Nationale. She lectured and consulted internationally in North America, Europe, and Africa. She was the head of the head of the California Center for the Book and the author of a collection of essays about John Y. Cole, the founding director of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. Maack's work often focused on gender issues. Her research on the decrease of women faculty in LIS programs in the United States raised awareness of the tension between technological change and the historical role of women in librarianship. She wrote in 2002 that she felt that "library feminism is alive and... feminist librarians are still engaged in the struggle for equalization in one profession." Her published papers, Women in Library Education: Down the Up Staircase and Toward a History of Women in Librarianship: A Critical Analysis with Suggestions for Further Research examined the relationship between feminization and professionalism within librarianship.

Honors and awards Justin Winsor Prize of the American Library Association Library History Round Table in 1981 Jesse Shera Award from the American Library Association Library Research Round Table in 1992. The UCLA Department of Information Studies Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005. Feminist and Global Perspectives on an Evolving Profession: Papers Honoring Mary Niles Maack, edited by Michèle Cloonan and Suzanne M. Stauffer. Library Trends 72 (February, 2024).

Publications Libraries in Senegal: continuity and change in an emerging nation (1981) ISBN 0838903215 Feminization Of Librarianship In France: A Silent Revolution (1987) ISBN 0669063681 Maack, Mary Niles and Joanne Ellen Passet. (1994). Aspirations and Mentoring in an Academic Environment : Women Faculty in Library and Information Science. Westport Conn: Greenwood Press.ISBN 0313278369 Maack, Mary Niles. 1994. “The Public Library Inquiry: Reminiscences, Reflections, and Research.” Libraries & Culture 29: 1–132. Maack, M. N. (2000). International dimensions of library history: Leadership and scholarship, 1978-1998. Libraries & Culture, 35(1), “The Lady and the Antelope: Suzanne Briet’s Contribution to the French Documentation Movement.” Library Trends 52, no. 4 (2004): 719–47. “American Bookwomen in Paris during the 1920s.” (2005) Libraries & Culture 40 (3): 399–415. “‘I Cannot Get Along Without the Books I Find Here’: The American Library in Paris During the War, Occupation, and Liberation, 1939-1945.” Library Trends 55, no. 3 (2007): 490–512. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2007.0013. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences (ed. 2009) ISBN 084939712X The Library of Congress and the Center for the Book: Historical Essays in Honor of John Y. Cole (ed. 2011) ISBN 9780844495255 Anne Morgan: Photography, Philanthropy and Advocacy (2016) ISBN 0692566023

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mary Niles Maack

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mary Niles Maack claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mary Niles Maack before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mary Niles Maack ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mary Niles Maack

In research
Mary Niles Maack appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry
Engineering practice reuses Mary Niles Maack in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom
Mary Niles Maack is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, 2023 deaths, 20th-century American librarians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life
Look for Mary Niles Maack outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.
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How to study Mary Niles Maack in 20 minutes

  1. Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
  2. Close the page and write down what Mary Niles Maack means in your own words.
  3. Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
  4. Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
  5. Explain Mary Niles Maack out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mary Niles Maack in simple terms?

Mary Niles Maack (December 1945 – January 23, 2023) was an American librarian and scholar known for her work on comparative librarianship and the history of the book. Early life and education Maack was born in Paris, Illinois in 1945 to Augustus and Lillie Niles.

Why does Mary Niles Maack matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mary Niles Maack?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mary Niles Maack.

Tags

  • 1945 births
  • 2023 deaths
  • 20th-century American librarians
  • 21st-century American librarians
  • American librarians
  • American women librarians
  • Historians of libraries
  • Library science scholars
  • People from Paris, Illinois
  • Women scholars and academics

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