10 Famous Librarians Who Changed History

10 Famous Librarians Who Changed History

Have you ever wondered the past life or secret dreams of your local librarian as they helped you find research paper resources and swiped the bar code on your books? As it turns out, a lot of world leaders, famous authors and legendary philosophers and scholars had careers as librarians.

1. Ben Franklin

Ben Franklin didn’t sit behind a circulation desk and help college kids find research materials, but he is still a legitimate librarian. In 1731, Franklin and his philosophy group Junto1又名the Leather Apron Club，富蘭克林于1727年在費城創立的一個小團體，致力于實驗和探索知識。organized the “Articles of Agreement,” which set up the nation’s first library. Their library, called The Library Company, was first meant to benefit only the members of Junto, so that they could share books on the issues they discussed during meetings. It was organized as a subscription library, and members of Junto paid a small fee to retrieve books. Over time, The Library Company granted access to members of the Second Continental Congress, the Constitutional Convention and others.

當本地圖書館員幫你查找研究論文資料、掃描圖書條形碼時，你有沒有想過他們有著怎樣的過去，或者擁有哪些不為人知的夢想？事實上，許多世界領袖、著名作家以及大名鼎鼎的哲學家和學者都曾做過圖書館員。

1. 本·富蘭克林

雖然本·富蘭克林從沒有坐在借還書柜臺后面，幫助大學生搜索研究資料，但他仍是一位名副其實的圖書館員。1731年，富蘭克林和他的哲學社團——講讀社——起草了一份“協議書”，創立了全國第一家圖書館，即“圖書館公司”。起初，圖書館只對講讀社成員開放，方便大家分享與聚會探討問題相關的書籍。圖書館實行會員制，講讀社成員需繳納小額費用來借閱書籍。后來，圖書館公司對第二次大陸會議、制憲會議等成員敞開了大門。

2. David Hume

Scotsman David Hume contributed greatly to 18th century philosophy and economics, writing important works like Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and A Treatise on Human Nature. He was an anti-Mercantilist, and according to The New School2位于美國紐約市的高等教育機構。, Hume “was also one of the better articulators3articulator 提出或表達某種看法的人。此處根據語境轉譯為“代言人”。of the Quantity Theory and the neutrality of money.” In 1752, Hume became a librarian at the Advocate’s Library in Edinburgh, where he wrote his famous History of England.

3. J. Edgar Hoover

As the legendary director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover led domestic investigations from 1924–1972, as head of the Bureau of Investigation4簡稱BOI，美國聯邦調查局（FBI）的前身。and when he founded the FBI in 1935. In his early life, however, Hoover went to night school at George Washington University and supported himself by working at the Library of Congress. There, he was a messenger, cataloguer and clerk. In 1919, Hoover left the Library of Congress and worked as a special assistant to the Attorney General.

2. 大衛·休謨

蘇格蘭人大衛·休謨對18世紀的哲學和經濟學作出了巨大貢獻，撰寫了諸如《自然宗教對話錄》和《人性論》等數部重要著作。他反對重商主義，據新學院記載，休謨“還是貨幣數量論及貨幣中性論的優秀代言人之一”。1752年，休謨在愛丁堡的提倡者圖書館擔任館長，并在那里完成了著名的《英格蘭史》一書。

3. J.埃德加·胡佛

作為美國聯邦調查局具有傳奇色彩的最高掌權者，1924至1972年間，J.埃德加·胡佛一直領導國內案件的調查工作,在1935年創立聯邦調查局時就是調查局局長。不過，早年在喬治·華盛頓大學夜校讀書時，胡佛曾在國會圖書館打工以維持生計，任職圖書館信使、編目員及管理員。1919年，胡佛辭去國會圖書館的工作，搖身變成了司法部長的特別助理。

4. Jacob Grimm

Grimms’ Fairy Tales was first published in 1812, but the stories, including “Hansel and Gretel,”“Cinderella,” and “Snow White,” are still classic children’s stories constantly reinvented as5be reinvented as 改造成，改為。plays, Disney movies and more. Jacob Grimm worked as a librarian in Kasel, after graduating with a law degree. During this time, Jacob and his brother Wilhelm collected German folk tales from ordinary citizens in hopes of uniting area kingdoms on the basis of sharing a similar culture.

5. Jorge Luis Borges

Jorge Luis Borges is an Argentine writer who made significant contributions to fantasy literature in the 20th century. He shared the International Publishers’ Formentor Prize with Samuel Beckett6（1906—1989），法國著名作家，原籍愛爾蘭，諾貝爾文學獎獲得者，代表作《等待戈多》。and was a municipal librarian from 1939–1946 in Argentina, before getting fired by the Peron regime. One of his most famous short stories, The Library of Babel, depicts the universe as a huge library.

4. 雅各布·格林

《格林童話》首次出版于1812年，而書中的故事，包括“漢塞爾與格萊特”“灰姑娘”“白雪公主”，仍是兒童故事中的經典，不斷被改編成舞臺劇、迪士尼電影等。獲得法律學位之后，雅各布·格林在卡塞爾做了一名圖書館員。任職期間，雅各布和弟弟威廉一起在普通民眾中搜集德國民間故事，希望能在共享相似文化的基礎上實現國家的統一。

5. 豪爾赫·路易斯·博爾赫斯

豪爾赫·路易斯·博爾赫斯是阿根廷作家，對20世紀的奇幻文學有著重大的貢獻。他與塞繆爾·貝克特共享了“福門托國際出版獎”。1939至1946年間，博爾赫斯任職阿根廷市立圖書館館長，在庇隆上臺后被革職。在其最著名的一篇短篇小說《巴別圖書館》中，他把宇宙描繪成一個巨大的圖書館。

6. Lewis Carroll

The author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll’s real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Dodgson grew up in Cheshire and Yorkshire, England, and after graduating from Oxford with a B.A. in mathematics, he became a sub-librarian at Christ Church there. He left that position in 1857 to become a Mathematical Lecturer. Dodgson first told the story of Alice Adventures in Wonderland to the three daughters of the Dean of Christ Church, in 1862. The book was published three years later and continues to be a popular and significant work of fiction today.

7. Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong, the first chairman of the People’s Republic of China, was a librarian. In 1918, Mao lived in Peking, China as a young man, and he was an assistant librarian at Peking University. The chief librarian at Peking University was a Marxist, and succeeded in converting Mao to7convert ... to 使改變（觀點、信仰等）。communism.

8. Marcel Proust

At once one of the most celebrated and obscure novelists and critics of all time, Marcel Proust once decided to go to school to become a librarian. The French writer was born in 1871, and his most famous work, In Search of Lost Time is still studied today.

6. 劉易斯·卡羅爾

《愛麗絲漫游奇境記》及《愛麗絲鏡中奇遇記》的作者劉易斯·卡羅爾本名查爾斯·路德維奇·道奇森。道奇森在英格蘭的柴郡和約克郡長大。從牛津大學獲得數學學士學位之后，他在本校的基督堂學院做了圖書館助理館員，又于1857年辭職，成為一名數學講師。1862年，道奇森給院長的三個女兒首次講述了《愛麗絲漫游奇境記》的故事。三年之后，此書出版，直到現在仍然是廣受歡迎的重要小說作品。

7. 毛澤東

中華人民共和國的第一任主席毛澤東曾經當過圖書館員。1918年，青年毛澤東住在北京，任職北京大學圖書館助理館員。時任北大圖書館館長（李大釗）是一位馬克思主義者，在他的引導下，毛澤東走上了共產主義的道路。

8. 馬塞爾·普魯斯特

馬塞爾·普魯斯特是史上最著名且作品最難理解的小說家兼評論家之一。他曾立志去學校做一名圖書館員。這位法國作家出生于1871年，其最著名的作品《追憶似水年華》至今仍有人研究。

9. Melvil Dewey

Founder of the Dewey Decimal System, Melvil Dewey was born in New York in 1851. While a student at Amherst College, he worked in the school library to support his living expenses and stayed on as a librarian after graduation. After experimenting with different cataloging and organization methods for library collections, Amherst College published his work A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library. Dewey has been named the “Father of Modern Librarianship” and even helped created the American Library Association in 1876.

10. Pope Pius XI, or Achille Ratti

Pope Pius XI served from 1922–1939, during which time he established the feast of Christ the King and spoke out against8speak out against公然反對；公開抨擊。social justice crimes and unethical financial corruption practices. Before he became pope, Ratti was a librarian and scholar, and at the Vatican, Pope Pius XI famously reorganized the archives. ■

9. 麥爾威·杜威

麥爾威·杜威1851年出生于紐約，是杜威十進制系統的創始人。在阿默斯特學院讀書時，他在學校圖書館打工賺取生活費，畢業后留下來做了一名圖書館員。對圖書館藏書進行多次不同的編目及排列試驗之后，阿默斯特學院出版了杜威的著作，名為《圖書館圖書和小冊子排架編目適用的分類法和主題索引》。杜威被譽為“現代圖書館學之父”，1876年還幫助創立了美國圖書館協會。

10. 教皇庇護十一世（原名阿希爾·拉提）

教皇庇護十一世于1922至1939年在位，其間創設了“圣王基督節”，公開反對損害社會公義的犯罪活動和違反道德的金融腐敗行為。成為教皇前，拉提是圖書館館長兼學者；在梵蒂岡，教皇庇護十一世因重新整理檔案而聞名。 □

（譯者曾獲2015年第六屆“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽三等獎）

改寫歷史的10位著名圖書館員

譯/劉麗麗