Benjamin Edward Powell (August 28, 1905 – March 11, 1981) was an American librarian and president of the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

from 1959 to 1960. Powell was born in Sunbury, North Carolina to Willis Warren and Beatrice Franklin Powell. He attended

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, graduating in 1926. After graduation, he accepted a position at the

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

library. He took a leave of absence from 1929 to 1930 to attend

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

to pursue a degree in library science. Powell continued his education at the graduate library school at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

from 1934 to 1935 and in 1937 he took the position of head librarian at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

. He received his doctorate in library science from the University of Chicago Graduate Library School in 1946. Powell became university librarian at

in 1946 and served in that role until he retired in 1975. At Duke, he oversaw an expansion of the University library and integrated the University Archives became a part of the library.

Publications

* '
The University Libraries, Duke University
'' (1959)

References

1905 births 1981 deaths American librarians Presidents of the American Library Association University of Chicago Graduate Library School alumni Columbia University School of Library Service alumni Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni {{library-bio-stub