María Teresa Chávez Campomanes (1 August 1890,

Puebla de los Ángeles Puebla de Zaragoza (; nah, Cuetlaxcoapan), formally Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza, formerly Puebla de los Ángeles during colonial times, or known in English simply as Puebla, is the seat of Puebla Municipality. It is the capital and largest city ...

, Mexico - 24 February 1981) was a Mexican librarian and library science educator. She is regarded as the very foundation of teaching at the National School of Archivists and Librarians of the Secretariat of Education. The majority of Mexican librarians of the next era studied under her. She was named Teacher

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

of the Secretariat of Education and is known as one of the most respected and influential women of México, partially because of the cataloging tools she created.

Education

Chávez studied under Emilio Baz at the School for Librarians in Mexico City. Chávez graduated from the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

in the United States. Chávez continued her education doing postgraduate work in Detroit, Michigan and

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, focusing on library science. In 1953, Chávez received her doctorate in Literature after writing her thesis on books that later became classics at the National University of Mexico.

Employment

After graduation, she worked in the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

and Washington DC's Library of Congress. She later returned to México and studied Spanish literature at the National University in the department of

Philosophy and Letters Philosophy and literature involves the literary treatment of philosophers and philosophical themes (the literature of philosophy), and the philosophical treatment of issues raised by literature (the philosophy of literature). The philosophy ...

. She became the Director of the Franklin Library and the Library of México under the philosopher José Vasconcelos. She aimed to make libraries an extension of the

classroom A classroom or schoolroom is a learning space in which both children and adults learn. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, ranging from preschools to universities, and may also be found in other places where education ...

. She helped found UNAM Colegio de Bibliotecología. To help her students, she created a tool called "Catalogers and Classifiers Manual", which became a basic reference work for catalogers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:CHavez Campomanes, Maria Teresa Librarians at the Library of Congress 20th-century Mexican women Mexican women academics 20th-century Mexican people American women librarians American librarians Mexican librarians 1890 births 1981 deaths 20th-century American academics 20th-century American women