She was not your stereotypical librarian. Betty Rosenberg graduated from UC Berkeley's School of Librarianship in 1940, and worked as a book selector for UCLA's library, but she didn't stay in the stacks. Her love of books and reading ultimately led her to teaching. When this petite woman with her shock of curly white hair entered a classroom at UCLA's Graduate School of Library and Information Science, her booming voice commanded attention; and she often brought a meeting to order with a two-fingered whistle. Rosenberg also showed-off her year-round tan in her classes, wearing strappy sundresses--rain or shine-and either high-heeled Barbie doll shoes or rubber flip-flops. And she was never seen without a pack of thin brown cigarettes, which she eagerly smoked at the back of the classroom during breaks.
Rosenberg is remembered fondly by former students and colleagues, who once reveled in a rather notorious Library Journal (December 15, 1960) photo of her smoking a cigarette and playing a slot machine in Elko, Nevada, while attending the Western Writers of America conference. But they are quick to add that "Miss R" had a soft side too. She often brought in armloads of flowers from her home in Malibu for the office staff; and UCLA administrative assistant Lydia Doplemore recalls how she generously shared her wonderful homemade jams and jellies.
But the most memorable--and remarkable--thing about Betty Rosenberg was her knowledge and love of books. According to the legendary librarian Lawrence Clark Powell, Betty was one of the most "bookish" people he has ever known.
"Acquisitions to her was not what is commonly called a technical process; it was a way of life," Powell wrote in his autobiography Fortune & Friendship. Rosenberg also started every class--regardless of the topic-with a book review. She read voraciously, and she read omnivorously. "Her books ranged from sexually explicit material to mysteries to examples of fine printing," alum Sue Kamm remembers. What better person to teach a class on popular fiction?
Rosenberg's reading interests class was held in a small conference room lined from top to bottom with books from her own personal collection. The purpose was to introduce students to genre fiction they might not otherwise read-e.g., westerns, science fiction, romance, fantasy, and mysteries. After being treated to a rousing lecture about each genre, we sampled 2-3 novels in that area and wrote short annotations on each-a practice that I continue and has proven invaluable during numerous readers' advisory interviews. Undoubtedly, Genreflecting, Betty's acclaimed guide to genre fiction that was first published in 1982, grew out of her work with her reading interests classes.
Betty's admonition, which became the famous Rosenberg's First Law of Reading, was "Never apologize for your reading tastes." In her reading interests class, I, like many others, learned to never be embarrassed by my seemingly offbeat taste in books. In fact, I became an avid fan of westerns and fantasy literature and began building my own collection of Arthurian fiction, which became the subject of my master's thesis and which I still collect and read today.
Rosenberg inspired many others as well, and influenced many a librarian's professional career. Kris Ramsdell, librarian at California State University, East Bay, says a paper she wrote for Rosenberg led to the publication of Happily Ever After: A Guide to Reading Interests in Romance Fiction (Libraries Unlimited, 1987). Rosenberg shared her files with Kris and even critiqued her early chapters. More importantly, she encouraged Ramsdell, who is today a leading expert on the genre, published her second volume, Romance Fiction: A Guide to the Genre, with Libraries Unlimited in 1999, and currently writes the romance column for Library Journal.
Thirty years later, Betty Rosenberg's spirit lives on through the professional work of her former students, many whom have gone on to become readers' advisors. It also lives on here at UCLA in the "seminar on readers' advisory" that I teach. Using the latest edition of Genreflecting as a textbook, we explore and relish in a new area of fiction every week. Thanks to Betty Rosenberg, hundreds of librarians continue to pass along an appreciation of books and a love of reading.
Cindy Mediavilla, Ph.D., MLS, is a lecturer at the UCLA Department of Information Studies, where she was also recently appointed director of the California Center for the Book. Her readers' advisory tool for young adults, called Arthurian Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography, was published in 1999. She also occasionally contributes articles to the online readers' advisory source NoveList.