YOUNG, Virginia G(arton) 1919–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born January 16, 1919, in Mountain View, MO; died March 16, 2005 (one source says March 15), in Columbia, MO. Consultant and author. Young was an influential library consultant and authority on library trusteeship who wrote and lectured widely on the subject. She graduated from Southwest Missouri State College (now University) in 1939, and completed her library science degree the next year at the University of Missouri. Though she was qualified to work as a librarian, Young spent her next years as a wife and mother. Later in life, however, she became active on library committees and organizations from the local to the national level. In 1955, she became a member of the Missouri State Library Commission, where she remained active for many years. She served in other posts along the way, including on the advisory committee to the U.S. Commissioner of Education's library services branch during the early 1960s. From 1963 until 1965 she was at the U.S. Department of Defense as a member of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. Young was best known for her library organization work. She served several terms as president and trustee of the Missouri State Library Commission, was a president of the Daniel Boone Regional Library and the American Library Trustees Association, a cofounder and president of the University of Missouri's Friends of the Libraries, and one-time delegate to the International Federation of Library Associates. Her expertise on the role of the library trustee led her to write the book The Trustee of a Small Public Library (1962; revised edition, 1978), and edit the influential text The Library Trustee: A Practical Guidebook (1964; fifth edition, 1995). For her valuable service to the library community, Young was made an honorary life member of the American Library Association. In 2002, she was also honored when the boardroom of the Columbia Public Library was named after her.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library News Notes (Columbia, MO), March 18, 2005.

ONLINE

American Library Association Web site, http://www.ala.org/ (April 1, 2005).

Columbia Daily Tribune Online, http://www.showmenews.com/ (March 18, 2005).