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Katharine L. Sharp (May 25, 1865 – June 1, 1914) is notable in history for her passion, drive, and determination as a librarian in her short professional career. She’s infamous for her founding as the iSchool(also known as Information Science), previously named the University of Illinois Library School. She had such an impact in the program by just being in the field for a few years, and this practice gained the notice of people like Melvil Dewey (creator of the Dewey decimal system) and she helped train and develop the way library schools are how they are today. Katharine Sharp revolutionized the way learning in this school can be, and now the iSchool is growing at an exponentially great rate with many different amazing career paths that can result from learning within the school.

Birth and Early years
Katharine Sharp grew up in Elgin, Illinois to Phebe Thompson and John W. Sharp. On December 15, 1872 at the age of 33, Katharine’s mother tragically passed away. Even though there is very little information on how this affected Katharine, she was only 7 at the time, so this would shake the household for any young child at the time. Her father didn’t try to fulfill both roles of being a parent after his wife’s passing due the fact he was very busy with this work. This caused Katharine to be reportedly raised by relatives in the Elgin area during those young childhood years. From 1874-1878, Katharine was enrolled in Elgin Academy and for one year (1878-1879) in the Oakland (California) High School. In 1880, she graduated and received her diploma at the age of 15. Once she finished her high school education, Katharine enrolled in Northwestern University, in the location of Evanston, Illinois.

Education
Sharp graduated from the university with a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy. During her time in this institution, she was very active within her school. She received Honors in General and Latin Scholarship at Northwestern University in 1885 meant that Katharine Sharp had maintained an average of at least 85%. In the student newspaper at the university, it was very accurate that Katharine Sharp was excelling in her dedication to make a name for herself. She was involved in social organizations, one specifically called Ossoli. This organization was formed in 1874 due to the fact that the new Dean of Women had ordered that men and women would not belong in the same societies. This organization was just one of many she was involved in. According to the biography of Katharine L. Sharp, the following discusses some of her achievements while being there: “When the Young Women's Missionary Society was organized, Kate L. Sharp was elected president; when the Pandora Association, a literary board established to consider a yearbook, was formed, Kate L. Sharp represented the Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity and served as secretary; when the literary societies met to arrange a joint session, Kate Sharp spoke for Ossoil; when the first college annual, the Syllabus of 1885, was published, Kate L. Sharp served on the Editorial Board; when the class of 1885 elected its officers, Kate L. Sharp was selected as Vice President; when the Seniors planned their Class day, Kate Sharp was on the committee; when the class elected the official speakers, Kate L, Sharp was chosen Seery' and when Commencement was held on June 18, 1885, Katharine Lucinda Sharp addressed her classmates and the distinguished audience on the subject of "Shakespeare's Heroines." It might seem from this agenda and her academic record that Kate Sharp would have been fully occupied. In addition, however, her time and talent were devoted to her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma.”

Early Career and Further Education
After graduating from Northwestern, there was only one occupation that was definite for Katharine, and that was teaching. In 1886, she returned to Elgin Academy to teach Latin, French, and German. Sharp remained there for 2 years, and according to her friend, Miss Simpson, she described the period there as “two rather unhappy years”. This was due to the fact that new staff was implemented above her while she was there, and this shift caused a different environment and happiness to occur there. From 1890-1982, she resigned from her position and she went on to earn a Bachelors of Library Science at the New York State Library School. During her time trying to complete this, she was working with Melvil Dewey. Her work and dedication when working with the Adams Memorial Library left her with the advice of others to follow in her steps: “ library work is very trying physically, and you would find the two years of the Library course a great strain upon you if you are not strong. The work is very confounding and very wearing upon the nerves on account of the number of details to be attended to and on account of the frequent changes. In public library work, there is the additional strain of being on one's feet a great deal of the time.” Through all of this, her work was noticed through Dewey and he left a note to say, "In her 2 years at Albany she was so easily first it was taken for granted that prizes and honors went to her."

When she returned to Chicago in October of 1892, Katharine Sharp was a part of an experience which brought essential attention to the world of libraries. An event called the The Columbian Exposition, started to gain more popularity through numerous exhibits, many buildings, and multiple participants. To help plan the display of the library, Dewey selected Sharp first out of multiple candidates. He stated, “As president of the A L A, I appointed her in charge of the International Library Exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair. She made and administered the largest and best library exhibit that the world has seen either before or since.” During this experience, Dewey was a great mentor and help to her, and at the end of this experience, this brought her much more notice and achievements in the coming future.

During the era when Dewey was training others to become librarians in libraries and library directors, women were starting to work more in the library field. Illinois sent them west because they were a part of the pioneering era in the 1890s. The typical homecaring and child watching work was transitioning to women domestically working in the main field of the library. A man named Frank Gonzalez contacted him and asked him, “Who’s the best man in America to start a library school in Illinois.” Dewey replied, “The best man in America is a woman, and she is in the next room.”

Her work within the Library Science and UIUC
After being in the industry for many years, Sharp wrote a recruitment article titled, “Librarianship as a Profession”. In this piece, she described the experience and challenge of doing these types of tasks. She quotes, “Here is a new world to conquer, a new profession to enter. It appeals to legal, medical, domestic, and above all philanthropic instincts. It is a true profession and so recognized. . . . The library is a laboratory, a workshop, a school, a university of the people, from which the students are never graduated. . . . The library is what the librarian makes it and he can easily become a potent force in the community. . . . There is no course more permanently valuable, if not put into practical use, than that of library science. There is no system of culture more broad. There is no work more absorbing. . . .”

As the library school in Illinois was expanding and changing, Katharine Sharp was one behind this and she brought the work of the students to the sight of other librarians and schools. This gave special opportunities for people who were seeking to be successful in the same field as her at the Armour institute. She utilized her student’s work in many press releases and interviews. This method didn’t stop when she got to the University of Illinois, and the work was still shown through professional organizations and different faculties which often resulted in publications. This method eventually made its way to projects and class bulletins which were sent to Albany or Wisconsin.

Katharine’s approach helped schools like the University of Wisconsin, and she later accepted roles as the Head Librarian and Head of the Department of the Illinois State Library School at UIUC. Considering how far she’s come, it was definitely deserved. Her mission within librarianship was to create a program that can allow students to excel and this caused Sharp to be considered “revolutionary” due to the fact for “proposing and implementing the first four-year course in library science and the conferment of a degree”. In her biography, it also states that “Miss Sharp proposed library innovations that ranged from a "six weeks library course in the winter for experienced librarians" to cooperative research programs between the library schools”

In the end of it all, it was notable that Sharp was one of the main contributors of the Library School spreading across the country. Her determination to make librarianship more known, changed the lives of many people across the world, and without her, the iSchool would be non-existent. The major is still expanding, and Katharine Sharp is to thank for this

Later Years
In 1907, her library career ended after so many tries to expand the program to the graduate level. Once this happened, she eventually went to the Lake Placid Club as a stockholder and vice-president. In the time she was there, it was commented that she “"possessed to an unusual degree the incomparable gift of friendship". She loved it there, and it was said that she finally was able to be surrounded by friends and family. Many wanted her to return to the University of Illinois, but she was so dedicated and in love with her current role. Through the many issues that occurred with the program and her personal life, she pushed through all of those adversities to create a program that changed the shape we learn.

On June 1, 1914, Sharp tragically passed away in a car accident. Four days prior, she was one of 12 passengers that was injured in the incident, and she suffered the worst end of it. After the crash, she was there suffering for an hour and fifty minutes before anyone could’ve gotten there. Even if they showed up faster, the damage would’ve still been so severe. She was taken to Lake Saranac, where she passed away a few days later.

Sources: - https://www.proquest.com/docview/302176941?fromopenview=true&parentSessionId=r8a6KF0ERMYc3oQySp7PTWSZDOMW7ZiJNClehCSvGrw%3D&pq-origsite=gscholar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8No-dW3tP9w&t=175s - https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=DIL19070430.2.14&srpos=5&e=---en-20-DIL-1--img-txIN-Katharine+Sharp- - https://www.trustees.uillinois.edu/trustees/minutes/1907/1907-04-25-uibot.pdf - https://www.trustees.uillinois.edu/trustees/minutes/1904/1904-12-13-uibot.pdf - https://www.proquest.com/docview/1290819221/fulltextPDF/4231D710DC2D4A31PQ/1?accountid=14553