VOYA Cofounder Dorothy Broderick Dies at 82

E-Mail This Link

Enter recipient's e-mail:

Close

Email

Print |

Reprint/License |

Subscription |

RSS |

Share

By SLJ Staff
December 20, 2011

Dorothy Broderick, cofounder of the Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) magazine, a noted children's and YA librarian, and a staunch defender of intellectual freedom, died December 17 at the Brookhaven Health Facility in Patchogue, NY, from complications of heart trouble, osteoporosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She was 82 and had been an invalid for the last two years.

Broderick (left) started her career as a children's librarian in the 1950s at Connecticut's Milford Public Library and later on at Long Island's Hicksville Public Library. She is best known for her contributions to YA librarianship through the mentoring and personal guidance she gave to hundreds of librarians throughout her career—as a librarian, a professor at five major library schools, an author, and through her work as editor of VOYA, which she cofounded with her partner, Mary K. Chelton in their home in 1978.

"YALSA and YA librarianship wouldn't be what it is today without Dorothy," says Sarah Flowers, president of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).

The YALSA board of directors in 2007 offered a resolution in Broderick's honor, calling her "the glue that that bound many of us together in earlier YALSA years," and noting her "wicked wit," which belied a "a heart of gold, a brilliant mind, a love of librarianship, [and] a strong sense of right and wrong. One of her favorite T-shirts read: "There's something in my library to offend everyone."

An active member of the American Library Association and YALSA, Broderick's work was recognized repeatedly in the library field, from the prestigious Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award in 1987 to the Grolier Award from ALA in 1991, and the Freedom to Read Foundation's Roll of Honor Award in 1998.

"In my early days in YALSA, in the 1990s, Dorothy was still attending conferences," Flowers remembers. "It was always a delight to see her, and to hear her asides about whatever was going on at the time. Dorothy was also one of the first editors to publish my writing—articles and reviews in VOYA—so I am personally grateful to her. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to know her and work with her."

Broderick bagging VOYAs at home.

While working at the Milford Public Library, Broderick received an MLS from Columbia University, followed by a DLS, also from Columbia, with library educator Frances Henne as her dissertation director.

Broderick went on to teach at Case Western Reserve University's library school, where her interest in YA librarianship grew, as well as the library schools at the University of Wisconsin, and Dalhousie University in Canada with library professor Norman Horrocks. While at Dalhousie, Broderick did an exchange semester at Long Island's C. W. Post University in the 1970s—and met her partner, Chelton, who was then a YA services consultant for the Westchester Library System.

"[Librarian and storyteller] Anne Izard invited [Broderick] to speak to the Westchester Library System's children's librarians, and I asked if the YA librarians could also come to the meeting," says Chelton "We clicked over lunch and the rest, as they say, is history."

Broderick left full-time academia in 1977 to join Chelton in the United States, where they started VOYA in 1978 after observing a battle at ALA between the Children's Services Division (now ALSC) and the Young Adult Services Division (now YALSA) over content in their shared journal, Top of the News. Broderick felt that YA services could not survive without its own voice, and that "there needed to be a journal focused exclusively on teens that brought insights from other fields about adolescents to librarians," Chelton says.

Broderick also taught at the University of Alabama's library school in 1983 and moved with Chelton to Virginia Beach, VA, where she edited VOYA full-time. In the early 80s, VOYA became part of Scarecrow Press and Scholastic, and subsequently part of University Press of America. Broderick, who had moved to Long Island with Chelton, was forced to retire in 1997 due to a heart condition and was succeeded by Cathi MacRae as editor of VOYA.

Broderick also published the groundbreaking book, The Image of the Black in Children's Fiction (Bowker, 1973), a historical, literary, and critical analysis of the portrait of African Americans in Children's from 1827 to 1967, and An Introduction to Children's Work in Public Libraries (Wilson, 1965), as well as countless articles that appeared in professional journals and magazines. She published a YA novel Hank (Harper & Row, 1966) and a children's nonfiction book called Training A Companion Dog. (Prentice Hall, 1969).

As a champion for intellectual freedom, Broderick defended the 1977 showing of the film, The Speaker, a fictionalized account about a racist speaker who was denied the opportunity to speak on his offensive theories of race. The film was viewed by the ALA executive board, which requested that it not be shown until the Intellectual Freedom Committee and ALA's membership had an opportunity to view it at the ALA annual conference in Detroit, but the decision was later reversed and the film was released.

Born June 23, 1929 in Milford, CT, Broderick grew up with a divorced mother and a brother in a large, extended Irish family that included a grandmother whom she adored. Her passions include sports, public affairs, politics, and Chelton. She said she was happy to live long enough to see Barack Obama elected president.

Broderick is survived by several cousins, Chelton, her partner of 30 years, her very good friend and neighbor, Claire Koch, and three purebred Vizslas.

"She will be missed, but never forgotten," says YALSA's Flowers. "The board of directors, and all of YALSA, are grateful to Dorothy for everything she gave to YA librarianship."

In memory of Broderick and her work in the field of youth services, a memorial and colloquium is being planned for Thursday January 26, 2012 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the Queens College Campus in New York City. The program and exact location will be announced shortly. In order to help choose the correctly sized venue for this colloquium on campus, please RSVP Roberta.Brody@QC.cuny.edu to let her know how many people plan to attend.

Trev Jones, SLJ's Book Review Editor, was one of Broderick's students at Case Western Reserve and attributes becoming a librarian to her. "Western Reserve turned me down—my GRE's were not to their satisfaction—but Dorothy insisted that I'd be a great children's librarian, and I was in. Since she lived down the street, she even drove me to school and back. After graduation, I planned to go to Houston; Dorothy said I was going to Nassau County NY—where the action was—and so I did. And how right she was. Dorothy was a terrific mentor, a wise teacher, and a champion for youth services. The profession owes a tremendous amount to her."

We encourage you to add your reflections and memories on Facebook.

E-Mail This Link

Enter recipient's e-mail:

Close

Email

Print |

Reprint/License |

Subscription |

RSS |

Share