Alice Rebecca Brooks McGuire

Brooks McGuire was born on August 9, 1902, in Philadelphia to John and Anna Brooks.[1] Both of her parents were schoolteachers, and she was educated at Philadelphia High School for Girls. After earning her high school diploma, she graduated from Smith College in 1923 with a Bachelor of Arts. She used this degree as an assistant librarian and librarian of laboratory schools at Slippery Rock State Teachers College, from 1923 to 1928.[2] In 1924, she organized an elementary school library while in teacher's college.[3] She temporarily left the field of librarying to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in library science from Drexel Institute of Technology in 1926,[2] after which she studied at Columbia University and the University of Chicago.[4] Her thesis from the University of Chicago was titled Developmental values of children's literature.[5]

While in Chicago, Brooks McGuire directed the Center for Instruction Materials.[1] She was also an editor for three children's encyclopedias and edited columns on children's library services.[2] After her marriage to John Carson McGuire, she tried to gain employment at the Graduate School of Library Science in Texas, but was refused because her husband worked there. As a result, she was appointed as a librarian of Casis Elementary School in partnership with the university.[1] Brooks McGuire sat on the Newbery and Caldecott Awards Committee.[6] For one year, from 1953 to 1954, she served as president of the American Association of School Librarians.[7] In 1960, she was one of the editors of the handbook The Standards for School Library Programs.[2]

In 1963, she joined the University of Texas in their Graduate School of Library Science as an associate professor.[4] By 1968, she was the recipient of Librarian of the Year by the Texas Library Association.[2] In 1996, the University of Texas created the Alice Brooks McGuire Endowed Scholarship.[8]

She died on July 9, 1975.[1]