Page 25 - BCALA Winter 2018

and completed the program in 1981. West began her professional librarian career in reference within the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Library System. Soon West was appointed manager, in 1981, of the Delmont Gardens Branch which is located in an old historically white neighborhood that has become predominantly African American.
In 1993, West was promoted to assistant director which makes
her the first African American administrator in the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Library System. According to West, she sees life “through rose colored glasses”; for that reason, she does not interpret incidents (as her friends & colleagues do) as racist. The example she gave was in
April, of 2000, the director of East Baton Rouge Public Library (John Richard) retired and West applied for the position. The East Baton Rouge Parish Public Library System (which is known for promoting from within) hired a director
(Lydia Acosta) from without. Many of West’s friends and colleagues tried to convince her that she was skipped over because East Baton Rouge Parish Public Library System is racist.
According to West, because there are “not many Blacks in the system” there are not more African American librarians who have become administrators. However, she is proud that she was instrumental in the hiring of
the latest two African American librarians who boosted the African American librarians’ count from five to seven. West says she never really had a mentor although her first supervisor took her under her wing. For other African American Librarians who are aspiring to become administrators, West suggests they “be involved and participate in associations.”
In 1958, Elva Jewel Carter graduated from SU with a bachelor’s of science degree in business education. While at SU, she learned cataloging, because Southern offered nine hours in library studies. It was in these classes that Carter realized she wanted to become a librarian. In 1960, Carter received a scholarship from Atlanta University’s (now known as Clark Atlanta University) School of Library Studies under Virginia Jones (the program
closed at the end of the 2004-2005 academic year). Unfortunately, Carter did not have the extra money to defray the cost of living and studying in Atlanta. In the meantime, Carter worked as a library clerk at Capital High School in Baton Rouge.
In 1965 the American Library Association made it mandatory that all librarians have a master’s degree from an accredited institution; consequently, in that same year, LSU opened its doors to admit African American students in response to a federal mandate of
BCALA NEWS | Volume 45, Issue 1 | 25 the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which
prohibited segregated public facilities and services. In September of 1966, Carter became the second African American to enroll in the masters of library science program at LSU (Ollie H. Burns was the first). Although the MLS program
at LSU was only 36 hours all MLS candidates who did not receive their undergraduate degree in library science, from LSU, had to take
the additional 18 hours as well. In consequence of these stipulations, Carter did not finish the program until 1972; she eventually took every class in library science that LSU offered.
After her first 18 hours, in 1967, Carter was eligible to do her internship at the integrated Dufrocq Elementary (in 1923 Dufrocq opened as an all white elementary school, today Dufrocq is about 50% African American and 50% white). While at Dufrocq, Carter became known as a children’s specialist. Later in the year of 1967, Carter
was promoted to Baton Rouge
High School where she became the first Black staff member of the last integrated high school in Baton Rouge. Carter remained at Baton Rouge High until she retired in 1990. Due to her work at Dufrocq, in 1974, Carter was offered a moon lighting job at the Central Library (now referred to as the Main Library). At the Central Library, Carter says she single handily set up the entire young adult children’s