Running head: ADELAIDE HASSE

Adelaide Hasse: Documents Librarian and Collector

Cynthia Rich

University of North Texas

2ADELAIDE HASSE

Abstract

This paper looks at the life and career of Adelaide Hasse, a pioneer in the document

library world. Hasse was driven by a desire to organize information and in her own words, she

was a “collector”. She was a product of her time in that women were not yet seen as capable and

equal in the workforce, but she succeeded and became known for her work with government

documents. It examines her early influences including those supervisors who mentored and

encouraged her passion of collecting and cataloging information. Hasse proved to have a talent

for classifying government documents, and her system became the framework for the

Superintendent of Documents classification still being used today. She was also instrumental in

growing and organizing the collection of the New York Public Library. Hasse’s tenure in New

York ended under a cloud of scrutiny and personal recrimination during World War I as her

political loyalties were questioned. In her later years, Hasse continued with her bibliographical

work, taught library courses, and worked for the Billings Institution until her retirement. Her

dedication to the field of document librarianship earned her public recognition, and her unfailing

support of women’s rights helped pave the way for other women in the library profession. Her

belief that government documents should be categorized efficiently and accessible to the

populace provides a lasting impact as one of the first document librarians.

Key words: Adelaide Hasse, government, documents, cataloging, classification

3ADELAIDE HASSE

Adelaide Hasse: Documents Librarian and Collector

Literature Review

Early Influences

Addie Hasse was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1868. In her biography about Hasse’s

career, Claire Beck (2006) notes that the year of Hasse’s birth was an important one. It was the

year in which the United States ratified the 14th Amendment which failed to secure women’s

rights, including the right to vote. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott’s novel with a strong female

protagonist who defies social conventions, Jo March, was published in 1868. These events

proved to be harbingers for the life and career of Adelaide Hasse, a determined and driven

woman (Beck, 2006). Figure 1 (Image of A. Hasse) shows a photograph of Hasse from the late

1800s.

Figure 1. Image of A. Hasse as seen in Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1896.

Hasse’s parents were first generation immigrants from Germany. Her family moved often

when she was young, and Hasse received little to no formal education. The lack of credentials

4ADELAIDE HASSE

may have contributed to insecurities and an outspoken style that hid a lack of self-confidence

according to Beck (2006). Despite her lack of a degree, Hasse was hired as an assistant librarian

with the Los Angeles Public Library in 1889 where she was responsible for organizing large

projects and cataloging materials. In her personal writing, Hasse contributes her success with

bibliographies to her affinity for collections and that skill being cultivated and encouraged by her

supervisor and mentor, Tessa Kelso (Hasse, 1919). In their article, Gail Nelson and John

Richardson (1986) believed that the experience Hasse received under Kelso’s tutelage was

invaluable. It allowed her to master “her craft not through formal training, but through practical

experience” (Nelson & Richardson, 1986, p. 81). Beck states that working for a woman who was

somewhat of a kindred spirit also stoked feminist ideals in Hasse (2006). Kelso and Hasse shared

a vision of expanding library services to the public in an efficient manner, especially government

documents that were not kept on open shelves. They believed that public access to these

documents was necessary for an informed citizenry. Laurel Grotzinger (1978) writes that Hasse’s

checklist of agricultural documents was requested by the Agriculture Department and states that

Hasse’s bibliographical work in Los Angeles laid the groundwork in designing a classification

system that would become the cornerstone of her library career.

Hasse co-founded the Southern California Library Club with Kelso, taught library

training courses patterned after an apprentice-type system that focused on classification,

shelving, and examining current trends with authors and periodicals, contributed papers to the

Library Journal, and she and Kelso were active participants in the American Library Association

(Beck, 2006). Kelso and Hasse resigned from the LAPL in 1895 due to social politics

surrounding the role of women in the workplace and personal attacks on Kelso regarding the

management and funding of the library program despite being highly successful. Both women

5ADELAIDE HASSE

were replaced with women who were not nearly as qualified. The system that Hasse created

proved to be beneficial in her next job in the nation’s capital (Beck, 2006).

Cataloging Accomplishments

In Susan Grabler’s article, she states that during the late 1800s, there were so many

government documents that problems arose with storing and cataloging them (1995). Librarians

often lobbied Washington for greater public access and valued public document reform (Grabler,

1995). According to Lou Malcomb (2005), the government recognized the need early on for

preservation of documents and distribution of them to state libraries. The formation of the

Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) was designed for these purposes (Malcomb, 2005).

In 1895, the Richardson Bill was passed which created the office of the Superintendent of

Documents. Hasse’s cataloging scheme landed her the position of librarian for the Government

Printing Office in Washington D.C. in May of that year (Beck, 2006). Hasse’s job was to care for

current government documents and to collect and index the accumulation of documents not in

use. She said that it took her teams of workers six weeks to find and move almost 300,000

government documents, including some that had been sealed in a bricked-off room (Hasse,

1919). Like many other document librarians, Hasse viewed her role as one that would not only

provide greater access to government documents, but also encourage citizens to become more

politically responsible and knowledgeable (Grabler, 1995).

Nelson and Richardson (1986) state the organization scheme Hasse devised at the LAPL

resulted from a deemphasis on card catalogs and served as a “means of shelf arrangement for

documents” (p. 84). It was an original way to classify and control large amounts of materials and

make them accessible to the public (Nelson & Richardson, 1986). Although Hasse devised the

classification scheme, William Lender Post, credits it for being the basis of his SuDoc system

6ADELAIDE HASSE

which is still in use (Lear, 2007). Hasse’s notations relied on the origin or authorship

(provenance) rather than the subject to organize the documents. Each government branch was

assigned a symbol of the alphabet that was generally mnemonic and usually correlated with the

first letter of the department. The subsequent letters and numbers denote the subordinate

structure that describes the type of document, the date, and other pertinent information (FDLP,

2014). Figure 2 (What is a SuDoc Number?) shows an example of how Hasse’s original

classification scheme evolved into its current form.

Figure 2. “What is a SuDoc Number?” from USMA Library (Last updated 2018).

After two years in D.C., Hasse left to work for the Astor Library, which late became the

New York Public Library. The director, Dr. John Shaw Billings, who was impressed with her

work in D.C., asked for her assistance with classifying the library’s large collections (Beck,

2006). Hasse counted Billings as another major influence in the way she viewed librarianship

and professionalism. She remembered the more than twenty years spent working with Billings as

a happy time in her career, even though he could be critical and exacting. She recalled her work

there as meaningful and again referenced the importance of collecting: “Documents or pearls, the

emotions of the collector are the same.” (Hasse, 1919, p. 10).

7ADELAIDE HASSE

Her happiness was marred by personal matters. In 1905, Hasse was looking for a

publisher for one of her bibliographic indexes. Another library icon, Melvil Dewey, showed

great interest in having the ALA Publishing Board publish her work according to Beck (1996).

Hasse accepted an invitation from Dewey to visit Albany but left abruptly after a long car drive

with him. Although the correspondence between the two shows no concrete record of what

occurred, Dewey’s reputation was later tarnished with allegations of impropriety and sexual

harassment of other female librarians including Hasse’s former colleague and friend, Tessa

Kelso. Beck (1996) surmises that Hasse was an extremely private person, and she knew that

going public with her experience would be detrimental to her career and that of other women.

Hasse wanted her name to remain out of any proceedings against Dewey but continued to be

vocal in the women’s suffragette movement and advocated for women’s rights (Beck, 1996).

During her tenure with the NYPL, the collection grew from 10,000 documents to over

300,000. Hasse traveled to search for documents and was excited to find a copy of the 1695

Bradford Journal that had been deemed lost (Grotzinger, 1978). After Billing’s death, Hasse

found herself at odds with the new library director, E. H. Anderson. World War I had begun, and

Hasse’s German ancestry and loyalties were called into question. Hasse’s document catalog was

transferred to the cataloging division, and she believed that her years of work and dedication

were not valued. Anderson found Hasse to be insubordinate and difficult to work with, and asked

for her resignation in 1918 (Grotzinger, 1978). Hasse requested a hearing with the library board,

which was denied, and was ultimately fired from her position. According to Hasse (1919), this

experience left her feeling unappreciated and persecuted. She stopped referring to librarianship

as a profession due to what she deemed character assassination and returned to work in D.C.

(Hasse, 1919).

8ADELAIDE HASSE

Later Years

John Corbin (1981) writes that when Hasse returned to Washington D.C. in 1919, she

began to organize documents for both the War Industries Board and the Council of National

Defense. Corbin (1981) states that Hasse also served as the assistant in the Statistics Bureau of

the Department of War, compiled bibliographies for the Brookings Institution, was named the

chief of the Index Division of the U.S. Daily, and worked as a research consultant for the Works

Progress Administration. She became active in the Special Libraries Association, where she

served as the first president of its Washington D.C. chapter and edited Special Librarian, the

organization’s publication. Hasse also lectured at Catholic University and George Washington

University. One of her last jobs before retiring included editing state records and preparing them

for publication to microfilm in the 1950s. Figure 3 shows the cover of one of her works.

Figure 3. Hasse, A.R. (1902). United States Government Publications, A Handbook for the

Cataloger from the Internet Archive.

9ADELAIDE HASSE

Hasse retired in 1952 and passed away the following year at the age of eighty-five

(Corbin, 1981). Although Hasse was busy throughout her later years, she could not seem to

shake the reputation of being difficult and acerbic. She was critical of the work of others and

exacting in her expectations. Corbin (1981) states that Hasse was not one to suffer fools and had

an ego that was at times less than modest. According to Beck (2006), Hasse often flew in the

face of social conventions. She adopted a son and never married. Her interactions with others,

especially male colleagues, were viewed as unapologetic and belligerent. She was listed in the

American Libraries issue which recognized the top 100 library leaders of the last century

according to Kniffel, Sullivan, & McCormick (1999). However, Richardson (2007) points out

that she is the only one singled out for her difficult personality, and he adds that reading Hasse’s

The Compensations of Librarianship is well worth the time. Adelaide Hasse’s (1919) own words

describe how she felt about librarianship and its future:

By no means let us lose faith in the future of our work. That future depends on all the

young people just beginning to dig in. Oh, young people, be courageous! Never forget

that it is the spirit with which you endow your work that makes it useful or futile. Let us

all always work toward the end that the compensation of librarianship may at least be

honorable, and that the true spirit of workmanship may be kept alive among us (p. 21).

Discussion and Conclusion

The literature paints a portrait of Adelaide Hasse that is both flattering and critical. She

was without a doubt an intelligent, talented woman who at times struggled with interpersonal

relationships. Her exacting manner is displayed in her writings. She expected others to work as

hard and as diligently as she did and was disappointed when they fell short. When Hasse felt

supported and encouraged, she flourished and performed her tasks, which some librarians may

10ADELAIDE HASSE

find tedious, with efficiency and fervor. That was evidenced in her relationships with Tessa

Kelso and Dr. Billings, and with the work she accomplished under their leadership. The time

period in which she lived influenced her outlook on life and librarianship. Women had to prove

themselves in ways that men did not and that stoked the feminist fire for Hasse. It would be

interesting to see what Hasse thought of today’s #metoo movement and the continuing debates

over salary differences between men and women. Women’s rights were forefront at the

beginning stages of her life, and she became an advocate for them throughout her life. Despite

her personal struggles, Hasse forged ahead with her passion: collecting and organizing

information. In her personal writing, you can tell that she clearly loved what she did and wanted

others to understand the importance of collecting and accessing information. The fact that her

scheme for listing documents and organizing bibliographic materials is still being used today is a

testament to her diligence and belief in her work. Hasse embraced her role as a document

librarian, and her efforts and unfailing determination cemented a place for her in library history.

References

Arden, M. (2018) Research guides: Guide to U.S. federal information sources. [What is a SuDoc

number? Image]. Retrieved from http://usma.libguides.com/.

Beck, C. (1996). A “private” grievance against Dewey. American Libraries, 27(1), 62-64.

Beck, C. (2006). The new woman as librarian: The career of Adelaide Hasse. Maryland,

Scarecrow Press.

Government Printing Office. (2016). Keeping America Informed: The U.S. Government

Publishing Office a legacy of service to the nation. 1861-2016. Revised ed. 2016.

11ADELAIDE HASSE

Grabler, S. L. (1995). Government information of, by, and for the people the changing mission

of the American Library Association's Public Documents Committee, 1876–

1956. Journal of Government Information, 22(1), 45-69. 

Grotzinger, L. (1978). Women who “spoke for themselves”. College and Research Libraries, .

Hasse, A. R. (1902). [United States government publications, a handbook for the cataloger.

Image]. Boston, Lib. Bureau. Retrieved from

http://archive.org/details/p1unitedstatesgo00hassuoft.

Hasse, A. R. (1919). The compensations of librarianship. [n.p.]. 

Kniffel, L., Sullivan, P., & McCormick, E. (1999). 100 of the most important leaders we had in

the 20th century. American Libraries, 30(11), 38-48.

Lear, B. A. (2007). The new woman as librarian: The career of Adelaide Hasse (review).

Libraries & the Cultural Record, 42(3), pp. 334-336. https://doi:10.1353/lac.2007.0044

Malcolm, L. (2005). Documents librarianship in Indiana: A historical review. Indiana Libraries,

24(1), 13-17.

Nelson, G. K., & Richardson, J. V. (1986). Adelaide Hasse and the early history of the U.S.

superintendent of documents classification scheme. https://doi: 10.1016/0277-

9390(86)90030-0

Richardson, J. V. Jr. (2007). Clare Beck, new woman as librarian: The career of Adelaide Hasse,

Reviews 337. The Library Quarterly, 77(3), 377-378. https://doi. 10.1086/519408

12ADELAIDE HASSE

The new woman in office (1896). Godey's Lady's Book. [Adelaide Hasse. Photograph]. Retrieved

from http://www.accessible-archives.com/2013/06/the-new-woman-in-office-godeys-

ladys-book/.

United States. Federal Depository Library Program. (2014). Superintendent of Documents

(SuDocs) Classification Scheme. Retrieved from

https://www.fdlp.gov/catalogingandclassification/cataloging-articles/1791-sudocs-

classification.

Appendix A

Figure 1. Timeline

Figure 2. Citations for images used in timeline (Photo of Hasse and then from left to right)

13ADELAIDE HASSE

Appendix B

Hasse, A. R. (1865). Index to United States documents relating to foreign affairs, 1828-1861.

New York: Kraus Reprint Corp.

Hasse, A. R. (1895). Travel and exploration. In A. H. Leypoldt & G. Iles (Eds.), List of books for

girls and women and their clubs: With descriptive and critical notes and a list of periodicals

and hints for girls' and women's clubs (pp. 55–59). Boston, MA: The Library Bureau.

Hasse, A. R. (1899). Reports of explorations printed in the documents of the United States

government: A contribution toward a bibliography. Washington.

Hasse, A. R. (1902). United States government publications; a handbook for the

cataloger ... Boston [etc.].

Hasse, A. R., & Carnegie Institution of Washington. (1907). Index of economic material in

documents of the states of the United States: Maine, 1820-1904. Washington.

14ADELAIDE HASSE

Hasse, A. R., & Carnegie Institution of Washington. (1908). Index of economic material in

documents of the states of the United States: California, 1849-1904. Washington: Carnegie

Institution of Washington.

Hasse, A. R. and Carnegie Institution of Washington (1908). Index of economic material in

documents of the states of the United states: Massachusetts, 1789-1904. Washington:

Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Hasse, A. R. (1919). The compensations of librarianship. [n.p.].

Appendix C

Greg Hardin is the Subject Librarian for the Department of Library Science. His

interview gave the students of INFO 5208 information about how the UNT Library system can

assist them with research. A LibGuide was designed for the LIS program and has tabs that

include: articles, books, references, and websites. A guide specifically for INFO 5208 is present

as well. Hardin offered information about collections, services, interlibrary loans, distance

learning, circulation, and bibliographic materials. He stated that the homepage had been recently

updated and showed how to navigate the website. Online articles, books, databases, e-journals,

digital and special collections housed at UNT were all addressed. He reviewed the homepage set-

up and walked the viewer through each section. Hardin highlighted the services that UNT

provides and how to access the website if a firewall prevents off-campus use. He spoke about the

process of using Illiad for distance learning requests. Subject searches and advanced searches

were demonstrated, including how to add information to RefWorks. He discussed using the built-

in tools to refine a search, and the benefits of EBSCOhost, which allows the user to look in

multiple databases for information. Hardin showed how to organize RefWorks with folders and

15ADELAIDE HASSE

to use the “write-n-cite” function. He offered personal assistance if students need help using the

library system or RefWorks, and included the website: www.library.unt.edu/ask-us as an

additional way to receive help.

Figure 1. Code words