Sanford Berman (b. October 6, 1933) is an outspoken, radical librarian (cataloger) known for promoting alternative viewpoints in librarianship and acting as a pro-active information conduit to other librarians around the world, mostly via public speaking, voluminous correspondence, and unsolicited "care packages" delivered via the U.S. Postal Service. (Ask enough people "Are you on Sandy Berman's mailing list?" and the theory of six degrees of separation, may need to be modified downward to four or five degrees.) October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in Leap years). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Librarian, a 1556 painting by Giuseppe Arcimboldo A librarian is a person who develops procedures for organizing information and provides services that assist and instruct people in the most efficient ways to identify and access any needed information or information resource (article, book, magazine, etc. ... Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. ...

Berman was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended University of California at Los Angeles, where he earned a B.A. in Political Science with minors in Sociology, Anthropology and English, and received the Phi Beta Kappa from the national scholastic honour society. After acquiring an M.S. in Library Science from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Berman began work as a librarian. He worked for the U.S. Army Special Services Libraries, West Germany (1962-1966) where he helped edit an underground press G.I. magazine titled 'Yin/Yang'; Schiller College, Kleiningerheim, West Germany (1966-1967) ; University of California at Los Angeles Research Library (1967-1968), where he rescued back runs of 'I.F. Stone's Weekly' from the garbage ; University of Zambia Library, Lusaka, Zambia (1968-1970) ; Makerere Institute of Social Research, Makerere University Library, Kampala, Uganda (1971-1972) ; and Hennepin County Library, Minnesota (1973-1999). Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ... State nickname: Land of Lincoln, The Prairie State Official languages English Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) Senators Richard Durbin (D) Barack Obama (D) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 25th 149,998 km² 4. ... The University of California, Los Angeles, popularly known as UCLA, is a public, coeducational university located in the residential area of Westwood within the city of Los Angeles. ... A Bachelor of Arts (B.A. or A.B., from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or program in the arts and/or sciences. ... Political science is a social science discipline that deals with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. ... The term minor (from Latin smaller, lesser) has several meanings: Minor is a legal term for a young person, see Minor (law). ... Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ... Anthropology (from the Greek word άνθρωπος, humane) consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo). ... The academic discipline of English studies explores the production and analysis of texts produced in English (or in areas of the world in which English is a common mode of communication). ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate course of one or two years in duration. ... The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (abbreviated CUA), located in Washington, DC, is unique as the national university of the Catholic Church and as the only higher education institution founded by the U.S. bishops. ... Map showing Washington, D.C.s location in relation to the surrounding states of Maryland and Virginia Washington, D.C. is the capital city of the United States of America. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... The phrase underground press, especially underground newspapers (or simply underground papers) is, these days, most often used in reference to the alternative print media, independently published and distributed, associated with the countercultural movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... This is Zambias largest university, founded in 1966, the University has a student population af about 6000 students. ... Lusaka is the capital city of Zambia. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Makerere University is Ugandas premier institution of higher learning. ... Location of Kampala within Uganda. ... 1971 (MCMLXXI) is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... State nickname: North Star State, The Land of 10,000 Lakes, The Gopher State Official languages None Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) Senators Mark Dayton (D) Norm Coleman (R) Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 12th 225,365 km² 8. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

Alternative Subject Headings

The spark of Berman's cataloging revolution was the inclusion in Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) of the term kaffir, which he came across while working in Zambia : "Berman was told by offended black fellow-workers that calling someone a kafir was similar to being called a nigger in America" (Pendergrast). Library of Congress, Jefferson building The Library of Congress is the unofficial national library of the United States. ... The term Kaffir applies to various black nationalities inhabitting Southern Africa, and is today used as a derogatory term in South Africa. ... Black is a color with several subtle differences in meaning. ... The word nigger is a highly controversial term used in many English-speaking countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia to refer to individuals with dark skin, especially those of African descent who previously were racially classified by the now outdated term Negro. ... ...

This motivated him to systematically address subject heading bias in his work at Hennepin County Library and in writing "Prejudices and Antipathies: A Tract on the LC Subject Heads Concerning People" The work, published in two editions, examines racism, sexism, Christocentrism, and other biases inherent in the LCSH. Berman is also known for his role in encouraging the Library of Congress to drop such archaic headings as WATER CLOSET in favor of common terminology. (When Berman learned, in a public venue, that WATER CLOSET would be changed to TOILET, he responded, "I'm absolutely 'flushed' with pride." An African-American man drinks out of the colored only water fountain at a racially segregated streetcar terminal in the United States in 1939. ... The sign of the headquarters of the National Association Opposed To Woman Suffrage Sexism is commonly considered to be discrimination against people based on their sex rather than their individual merits, but can also refer to any and all differentiations based on sex. ...

With other Minnesota librarians, as well as nationally and internationally, Berman is known for promoting activist librarianship in which personal ideals entailing social justice are part and parcel of professional work. Thanks to this advocacy the American Library Association's official policy recognizes librarians' key role in addressing social ills. A librarian is a person who looks after the storage and retrieval of information. ... The American Library Association (ALA) promotes libraries and library education in the United States and internationally. ...

With Librarian James P. Danky, Berman has been the editor for Alternative Library Literature, (1982-2001) a biennial compilation of alternative essays on librarianship from a wide variety of other sources. Berman's other titles include "The Joy of Cataloging" and "Worth Noting."

He is the founder of the American Library Association's Hunger, Homelessness & Poverty Task Force, a division of The Social Responsibilities Round Tablewhich he also co-founded. During recent years he has written and lectured on the failure of ALA and American libraries to help the poor and homeless. In June 2005 he gave the Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture at the annual ALA conference,dedicated to the founder of OLOS.

During the last six months of 2005, working with the assistance of Steve Fesenmaier, Berman convinced the Library of Congress to create many new subject headings including - "American Dream," "Plutocracy," " West Virginia Mine Wars, 1897-1921" "The Battle of Blair Mountain, 1921," and several others.

He continues to mail more than 100 pieces on a weekly basis, continuing to educate and entertain his friends and colleagues worldwide.

Further reading

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sanford Berman But Were Afraid to Ask (McFarland and Company, 1995)

External links

• Sanford Berman website