PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY OF LIBRARIAN-WEBMASTER
(Information by Dennis Martin, retired Public Reference Librarian)
I worked continuous for 38 years in Los Angeles County as a professional public reference librarian, including 8 years as a library manager. The following link shows a photo of me at the information reference center of a neighborhood public library along with the official statement recorded by the New York Times newspaper on my receiving a Librarianship Award in December 2004 for recognition of outstanding public service:
Click on Award and Photo link:
New York Times Librarian Award and Photo
I had a variety of professional responsibilities as the Community Library Manager of the small Holly Park Library for 8 years, from May 1970 to August 1978, and as a Reference Librarian in three larger libraries in the South Bay area, Hawthorne, Gardena, and the Carson Regional Library, from September 1978 to June 2008, where I served several diverse multicultural communities. I helped people from all over the world find relevant information or answers to their questions on a daily basis.
I earned a unique cross-discipline Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Philosophy in 1961and with minors in Chemistry and History and anthropology; and a Master of Library Science degree in Library Science in 1970 (fully accredited by the American Library Association) with an emphasis on both the history of science and youth services. Both degrees were from the University of Oregon in Eugene Oregon.
My academic background also included two years of undergraduate study in chemistry and chemical engineering at the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) from 1957-1959; and one year of studying theology and religious education at the interdenominational Pacific School of Religion seminary in Berkeley, California, in 1961-1962; and two years of masters graduate study in Family Life Education and Counseling with a strong emphasis on psychology and research methods at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, in 1961-1963. Prior to earning my MLS library degree in the spring of 1970, I worked as a bookmobile driver and librarian's assistant in Salem, Oregon, for 44-months from 1964-1968, serving a suburban community with many stops in diverse socio-economic neighborhoods and shopping centers.
After Martin Luther King was assassinated, I decided to go back to graduate school and fight for civil rights through non-violence using the weapon of education.
I learned self-reliance and how to be prepared for anything by being a Boy Scout in Oregon until 1957 and as an Explorer Scout leader in Alaska until 1959, enjoying the many campouts and overnight hikes in both Oregon and Alaska. Also, I was a member of the Congregational Churches in Portland, Oregon, and Cedar Mill Park, an outlying Portland suburb in the 1950s, and in Eugene, Oregon, from 1959 to 1961.
After finishing my undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon in Eugene, I became a member of the Salem Unitarian Church for several years while living in Salem Oregon and working on a unique suburban bookmobile. After returning to the University of Oregon in Eugene to earn my MLS degree in 1968-1970, I became a member of the American Humanist Association in the early 1970s. I have remained a dedicated ("card carrying") Humanist ever since then. I enjoy reading the inspiring articles published in the Humanist Magazine every two months and watching the group grow and affiliate with many other liberal international humanistic social action organizations around the world.
Together, my higher education, public library career, family relationships, and contact with influential Humanists over the past half-century (both in person and through the reading of their books and articles) have all influenced my thinking and inspired me to continue to organize relevant useful information for the inquiring minds of people who believe in the value of lifelong self-directed education. This website is an example of that fervent endeavor.
In the 1970s, I attended many annual Humanist Summer Institute weekend seminars in Los Gatos, California, that featured such great Humanist thinkers as Paul Kurtz, Lester Kirkendall, Roderick Gorney, The Morain's, Art Jackson, and many others. Along with all the great philosophers and psychologists of history, I have been most inspired by Erich Fromm, Carl Rogers, Gordon Allport, Bertrand Russell, Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker, and most recently Eric Kandel and his fabulous series of "Brain Seminars" on the Charlie Rose PBS TV monthly special programs that bring together state-of-the-art brain researchers.
I was married in an "at home" family wedding with the great Humanist leader and educator, Dr. Lester Kirkendall (my mentor from Oregon State University) officiating at the family ceremony. I have been married for the past 48 years to a retired elementary classroom teacher who was also a guitar teacher. She and I have a 40-year-old son who plays lead guitar and pedal steel guitar and who arranges music for his rock and jazz and country music bands and who operates his own recording studio.
Return to Essay-Set #1: Focus on the Self-Liberation Philosophy