Jessie Carney Smith


Jessie Carney Smith is an American librarian and educator, and Dean of the Fisk University Library and Camille Cosby Distinguished Chair in the Humanities. She was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. degree in library science from the University of Illinois. She is also a scholar and author of research guides and reference books focusing on notable African-American people.

Early years

Jessie Carney Smith was born on September 24, 1930 in Greensboro, North Carolina to James Ampler and Vesona Bigelow Carney. Smith attended James B. Dudley High School in Greensboro. She graduated from North Carolina A&T State University with her B.S. degree in home economics in 1950. Smith received her M.A. degree in child development from Michigan State University in 1956, and her M.A.L.S. degree from the George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in 1957.

Career

Smith began working as an instructor and library cataloger at Tennessee State University in 1957. She enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of Illinois in 1960, and became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. degree in library science from the University of Illinois in 1964. Smith was hired as a professor of library science and the university library of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee in 1965. Smith was appointed dean of the Fisk University library in 2010.
She has served as consultant to the U.S. Office for Civil Rights, the U.S. Office of Education, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. She was awarded Fisk University's Camille Cosby Distinguished Chair in the Humanities in 1992.
Smith has published numerous research guides and reference books, specifically exploring the gaps in scholarship around African-Americans. She has published three separate volumes of Notable Black American Women and two separate volumes of Notable Black American Men. Her other books include Black Heroes of the Twentieth Century, Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience, and Black Firsts: 4000 Groundbreaking and Pioneering Historical Events, among others.

Legacy

Smith is best known for her work as an African-American studies scholar, and has received a number of awards for her work in libraries and as an author. She was awarded the Martin Luther King Black Authors Award in 1982 and the National Women's Book Association Award in 1992. She received the Candace Award for excellence in education in 1992, and distinguished alumni awards from both the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University and the University of Illinois. Smith was named the Academic/Research Librarian of the Year from the Association of College and Research Libraries in 1985, and in 1997 Smith received the key to the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee.