LYMAN, Helen (Lucille) Huguenor 1910-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born March 16, 1910, in Hornell, NY; died November 4, 2002, in Buffalo, NY. Librarian, educator, and author. Lyman was considered a pioneer in the field of adult literacy. She was a graduate of what is now the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1932 and her B.S. in library science in 1940. From 1932 to 1952 she worked at the Buffalo Public Library, where she became head of the adult education department. During the 1950s she spent one year as director of the adult education survey at the American Library Association and was an adult services librarian at the Chicago Public Library before beginning work as a consultant in Wisconsin in 1959. In 1964 Lyman embarked on a teaching career at SUNY Buffalo before moving on to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she was a professor from 1966 until 1977. Lyman retired as professor emeritus, although she continued to work as an adjunct professor at the School of Information and Library Studies until 1999. Widely respected by her peers for her work in adult literacy, Lyman was the author of several books on the subject, including Adult Education Activities in Public Libraries (1954), Library Materials in Service to the Adult New Reader (1973), and Reading and the Adult New Reader (1976). She also received several awards recognizing her achievements, including the 1979 Joseph W. Lippincott Award for Distinguished Librarianship, the 1986 Margaret E. Monroe Adult Services Award from the American Library Association, the 1987 Distinguished Alumni Award from SUNY Buffalo, and the 1999 Distinguished Achievement in Librarianship award from the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

periodicals

American Libraries, January, 2003, p. 86.

Buffalo News, November 7, 2002, p. E6.