Source: State University of New York at Albany

(July 6, 1924 - September 12, 2004)

William (Bill) A. Katz was an expert and teacher in the reference services field. He wrote and edited numerous books and journals relating to reference services, acquisition, digital technology and the history of books. He is most known for his reference textbook and as the editor for the journal, RQ. He was especially active in the American Library Association’s Reference and User Services Association.

Bill Katz started out with a background in newspaper journalism. He worked as a reporter for various northern west coast newspapers for about 15 years. He started working as a reference librarian while he was an undergraduate at the University of Washington Library. In the late 1950s, after he received his masters in library science, he worked as a reference librarian at the King County (Washington) Library for 3 years until he became an assistant editor for ALA.

Starting in 1964, he worked as the editor of RQ, the journal of the Reference and Adult Services Division of the American Library Association, till 1973. While he was the editor of RQ, he developed the informal newsletter to become a professional scholarly journal, introducing many new columns and increasing the length of the journal. At the same time he was also the editor of the Journal of Education for Librarianship. In 1981, he was the editor of The Reference Librarian and in 1987, The Acquisitions Librarian. He was the author of Magazine Selection, and he co-edited with his wife Linda Sternberg Katz, Magazines for Libraries, which has become an important resource for building and maintaining libraries’ book collections. He has also edited Serial Agents, and a magazine column in Library Journal. He was an associate professor at University of Kentucky’s Department of Library Science (1964-66) and then became a professor at the State University of New York at Albany, School of Information Science and Policy until he retired.

He has published several books but he is most known for his two-part reference textbook, Introduction to Reference Work, published in 1969. The first volume is titled, “Basic Information Sources” and the second volume is titled, “Reference Services and Reference Processes.” The last edition published before his death was the 8th edition in 2001. Some of his other noted published books are The Columbia Granger's Guide to Poetry Anthologies, Magazines for Young People, A History of Book Illustration, Dahl’s History of the Book, and Cuneiform to Computer.

Education

• University of Chicago, Library, Ph.D. 1960-65

• University of Washington, Library, M.A. 1954-56

• University of Washington, Journalism, B.A. 1941-47

Honors

• Louis Shores–Greenwood Publishing Group Award from American Library Association in 1993

• Isadore Gilbert Mudge – R.R. Bowker Award from American Library Association in 1973

• Distinguished Alumnus Award from University of Washington in 1977

Resources

• Ash, L. (Ed.). (1970). A biographical directory of librarians in the US and Canada (5th ed.). Chicago: American Library Association.

• Berry, J. (2004). Reference expert bill katz dies. (Electronic version). Library Journal,

  from http://www.libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleid=CA479179

• Katz, W. A. (1978). Introduction to reference work (3rd ed.). San Francisco: McGraw-Hill.

• Lee, J. M. (Ed.). (1982). Who’s who in library and information services. Chicago: American Library Association.

• Richardson, J. (1995). Knowledge-based systems for general reference work: Applications, problems, and progress. San Diego: Academic Press.

• Wallace, D. P., Fleet, C. V. (2004). Remembering bill katz (obituary). Reference & User Services Quarterly, 44 (2), 109-10

• Introduction to Reference Work website: http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/katz/

   

• Bill Katz’s memorial site: http://www.albany.edu/dis/faculty_staff/katz_memories.html

Soo Jin Kim