Background
Tyler was born in Decatur, Illinois to John W. and Sarah Roney Tyler and was a descendent of President James Monroe and John Tyler.
Tyler was born in Decatur, Illinois to John W. and Sarah Roney Tyler and was a descendent of President James Monroe and John Tyler.
Alice South. Tyler graduated from the Armour Institute of Technology (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) in Chicago in 1894.
In 1895 she became the first library school graduate on staff at the Cleveland Public Library, where she worked as head of the Catalog Division. From 1900-1913 she served as secretary of the Iowa State Library Commission where she improved existing libraries and established new ones. According to Stuart (2013), “Under Tyler’s leadership, public libraries in Iowa flourished as she oversaw the education of librarians, the expansion of the traveling library system, and the increase of libraries from 41 to 113"(p91).
She started a summer school at the Iowa State University and served as director from 1901-1912.
In reflecting on Tyler’s period in Iowa, Stuart (2013) maintains that “ Tyler’s thirteen-year tenure in Iowa left a state that had a stronger, more fully developed library system, with more trained librarians, more libraries, and more library buildings. The new library buildings, the vast majority of which were funded by Carnegie grants, were the most visible aspect of the state’s library growth.
The documentation indicates that as secretary of the International Language Center, Tyler did not specifically support or promote that funding. Instead, it is evident that Tyler quickly believed that the Carnegie-funded buildings represented two potential liabilities for Iowa’s communities: the buildings were often designed with poor functionality, and Carnegie’s stipulation of 10 percent support meant that the libraries were essentially underfunded for further growth and development.
As it was never politically expedient for Tyler to criticize the potential of Carnegie funding, she attempted in her various writings to mitigate these potentially negative consequences.
Unfortunately, her writings also reveal how little influence she had, as Iowa’s communities ultimately received the fourth highest number of Carnegie-funded buildings in the country. Ironically, the development of Iowa’s libraries occurred despite Tyler’s unrelieved misgivings regarding the benefits of Carnegie’s largesse” (p106).” From 1913-1929 she served as Director of the School of Library Science at Western Reserve University. She became the third woman President of the American Library Association in 1920-1921.
From 1925-1929 she served as Dean of the School of Library Science at Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University).
Tyler was appointed Dean Emeritus after her retirement from the University on 13 June 1929. Editor of Iowa Library Quarterly 1901-1913 President of the Association of American Library Schools 1918-1919 President of the Library Club of Cleveland and Vicinity 1922-1923 President of the Ohio State Library Association 1922-1923 President of Women's City Club, Cleveland AALS: The Lost Years 1925-1928 by Donald G. Davis, Junior. and Florence R. Curtis American Librarianship: Some Women by William J. Hamilton.
Member of the League of Women Voters (League of Women Voters) of Cleveland
Member of Citizens League of Greater Cleveland.