Music-professor-turned-librarian Allen Lanham followed in the footsteps of former Eastern librarian, Mary J. Booth, as the Illinois Library Association granted him Luminary status earlier this year.

The ILA began in 1896 and represents Illinois libraries and those who use them. The Luminary program started in 2009, and it recognizes people who have held a place of influence in the library and library science profession.

This award is a way for librarians not only to support colleagues but also to support the ILA, as people donate money in the person’s name that they want to nominate.

Lanham, who has been dean of the Booth Library for 25 years, was on the committee that created this Luminary program.

Lanham’s passion for libraries started when he was working on his doctorate in music education at the University of Rochester in New York, where he spent many hours in the music library.

“I just felt so empowered by what was there on the shelf for me to use,” Lanham said. “Everything you could think of was there.”

Lanham would spend his time searching for whatever his professors taught in the classroom and beyond.

After Lanham finished his doctorate, he decided to go to School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in which Booth is also an alumna.

Since the program’s beginning in 2009, the ILA has inducted 32 members, including Lanham and Booth, whom Eastern’s library is named after.

“I was very humbled and honored,” Lanham said.

Booth was posthumously honored in 2009 with Luminary status, with Lanham following in 2016 alongside Secretary of State Jesse White and only four others.

Both Lanham and Booth have made several improvements to Eastern’s library and libraries across the state.

Like Lanham, Booth also was a teacher before to pursuing a career in library science, according to university archives.

Booth taught primary grades for three years before attending college in Beloit in 1900. She then went to the School of Information Sciences at UIUC from 1902 to 1904, according to a May 26, 1945 edition of Eastern’s Teacher News.

In 1904, Booth started as a head librarian at Eastern with one other librarian Inez Pierce, working at a small loan desk.

The present-day library took years of planning by Booth. She was the first groundbreaker with the building of the new library in 1948.

In the past years, Lanham has developed plans to renovate and expand Booth Library even more.

He said the library had been going without renovations for too long when he first arrived.

“It did take six years or so to get administrative and governmental support for renovating,” Lanham said.

Lanham and other librarians planned the renovations for three years, and it took three more years to construct the building. Lanham said the renovated library opened up many avenues for students and staff, such as group study rooms, the computer labs, a good home for the university archives, and a good place to work and study.

Lanham and Booth have both served as president of the ILA during their careers. Booth attended conferences for the ILA all across the U.S. from the early 1900s to the 1940s, according to university archives.

As Booth was the library director, she also compiled books for the library, which listed the titles of books teachers would be searching for.

Lanham and a team of librarians also compiled a book of art and architecture terms and connected them to photographs from libraries across the state.

He and his team visited 1,000 public and academic libraries in Illinois and took photos, paying special attention to artwork and architecture. The basis of this project was to document libraries 100 years after Andrew Carnegie made contribution to American public libraries.

“In 100 years, I hope people will look back and remember ‘The Lanham Project,’” Lanham said.

Since Lanham has a doctorate in music and was a music professor, he oversees the music collection in Booth and works with the music department. This way, his love for music and his love for libraries are intertwined.

Kennedy Nolen can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].