In addition, Haines dedicated her career to combatting against literary censorship and promoting intellectual freedom as a hallmark of the library profession.

[2] Born in the late Victorian period as the eldest of five girls and educated privately, she worked in publishing after being turned down for a library job.

[5] Her work was intimately connected to that of the American Library Association, and some of her main responsibilities included preparing the proceedings for the ALA.

She was a contributor to the Saturday Review of Literature, The Bookman, New York Herald-Tribune, and more; she gave many annual series of lectures on books for the L. A.

[1] Haines recovered her health and established herself as a library educator, writer, and activist in two key areas: support for popular fiction and for intellectual freedom.

[3] One contemporary review, while praising Haines' "shrewd and discriminating observation, … acute and illuminating criticism," nevertheless complained that "there is a fearful lot of junk in some of her suggested lists of books".

[6] In 1947, Los Angeles County demanded that all civil servants, including librarians, sign loyalty oaths or be branded as "probable communist subversives".

When they didn't take action against the decree, Haines took matters into her own hands by rewriting the ALA's Library Bill of Rights stating, "All patrons should have free access to books regardless of the author's race, nationality, religious beliefs or political ideas".

[11] [6] In the popular press, however, Haines was denounced as pro-Soviet because of her strong advocacy of the aforementioned intellectual freedom and her openness to works considered controversial.

"[10] "In an increasingly virtual world, Haines's writing also serves to remind us that the library is a rare point of human contact for many of our users.