Sydney Bancroft Mitchell (June 24, 1878 – September 22, 1951)[1] was a Canadian librarian, teacher and gardener, though he spent most of his career in the United States.
[2] Sydney Mitchell was much more than a librarian and more than the founder of one of the first Masters in Library Science degree programs in the early part of the twentieth century.
Mitchell’s boyhood is discussed in great detail in his memoirs,[3] which unfinished at his death, was published posthumously by his wife and his close personal friend, Lawrence Clark Powell, who wrote the preface.
When Mitchell came to work at Berkeley after having spent three years in a library administrative position, his supervisor, Harold Leupp, was too close in age and credentials to assume a mentorship or successive opportunity.
[4] The conflict brings Mitchell to the point where he determines to carve out his own path with the university through his interest and dedication to the idea of improving the education and professionalism of the field.
Although he had achieved the first stages of his goal, in a setting he has come to love, he was attracted by an offer from the University of Michigan, which was initiated due to his growing reputation of respect and esteem from fellow academic librarians.
Taking a sabbatical from his California home, he obtained the tools necessary to further distinguish himself and provide the winning hand in a bid for an increased prestigious position with the west-coast university.
[5] A lifelong love of the Iris flower, in addition to his presidency with the California Horticultural Society, provided him the editorship of Sunset and authorship of four books on gardening.