Repository: UIHistories Project: Booklet - Katharine Sharp Appreciation (1914) [PAGE 6]

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from two greet state universities, Illinois and her neighbor on the north. I asked her once w h y she chotC as she did. and her answer I think brings out one phase of her c harac ter At Wisconsin, the University Ubftrianship would not have been hers, and she distrusted her ability to administer smoothly and without friction a library school which would be in the position constantly of asking favors from another body of people, namely the University librarian and hi- -1 iff. Those who knew Katharine Sharp most intimately, will probably agree that she made a wise decision. It i- not given to small souls to recognize and distrust their own weakn< -tes. If this trait of demanding for one's work an undivided leadership be a weakness, it lies nevertheless at the base of most successful undertakings. In Miss Sharp's own case, it gave her many unhappy hours, but she never questioned her right to make her own decisions and to carry them through to their logical end. During the ten years which she spent at the University which marked the close of her residence in the state, many and varied experiences and responsibilities came to Katharine Sharp, and some keen sorrows. T w o or three times she refused the directorship of other library schools. Those w h o had the privilege of working with her must have noticed as the years passed, added to the dignity, poise and strength that were always hers, a depth of feeling, a breadth of outlook, and a sweetness of nature which had not alwa> een there. It was towards the end of this period that she suffered a double bereavement in the death, only a few month- apart of her father and brother. The latter loss is largely responsible, not for her final decision to give up her work at the University, as her state of health would in any esse have probably brought that about, but for changing completely the tenor of her life, since with Robert Sharps death, the closest ties of kinship were broken, and she wis loft pitifully alone. Shortly before Miss Sharp left Illinois she had begun serious work on her report on Illinois libraries, dostim T to

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