Nina Browne

Nina Browne
Born	1860 Erving, Massachusetts
Died	1954 Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Alma mater	Smith College (AB 1882, MA 1885), University of the State of New York (BLS 1891)
Occupation	Librarian, Archivist

Nina Eliza Browne (October 6, 1860-1954) was an American librarian and archivist. She was employed as a librarian at Harvard University and Boston Athenæum, a registrar at American Library Association, and an archivist at Smith College. She invented a charging system, known as the Browne Issue System, for libraries by 1895. She was a member, secretary, and publishing board member of the American Library Association, and was a member of the Massachusetts Library Association.

Nina Eliza Browne or Nina Elizabeth, was born in Erving, Massachusetts on October 6, 1860. Her parents were Charles Theodore Browne and Nancy S. Chapman Browne. She lived in Boston and remained unmarried. She was living in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts at the Trinity Church Home, when she died there in 1954 at the age of 94.

Browne earned a bachelor's in 1882 and master's degree in 1885 from Smith College and, at the recommendation of a classmate, attended Columbia College's fledgling School of Library Economy. Browne and forty-three classmaters studied under Melvil Dewey during the two years he taught at Columbia. The class was taught in an erstwhile storeroom, because women were not permitted to enter classrooms.

Though Columbia's program did not grant degrees in its early years, in 1889 Dewey (then State Librarian of New York) successfully petitioned on behalf of his students. After completion of sixteen proficiency examinations, a subject bibliography, and a thesis, Browne and one other student were awarded Bachelor of Library Science degrees from the University of the State of New York in 1891. In 1930, Smith College awarded Browne an honorary Doctorate of Letters.

Browne had a brief career as a teacher, between her graduation from Smith and her studies at Columbia. She was an assistant librarian at Columbia University's Library in 1888 to 1889. For the next three years she worked at the New York State Library. She worked at the Library Bureau in Boston until 1896. Her work there was described as follows, "The cataloging being done at the Library Bureau, where there is not adequate collection of reference-books, has been hampered by this lack, but for the general accuracy and promptness of the work all praise is due to the energy and enthusiasm of Miss Nina E. Browne, of the Library Bureau."

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