Charlotte K. Lindner, 1922–2002

Charlotte Lindner, who died on April 30, 2002, may be remembered as a modern, professional librarian, who gave her best effort to the leadership of the D. Samuel Gottesman Library at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York City. Her entire professional career was devoted to this institution and its library. Judie Malamud, the library's current director, has documented its history, beginning with the acquisition of journals and books and then covering, chronologically, all the significant developments in medical librarianship. These included a more functional utilization and expansion of space, the use of computers in searching the medical literature and their application in nearly all library operations, and the adoption of visual aids in teaching and learning. Many of these were accomplished under Charlotte's leadership.

Charlotte Kaplan Lindner was born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 22, 1922. (Kaplan was the name of her first husband.) After completing her bachelor of arts degree at New York University in 1942, she raised a family—two girls and a boy. At the time of her death, she was grandmother to six children and great-grandmother to two. She continued her education at Columbia University's School of Library Service, where she received her master's degree in 1958.

That same year, Charlotte began her career as a cataloger at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine library. In quick succession, she was appointed acting chief cataloger in 1960, chief cataloger in 1961, and assistant librarian in 1974, all during the eighteen-year tenure of Sonia Gruen, director at the time. Upon the latter's death in 1975, Charlotte became acting chief librarian. In 1978, she became director, a position she held with distinction until her retirement in 1989.

The difference in management style that distinguished Charlotte's approach from Sonia's can hardly be overstated. While both were completely devoted to the advancement and improvement of the library and its role in learning and research, Sonia brought to the task restlessness and sharp, vocal determination; Charlotte, on the other hand, dealt with issues with calm but incisive reason. Sonia eagerly embraced change; Charlotte was more cautious. To borrow an often-used characterization, they represented the difference between the Dionysian and the Apollonian approach to life. Sonia was admired, but Charlotte was beloved. The staff uniformly commented on Charlotte's kindness and her sustained faith in them, exemplified by a remarkable stability in the composition of the staff. She was able to work out difficult situations calmly and justly.

Charlotte's style also prevailed in her relationship with the library of Montefiore Hospital, which served as a clinical training center for the college. The relationship was one of helpful collaboration in access policy and resource sharing.

Although Charlotte served on some committees of the New York-New Jersey Chapter of the Medical Library Association (MLA) and of the Medical Library Center of New York, she did not see these as the main focus of her external interests. All those who knew her mentioned her devotion to Scottish and English country dancing. When attending national meetings of MLA, she would locate the local country-dance group and spend an evening dancing. A year before her retirement, a severe heart attack required coronary bypass surgery. She continued to have heart problems, but these problems did not stop her dancing. Her daughter, Amy Kaplan Brauner, reports that, at one time, Charlotte had hoped to become a ballet dancer and that this might have been the origin of her interest in country dancing.

Charlotte's interests were wide ranging, and, after retirement, she followed them with intensity. They included regular attendance at the concerts at Washington Irving High School, the poor man's Carnegie Hall, and frequent play going. She was a reading mentor for elementary school children in a program sponsored by the Everybody Wins Foundation. From time to time, we would meet on the 66th Street bus, when she was en route to Hunter College to attend a lecture or to audit courses, including one on the history of art. Her participation in the cultural life of the city increased even more after she moved from Queens to Manhattan.

When she succumbed to her heart ailment, at the age of eighty, she had earned abundantly the gratitude and warm appreciation of her staff and of the faculty at Albert Einstein School of Medicine. The latter placed a grateful notice in the New York Times [1]. She was a very good librarian and a wonderful human being.