Elizabeth Burr was deeply involved with the creation of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), helping to conceive and plan the library in her role as a public library consultant for Children’s and Young People’s Services in the Wisconsin Free Library Commission (a precursor to the Division for Libraries and Technology of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction). She worked with librarians across Wisconsin, as well as representatives from the UW-Madison School of Education and Library School, to transform the idea of a statewide children’s literature center into a reality.
After the CCBC opened in June, 1963, as part of her role with the Wisconsin Free Library Commission Elizabeth Burr served as the first librarian at what she proudly called the “Book Center.” She supervised development of the first CCBC policies, collections, and services and, in 1971, oversaw the move from the CCBC’s first home in Room 411 West of the Wisconsin State Capitol to Room 4290 Helen C. White Hall, on the UW-Madison campus, a space that was designed to house the CCBC.
Retiring from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction in 1973, Elizabeth’s formal responsibility for overseeing the CCBC ended. But she stayed involved as a volunteer, including serving on the first Friends of the CCBC, Inc., board as president, and helping establish the first CCBC fund at the University of Wisconsin Foundation.
During her 27-year career as a Wisconsin public library consultant, Elizabeth Burr was a strong advocate for library services for children, teens, and their families. She was awarded the Wisconsin Library Association’s (WLA) first “Librarian of the Year” recognition in 1956. In 1992, WLA established the Elizabeth Burr Award (now Elizabeth Burr / Worzalla Award), which recognizes a Wisconsin author or illustrator of a distinguished book for children annually. On the national level, she served as president of the Children’s Services Division of the American Library Association, chairing the 1969 Newbery-Caldecott Awards Committee.
In 1998, the CCBC’s conference room, 4289 Helen C. White Hall, was officially named the “Elizabeth Burr Room.” When the CCBC moved to the Teacher Education Building on the UW-Madison campus in 2014, the name carried over to the new conference room space in 401B Teacher Education.
(This narrative is adapted from the program written by Ginny Moore Kruse, CCBC Director Emeritus, for the June, 1999, event that celebrated the renaming of the CCBC conference room to the “Elizabeth Burr Room.”)