Throughout 2020, the I School is joining UC Berkeley in celebrating 150 Years of Women at Berkeley.
October 3, 2020, marks the 150th anniversary of the UC Regents’ unanimous approval in 1870 of a resolution by Regent Samuel F. Butterworth: “That young ladies be admitted into the University on equal terms in all respects with young men.” The first women were admitted to the university in 1872.
- Edith Coulter, the School’s first woman leader, co-founded the Department of Librarianship in 1918.
- Eliza Atkins Gleason (M.L.S. ’36) was the first African American to earn a doctorate in library science.
- Holly Liu (MIMS ’03), who co-founded mobile gaming company Kabam, was our first alumna to launch a “unicorn” start-up.
These are just a few of many notable women who have been affiliated with the School of Information and its predecessors, the School of Librarianship, the School of Library and Information Studies, and the School of Information Management and Systems. Visit our 150 Years of Women at the UC Berkeley School of Information page to read about more of the exceptional women in the I School’s history.