This collection of slides contains portraits of prominent American and international figures who made major contributions to the library world in areas such as cataloging, collection development, children's librarianship, public access, library statistics, library studies, publishing, and philanthropy. Some of the librarians represented include Margaret Mann, Charles A. Cutter, and Melvil Dewey. Other figures include the publisher Halsey William Wilson, founder of the H. W. Wilson Company, as well as industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The portraits range in date from late 19th century to mid 20th century.

Three of the slides contain group portraits, two of which portray members of the American Library Association from 1887 and 1889 in intriguing locations. Accompanying notes provide brief descriptions of the contributions made to the library world. The physical slides are property of the School of Library and Information Studies and are non-circulating.

Additional credit for the description and scanning of the images goes to Heather Shimon, Master's candidate at the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies, under the supervision of Melissa McLimans, the Digital Services Librarian at UWDCC, and with the much appreciated guidance of Steven Dast in the area of metadata and Patricia Tuchscherer with image scanning and reformatting. Thanks are also extended to Allison Kaplan, Faculty Associate at the UW Madison, School of Library and Information Studies, for providing the content.