(Image: Kim Charlson (left) accepting the Anna Eliot Ticknor Commissioner Award at the MA State House with her guide dog Idabelle next to MBLC Commissioner Joyce Linehan on November 6, 2025.)
Anna Eliot Ticknor was one of the five founding Commissioners of the Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts established in 1890, now known as the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC). Ticknor was an educator who launched the first correspondence school in the United States, The Society to Encourage Studies at Home, laying the groundwork for modern day distance learning programs such as the online courses many of us take part in today. Ticknor was passionate about educating and empowering women by providing accessible education courses from home and a community of learning and intellectual growth beyond the domestic walls. She was a passionate advocate for accessible education for all and the role that libraries could play educating the public.
The Anna Eliot Ticknor Award honors a Massachusetts librarian whose work has increased residents’ access to the wealth of resources held at libraries across the Commonwealth. At the 135th Anniversary celebration of the MBLC, the Anna Eliot Ticknor Award was presented to Kim Charlson, Executive Director of the Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library. Kim has been working for over two decades to ensure that anyone in Massachusetts can read what they want, when they want. Countless individuals across the Commonwealth have maintained or regained the joy of reading and lifelong learning because of her work.
Kim Charlson is today’s Anna Eliot Ticknor in her own right. Not only does her work increase access for Massachusetts residents with disabilities, but her impact extends far beyond the Commonwealth. She has helped write policies and design trainings that have strengthened accessible library services across the nation. Kim helped author the Standards and Guidelines of Service for the Library of Congress Network of Libraries for the Blind and Print Disabled as well as an American with Disabilities Act Handbook that serves as a guide for establishing accessible libraries. Her work on the Marrakesh Treaty has allowed unique items that are digitized at Perkins Library to be shared freely anywhere in the world. Because of Kim Charlson, libraries are a place where everyone belongs.
