This is a timeline of women in library science throughout the world. 1796: Cecilia Cleve became the first female librarian in Sweden. 1852: The first female clerk was hired for the Boston Public Library. 1890: Elizabeth Putnam Sohier and Anna Eliot Ticknor became the first women appointed to a United States state library agency—specifically, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. 1911: Theresa Elmendorf became the first female president of the American Library Association. 1912: Lillian Helena Smith became the first trained children's librarian in Canada.