Arne Kildal was a Norwegian author, librarian and civil servant.

Background

Arne Kildal was born in Kristiania

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, the son of politician Birger Kildal

Birger Kildal

Birger Kildal was a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party. He was Minister of Auditing 1884-1886, as well as head of the Ministry of Postal Affairs in 1885...

. He finished his secondary education in 1903, and took the cand.philol. degree before traveling to the United States to train as a librarian. He graduated with a Bachelor of Library Science from the State University of New York

State University of New York

The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...

 in 1907 and worked in the country for three years, including at the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

.

Career

In 1910 he returned to Norway to become chief librarian at Bergen Public Library

Bergen Public Library

Bergen Public Library is a library building and public library institution in Bergen, Norway. Founded in 1872, it is the second largest public library in Norway...

. From 1920 to 1925 he served as the Norwegian press attaché

Attaché

Attaché is a French term in diplomacy referring to a person who is assigned to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency...

 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 In 1925, he took over as secretary general of Nordmanns-Forbundet, a cultural association for Norwegian-Americans, and served from 1925 to 1955, only interrupted by World War II from 1941 to 1945. He was also employed by the Norwegian Ministry of Church and Education from 1937 to 1949. In 1949 he was appointed as the first director of the Norwegian Directorate of Public Libraries, serving until 1956. Kildal chaired the Norwegian Library Association from 1913 to 1916 and 1929 to 1933, and the Statens folkeopplysningsråd from 1933 to 1950.

Selected works

• Selected list of Norwegian and Danish books recommended for a small public library (1908)
• Speeches and new letters [of] Henrik Ibsen Tr. by Arne Kildal (1910)
• The Norway Year Book 1931. Second Year of Issue (1930)
• American influence on European librarianship (1937)
• Press and Literature Front Under Occupation, 1940-1945 (1945)
• Survey of Library of Congress Scandinavian acquisitions for the period 1945-1952 (1953)

Honours

Kildal was decorated with the Order of the Dannebrog

Order of the Dannebrog

The Order of the Dannebrog is an Order of Denmark, instituted in 1671 by Christian V. It resulted from a move in 1660 to break the absolutism of the nobility. The Order was only to comprise 50 noble Knights in one class plus the Master of the Order, i.e. the Danish monarch, and his sons...

 and the Order of St. Olav.