As a student of Library Science at Simmons, Daisie took such classes as Cataloging, Library Economy, and Library Practice.  These classes must have served her well during one of her first jobs out of school, Temporary Head Librarian at the North Bennet Street Industrial School (NBSIS) in Boston.  Her duties there included overseeing two reading rooms and a delivery station, where the school received books on loan from the Boston Public Library.  Daisie also served as a Volunteer Assistant in Social Work at the NBSIS, which had a strong social mission of self-improvement via labor.  The NBSIS was created for the immigrant population of Boston’s North End.  Children were taught skills such as carpentry and sewing, so that they would be more likely to find employment in their new homeland.  The library’s primary purpose was to encourage English literacy among these students.  Activities included reading groups, talks by city officials, dramatic enactments of stories, and weekly story hours.  The library therefore served the school’s mission of helping new Americans to adjust and flourish.

Daisie only worked at the NBSIS for one academic year.  Demand for library services had increased over the past decades, such that the library needed more space and resources than the NBSIS could provide.  In 1912, the NBSIS library was taken over by the city of Boston and transformed into a branch library for the North End.  Another important event that took place in 1912 was Daisie’s marriage to John Putnam Helyar, after which she left Boston to live with him and raise a family.  Later in life, however, she returned to librarianship.  

Sources: 

North Bennet Street Industrial School (Boston, Mass.) Records, 1880-1973. North Bennet Street Industrial School Annual Report 1911-1912, MC 269, Series I, box 1. Courtesy of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. 

North Bennet Street Industrial School (Boston, Mass.) Records, 1880-1973. The North Bennet Street Industrial School: A Report for 1913 (Boston: McGrath & Woodley, 1913). MC 269, Series I, box 1. Courtesy of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. 

North Bennet Street Industrial School (Boston, Mass.) Records, 1880-1973.  Photographs.  MC 269, Series VI, folder 12. Courtesy of Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. 

North Bennet Street School (2009). North Bennet Street School: An Education in Craftsmanship. Retrieved from http://www.nbss.org.

Obituaries: Mrs. John P. Helyar (1976, October 29). Brattleboro Reformer. Courtesy of Brooks Memorial Library, Brattleboro, Vermont.