Robert L. Birch

Robert L. Birch
BornAugust 9, 1925
Mobile, Alabama
DiedJuly 26, 2005(2005-07-26) (aged 79)
Falls Church, Virginia
OccupationLibrarian
Known forNational Trivia Day

Robert Louis Birch (August 9, 1925 – July 26, 2005) was an American librarian known for creating National Trivia Day and other lesser-known holidays such as Swap Ideas Day and Lumpy Rug Day.[1][2] National Trivia Day is celebrated in the United States and Canada and is seen as a way for organizations to share interesting facts about their subject areas.[3][4] The holiday was first celebrated in 1980.[5] Birch founded the Puns Corp, intended to help people have fun with words.[6]

Birch was born in Mobile, Alabama, 1925 and grew up in Cuba. He got a degree from the University of Miami, Florida, with a double major in literature and philosophy and earned a master's degree in library science from the Catholic University of America in 1958. He served in the military during the Korean War.[7]

Birch worked for the Patent Office Scientific Library and at the National Agricultural Library, each for ten years. He worked on a research project with the Science Index Group determining a way to make writing or speeches maximally intelligible. This work was centered around translations of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.[8][9] He did other library research into wording styles of material titles to determine what would make them most efficiently retrieved.[10] He also published papers about Lincoln's speech style that suggested Lincoln was making use of similar wording and memory techniques.[11] Birch was the president of the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia.[12]

Birch co-authored the book Memory Dynamics: A complete Memory System with Judge William Fauver which outlined how people could use "coded memory pictures" to recall information.[13] He did presentations about these memory systems to professional librarian associations.[14]

Birch lived in Falls Church, Virginia. He and his wife Grace had eight children.

  1. ^ "Robert Birch Obituary (2005)". Legacy.com. Culpeper News. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  2. ^ Slotek, Jim (2016-12-17). "Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a joyous A'phabet Day to you". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  3. ^ Dailey, Bonnie (2022-01-04). "SWCD celebrates National Trivia Day". Delaware Gazette. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  4. ^ Parsons, McKenzy (2022-01-04). "Here's some useless information for you! It's National Trivia Day!". KPTM. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  5. ^ Team, PWLiving Editorial (2022-01-03). "Celebrate National Trivia Day on Jan. 4". Prince William Living. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  6. ^ "Puns Corps Company Profile". Dun & Bradstreet. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  7. ^ "Announcing the passing of Robert (Bob) Birch on 2005 July 25". Birch Family Site. 2005-09-01. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  8. ^ "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address : Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection". Internet Archive. 2021-12-20. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  9. ^ Current Research and Development in Scientific Documentation. NSF 58. National Science Foundation, Office of Science Information Service. 1964. p. 1-PA64. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  10. ^ National Science Foundation (U.S.) (1961). Scientific Information Notes. National Science Foundation. p. 13. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  11. ^ "Journal of Irreproducible Results". Internet Archive. 1995. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  12. ^ "Congressional Record August 13, 1969 – September 10, 1969". Internet Archive. 1969-08-13. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
  13. ^ Memory dynamics : a complete memory system (Book, 1981) [WorldCat.org]. OCLC 7310511. Retrieved 2022-01-04 – via WorldCat.org.
  14. ^ National Agricultural Library (U.S.); Technical Information Systems (U.S.) (1975). Agricultural Libraries Information Notes. Technical Information Systems, Science and Education Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture. p. 14-PA2. Retrieved 2022-01-04.