Population & Family-planning Librarian, Feminist, and Womanbooks owner Martita Midence (July 28, 1946-February 6, 1993) was deeply committed to women’s reproductive rights around the world. She was also an effective leader, a loyal friend, and a questioning Catholic. After receiving a BA from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg VA (1964) and a MA from Columbia University’s School of Library Science (1969) Martita began her professional career at Planned Parenthood Federation of America as the Assistant Librarian (1969-72). She followed that with a second Masters in Latin American Studies at Indiana University (1974) and returned to New York to be a Librarian at the International Planned Parenthood Federation for a year. She then moved to Washington DC where she served as the Librarian in the Population Information Program of George Washington University’s Medical School (1975-77). During this time Martita began describing herself as a “family planning librarian” and became active in both the New York and Washington DC chapters of the Association for Population/Family-Planning Libraries & Information Centers (APLIC) making occasional presentations at the APLIC’s annual conferences. In 1977 she returned to New York City to become Resource Director at the International Women’s Tribune Centre. In addition to providing reference services and collecting traditional print materials Martita sought to collect related ephemeral material such as posters, music, slogans, folk-sayings, and slide sets. She took particular interest in finding training materials which could be adapted to meet the special needs of women engaged in developmental activities around the world. She created subject bibliographies on individual women and development topics for each edition of the Tribune Centre’s Newsletter and compiled the Centre’s first global information kit, Where on Earth Are the Women? In 1987 Martita purchased Womanbooks, a bookstore on the Upper West Side of Manhattan focusing on woman’s issues and accomplishments. When the bookstore closed in 1989 Martita became the manager of Women’s Workout Gear, a specialized clothing store in the Chelsea neighborhood while continuing intermittent work as an independent consultant organizing book collections for private individuals, organizations and businesses. In addition to women’s issues Martita had a lifelong interest in Latin American history and politics and was fluent in Spanish. Her father, Luis, was from Honduras and her brother’s family lived in the Dominican Republic which she visited several times. She went to Chile as an AFS exchange student from Ridgewood High School (New Jersey) and spent one summer in Peru during college. While pursuing her masters’ degrees she worked in Columbia’s International Affairs Library (1968-69) and Indiana University’s Latin American collection (1992-93). Another of Martita’s passions was dance--principally ballet and contemporary modern dance. In addition to taking several classes in dance history, criticism and aesthetics she worked for a brief period as assistant manager at the Norman Crider Gallery in 1977. Martita was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in 1970 and began dialysis two years later, prompting her to become an advocate for the rights and needs of kidney patients. She was also deeply concerned about animal rights and welfare, adopting five cats and two dogs as an adult.