UC Santa Cruz Other Recent Work Title Allan J. Dyson: Managing the UCSC Library, 1979-2003 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3nj8f076 Authors Dyson, Allan J. Reti, Irene Regional History Project, UCSC Library Publication Date 2006-07-01 Supplemental Material https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3nj8f076#supplemental eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California University of California, Santa Cruz University Library Allan J. Dyson: Managing the UCSC Library, 1979-2003 Interviewed and Edited by Irene Reti Santa Cruz, California 2006 All uses of this manuscript are covered by an agreement between the Regents of the University of California and Allan J. Dyson, dated July 10, 2006. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All the literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the University of California, Santa Cruz. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the permission of the University Librarian of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Table of Contents Introduction i Early Life 1 Harvard University 3 Going into the Army 4 Watertown Arsenal 5 Simmons College Library School 8 Columbia University Library 10 Moffitt Undergraduate Library, UC Berkeley 13 Applying for the University Librarian Position at UC Santa Cruz 16 The Early Years at the University Library 22 Early Impressions of the UC Santa Cruz Campus 30 The College Libraries and the Liaison Librarians 31 Public Relations 33 UCSC as an Undergraduate-Oriented Institution 35 The Need for a New Science Library Building at UCSC 38 The University of California Libraries Plan for Development 45 Start-up Funds 55 Enrollment Increases and FTE Allocations 56 The Jitney to UC Berkeley 59 Service-Oriented Philosophy 61 Academic Senate Library Committees 65 Interactions with Academic and Executive Vice Chancellors 72 Relationships with the other University Librarians at UC 73 Librarians Association of the University of California [LAUC] 83 The Design and Construction of the Science and Engineering Library 87 Chairing the Campus Lands Management Advisory Committee 118 Multicultural Outreach 127 The Librarians Association of the University of California 136 Librarians and Collective Bargaining 141 Librarian Recruitments 157 Managing Middle Managers 162 A Flat Organizational Chart 164 Media Services 169 Automated Catalog Systems 178 The California Digital Library 183 The Library Collections Budget 191 Budgetary Challenges 193 Library Fundraising and Development 200 The McHenry Library Building Addition 212 The Friends of the UCSC Library 232 A Series of Challenging Events 240 The Stack O’ Wheats Controversy 241 Personal Tragedies for Library Staff 250 The Loma Prieta Earthquake 254 The Jazz Photos Exhibit Incident 264 The Bankruptcy of the Faxon Company 274 Impressions of the Academic and Executive Vice Chancellors 279 Impressions of the UCSC Chancellors 289 Susan Cooper 299 Women in Librarianship 301 Other Changes in Librarianship 307 Challenges and Rewards 310 Issues Facing the University Library 317 Retirement 319 Index 322 Lan Dyson: Introduction page i Introduction Allan J. [Lan] Dyson was appointed University Librarian at UC Santa Cruz’s University Library in August 1979, and retired in July 2003. This oral history, conducted as part of the Regional History Project’s University History Series, is a singular contribution to the documentation of twenty-four years of history, not only of UCSC’s University Library, but also of a period of extensive technological and cultural transformations in academic librarianship in the United States.1 Born in 1942, Dyson grew up in Salem, New Hampshire, then a relatively rural area of New England. He was among the first students at his public high school to win a scholarship to an Ivy League school. At Harvard, he played a leadership role in the largest student-run social service organization, and received a military commission through the Reserve Officer Training Corps. After graduation, he was assigned as a U.S. Army second lieutenant to the nearby Watertown Arsenal. There he was appointed the chief administrative services officer, developing management skills that would serve him well in future positions in library administration. Following his two years of active duty in the army, Dyson entered Simmons College library school in 1966. He was interested in pursuing library management as a career and therefore planned to work in public libraries, where more management positions existed at the time. But fate and opportunity led in other directions, and Dyson was offered the position of assistant to the director of libraries at Columbia University, where 1In 1993 the Regional History Project published Donald T. Clark: Early UCSC History and the Founding of the University Library. Those readers who peruse both Dyson’s and Clark’s volumes can trace nearly all of the history of the University Library.—Editor. page ii Lan Dyson: Introduction he stayed for three years, working under three different directors, each with distinct management styles. There he also developed skills and experience in the emerging field of library instruction, and attended a pre-conference session on library instruction in the undergraduate library at the American Library Association’s conference in Dallas in 1971. At that event he was recruited by the University of California at Berkeley for the position of head of their new Moffitt Undergraduate Library. Dyson held this position from September 1971 to July 1979, during a period of great political upheaval, as well as expansion of the library’s collection and staff. Dyson arrived as university librarian at UCSC in 1979, just as the University Library faced a series of formidable challenges. The first was coping with some volatile interpersonal conflicts among managers that had arisen in a period of turmoil during which the previous university librarian and two assistant university librarians had been removed from their positions. “The situation at UCSC was pretty ugly at that point,” Dyson recalls. “I was actually told I should not take the job because the UCSC library was a ‘snake pit.’” A second challenge was implementing the library’s first automated circulation system, Computer Library Systems Incorporated [CLSI]. When Dyson arrived, little had been accomplished in planning to bring this soon-to-arrive system online. A third problem afflicting the young library was the woefully inadequate nature of the building which housed its science collections. UCSC’s Science Library at the time was a building that was originally meant to store the collections of the Lick Observatory, a “fortress” that lacked bathrooms and adequate office space for library staff, had almost Lan Dyson: Introduction page iii no windows, and only a dumb-waiter for an elevator. The basement of the building, originally intended to be a storage room, had been utilized for the expanding collections. The ceiling was so low that taller patrons were in danger of hitting their heads on the protruding fire sprinklers. Furthermore, the size of the collection had outstripped the space available in the Science Library, and many of the books and journals had been shifted to McHenry Library. This created a situation where irritated and sweaty library users hiked up and down a rather steep hill to secure their research materials. One of Dyson’s most impressive accomplishments was leading the planning, design and implementation of a new, world-class Science Library, which opened in 1991. Dyson took an unusual, hands-on role in the design and planning of this project; he chaired the building committee and participated in almost all construction meetings. The prestigious architectural firm Esherick, Homsey, Dodge, and Davis (who also designed the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium) was selected to design the new library. The firm solicited input from faculty, library staff and students. The new Science Library is filled with light that filters through the coastal redwoods that surround the site. The building won the 1993 Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects/ American Library Association, among other accolades. In 2001 it was renamed the Science and Engineering Library. Dyson’s lively and detailed narration of the many considered steps that went into completing this remarkable building is one of the most fascinating contributions of this oral history. Dyson also discusses the benefits and challenges of being the smallest library within the UC system. As a small research library UCSC also had “to make up, in terms of service, what we lacked in terms of resources,” Dyson explains, and it is this service-oriented page iv Lan Dyson: Introduction approach which formed the heart of his management philosophy. The cultivation of a strong and expert library staff was a core element of this managerial approach, as was maintaining a relatively flat organizational chart, where staff had easy access to management. Dyson characterizes his management philosophy as one based in “effervescence theory,” in which a manager creates a climate where staff feel encouraged to share creative ideas which then “bubble up” to management. This model fostered the excellence of many of the dedicated professional and support staff who have contributed to the high quality of the University Library. This narrative also provides a window into the general history of the UC Santa Cruz campus. Dyson served under several academic and executive vice chancellors, as well as four chancellors, and shares his recollections of each of those figures. He chaired the Campus Lands Management Advisory Committee for many years, and outlines some of the controversial land use issues the UCSC campus faced during this period of considerable growth. Somewhat atypically for a university librarian, Dyson had served as systemwide president of the Librarians Association of the University of California before coming to UCSC . He discusses the evolution and complexities of that organization. This chapter of the interview is an insightful contribution to the history of librarianship within the University of California.