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Asa Don Dickinson

ITH THE RETIREMENT on August W31 of Asa Don Dickinson, librarian of Brooklyn College, the profession loses from active service one of its most genial and cultivated numbers. To the circle of friends who are privileged to know him, his act of laying down the burdens of ad- ministering one of our busiest college libraries means not a sigh of relief but a step toward more gracious living, more time for friends, and, we hope, more time to employ his charming and witty pen. It was typical of him to describe his work at Brooklyn College, where he built up a circulation of some six hundred thirty thousand a year on a collection of ninety thousand books, as "sitting on the lid." But few men can hold down a boil- ing cauldron with such aplomb, and few men can bring about in a decade the changes that marked the transformation of the Brooklyn College Library from a handful of books scattered in downtown loft buildings to the highly useful book collection and building on the new college Photograph by Dr. T. W. Kilmer campus. MR. DICKINSON He was born in Detroit in 1876 and educated in the Brooklyn Latin School, takes of the Bureau of Information. By Columbia Law School, and the New York Asia."1 State Library School at Albany. His After three years in Brooklyn he served first professional service began in 1903 in a year as librarian of Union College, three the famous old Montague Branch of the at the Leavenworth, Kan., Public Li- Brooklyn Public Library, whither he came brary, and two at Washington State Col- fresh from Albany, overflowing with the lege. From 1912 to 1918 he followed his enthusiasm of his own buoyant nature and bent for writing as a member of the edi- the contagious missionary zeal of Melvil torial staff of Doubleday Page and Co. Dewey and Mrs. Mary Salome Fairchild For that period he has nearly a dozen but above all with a saving sense of humor. substantial titles to his credit, including This last is documented by his first con- several collections of children's stories and tribution to a professional journal: "Mis- 1 Library Journal 30: 341, June 1905.

SEPTEMBER., 1944 357 The Kaiser; a Book about the Most In- constrained only by the bounds of rented teresting Man in Europe. This work was floor space. interrupted in 1915-16, when he went to In J937 the college library assumed its India to organize the Punjab library place at the head of the main quadrangle system and to write the Punjab Library on the new campus in a building which he Primer. designed. In his own words: The new library building has been planned A.L.A. War Service to house this small collection of very busy In 1918 he entered the A.L.A. War books—the annual circulation is nearly half a million volumes—serving a large number of Service, first as dispatch agent in Hoboken especially hard-working, earnest young men and later in Paris. There are many tall and women, none of whom live upon the cam- tales about the prodigious job he did at pus. The bookstack, accordingly, is small; Hoboken in sorting and shipping out tons the public rooms large. The capacity of the of books but none better than his own former is 88,000 volumes; that of the latter, version to be found in the Library Journal 1100 readers. of August 1918. His democratic administration of this In 1918 he became the first trained busy library has made him beloved of staff, librarian to be put in charge of the Uni- students, and faculty alike. His habit of versity of Pennsylvania Library. What applying "pet" names to his closest friends that required in administrative organiza- and associates is not a means of making tion and increase of usefulness needs no barbed gibes but an expression of recog- elaboration. His years of service were nition, understanding, and acceptance into years of upbuilding, broadening, and ex- his own inner circle. Along his daily path panding, so far as available funds made he is ever strewing countless acts of possible. His efforts to stimulate interest friendly kindness. He is never too busy in books are still remembered with grati- to interview a student and to put his tude by many who were then students. signature on a card of introduction for His continued literary interests were those who want to go beyond local re- marked by contributions on a wide range sources to the New York Public Library. of subjects, ranging from Wild Flowers He regarded opening packages of new to Booth Tarkington, Doubleday's Ency- books as a supreme pleasure and as the clopedia, and Best Books of Our Time. librarian's special prerogative; the acquisi- He returned to Brooklyn in 1931 to tions routine at Brooklyn was planned assume the task of organizing the Brook- accordingly, so that all incoming mail was lyn College Library. The college had routed to his office. A well-thumbed copy been founded a year before, from a mar- of the Decimal Classification was always riage of the Brooklyn extensions of City on his desk, and each new book passed on College and Hunter College. Its library to the cataloging department with its comprised a few hundred volumes gath- classmark written in his own hand. ered from these two agencies, which were He seldom joined the pitched battles scattered in several office buildings in that mark faculty life in a large and downtown Brooklyn. Under his admin- rapidly expanding institution. But once istration the growth of the library in books he was certain that the fate of his library and their use was immediate and rapid, (Continued on page 367)

v 358 COLL EGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES eight years of administrative work in the there numbered about 170,000 books and Reference Department of the New York pamphlets. His main objectives in this Public Library. Upon completing his li- position were to coordinate the personnel brary school course at Columbia he entered and administration of the former divisions, the New York Public Library's Economics to strengthen the collections, and to im- Division, long known to have one of the prove the service to readers. While still outstanding economics and documents col- engaged in this work an emergency in the lections in the country. Advancing rap- acquisition division made it necessary for idly, he took over within four years the him to take over the division's administra- pivotal job of general assistant in charge tive duties. During the succeeding two of the director's office. It was a position and a half years he directed the expendi- which required particular attention to per- ture of more than three hundred thousand sonnel and general administrative prob- dollars for books and for the thirty-seven lems, as well as the correspondence and thousand serials currently received by the official records of the library. He man- reference department. He reorganized aged this difficult job with great tact and the acquisition division and placed it on a intelligence, and in 1941 was assigned to business basis. In addition to his regular the duty of unifying the local history and administrative duties he was active on genealogy and American history divisions, committees formulating acquisition poli- of which he became chief. The combined cies and classifying the staff of the refer- research collections under his direction ence department.

Asa Don Dickinson (Continued from page 358) was at stake, he was ready. He held his colleagues, said: devastating fire to the last and always Professor Dickinson was not only a good emerged the victor. builder in the original development of our He does not care for mechanical devices library in our new buildings here in Flatbush. and will never ride when his destination is but he brought to the campus an urbane and within walking distance. His family and broad viewpoint and he became one of the human pillars on which a young college and a home, with garden, good books, and a dog, young faculty could rely for strength and for are the real center of his life. He is perspective. Every inch a gentleman and a moving back to his old home in Swarth- scholar in the best traditional sense of the more to enjoy them all to the fullest. term, he was an influence in the building of President Harry D. Gideonse, of the type of tradition that should be the unique contribution of a large liberal arts Brooklyn College, speaking at a tea in college. honor of Professor Dickinson given by his CHARLES F. GOSNELL

SEPTEMBER., 1944 67 Mary E. Baker

ARY E. BAKER retired from active M library service on Aug. I, 1943, after twenty years as librarian of the University of Tennessee. As one who has been her student, staff member, and friend, I am proud to have an opportunity to pay tribute to her contributions as a librarian and to her influence on her associates. My outstanding impression of Miss Baker is of her deep concern and warm sympathy for both the professional and personal problems of her staff and friends. My first year out of library school I joined her staff. It was Miss Baker herself who instructed me in my duties. No matter how occupied she was with more important matters, she was never too busy to listen to my minor troubles nor impatient with my greenness. I hope my own attitude toward beginners has reflected some of the gratitude I feel for her understanding treatment at that stage of my career. Ever anxious for the professional advancement of her staff, she gave me—as she gave others—every opportunity to test my Miss BAKER ability by sampling a variety of library duties. After I left the University of Ten- the school had an unorganized collection nessee Library I was still conscious of her of books, she offered to catalog them. interest in my accomplishments. I am Soon her duties as librarian took up so sure all who have worked for her have much of her time that she had to give up been aware of this concern for their wel- the teaching of classical langauges. fare. By 1906 she was convinced that library Like so many of the older leaders in our work rather than teaching was to be her profession, it was by accident rather than career and that for that work she needed intent that Miss Baker became a librarian. further training. She went first to the Following her graduation from Lincoln library school at the University of Illinois University (now Lincoln College) in and then to New York State Library Illinois in 1900, she went as instructor in School, from which she received the B.L.S. Latin and Greek to Missouri Valley Col- degree in 1908. lege at Marshall. When she found that Her knowledge of languages was put to

SEPTEMBER., 1944 359 good use when she served as head cataloger Schools of standards for high school li- at Bryn Mawr College from 1908 to braries, Miss Baker saw an opportunity 1912, at the University of Missouri from for the University of Tennessee to serve 1912 to 1919, and at the Carnegie Li- the state by training school librarians. In brary, Pittsburgh, from 1919 to 1923. 1928 a department of library science was While in this last position, she also taught established, with her as its head. cataloging in the Carnegie Library School. It was May 3, 1923, that Miss Baker Professional Activities came to the University of Tennessee as Outside her own library Miss Baker head of a library of less than fifty thousand was an active participant in every move- volumes housed in a small building and ment for the advancement of libraries on serviced by a staff of six. She brought to a local, state, and national scale. Her her job a deep conviction of the importance qualities as a leader and organizer were of the college library as a tool for research demonstrated as president of the Ten- and she concentrated first on building up nessee Library Association, chairman of the book and periodical collections. In the College Section of the Southeastern twenty years the book stock was increased Library Association, and chairman of the to approximately 195,000 volumes. Agricultural Libraries Section of the More books required more space. In American Library Association. She 1930 a handsome new building was worked with the state department of edu- erected, embodying many of Miss Baker's cation in every effort to improve library ideas of efficient and logical arrangement. conditions in Tennessee. She was chair- Before she left that building too was taxed man of the committee which tried to get to capacity and the additions provided for a certification law for librarians, and she in the original plans are badly needed. was influential in securing the appoint- Meanwhile, the convenience of faculty ment of a state school library supervisor. and students, as well as the need for space, In 1937 she published a List of Ten- had been met by the establishment of nessee Serials, Together with the Holdings departmental libraries in the colleges of of Tennessee Libraries. law, engineering, agriculture, and edu- Though born in Macon County, 111., cation. Miss Baker was at home in Tennessee. In all the details of library administra- Her ancestors once lived here and her two tion, Miss Baker has shown herself to be Confederate grandfathers are buried near a meticulous and constructive housekeeper. Smyrna. Her hobby of investigating Without taking from her staff (increased family history enriched her leisure hours to twenty-two by the time she left) any of and added to the university library many the responsibility and authority which was choice items on early Tennessee history. due their positions, she kept a close contact She was an active member of the East with the details of the library's operation. Tennessee Historical Society. Her aim was always to build a good Since her retirement, Miss Baker has foundation for the growth which she returned to her native state and makes her hoped for, for her institution. home in Decatur with her sister, who is With the adoption by the Southern also a librarian. Association of Colleges and Secondary MARTHA L. ELLISON v 360 COLL EGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES Appointments to College and University Library Positions

ITH THIS ISSUE College and Re- administration with a brand of energy and Wsearch Libraries continues to report vision which are among the marks of li- in full, changes in some of the more re- brary statesmanship. sponsible positions. The editors are grati- He has devoted considerable thought to fied at the interest shown by readers in the development of library resources to this new feature, which seems to be all support instruction and research. His the more welcome in view of the fact that experience as head of the order and bind- regular meetings are temporarily sus- ing department at the University of Min- pended. They also wish to acknowledge nesota Library, 1932-37, supplemented by the assistance given by numerous col- later experience at the College of leagues with a passion for anonymity, who Physicians and Surgeons and as chairman have contributed information, sometimes of A.L.A. committees concerned with li- even the language, which appears below. brary resources, made his selection in 1941 as chairman of the Joint Committee on Reorganization at Columbia Importations as logical as it has proved A new division in the library organiza- wise. He is currently assisting with the tion at Columbia was created July I, republication program of the Alien Prop- embracing various departments, libraries, erty Custodian. Other professional activi- and reading rooms offering service directly ties have included teaching, in the area of to those who use the libraries. Thomas P. bibliography and reference, at Minnesota Fleming, who heads up the new division and Columbia; writings on professional with the title, assistant director, readers' subjects; and membership on the survey services, has received diversified prepara- staff of the Army Medical Library, which tion for these newly-assumed responsibili- completed its work early in 1944. This ties. His first experience with organizing, spring he was elected to membership on the coordinating, and supervising library serv- A.L.A. Executive Board. ices came at Western Reserve, where in Maurice F. Tauber was appointed to 1930-32 he was in charge of departmental the position of assistant director, technical libraries. Since 1937 he has been medical services, Columbia University Libraries, librarian at the College of Physicians and as of Sept. 1, 1944. He comes from the Surgeons, Columbia, where he has met University of Chicago Libraries, where he library needs of a large and active body of advanced from head of the catalog division scholars and their students with under- in 1941 to chief of a newly-organized standing and imagination. In so doing he preparations department in 1942. At has tied in the services of the medical Chicago he contributed to the reorgani- library with the services of the library zation of cataloging procedures, sim- system of the university as a whole and plification of cataloging practices, and has met other problems of daily library coordination of routines among the various

SEPTEMBER., 1944 361 MAURICE F. TV Assistant Dit ID WARD G. FREEHAFER Technical Se Assistant Librarian Columbia Ut Brown University Libraries

JOHN H. MORIARTY Director of Libraries Purdue University

WILLIAM H. JESSE Librarian and Professor of Bibliography University of Tennessee

HOMAS P. FLEMING Assistant Director: Readers' Services W. STANLEY HOC Columbia University Director of Lit Libraries University of /

ESTHER GREENE H. G. BOI)SBTELD Librarian Librarian Barnard College Brooklyn College Columbia University technical units. At the same time he was lations, and supervisory positions, and li- instructor in the graduate library school, brary experience reaching back through being promoted to assistant professor in the Engineering Societies Library in New 1944. While in charge of graduate re- York and the Technology Division of the search in the area of technical operations, Queens Borough Public Library to gram- he sponsored a series of studies relating to mar school days. As librarian at Cooper subject headings in various types of li- Union (1935-39), he built up a profes- braries and to the field of centralized and sionally trained staff and unified the li- cooperative cataloging. His earlier ex- brary's services, at the same time teaching perience was as research assistant in the in the social philosophy department there graduate library school, 1939-41, during and also in the School of Library Service, which time he worked on a manuscript, Columbia University, where he carried "The University Library," in collaboration courses in government publications and in with Louis R. Wilson, dean emeritus. reference and bibliographical method. As The manuscript has been accepted for assistant to the director of libraries at publication by the University of Chicago Columbia (1939-41), he was concerned Press. In order to get data for the vol- particularly with adjusting acquisition ume, he visited forty-four university li- processes to central responsibility, with im- braries in the United States. proved accounting methods, and with Before going to Chicago, Dr. Tauber achieving consistency and codification of held various positions from 1927-38 in cataloging practices. At the Library of Temple University Library, organizing Congress (1941-44), first as chief of the and serving as head of the catalog depart- Accessions Division and, following the ment and superintendent of binding from reorganization, as assistant director of the 1935 until 1938, when he was awarded Acquisitions Department, he was respon- an American Library Association fellow- sible for improving and expediting the ship to the graduate library school. His normal acquisition and recording pro- contributions have been primarily in the cedures, centralizing the receipt of all area of cataloging and classification, but materials, and establishing a new serial he has been interested in all aspects of record division. In addition, he shared college and university library service, with in the unusual and exacting task of secur- special emphasis on administration and ing foreign, including enemy, publications organization, bibliography, bookbinding, at their source and assuring their safe and cooperative cataloging, personnel* prob- speedy arrival in this country. By modi- lems, union catalogs, and uses of micro- fying conventional procedures and in- photography. He has been active in local, geniously devising new measures, a regional, and national library organiza- committee of which he was a member has tions. been able to maintain a continued flow, from all parts of the world and in sur- Purdue prising volume, of material which is of John H. Moriarty goes to Purdue as inestimable value to government agencies director of university libraries with a rich in wartime. background of teaching experience, seven To his new post Mr. Moriarty will take years of experience in business, public re- an interest and advanced preparation in

SEPTEMBER., 1944 363 history and social studies, experience with well as honorary Phi Beta Kappa distinc- scientific and technical material, knowl- tion. From North Texas State Teachers edge of organization and of library tech- College he received his library degree and niques, versatility in meeting new situa- from Duke University his Ph.D. in tions, and success in the acquisition and American literature in 1934. To this effective use of books and personnel. preparation he has added a year's study in the Graduate Library School of the Uni- Tennessee versity of Chicago as a General Education Upon leaving Columbia's School of Li- Board fellow. brary Service William H. Jesse went to As librarian he has held three positions: Brown University to assist Henry B. Van Birmingham-Southern College, 1935-37; Hoesen, librarian, and President Wriston Baylor University, 1937-39; and North in a concentrated effort to make the Brown Texas State Teachers College, 1939-44. library a more integral part of the student Dr. Hoole has published numerous ar- program. The form of service utilized ticles in library and education journals. was the divisional plan, also being inaugu- To these should be added the monograph rated at the University of Colorado at the on Charleston Periodicals (Duke Univer- same time. He left Brown University sity Press, 1936) and the editing of North to accept the position of assistant director Texas Regional Union List of Serials, of libraries at the University of Nebraska 1944. At present he is preparing a vol- during the period of building construction ume on The Ante-Bellum Charleston and service planning for the new library. Theatre. This is a project undertaken on In January 1943 he accepted a war service a Rockefeller Foundation grant. appointment at the U.S. Department of At North Texas State Teachers Col- Agriculture Library to organize the refer- lege Dr. Hoole distinguished himself dur- ence services along lines adequate to meet ing the past five years: in building up its the great increase in reference and library resources from 88,OCX) to 145,000 bibliographical demands made upon that volumes; in seeing the library budget in- library due to the department's war pro- crease from $15,000 to close to $28,000; gram. His most absorbing interest has in reorganizing the internal administration been in divisional organization of univer- of the library; in installing an effective sity library services. In addition to having book bindery, microphotographic depart- assisted in organizing divisional planning ment, and separate music library; and in in the libraries already mentioned, he has aiding .in the survey of the north Texas for several years been chairman of an regional libraries. A.C.R.L. subcommittee appointed to The newly appointed librarian of the study the educational aspects of this type University of Alabama is, in brief, a man of service. with sound academic and technical training, who is alert, progressive, an efficient A labama administrator, and an able writer. W. Stanley Hoole, born and reared in South Carolina, pursued his education at Mt. Holyoke four institutions. From Wafford College Lydia M. Gooding became acting li- he received his A.B. and A.M. degrees, as brarian of Mount Holyoke College on v 364 COLL EGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES August i. Her broad professional ex- University. She is a graduate of Grinnell perience has included positions in several College, Iowa, and of Simmons College, college and university libraries and in Boston, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. three library schools. She has served as She has also studied at the University of cataloger and chief classifier at Princeton Chicago, Western Reserve, and Columbia. University, librarian of Dickinson Col- She has specialized professionally in work lege, and librarian of the medical school with children and young people. She has of Syracuse University. As a teacher she been notably successful in developing, with has been associated with the library schools the cooperation of teachers and parents, of Emory University, where she was act- the educational functions and possibilities ing dean in 1935-36, Syracuse University, of librarianship. She has been children's and Columbia University. During the librarian in the public library system of two years before she assumed her present Cleveland and organized the library of position she served as assistant to the dean the Park School, Cleveland Heights, a of the School of Library Service, Colum- progressive school for children from pre- bia University, in charge of the school's school through ninth grade. Until re- placement program. She also taught cently she was head of the Children's courses in college and university library Department of the New Rochelle, N.Y., service and in bibliography and reference. Public Library. On two occasions she Miss Gooding's versatility and adapta- has served as a member of the Newbery bility are evidenced by the wide variety of Award Committee for the best children's positions she has held. One of her out- book of the year. In 1941-42 she acted standing qualities as director of placement as secretary of the Public Library Section and as a teacher has been her sympathetic for Work with Children and Young understanding of the personal and profes- People of the A.L.A. Division of Libraries sional interests of her students. As a for Children and Young People. Since college librarian she has been particularly 1943 she has been assistant director, field alert to the library's opportunities and re- service, of the National Federation of sponsibilities for the stimulation and pro- Business and Professional Women's Clubs, motion of the general reading of college organizing membership campaigns and students. With her firsthand acquain- reading and lecture programs for women's tance with the role of the library in in- groups throughout the United States. struction, with the thorough study she has made of college libraries and with an Brooklyn College ample fund of actual administrative ex- After holding responsible positions in a perience to draw upon, Mount Holyoke large urban university and a large state can expect the same high quality of li- university library, Humphrey G. Bous- brary service it has come to accept as field becomes chief librarian on Sept. 1, standard through the energetic leadership 1944, of Brooklyn College, New York of Flora B. Ludington, who is on leave. City. Professionally Mr. Bousfield grew up in the New York University Library Barnard College system, starting as a student assistant in Esther Greene has been appointed li- 1923 and by successive steps becoming brarian of Barnard College, Columbia assistant librarian of the Washington

SEPTEMBER., 1944 365 Square Library, largest of the six libraries brarian of the University Library at the in the organization. Working under ad- University of California in Los Angeles verse building conditions, he set up an on July i. He will continue as director efficient lending and reference service for of the William Andrews Clark Library, one of the largest university student bodies to which he was appointed Jan. I, 1944- in the country, with an annual circulation Dr. Powell brings to his new post a of three quarters of a million volumes. varied background of training and experi- In his fourteen years in this position Mr. ence. After working as a professional Bousfield dealt ably with perhaps the most musician while securing his A.B. at Occi- diverse group of students and faculty dental College, he worked at Vroman's members to be found in any American Bookstore in Pasadena, then crossed the university and was noted for his excellent Atlantic to take his doctorate in the field personal relations with the library's of Anglo-American literature at the Uni- clientele. versity of Dijon. Returning to this This background of experience was country, he spent two years as cataloger ideal preparation for Mr. Bousfield's next for Jake Zeitlin's Bookstore, also doing position when he became associate librarian editorial and promotional work for at the University of Illinois in 1943- western publishers, and studied for the There, again, his primary responsibility library certificate at the University of has been to direct public services—general California before entering the library pro- circulation and reference and about two fession as an assistant in accessions and dozen departmental libraries. Among his branches at the Los Angeles Public Li- outstanding accomplishments for the past brary. In 1938 he went to the University year has been a revision of the system of of California as assistant in accessions and faculty loans, diplomatically solving a in charge of exhibitions, a position which problem troubling many college and uni- involved considerable responsibility for versity libraries by submitting a plan for public relations. His point of view is that definite instead of indefinite loan periods a university library is properly "the to faculty members. Other achievements dynamic heart of a great democratic insti- were guidance of the establishment of tution," but that nevertheless the responsi- departmental libraries for maps and music, bility of the university library is not beginning a campus delivery system of bounded by the four walls of the local books for faculty members, preparation of campus. He possesses an active pen, as a handbook of the library's public service his writings in the fields of literature, divisions, and a general coordination of history, and bibliography bear witness. the departmental library organization. His formal library training is thus supple- With Charles H. Brown, Mr. Bous- mented by personal experiences which sup- field is coauthor of Circulation Work in ply useful insight into the library problems College and University Libraries, the of the scholar and the writer. standard book in this field and a work which expresses the philosophy of wide Brown reading held by both writers. Edward Geier Freehafer returns to his alma mater, Brown University, as as- U.C.L.A. sistant librarian after twelve years of Lawrence Clark Powell became li- varied and distinguished service, including

v 366 COLL EGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES eight years of administrative work in the there numbered about 170,000 books and Reference Department of the New York pamphlets. His main objectives in this Public Library. Upon completing his li- position were to coordinate the personnel brary school course at Columbia he entered and administration of the former divisions, the New York Public Library's Economics to strengthen the collections, and to im- Division, long known to have one of the prove the service to readers. While still outstanding economics and documents col- engaged in this work an emergency in the lections in the country. Advancing rap- acquisition division made it necessary for idly, he took over within four years the him to take over the division's administra- pivotal job of general assistant in charge tive duties. During the succeeding two of the director's office. It was a position and a half years he directed the expendi- which required particular attention to per- ture of more than three hundred thousand sonnel and general administrative prob- dollars for books and for the thirty-seven lems, as well as the correspondence and thousand serials currently received by the official records of the library. He man- reference department. He reorganized aged this difficult job with great tact and the acquisition division and placed it on a intelligence, and in 1941 was assigned to business basis. In addition to his regular the duty of unifying the local history and administrative duties he was active on genealogy and American history divisions, committees formulating acquisition poli- of which he became chief. The combined cies and classifying the staff of the refer- research collections under his direction ence department.

SEPTEMBER., 1944 67