| Notes: | The collection is open for research.
The period when Ernest D. Burton and J.C.M. Hanson each served as Director of the Library brought the construction of Harper Library, and a formal review and planning process for the Library system. Despite these efforts, the Library remained decentralized and administratively unstable for much of the first half of the twentieth century. The long and often conflicted process of evaluation and planning continued under M. Llewellyn Raney, who assumed the position of Director in 1928. In the early 1930s, Raney led an effort to survey the Library comprehensively. The results were published as part of a multi-part series of administrative reports that surveyed the University of Chicago as a whole. Beginning around the same time, Associate Director A.F. Kuhlman began a project to search and acquire "fugitive materials" for Library collections. "Fugitive materials" were defined in intentionally broad terms: annual reports, newspapers, government documents, archives and manuscripts, organizational records, maps, audio-visual material, and print ephemera are just a few of the types of materials that Kuhlman considered as part of the collecting scope. As Kuhlman's project required a major dedication of staff time and resources over several years, it helped build many of the Library's collections of non-book materials, and contributed to cooperative acquisitions efforts with other institutions. The struggle to centralize the Library system and unify its operations continued through the end of Raney's directorship. Departmental libraries, often managed independently and without operational relationships with the larger library system, persisted because of their value and convenience for faculty. Raney was succeeded by Ralph A. Beals, who served as director from 1942 to 1946. The position was then held by Allen T. Hazen from 1946 to1948. With the directorship of Herman H. Fussler (1948-1971), the Library began to manifest the lessons learned from a long period of evaluation, experimentation, administrative debate and uncertainty.
|
|---|
| Cite as: | When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: University of Chicago. Library. Office of the Director. M. Llewellyn Raney, Ralph A. Beals and Allen T. Hazen. Records, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.
|
|---|
