John Boynton Kaiser papers, 1928-1971

Series IV: Alumni Advisory Committee of the Columbia University School of Library Service, 1946-1959

This series contains materials dealing with John B. Kaiser's work with the Alumni Advisory Committee of the Columbia University School of Library Service. The period covered is between the years 1946 and 1959. However, since Kaiser did most of his work in this connection between 1952 and 1957, the bulk of the papers fall between these years.

The Alumni Advisory Committee was organized in 1952. It was a committee of five appointed by the New York State Library Association executive committee to serve as a two-way channel between the alumni group of the Albany Library School (1887-1926) and the Graduate School of Library Service of Columbia University, founded in 1926. Its first five members (its membership would vary in later years) were: Alice Jewett, Librarian, Mt. Vernon Public Library; Flora B. Ludington, Librarian, Mt. Vernon Public Library; Paul North Rice, New York Public Library; John S. Richards, Librarian, Seattle Public Library; and John Boynton Kaiser, Librarian, Newark Public Library, and Chairman of the Committee.

The papers contained in Series IV relate to Kaiser's work with the Alumni Advisory Committee and his long affiliation with the School of Library Service of Columbia University. The Series consists of Polders I-XX in two boxes. It can generally be divided into three main types of papers: correspondence, 7 folders; professional papers, 12 folders; pamphlets and memorabilia, 1 folder.

The overall arrangement is a chronological one, since a good deal of the papers are correspondence with Committee members and other professional people in many different libraries, papers that are relevant to a particular year's correspondence are in a folder adjacent to that correspondence! It seemed important to keep the order a chronological one in order to follow logically the activities of the Alumni Advisory Committee and its resulting accomplishments. And to some extent the order is a classified one in that events revolving around a particular activity take place in rapid succession within a limited period of time.

Much of the work of the Alumni Advisory Committee in the mid-50's involved preparation for an accreditation survey of the School of Library Service conducted by the American Library Association. By keeping the papers in their natural order, one can see the progress the Committee made towards the survey, beginning with the formation of a Survey Advisory Committee and ending with the completed report of the American Library Association and the accreditation.

Following is a listing of Folders 1-20 and their contents. The one exception is item 17, which is a black binder too large to be in a folder. It is numbered so as to keep the papers in their natural order in the box. A complete list of correspondents would be enormous and of little use. For a listing of the most important of Kaiser's correspondents, see Series III.