Columbia University Library Office files, 1890-1998
Summary Information
Abstract
At a Glance
- Call No.:
- UA#0214
- Bib ID:
- 4078638 View CLIO record
- Creator(s):
- Columbia University. Libraries
- Repository:
- Rare Book and Manuscript Library
- Physical Description:
- 48.37 linear feet (Series I: 116 document boxes); 181.4 linear feet (Series II: 435 document boxes); 30.27 linear feet (Unprocessed: 63 document boxes, 4 record cards, 1 volume, and 1 oversize folder)
- Language(s):
- English .
- Access:
- You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
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This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
There are no restrictions on this collection.
Description
Summary
The office files of the University Librarian's office of Columbia University Libraries, 1889-1948. Although chiefly the correspondence of the Library Office administrative staff, there are also forms, notices, regulations, and papers concerned with policy statements of various departments and cooperative projects in which the library participated. The correspondence and related materials cover the period, 1890-1928. In addition, there are financial records for book funds, 1944-1946; for budgets, 1916-1930 and 1935-1938; for salaries, 1889-1919; and a personnel and financial analysis, 1929-1948. There are also some administrative memoranda, 1910-1916; and annual reports of the Librarian and Supervisors, 1913-1925; committee files for the Study Committee, 1968-1969; Representative Committee of Librarians, 1973-1977; Standing Committees, 1966-1970; Division Heads Meetings, 1966-1970; Committees superceded by the Professional Advisory Committee, 1970-1972; Butler Library floor plans and furnishings; Director's Office memoranda and related files, 1943-1964; Reader Services' memoranda, 1946-1953; Supervising Librarians minutes, 1953-1958; Technical Services memoranda, 1946-1953; and printed materials: LIBRARY COLUMNS, COLUMBIA LIBRARY WORLD; and Burgess-Carpenter Library Correspondence, 1950-1975.
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Series I. Correspondence, 1899-1926
The records that comprise the Columbia University Library Office Files, Correspondence (1898-1926) include the institutional correspondence and related professional material from the office of the university librarian and other members of the library staff. The files track a series of changes in the university library's administration, beginning with the movement of the library uptown in 1898 to its new location within Low Library in the Morningside Heights campus and conclude in 1926 with the hiring of a new permanent head of the library, Charles C. Williamson, after a series of interim library directors. During this period, the library underwent significant changes with the institution of new efficiency measures, changes in classification systems and record-keeping (as the library instituted a modified version of the Dewey Decimal System in the early 1900s, and transferred to card-catalogs in 1904), and changes in institutional structure as new departmental and divisional libraries were established and new administrative divisions––like Accessions, Cataloging, Shelving, Serial, and Reference Departments––emerged and were codified during the first decades of the century. Canfield's efforts were to maximize the accessibility of library collections, conducting reports and surveys on the state of public libraries making efforts to establish for systematic surveys of special collections across the U.S. and to campaign to make government documents more publically accessible.
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Series II. Library Office Files, 1890-1998
This series contains the records transferred to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library from 1983 to 1989. These additions are made up for the most part of correspondence files, subject files or the library's Central Files, and the Director's Office files. The original order of the materials has been preserved and related additions have not been integrated but have been kept in the order and context in which they were received.
Arrangement
Series I: Correspondence and Series II. Library Office Files are processed and arranged chronologically; the remainder of the collection is unprocessed.
- Series I. Correspondence, 1899-1926
- Subseries I.1: General Correspondence
- Subseries I.2: Salary Letters, 1900-1916
- Subseries I.3: Correspondence between Librarian and President circa, 1898-1914
- Subseries I.4: Material for Columbia University Library History
- Series II. Library Office Files, 1890-1998
Using the Collection
Restrictions on Access
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.
There are no restrictions on this collection.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Columbia University Library Office Files; Box and Folder; University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.
Related Materials at Columbia
This collection contains the correspondence records of the University Librarian and the office files of central administration of the Columbia University Libraries. For individual departments, units or committees within the Libraries, please consult the Columbia University Libraries records, 1890s-1980s.
Melvil Dewey papers, circa 1870-1931. Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University
Accrual of Records
Additions are expected.
Materials have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact uarchives@columbia.edu for more information.
Ownership and Custodial History
Transferred from Columbiana, 1954; transferred from the Library Office, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982& 1989; gift of Marianne von Dobeneck, 1989.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Source of acquisition--Columbiana. Method of acquisition--Transfer; Date of acquisition--1954. Accession number--M-54.
About the Finding Aid / Processing Information
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Processing Information
Cataloged 05/05/89 Christina Hilton Fenn.
Series II inventory was compiled by Molly Boord (GS 2021), Hannah Johns (SSW 2019), Jessica Liston (CC 2020) and Kelly Powers (CC 2018) in 2017-2018; Series II finding aid written by Joanna Rios, December 2018.
Revision Description
2015-8-18 xml document instance created by Sierra Eckert.
December 2018 Series II was processed and incorporated into the finding aid.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
2022-09-29 Series identifier preprended to box numbers via EAD roundtripping. kws
Historical Note
The Columbia University Library played an important role in the changing nature of the library and of American library management and administration more broadly. During the 1880s, under the direction of Melvil Dewey as the head librarian, the university became the site of the first school for professional librarian training, Melvil Dewey's School for Library Economy, which opened its doors to students in 1887. The library became a locus for the increasing professionalization of the field of library management as over the course of the 1890s, graduates of Dewey's school––many of them women––moved into staff positions within the library. The l890s marked the beginning of a period of transformation in the structure of Columbia University and its library. In the 1890s, the university established a number of its professional schools and graduate schools. Under the leadership of George Baker, from 1889-1899, the Columbia University Library expanded its collection, and James Hulme Canfield oversaw the growth of the library from the small library of Columbia College to the large metropolitan research library.
Subject Headings
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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