Publisher's Synopsis
Written by a former director of the library, this history is enlivened by its remarkable props and cast of characters: · A university seventeen years old, rated among the top eleven in the U.S. · Three library buildings with a blown-down tower, shattering windows, floors near collapse, a roof near cave-in, and one with a rivulet running through it. · A treasurer of the University who invented two standard basic elements in library construction and installed the first fluorescent lighting in libraries. · A professor of English with greater knowledge of library methods than most librarians of his time. · A librarian who literally worked himself to death. · A librarian who was a remittance man from the East, and a famous football referee. · A director, appointed at the recommendation of the football coach, who became President of the University. · A director who left for greener pastures, then returned to over-top them all. The story of the University of Colorado Library unfolds within the societal forces that shaped universities over a century, and within the special conditions in the University to which it had to respond. By describing librarians working at real library tasks, Mason presents a thumbnail sketch of the way librarians performed during a century of enormous change.
