Iowa State University 1966 - 1973

The years I spent at Iowa State University Library were very eventful years for college campuses. These were the years of Vietnam War protests as well as years when money for collection building was easily available. Librarians were in short supply, so it was easy to find a job. In this posting I'll give an overview and then write more detail later on some topics.

My family has a long history with ISU. My great grandparents had a farm west of Ames and could watch the first large classroom building (Morrill?) under construction. So I felt honored to be hired to work in the library. It was many years later that I learned that I almost didn't get the job. The head of the  reference department wasn't confident that I could manage telephone reference because of my disability. She didn't ask me to demonstrate how I would do it, but at that time there was a great shortage of librarians, so she gave me a chance. 

During the first year, I worked half time in the order dept and half time in reference. From 1967 till 1971, I worked the reference desk. I answered reference questions, assisted the interlibrary loan librarian (later, I was in charge of interlibrary loan), and assisted the librarian in charge of verifying citations for the 8th edition of Bergey's Manual. The editor for that edition was R. E. Buchanan, an ISU  Professor. I'll write more about those experiences later. For now, I'll just say that I became well-versed in fielding reference questions especially in the sciences. I was fortunate to work under the guidance of experienced librarians who were skilled in using the sources, including sources published in just about any language you can think of. I enjoyed the challenges and will write more about each of these. 

From 1971 till the end of 1973, I was head of the Gifts and Exchange Section based in the Serials Dept.   The section was established by Charles Harvey Brown, longtime director of the library. (More about him and the exchange program later.) Here I will just say that hundreds of serials in all kinds of languages passed through the section on their way to the stacks. Our largest exchanges were with Japan and the Soviet Union. The gifts part of the section involved accepting, sorting and processing mostly bags and boxes of old books and papers donated by retiring faculty members. I worked closely with the head of Special Collections because sometimes mixed in with the old books there were valuable gems. (More stories later.)

Here are some links that you may want to check:

Brief History of Iowa State University

Pictures of ISU Library at the time I was there

Grant Wood Murals in the Library

History of Bergey's Manual

Intro to the Reference Interview

In 703 (basic reference) we studied search strategies first. Then moved to the reference interview. The students were all revved and ready. My first question to the students was: If a patron came to the desk and asked you "Who was Napoleon's father?" what source would you go to? Only once did a student respond in a useful way. How would you respond to me? (Veterans of 703, do you remember the correct response?)

About this blog

On this blog, I plan to reminisce about my experiences working in libraries (off and on, 1957-1973), about my experiences as a library school student (1958-1961, 1965/66, and 1974-1977) and as an LIS faculty member (1977-2003). I'll include examples of search strategies and reference interviews from those years. My former students in reference/information services courses at Carolina will recognize these. I am inviting my former students, and others, to share here as well. Those who are currently employed in libraries are invited to share experiences, and we all can play forecaster about the future of the profession. I am hoping that readers will shake their heads about how things have changed -- or not changed! (Hint: sources have changed and focus is now on electronic search strategies, but the library users today sound much like the people I worked with across the desk! I'm told by former students and colleagues that print reference sources are still used as well, so some of what I taught about print search strategies is still relevant.)