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© 2007 University of Chicago Library
The collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: University of Chicago. Library. Office of the Director. Ernest Dewitt Burton and J. C. M. Hanson. Records, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
The second period in the history of the University of Chicago Library, comprising the joint administration of Ernest D. Burton and J. C. M. Hanson, was a time of rapid growth for the Library's staff and collections. In 1910, when Burton was appointed Director, the Library held 289,000 books with 100,000 more volumes unprocessed; by 1928, the Library's total holdings had increased to 799,000 volumes. The Library's staff, which numbered only 22 full-time members in 1910, had grown to 94 by 1914-1915 and to 116 by 1927-1928.
The administration which controlled the Library during this period was markedly different from that of Zella Allen Dixon during the University's first eighteen years (see University Library records, Series I). Immediately after Dixson's resignation was accepted by the Trustees in March 1910, Ernest D. Burton, Professor and Head of the Department of New Testament Literature, was asked to assume the position of Acting Director. By July 1910, it being understood that this post would be permanent, Burton began to negotiate with J. C. M. Hanson to accept the position of Associate Director. Hanson, then chief of the cataloging division of the Library of Congress, accepted the offer and assumed his duties in November 1910. Burton and Hanson had widely differing backgrounds. Burton's long tenure at the University and wide acquaintance with the faculty gave him a valuable sensitivity to the distinctive history and traditions of the University. Furthermore, he remained committed to the proposals of the Library Commission of 1902 he had chaired; the strengthening of the departmental library facilities around Harper Memorial Library. Hanson, by contrast, was a thoroughly trained cataloger whose experience at the Library of Congress led him to advocate the consolidation and centralization of library collections whenever possible. Despite these differences, Burton and Hanson worked well remarkably well. Burton retained his interest in the broadest aspects of Library policy and architectural planning, while Hanson was given general authority for the daily operations of the Library. After 1914, when Burton gave less of his time to the Library, and particularly after 1923, when he became the University's third President, Hanson assumed an even larger degree of administrative autonomy.
Hanson's first and most important contribution to the reorganization of the Library was the reclassification of the book collections begun in 1911. When Hanson arrived in Chicago, only half the Library's holdings were cataloged, with those in the General library under the Dewey decimal system and those in the departmental libraries under fourteen other classification systems. A faculty committee appointed in 1909 to study the problem had recommended that the Dewey classification be expanded to include all the Library's holdings. Hanson, however, compiled a lengthy report urging the adoption of the Library of Congress classification he had developed in collaboration with Charles Martel during his years in Washington. In April 1911, the committee reversed its decision, and in a unanimous written vote authorized the reclassification of all Library collections according to the Library of Congress system. Although reclassification was begun immediately, progress was impeded by the lack of existing catalog records and dispersion of titles and editions among many departmental libraries. During the course of the project, seven smaller libraries were consolidated with the General Library, leaving the University with seventeen departmental libraries. By 1928, reclassification was virtually complete, with the chaotic collections of 1910 reorganized under a single system of classification and all volumes in the Library accessible through a consolidated card catalog in the General Library.
The progress of the reclassification project made other reforms and innovations possible as well. In 1913, in the face of opposition from older faculty members, Hanson established the Library's first serial record, consolidating all serial holdings records in a single file. Hanson also introduced a program for selling the Library's printed catalog cards to subscribing libraries. This program, launched in 1913, followed the example of earlier systems at the Library of Congress, Harvard University, and the John Crerar, and effectively defrayed the costs of printing cards for the Library's new consolidated catalog.
Despite advances in classification and cataloging, the Library was still hampered by the lack of adequate space to house all its collections and operations. Harper Memorial Library, dedicated in elaborate ceremonies in June 1912, and designed to serve the needs of the University for nearly a century, began to attract strong criticism within a year of its opening. Sumptuous and impressive though it may have been as a memorial to the University's first President, the Library was compromised from the beginning by the encroachment of non-library functions and offices. The completed building held the General book stacks, the General reading room, catalog room, and Library staff offices; but it also housed offices for the President and his secretaries, an assembly room, classrooms and offices for the Modern Language group and the departments of History, Political Economy, Political Science, and Sociology, and the departmental libraries of the Modern Language group, Philosophy, and History. The entire building, consisting of two basement levels, six floors, and a mezzanine, was served by two passenger elevators and a cumbersome system of lifts and pneumatic tubes required to page books from the underground stacks. Workspace for the staff was inadequate within three years, and by 1919 Burton concluded that usable book stack space had also been exhausted. The original plan for Harper was further hampered by the interruption of bridge connections between the buildings of the Harper group: the bridge to Haskell Hall was closed for several years, a link to Swift Hall was never built, and the Geology and Geography departments refused to permit the erection of a bridge between the Law School and Rosenwald Hall.
By December 1922, the general overcrowding of Harper Library and the need for coordinated planning caused President Judson to appoint the Commission on the Future Policy of the University Libraries. The Commission, headed by trustee Harold H. Swift, included in its membership trustees Martin A. Ryerson and Charles W. Gilkey, President Judson, and professors John M. Coulter, Albion W. Small, Leonard D. White, and Ernest D. Burton. Hanson was not made a member, due no doubt partly to the fact that his opposition to departmental libraries was already well known. The Commission, like its predecessor twenty years earlier, was charged with a comprehensive review of the Library's needs and the formulation of appropriate recommendations. Discussions among members, however, soon revealed a deep division of opinion. The Tentative Report of the Commission, released to the University community in 1924, contained not one but two separate proposals for the future direction of the Library: Plan I, which called for the erection of a new 10-story library building large enough to hold all the departmental libraries and located in the center of the main quadrangle; and Plan II, which called for the fulfillment of the plan of 1902, with modern language and social science buildings flanking Harper and a new Harper annex replacing Haskell Hall. Plan I, supported by Hanson and many librarians at other institutions who had been consulted by the Commission, promised greater centralization but threatened to dwarf the campus with a huge new building. Plan II, largely the work of Burton and E. A. Henry, the head of the Readers' Department, offered a less expensive solution more in keeping with the architectural scale of the quadrangles, yet insured the retention of the dispersed departmental system. While the Tentative Report was printed and distributed, and comments drafted. By 1924, large amounts of money had already been raised for the completion of the Harper group, and Swift and other University officials feared that any fundamental change in building plans would disrupt a successful campaign. Even if these difficulties could have been overcome, wide disagreement within the faculty on questions of Library policy would have made a compromise plan difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.
Following the retirement of President Judson in February 1923, Ernest D. Burton was named Acting President of the University. Five months later, the appointment was made permanent, although Burton continued to hold the title of Director of the Library. Hanson's elevation to the Directorship might have been expected in due course had it not been for his strong advocacy of centralization and the resulting tensions in his relations with some of the faculty. After Burton's death in 1925, a formal search for a new Director was initiated, while the Library Board was revived as an administrative body to supervise Library operations. In December 1926, M. Llewellyn Raney, librarian of Johns Hopkins University, accepted the position of Director with the understanding that he would devote the first year of his appointment to travel and the study of operations at other libraries. Accordingly, at Raney's request, Hanson was named Acting Director from July 1927 to February 1928, after which he joined the faculty of the Graduate Library School. Following several months during which E. A. Henry served as Acting Director, Raney assumed full control of the Library in July 1928.
In a special report to the Board of Trustees in 1925, shortly before Burton's death, Burton and Hanson summarized their achievements as an administrative team since 1910. "The last fourteen years," they wrote, "have witnessed important changes. The entire library system of the University has been harmonized and coordinated, so that nearly all books are now purchased, cataloged, classified, and bound under the direction of the central administration and on a system which will compare favorably with that of any other university." If the degree of centralization and coordination was not as complete as Hanson, the professional librarian, had hoped, he could take pride in the remarkable progress achieved under Burton's direction and could draw satisfaction from the fact that the University Library would in the coming years be led for the first time in its history by a Director who was also a professional librarian.
The University of Chicago Library Records consist of material generated during the administration of Ernest DeWitt Burton (Director, 1910-1925) and J. C. M. Hanson (Associate Director, 1910-1927; Acting Director, 1927-1928). The records include budgets and annual reports to the President of the University; minutes of the Director's Conference and Library Board; administrative correspondence and memoranda; records of the Commission on the Future of the University Libraries (1922-1924); accession logbooks; personnel files; the Library Handbook; and scrapbooks.
Series I: JAST-HANSON CLASSIFICATION
The materials in this series reflect the classification system developed by British librarian L. Stanley Jast in A Classification of Library Economy and Office Papers (London, 1907). Adapted by J. C. M. Hanson for use in organizing the Library's administrative records, the system consists of a two to four digit classification number on each document indicating its filing location within eleven main topical divisions. In order to give greater clarity to the scheme and indicate more clearly its relation to the structure of the University Library, the inventory of the records has been divided into sixteen divisions, which retain the numerical order of the Jast-Hanson classification.
Series II: OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR AND THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
This series consists of an alphabetical series of general administrative correspondence followed by a group of topical files. The correspondence includes letters of Burton and Hanson, a copy of their joint report to the Board of Trustees on the development of the Library from 1910 to 1925, and correspondence from 1910 regarding Hanson's duties and title at the University of Chicago Library.
Series III: OTHER LIBRARIES
This series contains miscellaneous records concerning interlibrary cooperation and statistical and administrative comparisons between the University of Chicago Library and other academic libraries.
Series Iv: LIBRARY SCIENCE
This series includes records related to library instruction at other institutions, and orientation tours and exhibits at the University Library. This division also contains memoranda and correspondence concerning the creation of a graduate library school at the University of Chicago.
Series V: BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS
Most of the records in the series concern Harper Memorial Library: its planning, dedication, decoration, mechanical services, and furnishings. Several folders contain material on departmental library buildings and on the problems created by the double level of underground book stacks beneath Harper Library and adjoining buildings.
Series VI: POLICY
This division contains the minutes of the Director's Conference of senior Library staff members, the minutes of the Library Board, and correspondence concerning the Classification Committee's decision to adopt the Library of Congress system in 1911. The largest bodies of material are a series of annual reports of the Director or Associate Director from 1911 to 1928, and an alphabetical group of correspondence regarding the required submission of 100 printed copies of each University dissertation to the Library for purposes of exchange with other institutions. The division also contains extensive correspondence regarding the deliberations and Tentative Report of the Commission on the Future Policy of the University Libraries.
Series VII: LIBRARY STAFF
These records concern Library personnel. The division concludes with minutes of the Library Council of senior staff members, the constitution and material related to the Order of the Grey Towers staff organization, and letters of recommendation.
Series VIII: RULES AND REGULATIONS
This series contains copies of the Library's handbook of rules and regulations, correspondence concerning the possibility of allowing Harper Library to remain open on Sunday, and memoranda on the need to maintain order in the Harper Reading Room.
Series IX: BUDGET
The total budget of the University Library grew from $180,500 in 1911-1912 to $378,000 in 1927-1928. This group of records includes administrative correspondence concerning budget appropriations and expenditures, memoranda and statistics used in the preparation of the annual budget, and files on specific funds and expenditures.
Series X: COMMUNICATION
This series contains miscellaneous correspondence and brochures on mail, telephones, typewriters, and other forms of Library communication.
Series XI: ACQUISITIONS
The records in this division consist of general reports on Library accessions, material on book recommendations and book purchases, and correspondence relating to gifts and book collections, including the Canal Collection, Cunther Collection, and Gunsaulus-Butler Collection. Twenty-five oversize accession logbooks recording accession numbers and titles of books accessioned from 1910 to 1925 are shelved separately and should be requested by volume number.
Series XII: CATALOGING AND CLASSIFICATION
This division includes minutes of the regular meetings of the Library's catalogers, classifiers, and shelf listers, minutes of the meetings of cataloging revisers, correspondence concerning the printing and distribution of catalog cards, memoranda regarding cataloging equipment, correspondence on the reclassification of the Library's collections according to the Library of Congress system, and a partial classification schedule.
Series XIII: CONSERVATION
Material in this division concerns labels, boxes, storage of maps and photographs, bindings, repairs of manuscripts and newspapers, and other matters related to physical conservation.
Series XIV: CIRULATION AND REFERENCE
This series includes materials documenting loans, fines, reserve books, and complaints and suggestions. Three folders of correspondence deal with the Cameragraph and other photostat machines.
Series XV: DEPARTMENTAL LIBRARIES
This series contains two main bodies of material. General correspondence, questionnaires, and the printed report of the Committee on the Relations of the Departmental Libraries and the General Library reveal some of the basic issues generated by the departmental organization of the Library's collections.
These folders are followed by an alphabetical series of administrative records devoted to each of the departmental libraries. Included are the records of several libraries, such as Athletics, Hitchcock Hall, and Public Speaking, which were incorporated within the General Library collections.
Series XVI: MISCELLANEOUS
This series contains copies of various editions of the Handbook of the Libraries of the University, correspondence related to the General Catalogue of Incunabula and the National Union List of Serials, and material on the Renaissance Society, a group of faculty members organized in 1915 to develop "the artistic and esthetic side of the Libraries of the University." The division concludes with three scrapbooks compiled by the Library staff from 1911 to 1928.