History of the NCSU Libraries' Directors
Photo (c) John Rosenthal
Susan K. Nutter (1987-present)
Vice Provost and Director of Libraries Susan K. Nutter was named the
2005 Librarian of the Year by the national trade publication Library Journal. Shortly after she arrived from M.I.T., the NCSU Libraries ranked 101st compared to its peers in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Within a little over a decade, she led the Libraries' climb to 32nd place in North America – an unprecedented accomplishment in ARL history. During her tenure, the library became one of the first to remain open 24/7 during the academic year; was a pioneer in creating a Learning Technology Service to assist faculty in developing online courses; was the very first in the nation to hire an intellectual property attorney to help both librarians and faculty interpret how copyright law protects or limits their access to information; and won the first-ever (2000) “Excellence in Academic Libraries Award” in the university library category.
I. T. Littleton (1964-1987)
Isaac T. Littleton accepted the position of Assistant Director of Libraries at North Carolina State College in 1959 and assumed the role of Library Director in 1964. Over the course of his career, Littleton built the D. H. Hill Library and its branches into a major university research
library system: the collection added over one million volumes; the
book, periodicals, and binding budget rose from $114,000 in
1958 to $3.1
million; the library's full-time staff and facilities tripled in size; and the D. H. Hill Library saw the ten story expansion of the first (North) bookstack tower. During Littleton's tenure, the library added its cataloging records to OCLC and served as a founding member of several cooperative organizations, including the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) and the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN). The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) admitted the library as a member in 1983. Since Littleton's retirement in 1987, the Libraries has held the annual I. T. Littleton Seminar in emerging library issues in his honor.
Harlan Craig Brown (1939-1964)
Harlan Brown began his career at NC State's library in 1936, as head of the Circulation Department. After taking on the role of Director, Brown presided over many significant changes for the library, including its relocation. In 1954, the D. H. Hill Library moved from the building now known as Brooks Hall to the facility where it remains today. The larger space provided Brown with the room to expand the collection from 50,000 to 500,000 volumes, construct a comprehensive scientific periodical collection, and acquire the renowned Tippman Collection of Entomology volumes. The enhanced D. H. Hill Library formed part of Brown's vision of a centralized campus library system. He sought to eliminate autonomous departmental libraries in favor of centrally controlled branch libraries. In the
fall of 1941, he oversaw the opening of the first branch, the
Architecture Library (now the Harrye B. Lyons Design Library). From 1942 to 1946, Brown took a leave of absence to serve in World War II. Reference librarian Reba Clevenger became acting college librarian in his absence.
William Porter Kellam (1934-1939)
William Porter Kellam replaced Hugh T. Lefler, head of the History Department and chair of the Library Committee, who served as acting director between 1933 and 1934. During
his five-year administration, Kellam brought a sense of professionalism and organization to the library: the number of formally trained librarians on the staff grew from one to seven; the number of books in the library increased from 33,500 to 56,500; circulation climbed from 60,400 to 97,900 volumes; and expenditures rose from $6,900 to $10,000.
Kellam arranged the library into departments by function: circulation, reference, ordering, cataloging, and periodicals.
Further increasing efficiency, Kellam
centralized the acquisition of books and periodical subscriptions, a
function that had been distributed among academic departments.
Frank Capps (1926-1933)
After the departure of James R. Gulledge, NC State College decided to save money by placing the library under the supervision of the Library Committee, instead of hiring a replacement.
Frank Capps, director of college extension and instructor of business
law, took on the position of executive secretary of the Library Committee.
Although he moved his office to the library, he did not have the professional training or the time to provide much oversight. A growing backlog of materials was left uncataloged and unusable, while poorly trained student assistants proved unable to assist patrons. Despite these difficulties, the collections continued to grow and procedures for interlibrary lending were instituted.
James R. Gulledge (1923-1926)
In 1923, NC State president Wallace Carl Riddick hired George Zook of the United States Bureau of Education to survey the college and make recommendations on how it could best be restructured. Zook reported that the library was inadequate for the needs of the growing institution and suggested that library services be centralized.
When Eugene Clyde Brooks succeeded W. C. Riddick as college president, he embraced the findings of the Zook Report, hiring skilled librarian James R. Gulledge and mandating that all books in the departmental libraries be cataloged as part of the central library system. During his short tenure, Gulledge made lasting changes: after the card catalog was destroyed in a fire, he changed the book classification
system from Dewey Decimal to the Library of Congress System; he worked to have
the library designated as a depository for U.S. government publications; and he provided the first formal library instruction for classes and individual students. Gulledge also presided over the move of the library from the first floor of Pullen Hall to its own building (now Brooks Hall) in 1926.
Charlotte M. Williamson (1910-1923)
Before taking the position of State College's librarian, Charlotte M. Williamson served as a Raleigh high school teacher and principal of the Murphey School. During her time as librarian, the collection continued to grow slowly. By 1911, the library catalog indicated holdings of 7,500 volumes and 150 magazines and journals. Although James R. Gulledge was named head librarian in 1923, Williamson remained on staff until 1937.
Elise Stockard (1906-1910)
During Elise Stockard's term as librarian, D. H. Hill became the third president of State College. He appointed English professors Thomas P. Harrison
and George Summey as co-chairs
of the library committee in 1908. Harrison and Summey departed from Hill’s
solitary approach to book selection, instead asking the faculty to recommend
titles for the collection.
Caroline Sherman (1903-1906)
Soon after Caroline Sherman began as librarian, the library holdings moved from the third floor of Main Building (now Holladay Hall) to the first floor of Pullen Hall. With continued input from D. H. Hill, permanent chairman of the Library Committee, Sherman tried to make the library comfortable for extra-curricular reading. Both hoped to encourage greater library patronage by subscribing to popular periodicals and newspapers from all of North Carolina's counties.
Marshall DeLancey Haywood (1902-1903)
Marshall DeLancey Haywood replaced E. B. Owen when the latter left the library to teach English full-time. Haywood held the position for only one year, resigning after G. T. Winston cut his already low salary. Haywood spent much of that year working on his book, William Tryon and his Administration in the Province of North Carolina, 1765-1771 (1903). He went on to become a noted author of North Carolina history and librarian of the North Carolina Supreme Court (1918-1933).
Edwin Bentley Owen (1899-1902)
E. B. Owen served State College in a variety of positions over his long career. An early graduate of State College (Class of 1898), Owen held positions as teacher of college preparatory classes (1898-1901), librarian (1899-1902), English professor (1904-1907), proctor, registrar (1907-1928), and the first alumni secretary / editor of the Alumni News (1928-1930), a publication he had established during World War I. In 1899, State College president George Tayloe Winston hired Owen and also brought in University of Texas librarian Benjamin Wyche to implement the Dewey system of book classification, construct a card catalog, and institute a card loan system.
Daniel Harvey Hill, Jr. (1889-1899)
Daniel Harvey Hill Jr., the library namesake, began his career
at North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College (now NCSU) upon its opening in 1889. Hill served as a professor of English and bookkeeping, until he was elected college president. He engaged in the common nineteenth-century practice of serving as both a professor and the college librarian. This responsibility was not a major burden, as the early library occupied only a reading room in the Main Building. Hill ordered all
of the books and supervised the student assistants. Due to Hill's own scholarly interests, the early collection was dominated by the humanities and history, despite the agricultural and mechanical focus of the school.
Sources:
All images courtesy of the NCSU Libraries' Special Collections Research Center unless otherwise noted.
Littleton, Isaac T. The D. H. Hill Library: An
Informal History, 1887-1987. Raleigh: Friends of the Library of
North Carolina State University, 1993.
[Littleton, I. T.], Reference Collection,
Biographical Files Sub-Group, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
[Owen, Edwin B.], Reference Collection,
Biographical Files Sub-Group, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Owen, E. B. "Random Sketches of College History." Alumni News, Nov. 1925, pp. 5-6.
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