North Carolina State University Libraries, Associate Director for Public Services Records 1905-1998 (bulk 1960-1990)

The North Carolina State University Libraries’ Associate Director for Public Services was primarily concerned with meeting the needs of the Libraries’ users including students, faculty, staff, and the outlying community. There was some overlap in terms of responsibilities and therefore records of the Public Services Council, Assistant Director for Reference Services, and the Assistant Director for General Services. Topics addressed by Public Services included photocopy services, interlibrary loan of materials, reference services, usability of library collection guides, and serials cataloging. The position later became the Donald E. Moreland Deputy Director of Libraries.

Since 1924, to a relatively declining degree as of 2009, the D. H. Hill Library has been a depository library of the U. S. Government Printing Office. Examples of these documents include Congressional publications in the forms of bills, resolution, hearings, debates, and laws; Environmental Protection Agency documents; and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records.

Many of the records appear to have belonged to William C. Lowe, who served as Director of the Technical Information Center in 1966 and Assistant Director for Reference Services in 1971. In the 1990s, Charles Gilreath held the position of Associate Director for Public Services.

In August of 1999, The Donald E. Moreland Associate Director for Public Services, the first named position in the NC State University Libraries, was created from an endowment established by Professor Emeritus Donald E. Moreland and his wife, Verdie S. Moreland. Carolyn D. Argentati was the first to hold the position.

This collection contains the records and working files of the North Carolina State University Libraries' Associate Director for Public Services, including correspondence, reports, statistics; primarily reference and interlibrary loan, but also records of the Circulation Department, 1910 to 1983.

The General Services series contains the records pertaining to the various services the library provides to users. This series includes correspondence, reports, and statistics pertaining to circulation, serials, automation, microfiche, photocopy, acquisitions, and cataloging.

The Reference Division series contains records pertaining to the libraries’ mission to meet users’ needs in answering reference questions. This series includes reports, records of search requests, meeting minutes, Higher Education General Information Survey and Association of Research Libraries statistics, the Online Reference Retrieval Project, and bibliographies.

The Documents Division series contains the records of the Documents librarian, primarily those of Mary Poole. These records trace the history of the North Carolina State University Libraries as a government document depository. This series includes reports, correspondence, and records of the acquisitions of various documents of historical value.

The Technical Services series contains reports, correspondence, and newsletters. Projects represented by the records include the Library Technical Assistant Program and a map information project. The Technical Information Center caters to interests concerning business and industry. This series also includes a significant number of records about the Southern Water Resources Scientific Information Center.

The General Library series contains correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, and memoranda that primarily relate to the administrative functions of the library. This series includes equipment and wage budget requests, job position descriptions, and various committees such as the long range planning committee, preservation committee, and the library space planning committee. Also included are various examples of library publications including the Staff Association and CD Notes newsletters.

The final series contains correspondence, questionnaires, and statistics concerning interlibrary cooperation. Different methods and structures of interlibrary loan are represented by records of the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN), Interlibrary Center, Central Depository Library, Transportation Library Network, and Cooperating Raleigh Colleges.

The collection is organized into six series:

• Division of General Services
• Reference Division
• Documents Division
• Technical Services Division
• General Library records
• Interlibrary Cooperation

The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.

The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.

[Identification of item], North Carolina State University Libraries, Associate Director for Public Services Records, UA 012.030, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Transferred from the office of the North Carolina State University Libraries Associate Director for Public Services.

Processed by Carolyn Chesarino, 2009 November

Encoded by Kellie Strickland, 2009 June 11

Finding aid updated by Carolyn Chesarino, 2009 November