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SAMUEL PROCTOR ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM at
the University of Florida
DATE: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1978
INTERVIEWER: STEVE KERBER
INTERVIEWEE: MISS JANE TYSON
PLACE: DIRECTOR'S CONFERENCE ROOM, FLORIDA STATE MUSEUM
TIME: 9:30 a.m.
K:Today is
Wednesday,
October 25, 1978. My name is Steve Kerber
and I am going to be conducting an oral history interview
with Miss Jane Tyson. Miss Tyson was formerly an assistant
in the Agriculture Experiment Station library at the
University of Florida to Mrs. Ida Cresap.
This interview
for the University of
Florida's
Oral history
Project will
take place in the director's conference room of the Florida
State Museum at 9:30 a.m.
K:...and as I think I told you before it's uh,
a very informal
uh, kind of a process
T:Oh, yes.
K:....And uh, if you
decide you want to stop and stretch your
legs after a half hour or something, just let me
know and
I'll turn it off.
T:Um huh.
K:We send it back to you so that you can go over it and if there
is something, perhaps a first name, ......
T:Yes.
K:....that I didn't have and you couldn't remember at the time,
you can stick it in at that point or something that you
wanted to take out, a sentence or.....
T:Yes
K:....something, you can do it. And then it comes back to us and
we type up the final version and then we send a copy of that
back to you also.
So you wind up with a copy of it....
T:Um huh.
K:....and we ask you to sign a legal release because eventually
all these are intended to be in the University Library, the
transcripts of the interviews.
T:Yes.
K:Okay. Uh, well, I usually start then, by asking you to tell me
your full
name, if you would.
T:Janie Lee Tyson.
K:And uh, when did you retire from the University of Florida?
T:In 1970.
K:Um huh. And what was your position
at that time?
T:I was assistant librarian at that time.
K:At the,..... ?
T:At the Agri, Agriculture Library, which
the Hume Library.
K:Un huh.
T:Uh, when I first began
work,
has been
it was the Agricultural
known as
Experiment
Station,...
K:Um huh.
T:And then in later years, it became the Agriculture Library,
agricultural students, as well as research.
K:It was
referred to when you started, as the Experiment Station
library?
The Agricultural Experiment Station library.
for
T:Yes, it was.
K:Um huh.
T:You see, uh,
K:Um huh...
T:Institute in
K:Um huh.
T:....was
IFAS,
Food and Agricultural Sciences....
at one time, Agricultural Experiment Station.
K:Um huh.
T:And the library serviced all of the departments of the
Agricultural Experiment Station....
K:Um huh.
T:...in Gainesville, as well as over the state.
K:Um huh. Let me follow up on that for just a second now. Um,
did the library, when you started working there, also, were
the materials in the library available to the people who
worked in the Extension Service?
T:Yes. Yes.
K:Were they available to the faculty in the College of
Agriculture?
T:Oh yes,
indeed.
Yes.
K:And how about the students in agriculture?
T:Well, there were so few students 'way back then.
K:Um huh.
T:Uh, yes, they used the library, too.
K:They were permitted to....
T:Yes. But there were very few
students
when I began work.
K:Okay, let me back up a little bit again now. Where do you come
from, where were you born?
T:I was born at Wacahoota....
K:Um huh.
T:....which is a rural community in Alachua County.
K:Um huh. Had your
family lived in Alachua County
for a long
time?
T:Yes. My father was born in Alachua County....
K:Um huh.
T:....the same place that I was born.
K:Um huh, What was your father's name?
T:John Oliver Tyson.
K:Un huh. And how about your mother?
T:My mother was born at Melrose and she was
she married.
K:Un huh. How do you spell that last name?
T:T-o-r-l-a-y.
K:Un huh. What did your father do
Tiny Torlay,
for a living?
farmer?
T:Yes. He was a farmer. And we also had a citrus
K:Oh. I see.
T:We...he had cotton, and then he had cattle,
K:Un huh.
Was he
grove.
too.
T:As well
as farming,
general farming.
K:Un huh. What community did you go to school in?
T:I began school at a little community known as Central.
between Wacahoota and Micanopy.
K:Un huh.
before
It was
T:And there was a little country school, one-room school,
all, grades from one to eight were taught.
K:Un huh.
T:And from there I went to Micanopy to school.
K:Un huh.
T:We drove eight miles.
K:Now, was this also grade school
in Micanopy?
was this high
school?
T:High school, too.
K:High school.
T:Yes.
K:So you graduated from high school in Micanopy?
T:I, I graduated. I did my graduate work, yes,
K:Un huh.
T:....from Micanopy.
K:Un huh. And do you mind telling
us when you graduated from
high school?
T:Oh dear.
That's something I didn't bring..... must have been
about 1917, 1918.
K:Now, after high school, did
you have the opportunity to go to
college?
T:No, I did not.
K:Un huh. What did you do then? Did you find employment
somewhere?
T:Um, wait a minute. I, I've told you wrong about the date....
K:Un huh.
where
T:...that I graduated. Um, I will go back and say, because of
illness, I was not able to really attend the school,
but uh,
we had a teacher that tutored me. Um,
no, I was
not able to
go to college but, must of
been 1928, I went to
Jacksonville. My brother lived in Jacksonville...
K:Un huh.
T:...and I went to Jacksonville and stayed with he
and took a business course.
K:Um huh. How did you come to work
and his wife,
at the university?
T:Well, Mrs. Grace Warren, at that time, was the home
demonstration
agent, which is now called, a homemaker's
clubs.....
K:Um huh.
T:Under the Agricultural Extension Service. And I
had been
member of one of those clubs.
K:I see.
T:Um, if fact,
we, my mother was very active.
K:Um huh.
T:...in that group. And Mrs. Warren knew that I
was in
Jacksonville and that I was ready for some work....
K:Um huh.
T:...true work, and Mrs. Ida Keeling Cresap needed someone
she asked Mrs. Warren....
K:Um huh.
T:...if she knew of
a person,
and she gave her my name,
sent me a telegram. I received it in Jacksonville. Now
this was during the Depression..
and she
K:Um huh.
T:...and if you didn't live through the Depression,
... you just
don't know about such things...
K:Um huh.
T:...but I received a telegram that uh, there was a position open
for uh, secretary...
K:Um huh.
T:...a typist in the Agricultural Experiment Station library with
the beginning salary of $100, if I...a month, if
I was
interested,
um, to please come for
an interview.
K:Um huh.
T:I did not have the money to come, but I
K:Um huh.
T:And uh,.....
K:So you came over on the train? Or...
T:Yes.
K:Um huh.
borrowed
T:On the train.
K:Um huh.
Now I'm sure you had been
in Gainesville...
T:Oh yes.
K:...many times before that?
T:Oh yes.
K:What was ... your....
T:Gainesville was really our,
our home....
K:Um huh.
T:...community., because we came to Gainesville,
every week....
K:Shopping?
father having this farm, uh, he grew produce
that we brought to Gainesville to sell. We furnished a
great lot of
fresh vegetables to some of the stores in
downtown Gainesville.
K:So he did, he sort of did some truck farming.... to....
T:Yes. Yes.
K:Um huh. Now, do you remember, at all, the first time that you
would have come to the university?
Would it have, would it
have been as a very small child? Just out to the campus?
T:Yes. Yes. I, the best I can remember, was when
Home Demonstration Clubs....
K:Um huh.
T:They had a, a meeting every summer. And,
we were in
I don't remember what
it was called....but it was like a fair on the campus..
K:Oh. Um huh.
T:And we had, there was completion among different ones,
especially the ladies in things that they did.
K:Um huh.
T:For instance, I entered a cooking contest....
K:Um huh.
T:....and made a salad...
K:Um huh.
T:And that's some of my first memories.....
K:Un huh..
T:But I was just a teenager then.
K:Do you remember where that might have been held on
campus?
T:Yes. Approximately at, it was just east of the now Auditorium.
T:Yes, yes. And my
K:Um huh. Just to the east of that....
T:Tn some of those old
old buildings
K:Un huh. And it was uh, a fair, involving the young women who
were....in this club?
T:Yes..and, and the older women.
You see, I lived in a community
where there were no young people, my age.
K:Oh. Um huh.
T:And so,
they made a special
uh, dispensation for me and let me
attend the adult clubs.
K:I see. So it was really for the wives
of farmers....
T:Yes.
K:Not just
for younger....women.
T:Yes., Yes.
K:I see, Okay.
Now what was uh. the
year that
you received that
telegram from Mrs. Cresap?
T:In, In 19
K:1929.
T:Yes.
K:Um huh
You said....
and 29.
SSo you came over on the train and did you meet with
her personally?
T:Yes, I did.
K:Un huh. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
T:I, I went to her home....
K:Um huh. Where was that?
T:On um, north west Washington
Street...
K:Um huh.
T:Which is now Fifteenth
Street.
K:Un huh.
T:Four-two-five...
K:Um huh.
T:Um hum.
K:Um huh.
I went to her home
and she interviewed me, there.
T:And uh, told me that I had the job. And I
was to, to come to
work, the first of December,
which was
the second day
December, 1929.
K:Un huh.
T:This was
the first,
sometime before Thanksgiving,,,....
K:Un huh.
T:That I had the interview.
K:Un huh.
T:But I didn't start work until the first of the month.
K:Un huh. Now, uh, ....
T:Then I went to my parents'
home and stayed....
K:And stayed there until you started?
T:Yes. Yes.
K:Okay. So I was going to ask you then, did you uh, go out and
try to find room and board with someone? Where did you
stay? or did you stay with your parents and commute to
Gainesville?
T:No, I stayed in town. But we had a very dear friend that had
lived about two miles from us in the country that had moved
to Gainesville....
K:Un huh.
T:And so I stayed with her.
K:I see.
T:A Mrs. Smith.
K:Un huh. Now.....
T:In fact,
she was,
I was named for her.
K:Oh, really?
T:Um hum.
K:How long did you uh, continue to live with uh,...
T:I only lived with her uh, in her home, she had a rooming house,
um, near downtown Gainesville, and I only lived there a
short time because I had a cousin that.....
K:Um huh.
T: ....had moved to Gainesville, and her
father was
hospital and, and ill.
K:Um huh.
husband worked for the State Road Department and he
was gone all week...
K:Um huh.
T:And so I moved in with my cousin.
K:I see. Did Mrs. Smith uh, specialize in
did she just take anyone?
T:Uh, just anyone, yes.
K:Un huh.
T:She had two grandsons.....
K:Un huh.
T:....that were attending the University.
K:Uh huh.
taking in students or
she had a lot of other roomers.
T:My cousin's
in the
T:And then,
K:Did she have a very large rooming house?
T:Oh, there must have been uh, eight or ten.
K:Un huh. Where was her house located? Was it, what, near the
square?
T:Yes. Yes. It was on um, Second.... must have been First
Street, south west.
K:Um huh.
T:About uh, it was near the uh,
Furniture Company,
K:Um huh.
T:...if you know where that is
it was almost 'back of Badcock's
now.
K:Yes.
T:Um hum.
K:Okay.
T:Right in there.
K:Did you have to be interviewed by
anyone other than
Mrs.
Cresap....
T:No.
K:....to get the job?
T:No. I did not.
K:No. Did you have to uh, sign
any papers
or anything like that?
T:I just, she just interviewed me and I,
K:Un huh. Now...
T:In those days, it was quite different.
K:I'm sure.
T:Um hum.
that's all.
up on Monday morning then
Or just a few people?
to start work....
K:So you showed
T:That's right....that's right.
K:....and what sort of duties did she give you,
at the very
first?
T:Well, I did typing....
K:Um huh.
T:And uh, I did some secretarial work....
K:Um huh.
T:And, any secretarial,
the library....
K:Um huh.
any secretarial work that was
required of
T:And, pardon
me, we had state documents that we catalogued....
K:Um huh.
T:And I did the typing of the cards.
K:I see.
T:Also. And I, there was no other, permanent, full-time person
in the library....
K:Um huh.
T:And so,
our office was
just, just out the main reading room,
and stack room and everything, and anyone would come and
want something, why you'd get up and go and, and get it
them.
K:So you really
found yourself doing the work
a librarian
instances.....
T:And, anything....
K:Um huh.
T:Anything that was, that would you do in the library. In those
days.
for
many
K:Um huh. So...
T:You, you see, when I began work, there were very few books....
K:Um huh.
T:I would say,
not more that 5,000,.....
K:Um huh.
T:....books in the library.
K:Oh. None at all?
T:No classisication at all.
K:Hum.
H:The, there were a good many
... um, periodicals...
K:Um huh.
a scientific nature.
And, none of them were catalogued.
magazines.... I
And they were
say magazines,
all shelved in
alphabetic order by titles...
T:There were very
few books. When I say books,
I mean textbooks.
K:Um huh.
T:Most of our material was either state documents
or U.S.
Department of Agriculture documents....
K:Um huh.
T:And we had foreign documents from agricultural, pertaining to
agriculture, from foreign countries.
K:Um huh. Um huh.
T:And then
we had a, this number of periodicals.
K:Um huh.
T:Pertaining to um, botany and general agriculture and ....
K:Um huh.
fields, sciences in agriculture.
T:The different
K:I should ask you exactly where the library collection was
located when you started in 1929?
T:In was on the second
is now,......
K:Rolfs? Rolfs Hall?
T:Yes. That's
floor, in the Horticulture Building, which
right.
K:And how many room did you say you had there?
T:We had the librarian's office and long room.
K:Um huh. And that was both where the books and periodicals
shelved and...
T:Yes.
K:...and the reading room?
T:And the tab, the tables were, there were metal
stacks.....
K:Um huh.
T:...in this large room, and down the side of the room were
windows and under each window was a little square table....
K:Um huh.
T:...that two people could sit and then there were two or three
long tables right,
just as you entered the library....
K:Um huh.
T:...because the room was not full stacks at that time.
K:Um huh. Did the library remain in those rooms until McCarty
Hall was built?
T:Yes, it did. Only we had, almost the entire second floor.
K:I see. So it spread out on the second floor?
T:Oh yes. Oh yes.
K:Um huh.
were
T:Um, there was a little, when you, went up to the second floor,
K:Um huh.
T:...on your left,
was this little office that was
a librarian's
office. The next room was a very large, long
room.....
K:Um huh.
T:....well, and then at the end of it was a small
office. And
then there was a classroom at the end of that, so you see,
the, the entire length of the building, and uh, eventually,
we had all of that and all the way to the east
enclosed the east end of the hall.....
K:Um huh.
T: ....and put stacks in it....
K:Um huh.
T:...and we put stacks in classrooms across the....
K:Heh heh.
we uh,
T:....in what had been
offices,
and then
classrooms .....
K:Um huh.
T:And then
we had,
on the left
and the
right of the hall.
K:I see.
T:There was,
I believe, one office across
the room from
had all the rest of that building, that floor.
K:Um huh.
T:And we had put um, cabinets in the hall, wooden cabinets that
were, that had doors and locks,.....
K:Um huh.
T:And we had to store material in there....
us, we
K:Um huh.
T:Oh, you can't imagine.....
K:Heh he hheh....
T:Ha ha, how it had grown......
K:When, well you mentioned earlier, that at first it was referred
to as the Experiment Station library,....
T:Yes.
K:....did they begin to call it just the Agriculture library
before the new building, McCarty Hall,....
T:No.
K: .... was built? Not until then?
T:No., not until then. Not until uh, the new building and uh,
then it was
referred to
as Agricultural library.
K:I see. Now, could you tell me a little bit about how Mrs.
Cresap's duties compared to your own? In other words, did
you usually work together on the same kinds of things that
needed to be done? Or was there any strict differentiation
at all between the kinds of things she did during a day, and
the kinds of things that you did.
T:Well, of
course, Mrs. Cresap was the librarian.....
K:Um huh.
T:And uh, yes, there was quite a lot of difference....
K:Um huh.
T:She had the contact with ....the director.....
K:Um huh.
T:And uh, made the decisions as to what would be uh, done and had
full charge of the budget and, and such. Just like the head
of any department......
K:Um huh.
T:But she also um, did some classifying
the earl
because we began,
1930's, classifying the material.
K:Um huh.
T:And at that time, I,
I did not know, I had had no experience
with a classification. And as this was an agriculture
library, Mrs. Cresap had made several visits to Washington,
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture library....
K:Um huh.
T:And there she had studied and um, secured a copy of their
classification scheme...
K:Um huh.
T:...which she brought back, and that is
scheme that this library has used.
K:Um huh.
the classification
T:It was not
as full or expanded as large as
we wanted it....
K:Um huh.
H:And so in years to come, we expanded the scheme to fit our
purpose.
K:Um huh.
T:Um, yes, my duties were, I'll go back now,....
K:No, that's okay.....
T:...to the question you asked....my duties were to type the
cards of the documents...
oh in
K:Um huh.
T:To help anyone that needed help.....to uh, located material, to
shelve material, well, you see, this material came in every
day.....
K:Um huh.
T:The little post office was in the building on the first floor,
and I got the mat,, the mail, and after receiving
a complete
volume of
the periodicals,
if there was
money,
we had them
bound...
K:I see.
T:...into books.
bindery....
K:I see..
T:We also bound
And so I prepared the material
the state documents.
K:Um huh.
T:And the U.S. Department of Agriculture documents.
We received
uh, foreign documents and some, some of them were bound.
K:Um huh.
T:As, as there were
funds.
K:Did you have your binding done in town? Or?
T:No.,,, uh, in Jacksonville....
K:I see.
T:There was a bindery there that we shipped the material to.
K:Now, about this classification system....if I understand you
correctly, your collection continued to outgrow the initial
system that Mrs. Cresap had picked up in Washington.....
T:Yes, yes.
for the
K:....and so you had to really adapt it....
T:That's right...
K:...to the material that you subsequently acquired?
T:Yes, and expanded the classification
scheme.
K:Um huh.
T:You see,
by using decimals,
you can uh,
for instance,
was uh, well, I'll go to 99.
99 was forestry....
K:Um huh.
T:And you have so much under forestry you only had one number -
and so you inserted many decimals...
K:Um huh.
T:...to keep all of the
forestry material together.
K:Um huh. So there really was no adequate system available to
you? You just had to make it up?
T:That's right.
K:Um huh.
T:Yes.
K:So, someone going to a similar library in another area of the
country would not have
found the same system....
T:Not exactly....um,...
K:...except in basic points....
T:Cornell
University used that at one time, but they eventually
went to the Dewey Decimal,
K:Um huh.
T:I believe.
K:Um huh. Do you know if, from what Mrs.
Cresap may
have told
you, if she ever had any formal training as a librarian?
94, say,
T:Um, I don't believe so. Except um, in
a graduate of library school...
K:Um huh.
T:But she studied a great deal
K:Um huh.
T:And she took library courses....
K:Um huh.
T:As I did too, later.
K:Um huh. Let me follow up on that. Did, did she take them
here? Or did she go to Tallahassee or what?
T:No, she took hers,
I think, through Washington
K:I see.
T:Yes.
K:And how about you? Where did you go?
T:Well, I
K:Um huh.
T:Yes.
K:Umhuh.
took some here....
Were those offered by the people from Tallahassee?
T:By the main, the main library here.
K:Un huh. By the librarians here?
T:The school of library science here,....
K:Un huh.
T:Yes.
K:I see. They didn't grant a degree though
T:No. No.
K:....in library science,
did they?
They just offered some
courses.
here....
other words, she was not
right. Um huh.
K:I see. Okay. Now,
when you began work here, were you, and for
that matter,
was Mrs. Cresap, on the state payroll
or on the
federal?
T:On the state.
K:And it was
always.....
T:Yes. Yes.
K:....that way through your
T:Yes. Yes.
Where did the book budget
money come from? Was that
also state money?
T:Yes. You see, we were a department of the Agricultural
Experiment Station....
K:Un huh.
T:....which is now IFAS.
K:Un huh.
T:Just like horticulture or botany or
uh animal
K:Uh huh.
T:And so the budget came through the Agricultural uh, Experiment
Station, which was a part of the state.
K:Un huh. Was that a budget just for the library or did the
departments within the station have a certain budget for
buying.....
T:Each....
K: ....materials?
T:Each department had a budget.....
K:Un huh.
career?
see.
science.
T:That's
T:Um, our little salary, everything. Now the departments had a
very small amount that they spent
for books
that they kept
in their department.....
K:Un huh.
T:So they were always right in their department.
K:Oh, they had collections
separate from yours
T:Yes, they did.....
K:Small ones?
T:....because the research
worker needed it right at his
hand.....
K:Un huh.
T:....so much of the time.
K:Un huh.
T:And they had....some of the departments had acquired, oh
several hundred volumes over the years, but eventually all
that material was catalogued by us.
K:Un huh.
T:And brought in to the agriculture library. I don't believe any
of the departments had material in their own departments, in
later years. Maybe just,
you know,
a volume or two.
K:Yeah.
T:But no library as such.
K:Would that have been brought together before the move to the
Hume library?
T:Yes, it was.
K:Was it?
T:Most of it,.
then?
K:Un huh.
T:Yes. I believe veterinary science still had th,
their library, until just a
maintained
few years ago.
K:Un huh. Let me ask you a few more questions about Mrs. Cresap.
T:Un huh.
K:About how old was she when you started to work here in
1929?
T:Well, now let me see. I, I've never been
a good judge of
but I would say Mrs.
K:Un huh.
T:Something like that.
Cresap was
K:I understand that she was a widow,
at that time?
T:Yes, yes, I never knew her.....
K:Her husband?
T:No. He had died sometime before she came to Gainesville.
K:Did she ever tell you how she managed, er, how she got the job
here? Why, why, and how
she came here?
T:Yes, um, Dr. Wilmon Newell was the director of the Agricultural
Experiment Station and Mrs. Cresap lived in Marianna.
K:Un hum.
T:She.....was writing at that time, for a paper...
K:Un huh.
T:....and I'm not absolutely sure how, but
someway he
asked her
to come to be editor....
K:Un huh.
T:But when
she arrived,
the changed it.....
K:Heh heh heh heh.
T:...and she became the librarian, and J. Francis
uh, 35,
40....
age,
Cooper...
K:Un huh.
T:....came as the editor for the Agricultural Experiment Station.
K:I see. So they came at the same time?
T:I think just about the same time.
K:Un huh. Was she disappointed?
T:No. No. She loved the library.
K:Un huh.
T:And she always loved helping people,
and, and had a, wonderful
sense of,
what's word I want to
use, she was almost ahead of
her time.
K:Un hum.
T:Because she wanted to expand and do so many
um, things that had
never been done in a library.
K:Un huh. What did she look like? Could you describe her a
little bit physically? Was she a tall woman or was she a
dark woman?
T:Yes, she was
slender.
about uh, five feet eight uh, nine, rather
Um, she had a, a little dark complexion, her eyes
were brown....
K:Un hum.
T:She could be very stern
but she was
very good also.
K:Un huh.
T:And um, she, she lived and breathed thinking about the library
and how she could um, expand it, how um, she dreamed of the
move to a larger building....
K:Un hum.
T:She planned the building for the library
possible.
K:Un huh.
T:Mrs. Cresap had students that worked in the library, we had
many students over the years, and the young people that
worked in the library, she began to make them her personal
friends....
K:Un huh.
T:And, we were more like a large family.
K:Un hum. Did she have
any children
of her own?
T:No.
K:She didn't.
T:She did not. Her mother and father lived with
death.
K:Un huh.
T:Excuse me.
her until their
Here in Gainesville.
K:Un huh.
T:She had a nephew that came and stayed with her a great deal....
K:Un huh.
T:...as he was growing up, he spent every summer with her and
then he came here to the University.
K:Un huh. How would you describe her uh, attitude towards the
use of the library? Would you say that she tried to make it
as accessible as possible?
T:Yes. Yes, very much.
K:Uh huh
as much
as it was
T:She was always um, wanting it used more. Um,
say,.....I cannot give you dates....
K:Un huh.
T:....but after we began to expand the library....
K:Un huh.
T:...the students wanted, needed to use it so much more....
K:Un huh.
T: ....and so there was an agricultural club of students and the
president of this club came and talked to Mrs. Cresap about
keeping the library open
at night.
K:Un huh.
T:Heretofore it
had only been
open from eight until
five each
day....
K:Un huh.
T:....Monday through Friday, and eight to two, eight to one on
Saturday....
K:Un hum.
T:But, the students also needed, because the material that the
professors were giving them, was placed on reserve and kept
in the library for them.
K:Un huh.
T:So, she began keeping it over, open
three hours
at night....
K:Un huh.
T:And for that she had to
use student assistants, as we called
them. They were students in school,....
K:Un huh.
perhaps I should
T:And they worked during the day some hours and then they kept
the library open at night.
K:I see. So neither one of you would
T:No. No.
K:Un huh.
T:We couldn't work all day and ....
have been
there at night?
K:They sure weren't going to pay you
for it
anyway.......
T:Ha. Well, that's right. But um, you just couldn't do that....
K:Surely.
T:No.
K:Surely.
Would you just
have had then,
when that stared,
student there, one student assistant? Or would you have had
more than one?
T:We just had one that stayed in the evening.
K:Un huh.
T:At first.
And then um, as we expanded, and grew larger, why
then we began getting more full-time people.
K:Un huh. Now, ori....
T:In 19....now let me see, in 1942,
there was
still just Mrs.
Cresap and myself, full-time.
K:Un huh.
T:And wa, no, there was one other lady, young woman. And she
hired two ladies,
part-time, and I
guess in 1943,
then, one
of the ladies um, was hired full-time.
K:Uh huh.
T:And from then on, we began getting more and more full-time
assistants.
one
K:Un huh.
T:We had, maybe five or six student assistants
K:Un huh.
T:And by 19
and 50, we had, I have to count, ha ha ah ahha ha ha
K:He he heh.
T:There must have been ten full-time assistants and....
K:heh heh heh...
T:and, and at least fifteen student assistants.
K:That's amazing.
T:Yes.
K:When you started, who were the main users of the library?
it the staff of the station?
Or the...
T:Yes.
K:...student ....?
T:No., the staff of the station.
K:It was
the staff.
T:Yes.
K:Un huh. Did, did students have to come at that time to take
advantage of materials that were on reserve for
agriculture
classes? Or had that started?
T:Yes. Um, no, we didn't have it on
reserve when
K:Un huh.
T:There was,
only a
they were kept in the main library...but, it was
year
or two....
K:Un huh.
T:...until the professors decided they did not have the material
in the main library that we had....
Was
I began
work...
K:Un hum.
T:And um,
so they wanted to change it...
K:Un hum.
T:....and have their students come....to the agriculture library.
Which they did
About two years I would say,
after I began
work....
K:So did they then remove the agriculture material from the main
library?
T:Over the years..
..but it was quite some
years
afterwards....
K:It was a gradual....
T:Yes.
K:...process?
T:Yes. And there were not so many....
K:Un huh.
T:....then.
K:But, before that, the agriculture college must have then
buying.....
T:Yes....
K:...books....
T:The budget......
K: ....and putting them in the main library....
T:....the budget was increased....
.the agricultural college,
then,
K:Un huh...
T:uh, had a certain amount in the budget.....
K:Un huh.
T:....for assistant's help....
been
K:Un huh.
T: ....and for books.
K:I see.
T:And Dr. H. Harold Humewas the, ......hum.....
K:They call him the dean or the provost or.....
T:Well, he was the provost, he was
K:Un huh.
T:....then he became the provost.
K:Un hum.
T:And Dr. W. L. [Wilbur Leonidas]
the dean
Floyd was
first....
the dean
college....
K:Un huh.
T:...at the beginning,
of my stay.
K:Now, when
you started, was it possible
for anyone to actually
check materials out of the library? Or did everything
to be used in the library?
T:The faculty could, could check material out, but not....
K:The faculty......
T: ....not any students.
K:Un huh. And the Experiment people could?
T:Yes.
K:The station's staff could?
have
T:Yes, Yes.
K:How long would you allow something to go out? For two weeks?
T:Yes, or a month.....
K:Oh really?
T:Unless there was a call for it.
of the
K:Un huh.
T:If there was a call then we uh, ....
K:Un huh.
T:...would ask them if they could return it.
K:Un hum. Now, of course, at that time, they didn't have
computer, computers and and punch cards....how did you
actually check a book out to someone?
T:We had a little notebook...
K:Un huh.
T:...that um, looked very similar to a receipt book only it had
numbers on it.
K:Un huh.
T:And we wrote,
when
a faculty member came in and wanted to check
a book out, he brought it to the desk and we wrote uh, on
this little sheet of paper, the title, and uh, the date, and
if it was a periodical, well we put the volume number and
then his name.
K:And that was all there was to it...
T:And that was all. And then,
we had a large book of regular
loose-leaf notebook, that we had material listed by title,
in alphabetic order. So, if someone came in and wanted
plant pathology, we could look under the title and see who
had it.
K:I see. Let me interrupt you
for a second....
T:Yes.
K:...and flip this cassette over
End of side one.
K:Oh, not at all. Now, since the uh, stacks were all in the same
room as the uh, tables
assume that....
T:In the beginning... yes.
K:....is was possible, yes,
and chairs
for people to sit
at, I
in the beginning, for students to go
through the stacks?
T:Oh
yes, oh yes.
K:So it was an open stack situation at the first.
T:Yes.
K:Did they change that later on at any time during
your career?
Did they change
from open
to closed stacks?
T:Yes. We had to. Some years later,....
K:Um hum.
T:Must of been some time in
the early 1940's
that we had....of
room about three times as large as this that we
used as a
reading room...
K:Um hum.
T:And there were still small tables under the windows...
K:Uh huh.
T:That the students could, or anyone, ....
K:Uh huh.
T:...the patrons of the library could use. We had moved and had
only the periodicals and the books in this large stack room.
K:Uh huh.
T:By that time, everything had been catalogued, classified, and
given a number.
K:Uh huh.
T:And then we had this large reading room with a, a reference
desk, and then beyond it was a, a room, a stack room with
uh, all of the state documents. And as I told you, we had
do, enclosed the hall on the east end of this building and
we had placed the foreign documents out there.
K:Uh huh.
T:And we had a, a long table there, so if any one needed, they
could sit there.
K:Uh huh.
T:We had uh, some low window shelves put under each window and
there were some tall stools and a person could sit....
K:Uh huh.
T:...to look, when they looked up something.
There was no space
for people to sit and so that was the best that could be
done.
K:Uh huh.
T:And that was during Dr. H. Harold Hume's reign, when he was
provost.
K:Uh huh. When you started, um, how much of the material, excuse
me, that came to the library, came on an exchange basis,
roughly, and how much would have been books that were
actually purchased through the budget?
T:When I started, most of the material was on exchange because we
received material from all of the agricultural experiment
stations, the states.
K:Uh huh.
T:We also received it from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
K:Uh huh.
T:And from uh,
some foreign countries.
And that was
exchange...
K:Uh huh.
T:For our,
for the documents from the Agricultural
Experiment
Station here.
K:Uh huh.
T:You see, there was a um, a mailing room on the first
floor.
K:Uh huh.
T:And there was a, an agreement between the librarian and the
other states
whereby our material was
K:Uh huh.
T:...in exchange.
K:Uhhuh.
T:But it came directly to us
first was on exchange.
K:Did the percentage....
T:I, would say, at least....
K:......change greatly?
So the most of the material at
T:Oh yes.
Oh yes. Very much
so.
By 19 and um, oh,
by 1935,
we were buying much more material.
K:I see.
all in
sent...
T:And, Mrs. Cresap had a very good rapport with the director and
whenever there was any extra money in the budget...heh,....
K:Uh huh.
T:...that was not in our budget, but in the director's budget,
um, if possible, he gave her extra money that we could use
for binding or that we could buy books.
K:Uh huh.
T:And when
I say, a lot of money,
it was a lot of money then.
K:Uh huh.
T:Maybe several thousand dollars.
K:Uh huh. Was there any one of the directors, since you
mentioned the directors, with whom she got along with a lot
better than any of the others?
T:No, I think she got along with all of the directors.
K:She had a good relationship with each of them.
T:A good relationship, yes she did.
K:I see. Now, did the um, station ever uh, come to receive a
portion of the general university's library budget? Or
were, were your funds for acquisition always contained
within the station budget itself?
T:No. um, There was a, an amount in the main library that was t
be spent for books in the agricultural library.
K:Uh huh.
T:I'm trying to remember approximately when that was.....
K:Uh huh.
T:I would say about 1945.
K:Uh huh.
T:Maybe a little later. Anyway, we um, made a listing on cards
and sent to the university library acquisitions department.
In other words, we had uh, secured all of the information,
the price and whatever could be secured and everything.
K:Uh huh.
T:And sent it, there. And then the books came, at first they
were catalogued, in the main library...
K:Uh huh.
T:By using our classification scheme. But that was not
satisfactory because there was too great a lapse in
the books were ordered until they were received.
K:Uh huh.
the time
T:And so,
it was eventually changed
and all of the books that
went through that budget were sent directly to our
K:Uh huh.
T:Now we did not have
a large staff
for cataloguing...
K:Uh huh.
T:But we made the books accessible....
K:Uh huh.
T:...almost immediately.
Tf we could
not catalogue,
at one time
we were not able to catalogue all of the books,
after we
moved into IFAS...
K:Uh huh.
T:...because of,
by that time, I had worked all over the
library...
K:Uh huh.
library.
T:...reference, everything, and then, I just specialized in
cataloguing. We had a, another cataloguer that was most
excellent and she left
us.
She resigned.
K:Uh huh.
T:And after she left, it was impossible for me to keep up with
the cataloguing so we used a symbol on the books and put
them on a certain shelf and put cards in
the catalogue, so
that they could be located.
K:Uh huh.
T:We had,
I think, three cards for each book.
You didn't
all that but...ha ha ha...
K:Well, I, I was going to come to that...but let me just double
check now to be sure I understand you. Did, was the
acquisition and cataloguing of all of your material
done by
you and Mrs. Cresap until 1940's when the library, general
library started to do it.
T:Yes, yes, yes it was.
K:Uh huh. I see.
T:Uh huh, uh huh.
K:And tha, those books...
T:And they...
K:...that were purchased by the
library, the general
university
library, they did it themselves until the change that you're
talking about?
T:Yes.
K:Okay.
T:Yes.
ask me
K:I see.
T:Yes. Those that were purchased through....
K:Through their budget...
T:Through,
.. yes.
That's right.
K:Uh huh.
T:And actually it was um, it was called an agricultural fund...
K:Uh huh. Uh huh. But for the books and pamphlets and bulletins
and whatever that were bought by the budget in the
Agricultural Station.....
T:Um hum,
yes..... that's right.
K:....you were the one who wrote the letters...
T:Yes.
K:....and you were the one who handled the correspondence....
T:Yes...
K:....with the publishers.....
T:That's right....
K:And you.....
T:That's correct...
K:...did the cataloguing....
T:Um hum. Every bit of it.
K:I see.
T:Yes.
As long as, up until that
period in
the 1940's.
T:Yes, Yes.
K:I see.
T:And then, um, that fund was transferred to our budget....
K:Uh huh.
K:I see.
for some, some years,
buying.
K:Uh huh.
T:...all
of the processing...
K:Uh huh.
T:...of the books.
K:At the time that you retired,
was that still the system?
T:Yes.
K:Was everything done in the agricultural
library?
T:Yes. Yes.
K:So, they really did nothing for you in the main library?
T:No., No. Not really. Now, another thing, since the main
library had a listing of the material on the campus,
everything,
um, some years before, we
had furnished them
with cards for all of our material...
K:Uh huh.
T:Since that's the central catalogue.
K:Right.
T:And we continued right on...
K:Uh huh.
T:All new acquisitions, sending them a set of cards
catalogue.
K:Uh huh.
for their
And I guess it's still done-it was.
Yes. Uh, you mentioned earlier, that when you began
to work here, there was no catalogue to the collection in
the station library. When did you and Mrs. Cresap put that
together?
T:And so,
there was not,
we did all of the
T:Uh, now I will say, there was a catalogue, but they were not
classified.....
K:Okay.
T:There was a catalogue by author and title...
K:Uh huh.
T:...and and subject matter. But there was
no classification
number um, the material we started when....
K:Uh huh.
T:In the
first, we used what was known as an acquisition number.
K:Uh huh.
T:Acquisition number being our, the number of the book, like it
was uh, five hundred and
forty and we put that on the back
of the book...
K:Uh huh.
T:And on the inside also...
K:Uh huh.
T:And that was all the number that was on any of the volumes
until sometime in
the early 1930's....
K:Uh huh.
T:And Mrs. Cresap knew then that we would have to have a
classification.
K:And before that, every thing had been
shelved alphabetically?
T:Yes.
K:Uh huh.
T:Yes.
K:I see.
T:All of the periodicals....we had
wall, that was about
as long
one shelf about a stack on
as this room is wide...
K:Uh huh.
T:That had
a number of shelves.
And all of the books
were placed
on that shelf.
K:Hum.
T:There were just so
K:Uh huh.
T:The uh,
state documents were
filed by state and by number as
um, as each state, you know, carried their own number,
like one,
two, three, bulletin...
K:Uh huh.
T:....in numerical order.
The annual reports for, from the state
were put all together by date...
K:Uh huh.
T:...and then the, the bulletins or whatever.
were many different types of bulletins.
...because there
There would be a
bulletin, there would be maybe a technical bulletin, series,
uh, uh, or circulars, and at these states, there was also
Agricultural Extension Service...
K:Uh huh.
T:....that issued material and so we had that too.
K:Uh huh. Now, there were uh, I'm not sure what you'd call them,
but there were sort of branch stations in the state of
Florida weren't there, .....
T:Yes, Yes.
K:....for citrus and what not?
few...
each
T:Yes, yes.
K:What was your relationship to them as far as the library?
T:Well, very great relationship. We had um, borrowed material
for them, from Washington, ..
K:Uh huh.
T:And I might say, if I could just insert this, that Mrs. Cresap
borrowed material from the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Library of Congress, and then other libraries throughout the
United States, especially um, there was one in Baltimore
that she used, and there was one at Cornell, in the
beginning.
K:Uh huh.
T:Um, and when the research worker, a staff member at one of the
branch stations, needed a certain publication, why,
she did
everything possible to borrow it.
K:Uh huh.
T:And most of the time was able to secure it.
Oh, we had tools
in the library in which you could find um, what library had
a certain periodical....
K:Uh huh.
T:And so you
knew just where to write...
K:Uh huh.
T:And request it.
Yes, the um, the library, the branch
stations
borrowed material from us. We circulated material then,...
K:Uh huh.
T:Um,....there were seven branch stations and eleven field
laboratories, I believe.
K:Uh huh.
T:The cooperation was excellent between all of them. We um, they
had small libraries within their own branch station, and so,
in the 1950s, 1950's, we began sending them catalogue cards
for state documents ...
K:Uh huh.
T:As we catalogued them here, then we sent them a copy and they
could use it as a reference tool, so if they needed
something, either we had it or, if they had it. Some of
the, uh, branch stations had several thousand volumes that
had not been catalogued and so I went to each one of the
branch stations ....
K:Huh.
T:....and made a listing of their material. And brought it home
and we, by title, catalogued their material, if we did not
have it.
K:Oh, I see.
T:Much of the material we had in the library and we were able to
send them the call number and then they would place it on
the call number.
K:I see.
T:And we sent them uh, a set of cards for their material. We'd
also um, buy rubber stamp, stamped our cards as being in
subtropical station or in um, the citrus station or
wherever.
K:So that the material at those substations also could be
borrowed .....
T:Yes.
K:.....by a say a staff member here....
T:Yes. If it was not too much in demand there.
K:Uh huh. I see.
T:Uh huh.
K:Who was
Mrs. Cresap's immediate supervisor?
Was it the
director of the station?
T:Yes. The director of the station.
K:Uh huh.
T:And then,
after it became IFAS,
why it was
um, now what do they
call him now?
K:I think they'd call him a vice-president now.....
T:Vice-president now, yes.
K:I don't think they'd call him a provost....
T:You know, I've gone through so many changes that.....
K:Really!!
T:Uh huh, until, in titles...
K:Uh huh. Uh huh. Let me ask you a little bit about uh the
student assistants, when you ....
T:Uh huh....
K:....first got them. How would one of those young men obtain a
job. Did, would it just be that he was likely a frequent
user of the library and he would come to Mrs. Cresap and ask
for a job? Or was there a student employment service
when...
T:Oh, no, not then, ....
K:Not them?
T:Not in the beginning, no.
K:Uh huh.
T:Um, just by someone hearing that we needed someone in the
library, they would come in. When I began work, we had one,
I started in December, and in January there was a young man
that came in
and just talked to Mrs. Cresap and she
him....
K:Uh huh.
T:And in a month or two, we had another youg man....
K:Do you have any idea how
much they paid them at that time?
T:About thirty cents an hour.
K:Uh huh.
T:Uh huh.
And do you know
um, in 1936 and 7, along there,
what was known
as uh, National Youth Association,
NYA funds?
K:Uh huh.
T:The students
then were paid
fifteen cents
an hour....
K:Really?
T:Uh huh.
Out of that
K:I see. Did um, along those lines, did this library, in any way,
have any connection with the Civilian Conservation Corps
during the Depression?
T:Um, not any, any special way that I can remember....
K:Uh huh.
T:It seems to me that there was some group that came and wanted
to make a list of some material in the library and I'm
sorry, I do not remember just what it was.
K:Uh huh.
hired
we had
fund.
T:It was federally
K:Uh huh.
T:...and they came in and made a list of our material and I do
not know what they did with it.
K:Uh huh. But for some kind of federal Project during...
T:Yes, Yes, it was.
K:....the Depression?
Okay.
T:It was
just more like a list of the periodicals.
K:Uh huh. Uh, you mentioned a little bit earlier that as you
acquired more help in the library, your duties uh, came to
center mainly on
cataloguing,
is that accurate?
T:Yes, yes.
K:By what time were you mostly involved in doing the cataloguing?
Just roughly.
T:About 19 and 54, 3, ....
K:Uh huh.
T:Somewhere like that....
K:Uh huh. As....
T:Mostly cataloguing
then...
K:Uh huh. As, as the library staff
expanded,
any idea of the uh, the kinds of skilled
acquired in order,
other words, when
could you give me
person that you
you started to get
more full-time help...
T:Um huh.
K:...did you start to get, say, a reference librarian person
first, or did you get uh, an acquisitions librarian person,
or were you interested in that kind of distinction?
funded
T:Yes, but we did not get uh, professional people.
K:Uh huh.
T:There was
not funds
for professional
K:Uh huh.
T:And uh, by that time, World War II and the veterans
families ....
K:..... Uh huh.
T:...had come back to school .....
K:Uh huh.
T:....and
K:T see.
so we had many student wives
that worked with
T:Uh, they were giving some training in the library as to how t
use our material and tools and so forth, and most of them
were college graduates.
K:Uh huh.
T:First we had acquired someone to stay at the circulation....
K:Uh huh.
T:...because by that time, the library was open at night and uh,
we kept a
full-time person at night as well as a student
assistant or maybe two student assistants.
K:Uh huh.
T:And then, we had the acquisitions, well the person that did the
buying, also did the um, the secretarial work for Mrs.
Cresap.
K:Uh huh.
T:So, we did rather become de,
you might say
departmentalized,....
people.
and
us.
K:Uh huh.
T:All together, but
um, for instance, Joan Lowe had charge of the
um, circulation, and we always look to her and then there
was um, Katherine, was in acquisitions, and she was
the one
that you went to for something there, and uh, this uh,
librarian, the uh, cataloguer that came, uh, Lillian and I
did the cataloguing.
K:Uh huh.
T:And so it was either one of us.
K:So it, it was really the uh, you and Mrs. Cresap,
as you
acquired people were departmentalizing them,
T:Yes.
K:but that they were not coming to you as professionally trained
librarians....
T:That's right. Yes.
K: ....in acquisitions
or whatever....
T:Yes, it was a long time, in fact it was..
uh, to IFAS, and to these buildings...
K:Uh huh.
T:and the first, um, well
..after we moved
now, now, the, the cataloguer that I
spoke of, Lillian,....
K:Uh huh.
T:....she was
a, a professional
librarian.
K:Uh huh.
T:And she had been
with us for some years....
K:Uh huh.
T:...five or six.....
K:What was her,
T:Lillian Urschel.
K:Urschel? How would you spell that?
T:U r s c h e 1.
Urschel. I'm leaving something out here.
K:Wou, would you like to go ahead and uh, and and talk about any
of those points?
T:Uh...
K:Because I was going to ask you when I got done to talk about
any of those....but there's
T:All right,
no reason we can't do it now....
no, I'll go on with this then.
K:Okay.
T:Um, after we moved into the new building, IFAS, Lillian Urschel
moved over with us, and my, we moved that library, which was
a job. And then she,
resigned, and after she resigned,
person that replaced her was Albert Strickland who is
the
now
the librarian.
K:I see.
T:Um, next, we didn't
until after Mrs.
have any other trained professional
Cresap retired.
K:I see.
T:I.....and I guess the next person, professional,
was Bill
Weaver, who is still reference librarian, wait a minute,
someone else came before Bill Weaver and his name was
McCloskie...
K:Uh huh.
T: .... and he was trained.
K:Un huh.
people
her name?
T:....and the Bill Weaver. And after uh, Alber Strickland and I
shared the cataloguing
He did most of the cataloguing for
the material that we acquired and I was going to the branch
stations and keeping up with their material.
K:Uh huh.
T:Um, and then we secured um, an acquisitions librarian and she's
still here...Anne King.
K:Uh huh.
T:In the meantime, Mrs.,
before that, Mrs.
Cresap had retired,
Mr. Strickland was Acting,
K:Uh huh.
T:Until Fleming Bennett....Mrs. Cresap retired in
1963, and
Fleming Bennett became our head librarian in 1964.
K:Un huh.
T:And then Albert Strickland
came back to his uh. duties in
cataloguing.
K:So most of these people you
in the 1960's or the....
T:Yes,
K:....1970's
T:Yes.
have just
referred
to came either
K:Uh huh. Uh huh. Could you tell us a little bit about the move
to the new library? I'm sure that must have been a very
challenging job.
T:Yes, it was.
But, by that time, the material was all
catalogued.
K:Uh huh.
T:We had, ....three, three stack levels.
K:Uh huh.
T:And we decided what material would be placed on each level...
K:Uh huh.
T:Well, all this material was on the second floor in Rolfs...and
so Mrs. Cresap talked to Mr. George Freeman who was
head of
a group of men that worked for the Agricultural
Station...
K:Uh huh.
T:Really, farm helpers,
K:Uh huh.
T:And they brought in orange crates...
K:Huh.
T:And there was one person that stayed
Experiment
with 'um, in the libr, in
the old library, and we showed them, book by book, which
put in an orange crate...
K:Uh huh. Huh.
T:And the orange crates were tagged by the next person,
like, we
began with one,,,....
K:Uh huh.
T:...and went right along. And they built a chute from the
landing on the second floor down to the truck....
K:heh heh heh...
T:Ha ha ha .... and the material was put down the chute and the
truck went then to the new building and we had two of our
regular uh, helpers over there with some student
assistants,...
K:Huh.
T:And uh they shelved the material. It was quite a hah ha ha..
K:It must have been something to see....
T:It really was. But you would be amazed how quickly it was
done. Because we worked very fast but still the material
was placed in its proper order ....
K:Uh huh.
T:...on the shelves....and one person had charge of moving the
card catalogue because by that time, there were many
thousands
of cards...
K:Uh huh.
T:And we had a new, ...cat, catalogue over there.
So um,
K:How long would you say the whole process
as moving
the collection?
T:About two weeks.
K:Two weeks?
Well, that's not bad.
T:No, it was remarkable. It was in October. Ha ha.
K:I, I assume you,
you had to shut down during that two-week
period.
T:We did.
Yes.
K:Uh huh.
T:Yes. But that was all.
K:No, that's not bad.
T:No. Then we opened right up..
I think maybe there was uh, uh,
maybe we didn't quite take two weeks because we moved in
completed,
I'd say,
on Wednesday, and on
Friday we, we asked
the, had open house for the libraries on campus...
took
as far
K:Uh huh.
T:...and then we opened on Monday.
K:Huh. Do you, excuse me, do you remember ever hearing Mrs.
Cresap talk about Cora Miltimore?
T:Yes.
K:...who had been the main librarian?
T:Yes, I knew her, too.
K:Oh, did you know her? Was she still here when you arrived?
T:Yes, yes.
K:Could you tell us something about her,
her personality and her
character?
T:Well, ....now my um, I don't know what to tell you here,....uh,
I didn't have uh,
really personal contact with her very
much...
K:Uh huh.
T:At one time,
between she and Mrs.
Cresap, there was
a rivalry,
a jealousy
you might say.
K:Uh huh.
T:And, and I can not tell you the,
the whys
of that because I
not know.
K:Uh huh.
T:Except uh,
some of the people in other colleges came to us and
we would borrow material for them, and they said they
received it so much quicker.
K:Ohhh.
T:And, I,
K:Uh huh.
evidently there was some jealousy in
that...
T:...way.
K:Uh huh.
T:But, uh, otherwise, they got along all right.
K:Uh huh. Did you ever hear Mrs.
Cresap say anything more a,
about her, about the way she ran the uh, main library or
anything.
T:No. No. No.
K:Uh huh.
T:So far as I knew, all right.
K:Uh huh.
T:Uh, evidently,
you know, back then,
as I guess always
libraries, there were growing pains, because you were
getting so much more material ....
K:Uh huh.
T:...then you had personnel to take care of and to classify and
to catalogue. I remember especially in the biology
department, that the, the uh,
men, cmae to Mrs. Cresap
K:Uh huh.
T: ....and asked her to, to secure material that they needed to,
um for research....
K:Uh huh.
T:...not to buy, but just
for a loan.
K:Uh huh. I've been told by more than one person that Miss
Miltimore was very strict about the use of the library.
Have you heard that sort of thing?
T:Yes. Yes.
K:Do you think Mrs. Cresap was more anxious to have people
actually get ahold of the material?
T:Yes. Uh, Mrs. Cresap always said she would like for the
shelves to be bare...
K:Uh huh.
T:She always wanted the material used...
K:Uh huh. And you, at some point, have heard, that Miss
Miltimore was a little bit more restrictive about...?
T:Yes, I hate to say, she didn't want the material used but, but
they wouldn't check the material out....
K:Uh huh.
T:And, students were not permitted to, the agricultural students,
now that's all I'm, ....
K:Sure.
T:....can speak for. But they were not, at that time.
K:Uh huh.
T:And after we began keeping the library open at night and
letting the agricultural students use the material, there
was some materials that they could check out.
K:Uh huh.
T:Now, if a professor had put the material on reserve, of course
they could not. Unless he said it might be checked out.
K:Uh huh. Was there any particular contact between the uh,
librarians in the main library and and you and Mrs. Cresap?
In other words, were your contacts more naturally with the
people in agriculture, or did you really have many
friendships with, with the people working in the main
library?
T:We, we had some friendships, yes, with the people in the main
library. Even before we began uh, this uh, they buying and
and do forth. We had some, some friends there.
K:Uh huh.
T:And uh, but we did not uh, I'm sorry I pause so, but I'm trying
to get my facts together...for you...
K:Uh huh.
T:We had contacts, and then after we began sending them cards for
the central catalogue....may I go back?
K:Surely.
T:And tell you that in,....there was a librarian, a Dr. Koolman,
that came to the lib, to the University of Florida and made
a survey of the libraries on the campus.
K:Uh huh.
T:And made a recommendation. And it was through his
recommendation that the main library became a central
library for uh, the cards ...
K:Uh huh.
T:...all over the campus.
K:Uh huh.
T:And after that time, we had more contact because um, the
catalogue department from the main library sent a few people
over to our library and with a typewriter, and they just sat
for days and copied our card catalogue.
K:I see.... uh huh.
T:So much of it.
K:So after that you, you had more frequent contact ....with....
T:Oh yes, yes. We had, and and uh, contact in calling back and
to or we could go over or something.
K:Uh huh.
T:And then, about then, is when um, the fund was in the, the
university library. And we sent them the cards for the
acquisitions of the books. And we had contact then,
pleasant contact with uh, the different departments.
see.
very
I've also been told that Miss Miltimore tried to be
very strict with the personal lives of the young women who
were working for her. Is that your impression?
T:I'm sorry, ...I could, have no idea about that?
K:You just don't.... Did you know Miss [Henrie May] Eddy? From
the library?
T:Yes, Yes.
K:What was she like? Or did you know her very well?
T:I didn't know her very well, but it seemed to me that she
changed things a little bit, that uh,....
K:Uh huh.
T:.....she wanted the material used more than had been before.
She was more, there seemed to be a, maybe a better contact
or uh, relationship, or working together,...
K:Uh huh.
T:...with Miss Eddy.
Of course Miss Eddy was only librarian a
short time....
K:She was killed in an accident, wasn't she?
T:In a plane accident, yes.
K:Someone told me that she was on her way to visit the Rolfs
family...
T:Yes, in Brazil....
K:Is that true?
T:Yes.
K:Uh huh. Did you
know Dean Rolfs at all?
T:Yes. Yes. Yes. They came back. See,
they, he
had been
of the agricultural college and then he went to Brazil.....
K:Uh huh.
T:...and
K:Uh huh.
uh, Dr. Wilmon Newell was our director then.
T:Well, after Dean
Rolfs came back to the United
States, he came
in to the library quite frequently and
K:Wha, what....
T:So I did know him.....
K:What sort of a person was he?
T:He was uh, very highly educated,
used the materials.
he was a very tall uh, man,
and you, one that you felt you could look up to.
ways, he was kind.
K:Uh huh.
T:But he, he
knew what he wanted, ....
K:Uh huh.
T:He knew how to ask
for it and uh,
he was very, very
K:How about Dean Newell? Could you tell us a little bit about
him?
dean
. .in
many
fine.
T:Yes. I never had much contact with Dr. Newell. Dr. Newell was
dean of the college. He was director of the Experiment
Station,
and he was head of the, uh, Plant Industry.
K:Uh huh.
T:All at the same time! So um, he was in his little office and
it was only the department heads really, that had contact
with him,....
K:Uh huh.
T:He was very
friendly, if you met him in the hall or anything
like that....
K:Uh huh. He, himself, did not have much
occasion
to use the
library?
T:No. No. He did not.
And you see, then, um, when
we had the
fruit fly infestation, he left the university and went to
Orland and had charge of that....eradication....
K:Uh huh.
T:Well, now,
that was
really before I
began work,
but he came
back after I had started work.
K:I'm going to stop
for a second and put a fresh
T:All right.
END OF TAPE A SIDE TWO.
uh, ...
K:Okay, I'd also like to ask you a little bit about Dean Hume and
uh, if he had uh, a supportive relationship with the
library, and what you thought of him.
T:Yes, Dean Hume had a very supportive attitude and uh, he was in
the library quite frequently....
K:Uh huh.
T:Dean Hume was a, a person that always seemed to have the most
wonderful memory....
K:Uh huh.
T:...because the, if
you asked him, if he
asked you where
certain place was,
or, or, we had large maps and maybe he
wanted something and you'd say, "oh, I don't remember,"
...."if you ever knew, you know now," he would say.
K:Heh heh heh ....
T:Anyway,
he had a very good relationship and he was in the
library. It ws un, during his administration that um, we
secured more funds....
K:Uh huh.
T:....for student, books, and I was telling you a little bit ago
about these window ledges....
K:Uh huh.
T:He came in one day when
Mrs. Cresap was
not in and told me he
wanted to put these window ledges in and I said, "Well, Dr.
Hume, I'll tell Mrs. Cresap." And he said, "Miss Tyson,
I'll put them in." Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
K:ha ha ah ha ha ha ha.
T:He had the authority,
of course,...
K:Uh huh.
T:But I always referred to Mrs. Cresap....
K:Oh, surely.
Uh huh. He sounds like a very decisive sort of
man....
T:He was,
very, he was very fine
He was very
good to work with...
K:Uh huh. Can you tell me anything about Dr.[Wilbur Leonidas]
Floyd? Or did you get to know him at all?
T:Yes. I knew Dr. Floyd. Now, I, I didn't know him so well but
he was the dean of the college and he did come into the
library quite often and he had, um, I don't remember why, I
I went to the office a number of times, something about
books, pertaining to books or magazines....
K:Uh huh.
T:And he was
always very pleasant, very kind man.
K:Uh huh.
T:One of the kindest that I have known.
K:Did, did he have much contact with students?
Are you aware of
th.....
T:Yes. Oh yes, he did.
K:Did he?
T:Yes, he did.
K:Uh huh.
T:As the students
came in,
they always
went, the agricultural
students, went to his uh, well it was uh, right all under
his jurisdiction.
K:Uh huh.
He, he uh,
T:And so he had quite a lot of contact with the students.
K:Uh huh. Did you know Thompson Van Hyning? The man who was the
director of the museum? At all?
T:Yes. Yes.
K:What sort of a character was he?
T:Dr. Van Hyning had served as part-time librarian before Mrs.
Cresap.
K:I see.
T:Half-time I
believe.
Half-time with the museum and half-time
with the agricultural library.
K:Uh huh.
T:And of course, the Experiment Station library.
K:Uh huh.
T:Um, yes, Dr.[Mr.]
Van Hyning um, came in
and and um,
consulted
with Mrs. Cresap quite often....and I didn't know him to
well.....
K:Uh huh.
T:He was very pleasant to just pass
the time but that's all that
I knew.....
K:Did, did she ever discuss,
in any way, the kinds of things that
he might have done with the library? I'm sure that there
wasn't much and that there wasn't much that he would have
done with it ....but....
T:No, there wasn't much that he cou,
I'm sure could have done,
except perhaps, uh, buy some few books and and get some
together as, .....
K:Uh huh.
Mrs. Cresap came, the library was
room...
K:Uh huh.
T:...in Newell Hall [Experiment Station Building].
K:Uh huh.
T:And after the horticultural building [Rolfs Hall] was erected,
then it was moved to the second floor.
K:I see.
T:And that's where Dr.[Mr.] Van Hyning was part-time librarian.
K:So it's your understanding that he was the, the part-time
librarian immediately before she ....
T:Yes.
K:There, there was nobody else that you know of in
between....
T:Not that I know of, no.
K:Uh....
T:She came in
1923.
K:Uh huh. I meant to ask you if there were certain parts of
library work that Mrs. Cresap preferred or enjoyed more than
others? Was there anything that she particularly enjoyed?
T:I think she uh,
especially enjoyed working with the ....the
branch stations, and that's something that I wanted to tell
you about...
K:Uh huh.
T:She organized after talking to the director, what we called a
library workshop.
K:Uh huh.
T:....because when
one
T:...for the branch stations. It began in Gainesville by uh,
or two members from each branch station and maybe a
secretary, coming to the meeting and it was known as a
library workshop,
and where we had a two-day meeting,...
K:Uh huh.
T:....discussing problems and how we could help the research
worker, how we could get the material to them best, ....
K:Uh huh.
T:...uh, see what they wanted.....and she uh named that the uh,
the "Bridge", to bridge the gap between the research worker
and the literature.
K:Uh huh.
T:And we had
a workshop every year,
from from the first
inception.
K:Uh huh.
T:Um, we did not
always have it in
Gainesville.
We went to
branch station....
K:Oh.
T:Um, maybe we went to north Florida, up at Quincy,
and people
from all over the state came...
K:Uh huh.
T:...and we held it in that uh,
branch station....
K:Uh huh.
T:...and that way, when
you see the, the needs of,
of north
Florida, you can better understand and know how
them.
K:Uh huh.
one
to help
T:....and uh, we went to uh, Homestead, to the subtropical
experiment station, we went to citrus,
uh, the different
stations all over the state.
K:So she really had two purposes in mind: to acquaint the people
in the field with the literature that was coming out and....
T:That's right.
K: .... also to
T:Yes. Yes.
K:Uh huh.
find how
she could better acquire material ....
T:Yes. And that, the beginning of that,
was when we began
to the branch stations, then, to catalogue their materials
K:I see.
T:Many, much of the material was in, well,
or another professor's office and um,
one professor's
office
um, Mr. Smith didn't
know what Mr. Jones had....
K:Uh huh.
T:And maybe Mr. Jones
then would buy a copy,
K:Uh huh.
T:...and need it too, ...
K:Right.
T:....and so when I went to the branch stations, then we'd pull
the material out of all the professors' offices and set it
up in one room.
K:Uh huh.
T:And if, they uh, uh, one of the professors or one of the
research workers,
because that's what they were there,
of the research workers needed a book all the time in his
going
one
office, there was still a record as to where that material
was.
K:Uh huh.
T:So if someone else needed to see it for
just go to his office and and see it.
K:At least he
T:Yes. Yes.
K:I see.
a few minutes, he could
knew of its existence anyway.
T:And that, that uh, was,
was, she enjoyed that very much.
Actually I would hate to say what Mrs.
Cresap enjoyed the
most because all
of it was,
she just lived it day and
night....
K:Uh huh.
T:....to get more
literature into the research workers'
hands...
K:Uh huh. What did she do
after she retired?
Did she keep
connection with the library?
T:Yes, but Mrs. Cresap had become very much involved with a
public library in Gainesville....
K:Oh... Uh huh.
T:And she'd been on the library board
for some
years,
and when
the library was built, which is, uh,
was before the present
one, ...
K:Uh huh.
T:She was very instrumental in in uh, helping that. And she did,
up until her death.
K:I see.
any
T:Uh, was still, I believe, still on the board of the library.
K:Uh huh. I see. I believe you mentioned, a while earlier,
she did have some input into the designing of the Hume
Library? Is
that right?
T:Yes, she did.
plans....
K:Uh huh.
Uh, she had uh, the plans, in fact,
T:But, those plans had to be altered.
You know,
she drew
in a library,
you have a certain formula that you plan so much material
for certain number of years.
Well, she started out with
room for twenty-five years, and every,
they'd say,
nearly every
year,
well, they didn't have enough funds.
K:Uh huh.
T:So, she'd
have to go,
re-do,....
K:Uh huh.
T:...the plans.
"Well, we'll have to uh, make this a little bit
smaller," and she did that either two or three times, and
the last time, um, they asked her to plan for ten
years....
K:Uh huh.
T:And she said
uh, "Well," she'd plan for ten years but she would
never touch it again. And so, she did plan,...
K:Uh huh.
T:....the library part.
Of course,
the auditorium she had no
nothing to do with that....
K:Uh huh.
T:She was
just told what space she would have and then she
planned within the space.
that
see.
T:Was she very pleased or, or disappointed do you know,
that the
building was on several level, levels, the library part, I
mean.?
T:It was all right,
the stack levels,
that was
just fine.
K:Un huh.
T:But, uh,
she was displeased with the way you have to get into
the library...
K:Uh huh.
T:Because in the beginning, people couldn't find
see, there was no entrance,
ground floor, and uh,
there was
no name anywhere....
K:Uh huh
T:...except right over the door into the auditorium,
there was
name.
K:Uh huh.
T:But only the people coming through McCarty Hall
could ever see
it. So she was displeased in that.
K:I don't blame her.
I had a small
criticism of the library that
way myself.
T:Uh huh.
K:That's all the prepared questions that I wanted to ask you.
Would you like to talk about any more of the points that
have there?
T:Yes. I wanted to go back and tell you that, one thing
especially,...
K:Uh huh.
us.
And uh,
you
T:...and they had a branch library in Atlanta
believe it was about 1951 or 2,
um, Congress had some of
the
branch libraries closed, or some, some, anyway, ....
K:Uh huh.
T:...this library was closed. And all of their material was
brought to um, was sent to our library, agricultural
library....
K:Ohhh.
T:And we absorbed it and put it in our collection and reclass,
catalogued it...
K:Uh huh.
T:And then serviced the uh
southeastern states.
forestry department over the
There was a fund set up by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture of several thousand dollars,
enough that we were able to have one full-time person and
uh, we had a, to take care of the circulation of this
material and they would send us from Washington, material to
be routed....
K:Uh huh.
T:...you would make a, a list and it would go to maybe a station
in uh, Louisiana, and they's send it to another station in,
and before it came back.
K:Uh huh.
T:And maybe there would be a dozen copies of one periodical and
then we kept one copy or maybe two copies in the library
permanently, ...
K:Uh huh.
for forestry. I
T:...of this
K:Uh huh.
T:And that was uh,
carried on
for oh, five or six years......
K:Uh huh.
T:Before there was not enough funds and uh,
we were not able to
continue it.
K:But the.... the material .
T:But the material remained.
K:Uh huh.
..you gained.....
T:Yes, and became a part of the agricultural
K:That must have been quite an
acquisition.
T:Yes, it was.
K:Uh huh.
T:It was.
They even sent some of their files
K:Huh.
T:...and uh, some typewriters,
some equipment....
K:Uh huh.
T:You see.
Are there any other points that you, you'd
like to um,
mention?
T:No. I believe that's the most um, that I had, um,....
K:I don't think I asked you if,
if your term of service at the
university was continuous between, between 1929 and and time
that you retired?
T:Yes. Yes.
K:Straight through.
T:Yes. I began in 1929....
library.
see.
material.
K:Quite a stretch...
T:And retired in 1970.
Yes. And I came in, as I said, as a
secretary.
And um, in 1957
I was made a member of the
faculty....
K:I see.
T:...given the faculty status.
K:Do you uh, get over there very much any more?
T:No. No. Not very much. But uh, real often, even until just
recently, Albert Strickland will call me and tell me things
that they're doing, and
ask if, "do you remember did we ever
have so and so?"
K:Uh huh.
T:You know, when you grow up with something
you, you remember it.
K:That's right.
T:And uh each book or each move, and he will call and say,
"someone told us that uh, we received such and such a
person's desk." "Did we?"
have that man's desk".
K:Uh huh.
T:I, I questions
I said,
"No
We didn't ever
that um,..
K:Uh huh.
T:....so he does still call
me.
K:That must be a nice feeling.
T:It is,
K:Uh huh.
it's very nice, yes it
T:I enjoyed my work. It was very,
very um,
strenuous
times, because I had been there so
and at
long, when we moved in to
uh, Hume Library, Mrs. Cresap had my office placed the first
office after you go through the reading room into, by the
circulation desk. So, anyone at circulation that want,
didn't understand or didn't know,
came and asked me,,, "Do
we have so and so,
know. ha ha ha
K:Ha ha ha.
T:Most of the time.
K:Uh huh.
where is
T:And there were many of the
it?"
,and I just knew,
faculty that um I
T don't
had helped over
the years that even though I only did cataloguing,
T was
supposed to do, they still came and asked me about certain
materials.
K:Well, I'd like to thank you very much and um,
once again,
we
will be sending a copy of this back to you, probably in
between six or eight weeks.....
T:Uh huh.
K:And if
you get a chance to go over it, we'd appreciate it.
T:All right, I'd be glad to. I um, I hope some way, this can be
pulled together and not rambled like I have because....um...
K:Well, I don't think that um........
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