The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development (1977)

I. The University and Its Libraries 23
unresolved. Specific budgetary recommendations, building plans, growth
formulas, and cost estimates were avoided, because it was clear that intensive
research was needed on the cost-effectiveness and appropriateness
of many of the measures which had been earlier recommended. This
research will continue into the future, but enough has now been completed
to allow specific recommendations.
Present Characteristics of the Libraries. In 1976, the libraries
of the University share with the institution itself a worldwide reputation
for excellence and distinction. The main libraries on each campus
and many of the branch libraries contain collections of national importance,
many of them unique in the world. As indicated by Table 5 and the
Appendix, they range from the very small to the very large, and from
the very general to the very specialized, but each contributes importantly
to the educational mission of the University and, directly or
indirectly, to the intellectual life of the community at large. Together,
they include almost 15 million volumes, more by far than at any other
single academic institution, and exceeded in this country only by the
Library of Congress. Their growth, by any standard, has been phenomenal,
as indicated in Figure 1. On the library landscape, as Allan Nevins
once predicted for the nine campuses as a whole, they "constitute an
especially massive range." 9
The library system as a whole--that is, as a system --is only now
emerging, however. "To build and maintain a great library system for this
multicampus University is not the same as the building of nine libraries,
one for each campus," as the Academic Plan points out, and "it will be
necessary to develop new patterns of library organization and service,
and new strategies for getting the maximum utility from funds expended" 10
in order for it to function well.
Some progress in this direction has already been made, as the
following chapters point out, but monumental problems still remain.
9
Allan Nevins, The State Universities and Democracy, University of
Illinois Press, 1962, p. 114.
10
University of California Academic Plan, 1974-1978, p. 40.