Herman Fussler: Difference between revisions

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Herman Fussler (1914 - 1997) was a distinguished US librarian.

Life

Herman Fussler was born on May 15, 1914 in Philadelphia. He received his baccalaureate degree, with a major in mathematics, from the University of North Carolina in 1935 and an AB degree in library science in 1936. After graduation he was a summer substitute at the New York Public Library. Beginning in high school, and continuing through college, Fussler had served as a student assistant in the Department of Physics at the University of North Carolina. Working with spectroscopic photography in the physics lab, he became interested in photography in general and microphotography in particular. Fussler's interest in this new technology attracted the attention of M. Llewellyn Raney, Director of the University of Chicago Library, who appointed Fussler to develop a new microphotographic laboratory, an experimental and testing facility as well as a producer of film, starting October 1936. The microphotography laboratory flourished and Fussler led an exhibit on microphotography at the World Congress of Universal Documentation in Paris in 1937.

Fussler earned an MA at the University of Chicago in 1941 with a thesis published as Photographic reproduction in libraries and a PhD in 1948 with a study of literature use by chemists and physicists. He taught throughout his career. He was appointed science librarian in 1941 and soon thereafter management of the library resources of the Manhatten Project, located at the university.

He became Assistant Director, then Associate Director, and in 1948 Director of the Library. He transferred to the Graduate Library School in 1971 following completion of the very large Joseph L. Regenstein library and retired in 1986. He died on March 2, 1997 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Contributions

Fussler did pioneering work in microphotography and library automation. As director of the University of Chicago Library from 1948-1971 he helped create the very large Joseph Regenstein Library building. He was one of the founders of the Center for Research Libraries in 1949, a central collection storage facility for a national consortium of large research libraries.

He was associate editor of the Journal of Documentary Reproduction, 1938-1942, and founding associate editor of its successor American Documentation (later Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.

Publications

Photographic reproduction for libraries: A study in administrative problems. (1941)
Patterns in the use of books in large research libraries. [With Julian L. Simon.] University of Chicago Press, 1969. Also asmall preliminary ed., 1961.

Offices

Fussler received presidential appointments to the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine (1963) and the National Advisory Committee on Libraries (1966).
Member of the advisory committee to the Librarian of Congress on the study of automation in the Library of Congress.

Awards

American Library Association. Melvil Dewey Medal, 1954; Ralph R. Shaw Award for library literature, 1976.
Association of College and Research Librarians. Distinguished Career Citation, 1989.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Fellow.
American Association for the Advancement of Science. Fellow.
University of Chicago. Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor in the Graduate Library School, 1974.

Papers

University of Chicago Library, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center. Fussler, Herman Howe. Papers.

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 '''Herman Fussler''' (1914 - 1997) was a distinguished US librarian.
+[[File:Herman Fussler.jpg|alt=Photo of Herman Fussler|thumb|Herman FusslerUniversity of Chicago Photographic Archive]]
 == Life ==
-'''Herman Fussler''' was born on May 15, 1914 in Philadelphia. He Fussler received his baccalaureate degree, with a major in mathematics, from the University of North Carolina in 1935 and an A.B. degree in library science in 1936. Beginning in high school, and continuing through college, he had served as a student assistant in the Department of Physics at the University of North Carolina. Working with spectroscopic photography in the physics lab, he became interested in photography in general and microphotography in particular. Fussler's interest in this new technology attracted the attention of M. Llewellyn Raney, Director of the University of Chicago Library, who invited Fussler to work at Chicago. The new microphotographic laboratory was an experimental and testing facility as well as a producer of film.
+'''Herman Fussler''' was born on May 15, 1914 in Philadelphia. He received his baccalaureate degree, with a major in mathematics, from the University of North Carolina in 1935 and an AB degree in library science in 1936. After graduation he was a summer substitute at the New York Public Library. Beginning in high school, and continuing through college, Fussler had served as a student assistant in the Department of Physics at the University of North Carolina. Working with spectroscopic photography in the physics lab, he became interested in photography in general and microphotography in particular. Fussler's interest in this new technology attracted the attention of M. Llewellyn Raney, Director of the University of Chicago Library, who appointed Fussler to develop a new microphotographic laboratory, an experimental and testing facility as well as a producer of film, starting October 1936. The microphotography laboratory flourished and Fussler led an exhibit on microphotography at the World Congress of Universal Documentation in Paris in 1937.
- He came to the University of Chicago Library in 1936 to establish a microphotographic laboratory.
+Fussler earned an MA at the University of Chicago in 1941 with a thesis published as ''Photographic reproduction in libraries'' and a PhD in 1948 with a study of literature use by chemists and physicists. He taught throughout his career. He was appointed science librarian in 1941 and soon thereafter management of the library resources of the Manhatten Project, located at the university.
-He  and was assistant director of the Information Division of the Manhattan Project.
-pioneering librarian who helped make the Unive
-rsity of Chicago Libraries a leading international resource for scholars. Fussler was Head of the Manhattan Project's library division--laying the foundation for the Atomic Energy Commission's later information activities. Fussler conducted early bibliometrics studies of the journal literature of chemistry and physics and was interested in measuring the role of libraries in scientific communication. He served as director of the University of Chicago Library from 1948 to 1971.
-[[File:Herman Fussler.jpg|alt=Photo of Herman Fussler|thumb|Herman FusslerUniversity of Chicago Photographic Archive]]
-For additional biographical information on Fussler related to his work as the director of the University of Chicago Library see: https://web.archive.org/web/20090312020759/http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/libra/su1997/fussler.html
-He died on March 2, 1997 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
+He became Assistant Director, then Associate Director, and in 1948 Director of the Library. He transferred to the Graduate Library School in 1971 following completion of the very large Joseph L. Regenstein library and retired in 1986. He died on March 2, 1997 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
- in 1997. Among other ASIS activities, he was an associate editor of American Documentation (predecessor to the Journal of the American Society for Information Science) during its first two years of publication. The following obituary was provided by the University of Chicago.
+== Contributions ==
+Fussler did pioneering work in microphotography and library automation. As director of the University of Chicago Library from 1948-1971 he helped create the very large Joseph Regenstein Library building.
-Dr. Herman H. Fussler, a pioneering librarian who helped make the University of Chicago Libraries a leading international resource for scholars, died March 2 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was 82.
+He was one of the founders of the Center for Research Libraries in 1949, a central collection storage facility for a national consortium of large research libraries.
-Fussler, who retired from the University in 1983, was the director of the University of Chicago Libraries for 23 years. The University's Joseph Regenstein Library, built under his direction, became a model research library for the humanities and social sciences. He was a leader in applying computers to library applications, developing in the 1960s a plan to convert the library's bibliographic data into computerized form.
-On the completion of the Regenstein Library in 1971, he joined the faculty of the Graduate Library School on a full-time basis. He was named the Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor in 1974.
-"I remember him as an inspiring teacher and a formidable intellect," said Martin Runkle, the current director of the University of Chicago Libraries and a former student of Fussler's. "He was greatly admired throughout the library and academic community."
-Fussler began his library career in 1936 when he arrived at the University of Chicago to establish and direct its pioneering Department of Photographic Reproduction. While there, he developed processes that helped establish the use of microfilm in research libraries. Concurrently, he became Science Librarian in 1943. In 1947 he was promoted to assistant director and then associate director of the library. He was named director in 1948.
-Fussler also served the Manhattan Project as the assistant director of the information division and librarian of the Metallurgical Laboratory from 1942 to 1945.
-He received presidential appointments to the Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine (1963) and the National Advisory Committee on Libraries (1966). He received the Melvil Dewey Medal from the American Library Association in 1954, the Distinguished Career Citation from the Association of College and Research Librarians (1989) and the Ralph R. Shaw Award for library literature in 1976. Fussler was a member of the advisory committee to the Librarian of Congress on the study of automation in the Library of Congress. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and honored as a distinguished alumnus of the University of North Carolina in 1983.
+He was associate editor of the ''Journal of Documentary Reproduction'', 1938-1942, and founding associate editor of its successor ''American Documentation'' (later ''Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology''.
-Fussler was born in Philadelphia, but later moved with his family to Chapel Hill, NC, where he attended the University of North Carolina, receiving a B.A. in mathematics in 1935 and a B.A. in library science in 1936. He received his M.A. in 1941 and his Ph.D. in 1948 from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.
-He is survived by daughter, Lynn Padgett, her husband Thomas J. Padgett and granddaughter, Ellen Elizabeth Boyd of Raleigh, and sister Julia Lunsford of Medford, Oregon. His wife, Gladys Otten, died in 1991.
-== Contributions ==
-Herman Howe Fussler did pioneering work in microphotography and library automation. As director of the University of Chicago Library from 1948-1971 he helped create the very large Joseph Regenstein Library building.
 == Publications ==
 *''Photographic reproduction for libraries: A study in administrative problems''. (1941)
-*''Patterns in the use of books in large research libraries.'' [With Julian L. Simon.] University of Chicago Press, 1969. Also small preliminary ed., 1961.
+*''Patterns in the use of books in large research libraries.'' [With Julian L. Simon.] University of Chicago Press, 1969. Also asmall preliminary ed., 1961.
 == Offices ==
+*Fussler received presidential appointments to the Board of Regents of the [[National Library of Medicine]] (1963) and the National Advisory Committee on Libraries (1966).
+*Member of the advisory committee to the Librarian of Congress on the study of automation in the Library of Congress.
 ==Awards ==
-Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor in the Graduate Library School, 1974.
+*American Library Association. Melvil Dewey Medal, 1954; Ralph R. Shaw Award for library literature, 1976.
-*Association of College & Research Libraries. Distinguished Career Citation , 1989
+*Association of College and Research Librarians. Distinguished Career Citation, 1989.
+*American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Fellow.
+*American Association for the Advancement of Science. Fellow.
+*University of Chicago. Martin A. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor in the Graduate Library School, 1974.
 == Further reading ==