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Davis: Libraries

Founded in 1908, the library of the Davis campus began as a small collection of agricultural bulletins; by 1924, it contained 2,000 volumes housed in two classrooms. In 1940, with the completion of a new library and administration building, the library was properly housed for the first time; by 1951, the collection had grown to about 80,000 volumes. Special attention was given at this time to the development of an outstanding collection of books in the natural sciences. Efforts were also made to develop a good basic library in the social sciences and humanities.

A few years later, when Davis became a general campus of the University, efforts were initiated to develop a library that would provide adequate collections for graduate programs in most academic disciplines. The number of books added rose from 15,000 a year in 1960-61 to over 55,000 in 1964-65. In 1964, extensive remodeling of the library building, with the addition of a new wing, increased threefold the amount of available library space. There were 379,157 volumes in the library by the end of the fiscal year 1964-65; over 7,000 journals and serials were being received. A goal of 900,000 volumes was set for 1970.

Special Collections
By the mid-1960s, the Davis library had particularly strong collections in the biological sciences, agriculture, veterinary medicine, and related subjects. Important collections were also developed in selected fields of the social science and humanities.

Librarians

Margaret Mayberry	1913-1916
Dorothy Deming	1922-1924
Nelle U. Ranch	1924-1951
J. Richard Blanchard	1951

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Last updated 06/18/04.