Overview

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission celebrated its centennial in 2009. To honour that milestone, former State Archivist David Gracy has taken a retrospective look at the agency's colourful and sometimes contentious history as Texas' official information provider and record keeper. In this book, he chronicles more than a century of efforts by dedicated librarians and archivists to deliver the essential, nonpartisan library and archival functions of government within a political environment in which legislators and governors usually agreed that libraries and archives were good and needed - but they disagreed about whatever expenditure was being proposed at the moment. Gracy recounts the stories of persevering, sometimes controversial state librarians and archivists, and commission members, including Ernest Winkler, Elizabeth West (the first female agency head in Texas government), Fannie Wilcox, Virginia Gambrell, and Louis Kemp, who worked to provide Texans the vital services of the state library and archives - developing public library service statewide, maintaining state and federal records for use by the public and lawmakers, running summer reading programs for children, providing services for the visually impaired, and preserving the historically significant records of Texas as a colony, province, republic, and state. Gracy explains how the agency has struggled to balance its differing library and archival functions and, most of all, to be treated as a full-range information provider, and not just as a collection of disparate services.

Full Product Details

Author:   David B. Gracy, II
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
Imprint:   University of Texas Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.539kg
ISBN:  

9780292722019

ISBN 10:   029272201
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   01 June 2010
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   In Print  
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.

Table of Contents

"Foreword, by Peggy D. Rudd; Preface: Nor Is This All; Acknowledgments 1. ""To Have the Texas People See the Necessity for It"": Establishing the Library and Archival Functions of Government, 1835-1909; 2. ""Bricks without Straw"": The Winkler, Klaerner, and West Years, 1909-1925; 3. ""I Don't Feel as Good as I Would If I Could"": The Rogan and First Wilcox Years, 1925-1932; 4. ""The State Library Needs Space, Money, and Official Understanding--and the Greatest of These Is the Last"": The Middle Wilcox Years, 1932-1935; 5. ""A Diffusion of Interests and Objectives"": The Final Wilcox Years, 1935-1945; 6. ""There Are Many Hurdles to Jump before the Race Is Won--If It Is Won"": The Henshaw Years, 1946-1950; 7. ""More Grief Than at Present"": The Connerly and Gibson Years, 1950-1953; 8. ""If and When the Glad Day Comes"": The Harwell, Peace, and Beginning Winfrey Years, 1954-1962; Conclusion Appendix 1: Texas Library and Historical Commission: Members, 1909-1962; Appendix 2: Texas Library and Historical Commission: By Year and Appointment, 1909-1962; Notes; Bibliography; Index"

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Author Information

David B. Gracy II is the Governor Bill Daniel Professor in Archival Enterprise, School of Information, University of Texas at Austin; a Fellow of the Texas State Historical Association; and a Certified Archivist. Eighteen years after beginning his archival career in the Texas State Archives, Gracy returned as Texas State Archivist (1977–1986).

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