Dates
- 1963-1998
Scope and Content Note
The records in this collection date from 1963 to 1998. Three series – Teaching Files, Scholarship Files, and Service Files – comprise the collection. The records consist primarily of correspondence (much of it in German or French), minutes and memoranda, and lectures and teaching aids. The range of other documents in the collection includes newsletters and issues of the Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries edited by Pamela Richards and reviews, articles, and chapters of books authored by her. The collection also includes three full-length books, two compiled and co-authored with J.W. Smit. A large part of the records consists of grant proposals, project proposals, and notes endeavoring to improve the Rutgers University Library Studies program and to encourage international programs and exchanges.
Within the three series of the collection, the Teaching Files consist of three sub-series: lectures, notes, and teaching aids; internship proposals, agreements with potential sponsors, and correspondence; and proposals for new courses and other changes to the curriculum. The Scholarship Files include books or book-related (chapters of books) publications; conference presentations and lectures; refereed and non-refereed articles, abstracts, reviews and edited materials; materials written in foreign languages; and grant and scholarship materials and awards and prizes. The Service Files document Pamela Richards' extensive contributions to both the Rutgers University and the international scholarly community. The materials include documentation for a medical grant to restructure and improve the Resources in the Medical Information Education program and proposals, reports, and recruitment strategies for a Scientific and Technical Information Resources track. An extensive amount of material records transactions between IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board), USIA (United States Information Agency), CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange) and SIG/IRC of ASIS (Special Interest Group of the International Relations Committee of the American Society for Information Science) in regard to the Freedom Support Act Fellowship program. The documentation chronicles Pamela Richards' attempts to establish an exchange program between the United States and both the U.S.S.R. and China for the purpose of bringing interested and qualified Soviet and Chinese graduate students to the Library Studies program at Rutgers University.
This collection reflects the academic vitality of a healthy and thriving School of Information and Library Studies. It clearly identifies Pamela Spence Richards as a primary motivating force in the development and maintenance of a strong core curriculum for the program. It also graphically illustrates her attempts to engage the university in an active exchange of information and human resources between the United States (specifically Rutgers University) and the untapped information and human resources of the Soviet Union and China.
Extent
6 Cubic Feet (13 manuscript boxes)
Language of Materials
The collection contains records in English, French, German, and Russian.
Abstract
Papers of Pamela Spence Richards, Professor of Library Studies at Rutgers University from 1977 until her death in 1999. The collection consists of publications, reports, reprints of published materials, and correspondence. The papers also document Pamela Richards' service to Rutgers University as chair of the Library and Information Science (LIS) Search Committee, the LIS Scholarship Committee, the LIS Budget Committee and the Curriculum Committee. Works and papers in the collection representative of Professor Richards' service to the scholarly community at large, include records from the boards and committees of the more than fifteen professional associations on which she served; more than twenty journal articles, including some in Russian, French and German; as well as numerous conference proceedings.
Biographical Sketch of Pamela Spence Richards
Pamela Richards was associated with Rutgers University for 22 years, from 1977 until her death in 1999. During that time, she progressed from being an Instructor in the Department of Library and Information Studies, to an Assistant professor to Associate professor in 1984.
She graduated as an undergraduate from Harvard in 1963, then went on to receive from Columbia an M.A. in Germanic Languages in 1966 and an M.L.S. degree in 1971. In 1979, she received her doctorate in Library Studies from Columbia, doing her dissertation on "A History of the New York Historical Society Library, 1804–1979."
Her language skills were extraordinary; she spoke, wrote and read Dutch, German, French and Russian. In 1997 she was a Senior Fulbright Scholar to Russia for the International Exchange of Scholars program. Her facility with languages was demonstrated repeatedly in her writing for foreign language journals and publications.
At Rutgers, she not only taught a large number of courses at all levels, but also in the Library and Information Studies department was chair of the LIS Search Committee, the LIS Scholarship Committee, the LIS Budget Committee and the Curriculum Committee.
Throughout her professional career, Pamela Richards devoted much of her time to serving the scholarly community. She served on the boards and committees of more than fifteen professional associations, contributed to an equal number of book chapters and encyclopedia articles, including a number in German, wrote more than twenty journal articles, including some in Russian, French and German, as well as contributing to the publication of numerous conference proceedings, more than twenty-five book reviews, including reviews of works in Dutch, German and Russian. Finally, Richards was in demand as a guest lecturer, giving literally dozens of lecturers around the world in her relatively short career.
Arrangement Note
The records in this collection date from 1963 to 1998 and consist of correspondence (much of it in German or French), minutes and memoranda, and lectures and teaching aids. A large part of the records consists of grant proposals, project proposals, and notes endeavoring to improve the Rutgers University Library Studies program and to encourage international programs and exchanges. Within each series, files are arranged alphabetically by topic or agency. Within each file, documents are arranged chronologically and/or alphabetically.
The collection is arranged in three series as follows:
- I. Scholarship files, 1972-1995
- II. Teaching files, 1963-1998
- III. Service files, 1974-1998
- Bibliotheken der DDR
- China
- Communication in learning and scholarship
- Conference proceedings
- Curriculum Development
- Dutch
- Freedom Support Act Fellowship Program
- Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education
- Germany
- Information Services
- Lectures
- Marketing
- National Socialism
- Publications
- Research
- Research Grants
- Russia
- Scholarly Communication
- Scholarship
- Service
- Soviet Union
- World War, 1939-1945
- Title
- Guide to the Pamela Spence Richards Papers, 1963-1998 R-MC 066
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Alla Nedoresow
- Date
- May 2004
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English
Part of the Rutgers University Archives Repository
Rutgers University Libraries
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
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scua_ref@libraries.rutgers.edu