A Research Paper Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Librarianship, San Jose State College (San Jose State University)
Subject: History of the Los Altos Library (1914 to 1964)
Prepared by: Marian Abel, 1972
Founded in 1914, the Los Altos library predates the incorporation of the city of Los Altos (1952). You can find Marian’s original bound thesis in the reference section of the Los Altos Library. This excellent paper, published in 1972 as part of Ms. Abel’s Master’s Degree in Library Science at San Jose State, deserves to be read.
The concerns of the city repeat themselves. What did the Friends of the Library think? The Library Commission? How did the remodel happen? Did the library enjoy the support of the City Council of the time? Was there conflict?
For those of us who have worked in publishing, the binding and construction of her thesis harken back to the good old days of scotch tape, exacto knives, rubber cement, black-and-white photography, and typewriters.
Today, using an arguably born-in-Los-Altos technology – pdf, you can read Ms. Abel’s thesis below.
NOTE: RELOAD YOUR PAGE IF YOU SEE ANY PDF ERRORS BELOW. DON’T PANIC, JUST NEEDS A REFRESH. IF YOU NEED TO READ A DOCUMENT, IT’S BEST TO DOWNLOAD IT TO YOUR DEVICE TO READ AND HAVE AS REFERENCE. YOU CAN SEARCH EACH DOCUMENT – ALL TEXT IS INDEXED. CAMPBELL APPEARS 90 TIMES IN THE FIRST DOCUMENT.
For best results, download this file to your computer (it’s a 71-page document.)