Rutgers University. Office of University Librarian

Born out of a small collection of theology books beginning the late eighteenth century, the Rutgers University Libraries have grown to comprise twenty-four libraries, collections, and reading rooms holding over 2.4 million books, 640,000 bound periodicals, 4 million government documents, and 5 million manuscripts. This growth can be attributed to a number of people, not the least of whom includes Donald F. Cameron.

The transition began in 1944, when Donald Cameron assumed the role of university librarian, succeeding the retiring George Osborne. At that time, the University Library's collection, housed in the Voorhees Library, numbered approximately 400,000 volumes. It had long been recognized that the collection, the staff, and the library building itself would need to be expanded to sufficiently provide for Rutgers' growing community. As University historian Richard P. McCormick wrote in 1966: "Adequate for the purposes of undergraduate instruction, the library was housed in a building that had long since become crowded to capacity and was handicapped by inadequate staff and a minuscule book fund. The growing emphasis on graduate instruction and research would require facilities and resources vastly larger than those available." (1) These were the challenges Donald Cameron took on during his twenty-two year tenure as university librarian.

Cameron came to Rutgers as an associate professor of English in 1929. It was fifteen years later when he became university librarian. Though he had no working experience as a librarian when he was appointed, he was actively involved in library issues and helped to found the Associated Friends of the Library of Rutgers University in 1937. This group initiated the publication of The Journal of the Rutgers University Libraries, which featured excellent articles based on library materials and generally constituted a vocal constituency in behalf of the library's needs. (2) Cameron also championed faculty research as a co-founder (and later editor) of the Rutgers University Press and organizer of the University Research Council. In fact, Cameron was active throughout his career at Rutgers, contributing to university governance through his service on numerous committees.

Cameron's appointment to the position of university librarian came at a time of great change at Rutgers. Prompted by World War II, new attitudes were being taken toward life in general and higher education in particular. According to University historian Richard McCormick: "As the war entered its final stage, with the promise of a victorious peace seemingly assured, the American people were conscious, even determined, that a different and better world must follow the holocaust . . . . A host of Governmental planning groups were at work . . . [developing among other things] daring proposals for a vast expansion of higher education." (3)

Set into motion by this widespread initiative for expansion, the state legislature moved to clarify the status of Rutgers as the state university. By 1945, the declaration was made; Rutgers was designated the State University of New Jersey. With this official designation and eventually, the end of the war, came several internal organizational reforms, a merger with the Newark Colleges, a new corps of faculty, and the appointment of several new key administrators, including Cameron.

The atmosphere of change was reinforced by an influx of returning veterans entering college on the GI Bill. Enrollments soared from a prewar high of 7,000 to 16,000 by early 1948. The explosive expansion witnessed after the war forever changed Rutgers. From this point on, the university would continue to expand its constituency, which would require the provision of more and larger library buildings, collections, and services.

As the library acquired new collections in the early years of Cameron's tenure, space issues that were always recognized became desperate. The remedy to this problem, a new University Library was finally constructed under Cameron's direction. The carefully planned building, designed to hold over 1,500,000 volumes and to seat 1,200 students, was formally dedicated in November 1956. (4) Four million dollars in the making, the University Library, which was eventually renamed the Archibald S. Alexander Library, was a tremendous feat and is the accomplishment for which Donald Cameron is perhaps most remembered.

Library construction was a hallmark theme of Cameron's term as university librarian. In total, he was instrumental in the planning of over fourteen million dollars worth of library buildings on the various campuses. In a 1966 article reporting his retirement, Cameron's record of building was summarized: "He was consultant for the new library built at Douglass College in 1958, the library the went up on Rutgers Camden campus in 1959, the library for Rutgers Newark finished in January [1966], and is involved in planning for the new library of science and medicine for which ground will be broken in the fall. He's also helping to plan a new addition to the Camden library." (5)

Cameron filled these new buildings with thousands of acquisitions. The records reflect hundreds of gifts and purchases. During his twenty-two years as university librarian, holdings increased from 400,000 volumes to 1.2 million.

Donald Cameron retired from Rutgers in 1966. Robert Kriendler expressed a common sentiment in a letter to Cameron dated May 26, 1966, writing: "Something seems out of joint here. Your retiring from Rutgers is something like Billy the Silent uprooted from his observation post at the foot of Bleecker Place. It's like Old Queens without the ivy." (6)

For a total of thirty-seven years at Rutgers, Donald Cameron presence was significant. One thing is for sure, Cameron left his mark in the library system he helped to build.

After leaving Rutgers, Cameron remained active in the library community, acting as a consultant to New Jersey and New York state college and university libraries and to the American Library Association until his death in 1974 at the age of seventy-three.

(1) McCormick, R. P. (1966). Rutgers: A Bicentennial History. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 241.

(2) Ibid.

(3) Ibid. 262.

(4) Ibid. 297.

(5) "Rutgers Librarian Comes Out for Air." (1966, June 5). New Brunswick Home News .

(6) This personal correspondence and selected others may be found in the Donald Cameron Rutgers faculty biographical file (R-Bio: Faculty), held in Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University.