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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Dec. 18, 1963
KU Special Collections Librarian Has Rare Job
Bv Greg Swartz
There are rare jobs, and there are jobs dealing with rare things. But one woman here has a rare job dealing with rare things.
the woman is Alexandra Mason, director of special collections at the KU library. Special collections is the department of the library where rare books, magazines, and articles are kept, and there are few such departments in the nation.
"There are probably only 50-60 jobs like mine in the country," Miss Mason said.
THE SPECIAL collections department here is not dead but is a growing concern, she said.
Since the department's inception in 1953, it has had to move once which doubled its size, and when the new addition to the library is completed, the size of the department will double again, she said.
Miss Mason came to KU in 1957 as the result of an advertisement in the London Times Literary Supplement which she saw while working for an encyclopedia firm in Chicago.
"THE ADVERTISEMENT made Kansas the most beautiful place in the world," she said.
Miss Mason became head of the department last August when Joseph Rubinstein resigned to open a book shop in Tucson, Arizona.
Miss Mason, called Sandy by those who know her, had been second in command for two or three years.
THE SPECIAL collections department now has about 50,000 books, but Miss Mason said she could not say how much they are worth. She said the library has rare selections worth 10 cents and upward.
It doesn't necessarily follow that just because a book is rare and in demand that it will be expensive, she said. It takes a specialist to recognize the value of some selections.
"What would you sell an old newspaper article for?" she asked.
FOR INSTANCE, you don't expect to find a contemporary account of the Irish revolution in the middle of Kansas, Miss Mason explained. But it could be very useful to someone.
Miss Mason, who is originally from Massachusetts, received her B.A. in Greek from Mount Holyoke College, a girls college in Massachusetts. She received her M.A. in library science at Carnegie Library School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
She originally became interested in library work when she was a student assistant in the library at Mount Holyoke.
MISS MASON said her degree in Greek has helped in her library work. A good language background is needed in the library field, she said, and a Greek major requires work in both Latin and modern languages.
"We seem to get more and more people with classical training coming into this field," she said.
De Gaulle's Threat Believed Serious
By Phil Newsom
UPI Foreign News Analyst
By Phil Newsom
The question before France's Common Market partners now is, does President Charles de Gaulle mean business or is he kidding?
This is the deadline against which the representatives of France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg now are working in their modernistic headquarters at Brussels, Belgium.
On the basis of the record established by "Le Grand Charles," it must be assumed that he does mean business and that he will carry out a threat to wreck the six-nation European Economic Community unless it reaches agreement on a common farm policy by New Year's eve.
AT THE MOMENT, their chances of success seem remote, with final results having a strong bearing not only upon the future of Europe but upon the approximately $1 billion worth of agricultural goods sold annually to Common Market nations by the United States as well.
Former Professor Dies In Lawrence
Funeral services for Joseph M. Kellogg, former chairman of the KU architectural department, were at 2 p.m. today at Rumsey Funeral Home.
Prof. Kellogg died Sunday night in a Lawrence rest home. He was 78.
A member of KU faculty for 35 years, he was a chairman of the architectural department from 1928 to 1945. He returned in 1960. A scholarship is being offered at KU in his name.
Prof. Kellogg was born Sept. 26, 1885, in Emporia where he attended grade and high schools. He was an undergraduate student at KU from 1903 to 1905. He graduated from Cornell University in 1909 and received his master of architecture degree in 1912.
Before coming to KU, he taught architecture at Cornell from 1910 to 1912. University of Illinois from 1912 to 1916 and Texas A & M College from 1919 to 1922.
Prof. Kellogg was a member of the American Institute of Architects, Kansas Society of Architects, Alpha Rho Chi, national architects fraternity, and Phi Gamma Delta, social fraternity.
He is survived by a nephew, L.
Beacher Kellogg, Palo Alto, Calif.
Failure at Brussels also most automatically would doom the chances for success of the so-called "Kennedy Round" of negotiations next May at which it is hoped for across-the-board tariff cuts of 50 per cent.
This would come under the "general agreements for tariff and trade," otherwise known as GATT.
The crux of the problem at Brussels is the French demand for immediate agreement on price regulations for beef, veal, dairy produce and rice—to the benefit of French farmers and at a loss for the German farmers.
ALSO INVOLVED is De Gaulle's concept of the common markets an inward looking, protectionist grouping and the opposing belief held by West German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard that the outlook should be global in the concept also held by the late President Kennedy.
When asked why KU is putting an emphasis on the special collections department, Miss Mason said, "KU is rapidly becoming more and more interested in research, and this kind of library is essential for research."
BOOKS FROM THIS department were used about 1,000 times in September Miss Mason said.
But this doesn't include questions and requests which the department receives. For instance, Miss Mason
said she had a request from the British Museum, and one from a man in Athens pending.
The department is used mainly by the faculty and graduate students, she said. Everyone is welcome, but there won't be much sitting room until the collections are moved into the new addition, she said.
THE LIBRARY IS constantly adding to all its collections. Otherwise they become dead, she said, "and
who the heck wants a stuffed bird, except a moth."
Miss Mason has been to continental Europe three times. She spent a year in 1961-62 at the University of Durham in Durham, England.
Following her stay in England she was asked by KU to visit book-sellers on the European continent in search for possible acquisitions.
Miss Mason plans to teach a course next year on the history of books.
The Classical Film Series
THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
presents
Sergei Eisenstein's classic silent film a major contribution to world cinema
Wednesday, December 18 Fraser Theater - 7:00 p.m. Admission $.60
Town Shop
- * * * *
DOWNTOWN
Gifts of Distinction
- BYFORD Sweaters from England
- GANT Shirts and Sportshirts
- RUSSIAN LEATHER After Shave and Cologne
- TOWNE and KING Sweaters
- SUEDE LEATHER Vests
- WOOLRICH Woolen Popovers
- BAR ACCESSORIES
- BRENTWOOD Sweaters
- REVERSIBLE BELTS by Canterbury
- CASHMERE MUFFLERS from England
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