Background

Neal Rotan Harlow was born on June 11, 1908, in Columbus, Indiana, United States. He was a son of Robert William Harlow, a minister, and Ora May (Rotan) Harlow.

Education

In his early years, Neal attended schools in Nebraska, Colorado and California. He started his university education at California State University, Fresno, and continued his studies at Santa Ana Junior College (present-day Santa Ana College) and at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education with a major in Art in 1932. The following year, in 1933, Harlow attained the Certificate in Librarianship from the University of California, Berkeley.

In his later years, namely in 1949, Neal got a master's degree from the University of California library school.

Career

In 1934, Neal was appointed a junior librarian of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley and remained in that position for the next four years. In 1938, he won a competition for the position of assistant librarian in the California Section of the California State Library in Sacramento. The next seven years Neal spent at the State Library, where he acquired the profound knowledge of California, that would support his own research for the rest of his life.

In 1945, Neal was promoted to the post of head of the Gifts and Exchanges Division at the University of California, Los Angeles Library. In 1947, he was appointed the first head of the Special Collections Division at the same library, a post he held until 1949. During the same period, Harlow edited the California Library Bulletin, which he revamped both in content and style, achieving his goal of making it "terse, pertinent and readable". In 1949, Harlow was appointed an assistant librarian with special responsibility for planning buildings at the University of California, Los Angeles Library, where he remained till 1950. So, in the first 13 years of his professional life, Neal developed into an authority on rare books and manuscripts, and he also gained varied experience in administration, library architecture and applying technology to library operations.

In 1951, Harlow was made a university librarian at the University of British Columbia (UBC), a post he held for the next ten years. Harlow immediately became active on many fronts. Feeling, that the library's role in the university needed definition, he promptly drew up a new Senate Policy on the University Library, which was approved by Senate on February 13, 1952. He followed this with a proposal for new terms of reference for the Senate Library Committee, and these were adopted on May 13, 1952. In less than a year, Harlow resolved the question of governance and dealt with the perennial issue of centralization versus decentralization. He was convinced, that for budgetary, administrative and physical purposes, centralization was the only appropriate model for UBC at its current state of development. Although Neal encountered strong opposition on the part of some faculties, he never backed down and succeeded in his objective of making the library a strong and unified presence on campus.

Neal's foremost priority was always the collections, and he strove to increase the acquisition budget both from the university's resources and from grants and donations from foundations and individuals. He established close relationships with the library's benefactors through an organization he created - the Friends of UBC Library. Most prominent among these friends were Walter Koerner and H. R. MacMillan.

In 1960-1961, Harlow acted as president of the Canadian Library Association. In 1961, he was appointed dean of the Graduate School of Library Service in Rutgers University in New Brunswick, a post he held until his retirement in 1969. It's worth noting, that, during the period from 1963 till 1964, Neal held a post of the 26th president of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).

In his later years, Neal became active in two of the top organizations of book aficionados - the Rounce and Coffin Club and the Zamorano Club.

Harlow's publications include "The Administration of Manuscripts in a University Library" (1949), "The Maps of San Francisco Bay: From the Spanish Discovery in 1769 to the American Occupation" (1950), "Maps and Surveys of the Pueblo Lands of Los Angeles" (1976), "California Conquered: War and Peace on the Pacific, 1846-1850" (1982) and others.

Achievements

• Neal Rotan Harlow was a distinguished librarian, historian and author, who published five volumes on the history of California, that are greatly praised by collectors and archivists. His most notable writings include "The Maps of San Francisco Bay: From the Spanish Discovery in 1769 to the American Occupation" (1950) and "California Conquered: War and Peace on the Pacific, 1846-1850" (1982), which earned him favorable reviews.
  
  Neal enriched research collections of the Bancroft, California State and UCLA libraries, and at the University of British Columbia (UBC) he transformed a college library into a research-level institution. He was always a major force in creating one library school and expanding another, and in all places set high standards for personnel and guided and encouraged their individual development and led a nation's librarians in a searching examination to identify goals and means.
  
  Harlow thought profoundly about the world of information and could always be counted on for fresh perspectives. This made him a sought-after speaker. His speeches and articles were inspirational, forward-looking and influential in their time.
  
  In 1989, Harlow was named a fellow of the Historical Society of Southern California in recognition of his lifetime work.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Maps of San Francisco Bay: From the Spanish Discovery in 1769 to the American Occupation 1950
  • Maps and Surveys of the Pueblo Lands of Los Angeles 1976
  • California Conquered: War and Peace on the Pacific, 1846-1850 1982
  • Maps of the Pueblo Lands of San Diego, 1602-1874 1987

Membership

Neal was a member of the American Library Association and American Library Association Council, as well as a fellow of the Historical Society of Southern California.

• fellow

  Historical Society of Southern California , United States

  1989

Connections

Neal was married to Marian Harlow. Their marriage produced two daughters - Diane and Nora.

Father:

Robert William Harlow

Mother:

Ora May (Rotan) Harlow

child:

Diane Harlow

child:

Nora Harlow

Wife:

Marian Harlow