F irst Librarian 'Exemplitied ‘Spirit of Weber’ The Weber State College library hadits beginning with a little red , ‘book entitled, ‘“‘How to Start a ' Small Library,” and a young ‘woman willing to learn. ' Eva R. Browning, first | | librarian of the college, remem- ers well the series of events eading to her library assignment. _ | President Joel E. Ricks was to leave as president at the end of the 1922 school year but his ecretary quit in April and Eva, ho was substitute teaching in the gden City schools, was asked to in for her. She accepted. It fell to her to also keep the tecords and she sat on a high ~ stool, perched behind a counter. A Slight-haired member of the ‘faculty seemed to be about a lot ) and he even checked out the work = that Eva was doing. © “I wondered why in the world > that man kept coming in looking everything over. I almost fell off my stool when I discovered that Near the end of the school year President Tracy took Eva to look at the revamping of the study hall where a new college library was to be established for the following year. Boys were taking out desks and workmen were laying a heavy cork linoleum. Electricians were putting in overhead lights and books were off the shelves in disorderly stacks while the shelves were being painted. Eva thought, ‘‘It was the most disturbed looking place I had ever seen and I was relieved that I didn’t have anything to do with such disorder.”’ President Tracy E FIRST LIBRARY for Weber College was a room Mh si a said, ‘‘We’re going to make a college library out of this.”’ Eva thought quickly, ‘‘So what?”’ So they wanted Eva to be the librarian! She was completely astonished and hastened to tell President Tracy that they needed a trained librarian and she wasn’t one. “There isn’t a trained librarian and we haven’t the funds to hire one from ‘outside.’ You can do it and you can learn to be a librarian,” said President Tracy, 1 the Moench Building. It was furnished with light 4 Page 3 oak furniture EVA R. BROWNING, Weber State College’s first librarian, is still vitally . interested in the library and her many friends at the college. She sits before one of her paintings in her charming home. and had a seating students with 2,000 volumes available. capacity for 90 and handed her a little red book, “‘How to Start a Small Library.”’ “Before you give me an answer take this home and read it.”’ “You mean I’m going to get my library education from this little red book?” It was the beginning of a 32-year career for Eva Browning. She consulted with the librarian at the Carnegie library and went home with cards and advice to accept the assignment and learn. That summer President Tracy attended the University of Chicago, spending his spare time in used book stores buying books to send back to Eva who was trying to bring order to the library in time for the opening of the first year of ‘Weber College.’ A representative from the Library Bureau consulted with Eva on the furniture for the library. They ordered heavy, light oak furniture. On a small table in the backroom Eva found a shoebox half-filled with cards made according to the Dewey Decimal Classification System, which gave evidence that someone had endeavored to have a card catalog. There was a little four-drawer card catalog, broken and empty. It hadn’t been used for years but the cards had not been thrown away. Eva was determined to have a card catalog before school opened (Continued on page 4)