Since 1965, the Patrons of the Library have assisted Pollak Library by providing funding for purchases beyond the California state budget allocation. The first of the University's voluntary community support groups, Patrons were founded at the initiative of Ernest W. Toy, the first College and then University Librarian. Convinced that the Library is the heart of the University, the Patrons have been consistent, through times of both healthy and stringent budgets, in seeking to help the Library better serve students, faculty, and the community.

The Patrons have been fortunate in their governance over the years. Their first president was Harold Williams, whose distinguished record in public service culminated in his presidency of the Getty Foundation. Fourteen presidents of the Patrons have come from the community and four from the faculty. The officers and members of the Board of Governors have worked closely and creatively with all University Librarians from Ernest Toy to Richard Pollard.
 

Purchase of Books

Unlike most other library support groups, the Patrons operate simultaneously in six different ways to benefit the Pollak Library. Their earliest and still paramount activity is the purchase of books and other materials the Library could not otherwise afford. They have greatly enhanced its specialized collections in, for example, rare books, fine printing, Californiana, cartography, naval history, and science fiction. Thousands of volumes and sets of volumes in fields as diverse as religion, travel, fine arts, literature, and history have joined the circulating collection thanks to purchases by the Patrons. And they have consistently supplemented the reference collection in music, theater, chemistry, business, sports, geology, and many other subject areas. The Patrons Book Selection Committee, in consultation with Library staff, makes these purchase decisions. In recent years, the Patrons have devoted a quarter of their book budget to serial publications, usually scientific journals, chosen at the discretion of specialist librarians.

Gifts

Further, as the responsible agent for soliciting and receiving gifts, the Patrons have facilitated many major contributions which have enhanced Special Collections, as for example, The Dwight V. Strong Collections of George Bernard Shaw and Dylan Thomas, the Frederick and Patricia Shroyer Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Collection, the May-Amsberry Poetry Collection, the Fairfax Proudfit Walkup Theatre Collection, and the Captain Markham Kerridge Freshwater Angling Collection. They are responsible for acquiring the original manuscripts of science fiction classics by Ray Bradbury, Frank Herbert, and Philip K. Dick. Thousands of books on many subjects have similarly been acquired for the circulating collection as gifts through the Patrons. Thus, without cost to the Patrons, the Library's holdings have been vastly enriched.

Lectures, Exhibitions, Publications

Another long-standing purpose of the Patrons is to educate the University and the community about the Library's specialized holdings. This is done through lectures, exhibitions, and publications.

The Library Lecture Series consists of talks published as occasional papers celebrating important new acquisitions or Patrons' events worthy of permanent record.

The Patrons have organized and underwritten exhibitions on various themes. Displays of early maps from the Library's Roy V. Boswell Collection for the History of Cartography were the work of Mr. Boswell, as were the nine illustrated catalogs that accompanied them. Another map exhibition is presented in Worlds That Never Were. Photographs from the Patrons' exhibition of their U.S Navy Photograph Collection appear in Images of the Great White Fleet. To celebrate their 25th anniversary in 1990, Patrons exhibited examples of their rare book and early map acquisitions, presented in Treasures from the Patrons. The last three of these Exhibition Catalogs are 32 pages in length, fully illustrated and annotated.

The Patron's most ambitious publishing project was the 140-page fine press volume, Very Special Collections. Cal State Fullerton historians Albert R. Vogeler and Arthur A. Hansen chose for description by experts sixteen of the Library's most significant specialized collections, six of which had either been purchased or received as gifts by the Patrons. The volume has been distributed to libraries throughout California and the nation.

The Patrons often play a part in exhibitions curated by the Library's Director of Exhibitions. They contributed substantially to the publication of the catalog of the Oral History Program, now the Center for Oral and Public History, housed in the Pollak Library.

Photocopying

The fourth function of the Patrons is to provide copy facilities for students and others wishing to make copies of the Library's holdings for research purposes. Presently, the Patrons lease several copy machines. The surplus generated through their use is generally used to support print and electronic collections as well as user services.

Book Sale Center

The fifth Patrons activity was inaugurated in 1995: an ongoing used book sale offering some 5,000 books on all subjects at very low prices. It is staffed by Patrons and Emeriti of Cal State Fullerton in a room set aside for this purpose. The Book Sale Center is open during the autumn and spring academic semesters. The Center accepts tax-deductible donations of books, magazines, etc., which provide the Library with an opportunity to release unneeded holdings for the benefit of students and the public. The revenues go to the Library for its use. Operations of the Book Sale Center are discussed in more detail in a separate section.

Outreach

The Patrons sponsor a Book Discussion Group, which meets monthly during the academic year, the Patrons Lecture Series, which features writers and other artists, and library and book-related tours. The Patrons Lecture Series and the tours are open to the public.

Patrons Lecture Series

2003 - "Books from the Basin: L.A. in Ink": Patt Morrison (writer, columnist, TV and radio moderator); Dennis McDougal (author of Privileged Son: The Story of Otis Chandler and the Rise and Fall of the L.A. Times Dynasty and other books); Marisa Silver (author of Babe in Paradise, a collection of short stories set in Southern California) and featuring David Keller (actor from SCR) reading one of the stories from the collection.

2004 - "Creative California": Kathleen Tuttle (author of Sylvanus Marston: Master Architect in Pasadena's Golden Age); David Thomson (author of Biographical Dictionary of Film and numerous books on movies and Hollywood); K.C. Cole (science writer for the Los Angeles Times and author of Mind over Matter and The Hole in the Universe).

2005 - "Men, Women and God(s)": Landon Jones (author of William Clark and the Shaping of the West); Jonathan Kirsch (book critic for the Los Angeles Times and author of God Against the Gods); Gordon Bakken (Professor of History at CSUF and author of Encyclopedia of Women in the American West).

2006 - "Fiction, Friction, and Flight": Quang Pham (author of A Sense of Duty: My American Journey); Julie Rivett (granddaughter of Dashiell Hammett and editor of Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett 1921-1960 helped us commemorate the 75th anniversary of The Maltese Falcon; Michael Shermer (author of Science Friction and editor of Skeptic Magazine).

2007 - "Sci-Fi, Auto-Bi, Philoso-Phy": Karl Fleming (Author of Son of the Rough South); Pamela Mason-Wagner (documentary film maker whose productions include The Wisdom of Faith series, My Brother's Keeper: Personal Ethics and Finding Lucy; Kim Stanley Robinson (author of The Three Californias Trilogy).

Library and Book-Related Tours

2003 - Kater-Kraft Bookbinders, a family owned and operated company in Pico Rivera that sews, collates and binds old books. Then we visited the Special Collections Library at Occidental College.

2004 - Research Library at the Sherman Gardens in Corona del Mar and the Honnold/Mudd Library at Pomona College.

2005 - Leslie Brand Library and restored “Doctor’s House” in Glendale as well as the Munger Center of the Huntington Library, a newly constructed space devoted to research scholars plus the Skirball Center to view the Einstein Exhibit.

2006 - Margaret Herrick Library, housed in the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Patrons also publish The Patrons' Post, a newsletter, presenting news about the organization as well as Ex Libris, a column on books, libraries, and literary culture.

In ways large and small, traditional and innovative, the Patrons continue to fulfill their founders' purposes in the modern North Library building opened in 1996, and the renovated original South building. A renaming ceremony in 1998 honored the Library's two major benefactors, who have long been active Patrons. The Paulina June and George Pollak Library is now more than ever at the heart of the University.