UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Interview #1363
SCHOFER, YVONNE
SCHOFER, Yvonne
English Language Humanities Bibliographer at Memorial Library
At UW: 1980-2007
Interviewed: 2013
Interviewer: David Henige
Length: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Abstract: In her two 2013 interviews with David Henige, Yvonne Schofer, English
Language Humanities Bibliographer, discussed her employment at Memorial Library and
extracurricular activities in conferences and on committees. She discussed her
background and how she came to Memorial. Schofer detailed her work with Special
Collections, particularly the Little Magazine Collection and Cairns Collection. Schofer
explained the processes of her work and her attempts for outreach to the English
department and freshmen undergraduate students. Schofer provided her opinions on the
lack of collection development at Memorial Library and commented on the library’s shift
of focus to administrative duties. Schofer spoke of her efforts to provide more exhibit
space at Memorial Library. She also provided insight into her retirement in 2007. This
interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Oral History Program.
Keywords: Memorial Library, bibliographer, humanities, English, History, Special
Collections, rare books, library, instruction, freshmen, exhibits, English department,
collection development, administration, ALA, conferences, Little Magazines, Cairns
Collection, Harriet Beecher Stowe, women writers, retirement.
First Interview Session (February 27, 2013): Digital File
Time
00:00:00
Keywords
Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction
00:00:16
Question: Background? Answer: YS briefly discusses growing up in France and
pursuing her education in the Humanities and English in England and
Massachusetts. In 1967, her spouse moved to Madison and she signed up for
library school and graduated 1974. YS discusses the positions leading up to
becoming the humanities bibliographer working for international agencies in Paris
and at the Wisconsin Historical Society Library.
Yvonne Schofer (#1363)
00:05:52
[no question] YS discusses the large amount of duties the humanities
bibliographer position had and limited training she received. She discusses
collection development, which was done manually.
00:09:11
[no question] YS discusses monthly bibliographer meetings and budget
allocation. Bibliographers worked independently and competed for funds. There
were also numerous budget freezes. This made the work difficult, but it was a
good opportunity for YS to use her general educational background.
00:11:38
[no question] YS was responsible for subjects other than English including,
linguistics, communication arts, mass communication, and cultural media. She did
not have experience in publishing. The position was supposed to be temporary,
but YS was asked to stay on.
00:14:17
[no question] YS discusses the collections in rare books she was responsible for,
including a collection of first editions and a collection of private press books,
neither of which had budgets. Many valuable books were kept in the stacks and
were subject to theft. YS discusses moving some books into the rare book
collection.
00:20:26
[no question] YS was also responsible for the Cairns Collection and Little
Magazines, which were active collections. YS discusses the history and scope of
the Little Magazine collection, which was already an established collection. She
discusses a rare newsletter from the 1960s.
00:24:21
[no question] YS discusses the process of acquiring Little Magazines and
challenges they posed. She describes how they have changed over time and
become less countercultural. YS did little selecting for the collection, since Little
Magazines would often reference other titles.
00:28:43
[no question] YS discusses her work with the Cairns Collection of American
Women Writers. She discusses William B. Cairns, who provided funding for the
collection and the decision to focus on women writers. YS found books by
women writers already in the collection, but that were unprocessed.
00:32:57
[no question] YS was tasked with acquiring books from major women writers
and unknown authors. She discusses the lack of information about women writers
and the benefits and challenges of working with English department faculty to
select books. There was limited interest in women writers at the time and YS was
able to acquire some important works and low prices. YS discusses working with
dealers and using catalogs to find books.
00:38:10
[no question] YS discusses the collection development policy for the collection and
fluctuations in the collection’s budget. The collection was very popular with faculty and
researchers. YS discusses the committee that worked on the collection.
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Yvonne Schofer (#1363)
00:41:33
[no question] The collection started as a literary collection, but the focus needed
to include other types of material since early women writers tended to write for
money. YS discusses her strategy for collecting this type of material and finding
material in the library’s collection to add to Cairns.
00:44:58
[no question] Demand increased as the years went by and it became more
difficult to collect for Cairns. YS discusses non-book items in Cairns and the
Harriet Beecher Stowe materials in the collection.
00:47:24
[no question] YS discusses a private collection of pirated British editions of
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and other Stowe writings that were purchased through
auction. YS was disappointed that the annotated bibliography for the collection
was not digitized.
00:54:58
[no question] YS discusses staff in special collections who helped with Little
Magazines and Cairns, including authority work that captured variant forms of
women writers’ names.
00:56:17
[no question] YS discusses acquiring the first book published by an American
women writer, Anne Bradstreet’s The Tenth Muse. She goes on to discuss Anne
Bradstreet and her work.
00:58:58
[no question] Special Collections also had the first book published by Phyllis
Wheatley, who was the first published African American woman author.
01:00:09
End of Interview Session
Second Interview Session (September 20, 2013): Digital File
Time
00:00:00
Keywords
Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction
00:00:24
[no question] YS discusses the process of the bibliographer at Memorial Library.
YS mentions the researchers. Older faculty was using the library extensively at
the time. The library was not mandated to establish formal contact with users.
YS discusses the change of this practice. YS had to reach out to the faculty who
never used the library to establish their needs. It became more important to
require a small amount of time to talk the faculty and graduate students. It
became easier to get users and form a relationship when the English faculty
realized they were left behind in technology and using the card catalog. YS spoke
with English faculty.
00:05:09
[no question] YS discusses communication requirements. Library had to teach
freshmen. Faculty sought out the library to educate its students on library
research. Library asked to do more presentations – YS did these in Special
Collections. Faculty brought their classes in to do research. Some faculty had no
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Yvonne Schofer (#1363)
understanding of library procedures. The reference experience bypassed YS
completely, because bibliographers were not exposed much to reference.
Bibliographers not asked to be at reference desk.
00:08:40
[no question] As a result of changes, it became easier to formalize the instruction
with the departments. Librarians would meet with the chair of the departments.
The chairs would explain the needs of the department. YS started regular
arrangement with graduate students in English program. YS asked graduate
students to reports on their needs. This was important for linguistics – the
department was very small. YS never knew how to handle the linguistics
department – a discipline where books that were more than three years old were
obsolete. YS’s involvement with graduate students gave her useful information
on what journals to buy and how to better serve them. These arrangements were
not formalized. There was nothing organized. The efforts of YS helped improve
contact.
00:12:51
[no question] Collection development, unfortunately, has not recovered. The
library became very focused on administration and management. YS found this
change to be difficult. Discusses budget in the 1990s. YS discusses the collection
development policy at the time. When library received items with call numbers,
that’s when it felt like librarians were told not to interfere.
00:16:28
[no question] YS continues her perspective of the changes in collection
development at Memorial Library. The book shelf was given over to another
department. The increase in the managerial style was problematic, according to
YS. Once a librarian went over to administration, he/she stopped being a
librarian. Every new structure was considered to be better than the previous one.
The people in charge spend their lives in meeting, how do they stay in touch with
librarianship. This has a strange effect on the library presenting itself as its own
entity, separate from the University. YS sees this as a problem. Staff doesn’t
seem to stay very long in one position.
00:19:04
[no question] YS talks about her professional activities. Joined ALA. YS joined
the discussion group of English and American Literature bibliographers. YS went
to conferences and met her counterparts at other institutions. These conferences
made YS realize she was autonomous at Memorial Library – she was grateful for
that. YS still on the listserv for some of her activities. There was no one
representing Wisconsin at the rare books level. None of YS’s counterparts had to
deal with rare books. YS did presentations on Little Magazines at ALA.
00: 23:45
[no question] YS discusses committee work. YS spent 10 years on the equity
action committee. There were 15 titles distributed among members of the
committee. YS was the only bibliographer on the committee. YS co-chaired the
exhibits committee – very little time to do exhibits. There was very little exhibit
space in the library. YS purchased old jewelry cases to provide space for exhibits.
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Yvonne Schofer (#1363)
00:28:00
[no question] YS wrote a proposal to get a traveling exhibit to come to Memorial
Library. Money came along with this proposal. The English department
contributed money to have this traveling exhibit. YS worked on a de-duplication
project. YS discusses meetings concerning library projects. Eventually, the
library director lost interest in some of YS’s projects. The head of each
department in the library were sent to training programs.
00:32:54
[no question] YS talks about the reorganization of the library. There was no
recognition of interdisciplinary departments. YS was able to get more money for
her department. YS started buying materials with other library staff.
00:36:10
[no question] Retired in 2007. YS has not kept any files. YS’s replacement has
kept her office in the same condition as YS. YS felt like her work wasn’t making
a difference anymore. YS discusses people retiring and their positions not being
filled. YS says the collection is still modernist. YS felt sad that portions of the
collection will be moved to Verona.
00:40:58
[no question] Discusses MLA panel.
00:41:50 End of Interview Session
End of Oral History #1363
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