Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

Professor of sociology at University of Michigan. Correspondence and papers relating to his professional activities; also studies of Michigan rural communities made by his students in 1933-1934.

The Holmes collection has been arranged into five series: Correspondence, Miscellaneous, Notes and Collected Material, Student term papers, and Rural Study correspondence, 1932-1937. Except for a few explanatory comments, the contents of these series are most fully described in the container listing which follows. The Correspondence series consists of Holmes' professional correspondence with colleagues and friends. The Rural Study correspondence pertains exclusively to Holmes' inventory of the economic and social resources of the rural areas of Michigan during the 1930s. The files which are arranged alphabetically by county consist of summarizations by Holmes of the information received from his sources and copies of his responses. The file does not include, unfortunately, the originals of the letters sent to Professor Holmes.

Correspondence and other papers relating to his work with the American Library Association's Committee on Revision of the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 1935-1941; letters from his former students upon the occasion of his retirement in 1964; personal correspondence, including letters to his parents from relatives in Norway, 1880-1935 and letters written while in service during World War I; and photographs.

The bulk of the collection consists of Gjelsness' professional correspondence between 1930 and 1965; materials concerning the committees of the American Library Association on which he served, and relating to his foreign assignments; extensive files of drafts of the revision of the Catalog Code, together with related. correspondence; and comments on the final draft of the Code.

Some unusual items are letters in Norwegian written between 1881 and 1935 to Marius S. and Karoline O. Gjelsness, parents of Rudolph Gjelsness. The correspondents were family and friends in Norway, and residents of other Norwegian. communities in north-central United States. Business papers of Marius S. Gjelsness from 1885 to 1917 reflect his activities as a member of the local school board and as a leader in his church. Several catalogues of merchandise are included.

There are also early personal letters of Rudolph H. Gjelsness written to his mother and his sister Helen during the years he was in the army and later a student in Norway, as well as a few from his days as a library science student and a beginning librarian. There are also a few folders of his World War memorabilia.