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The University Library system at the University of Michigan provides information resources and services to faculty, students, staff, and the public, and is comprised of undergraduate, graduate, and subject-oriented divisional collections. The record group includes administrative files of library directors, reports, committee files, financial records, photographs, and publications.

The records of the library of the University of Michigan document the development and administration of the central library. The records include topical files, miscellaneous correspondence and reports, and business record books, 1886-1916; include files of librarians/directors/deans Theodore W. Koch, William W. Bishop, Warner G. Rice, Frederick H. Wagman, Richard Dougherty, Robert M. Warner, Don Riggs, William A. Gosling, and Paul Courant; also assorted papers of earlier librarians, Andrew Ten Brook and Raymond C. Davis.

1. The records are organized into elleven subgroups:
2. Assistant Director for Technical Services, 1984 - 1999
3. Associate Director for Public Service Files, 1976 - 1998
4. Associate Director for Technical Services, 1979 - 1986
5. Associate Director's office, 1982 - 1989
6. Audio - Visual Materials, 1954 - 2001
7. Collection Development Office, 1949 - 1986
8. Deputy Director's Office, 1980 - 1991
9. Directors Office, 1905-2013
10. Human Resources, 1956 - 2001
11. Miscellaneous Records, 1837 - 1985
12. Other Offices and Programs, 1904 - 2004

Gerontologist, faculty member at the University of Michigan, first with the Bureau of Psychological Services, later with the Institute for Human Adjustment, and as co-director of its successor unit, the Institute of Gerontology. Files detailing her participation at various meetings and conferences, her other professional activities and affiliations, research projects files, University of Michigan administrative and teaching materials, and videotapes of presentations at 1979 conference, "White House Conferences as Agents of Social Change", also photographs.

The Wilma T. Donahue papers document her career as a teacher, researcher, and administrator at the University of Michigan. The papers span the years 1945-1990 with the bulk of the material falling within the two decades bound by 1949-1969. The Donahue papers are a subset of the Michigan Historical Collections/Institute of Gerontology Joint Archives in Gerontology and can best be understood as an integral element of that larger set.

The Donahue papers provide a clear insight to the development of the field of gerontology as an academic discipline and as an area of concern for policy makers and the general public. The earliest files reflect Donahue's training as a psychologist as it relates to her research on testing, returning veterans, and the blind. In the late 1940s Donahue and Clark Tibbitts began to research and publish articles on the aging population in America. Donahue's papers reflect this new interest as the focus of her writings now turns to issues of aging: housing, mental and physical health, adult education, and the economics of retirement. These issues dominated Donahue's research for twenty years and her papers document her increasing stature as an influential figure in gerontology at the state and national levels, especially her involvement with the University of Michigan Annual Conferences on Gerontology, the Michigan Commission on Aging, and her "cutting edge" research on housing the aging.

The collection came to the library in different accessions and from different sources. Although there is some overlap, the files as received represent distinct series. These series are Articles, Conferences, Addresses and Meetings, 1949-1970; Professional Activities and Affiliations, 1953-1970; Research Projects, 1955-1971; University of Michigan: Administration and Teaching, 1946-1968; Videotapes: White House Conferences as Agents of Social Change, 1979; International Center for Social Gerontology; and Miscellaneous.