A Bookstore in a Library (1935-1965): The Bull’s Head Book Shop and the History of Recreational Reading in US Academic Libraries

Since academic libraries began to open their doors to students in the late 19th to early 20th century, librarians have engaged in nearly continuous discussion of the college student’s need for leisure reading materials, the broad benefits of reading such material, and the declining rate of American literacy. Given that budget is one of the most frequently cited obstacles to providing browsing collections or leisure reading materials in academic libraries today, understanding strategies used by librarians in tight times in the past may be informative for present-day academic librarians. This thesis addresses whether/to what extent the incorporation of the campus trade book store, the Bull’s Head, into the university library at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, was one such strategy.Master of Science in Library Scienc