Archival Services

Robert Russell Munn Collection

Reference Code:

Repository: University of Akron Archival Services

Title: Robert Russell Munn Collection

Dates: 1944-1994

Extent: 1 cubic foot

Creator:Robert Russell Munn

Language: English

Access: Collection is open for research.

Finding Aid prepared by: Archival Services Staff

Revised by: Richard Wisneski, July 25, 2007

Related Material: John H. Rebenack Collection

Biographical History:

RobertRussell Munn was born in 1903 in Harbour, Grace, Newfoundland. His first job in the library field was on a bookmobile in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. Munn decided he wanted to pursue a career as a librarian, and he graduated from Columbia University Library School in 1932. For a short time he worked in the reference department of the New York Public Library, and then he went to Norris, Tennessee, where he developed and ran a new public library. Next, he spent a couple of years with the National Youth Administration Work Experience Project in Quoddy Village, Maine, then he went to the Cleveland Public Library as an assistant to Librarian Charles Rush. At the Cleveland Public Library, he developed the educational film library.

In 1944, he became head of the Akron Public Library. There he established bookmobile service in 1947, and in the 1960s oversaw the campaign for and construction of a new main library building. He retired, due to health reasons, in October of 1967, before the new building was completed. He moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he taught part-time at the University of Arizona School of Library Science.

Source: Rebenack, John H. "R. Russell Munn: A Biographical Sketch." Ohio Library Association Bulletin 53 (October 1983):24-29.

Scope and Content:

The collection contains correspondence that R. Russell Munn received, as well as newspaper clippings and photographs related to Munn and his family. It also contains information about the Akron-Summit County Public Library in the form of annual reports from 1944-66, newsletters and photographs.

Researchers interested in the history of the Akron-Summit County Public Library would find this collection useful. Many of the letters in the extensive correspondence between Munn and John Rebenack, his successor as head librarian at the Akron-Summit County Public Library, discuss the construction of the main library building, library personnel issues and library funding.

Research related to Munn and his family is another possible use of the collection. The correspondence and newspaper clippings contain a lot of personal information.

The correspondence in the Munn collection also contains discussions of politics in Akron and, especially in the Leo Molinaro letters, on the national level, as well.

The collection does not contain copies of the letters that Munn sent. Also missing from the collection are Rebenack's letters from 1979-83, which can be found in the John Rebenack collection. The Rebenack collection also has Munn's letters from 1967-85.

Arrangement:

The collection consists of two subgroups. The first subgroup is Personal Documents. Correspondence (Series A), includes letters from John Rebenack from 1974-78 and 1984-95, from Leo Molinaro from 1966 and 1986-1994, and miscellaneous letters that span the years 1947-94. Included in the miscellaneous letters are correspondence with Margaret Dietz and draft copies of her book, Akron's Library: Commemorating Twenty-Five Years on Main Street. News clippings (Series B), contains news clippings that relate primarily to Munn's career at the Cleveland Public Library and the Akron Public Library. Photographs (Series C), are of Munn, his family and the Cuyahoga Street house. Publications (Series D), includes Library Service for Norfolk, Virginia and Library Service for Raleigh and Wake County, North Carolina. Miscellanea (Series E), contains articles, pamphlets and information about Munn's induction as an Ohio Library Association's Hall of Fame Librarian and a scrapbook that has newspaper clippings that relate to Munn's career.

The second subgroup, Akron-Summit County Public Library, consists of six series. Annual Reports (Series A), has the library's reports from 1944-66. The Insight newsletter (Series B), covers the years 1987-95. Library Survey (Series C), contains the 1972 survey of the libraries in Summit County, conducted by the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission staff and Ralph Blasingame. News Clippings (Series D) includes news clippings about the library from approximately 1946-1994. The Photographs (Series E), are primarily of the construction of the main library from 1967-69. Miscellanea (Series F) contains a few issues of the library newsletter the Owlet, floor plans of the new main library, "Patron Guide to the Main Library," and Ohio Library Association Bulletins with biographical sketches of R. Russell Munn and John Rebenack.

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