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In Vivid Colors: The Impact and Relevance of the Browne Popular Culture Library at

Bowling Green State University

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Abstract

“Popular Culture,” as a field of study, has often been met with skepticism. However, it

has now been acknowledged by academics that the study of popular culture is an important

component for the understanding of social theory and criticism, as well as many other areas of

research. The United States has a vibrant background of cultural history due to the diversity of

world influences on its music, literature, film, and artwork. The Browne Popular Culture Library

at Bowling Green offers a varied selection of American pulp, music, film, literature, memorabilia

and ephemera. In fact it is so comprehensive, that it has had a large influential impact on the

study of American popular culture. This paper seeks to discuss the Collection’s history,

influence, and continued relevance in a culture that is rapidly changing.

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Introduction

The Browne Popular Culture Library at Bowling Green State University is an

authoritative and fascinating resource for anyone interested in the study of the culture of the

masses. “When Dr. Ray Browne joined the English department at Bowling Green State

University in 1967, he was determined to broaden the connection between folklore and popular

culture.”1 The Washington Post’s obituary explained that Browne was a passionate and driving

force in the recognition of popular culture as a viable source for scholarship. As a result, he

founded the Browne Collection of Popular Culture at BGSU.  Browne, who was 87 at the time of

his death and a retired Ohio university professor, championed popular culture as a serious

academic field. “This was done so initially to the guffaws or contempt of colleagues who saw

little value in exploring the significance of wallpaper, bubble gum wrappers and Farrah Fawcett's

hair.”2 Indeed, Browne’s ideas proved to be influential and the collection is still largely relevant

today and more so than ever.

Browne is quoted as saying, “I have always had a great deal of hope for the possible

accomplishments of human intelligence if properly used, and to me so-called "higher education"

was the route to that accomplishment. But I have thought that this "higher education" meant

teaching the mind to think, not necessarily to remember. In other words, thinking was more

important than remembering.”3 The BPCL is representative of American popular creative output

of the last 100 years. It serves as a powerful didactic tool, as Dr. Browne envisioned, because

rarely in one place has there been such a singular, and the same time, diverse focus of popular

culture.

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Early Challenges and Skepticism

As Browne continued his work in this field, the department of popular culture developed

at Bowling Green State University. Marilyn Ferris Motz, interim head of the department at the

university in 2009, said this growth stemmed from "an interest in the artistic taste and practices

of large numbers of people, not just the intellectual elite".4 It's interesting to try to understand the

part these places play in the community," said graduate student Rachael Cobb, adding that

sometimes she still has to "convince people that this is a real department."5

The highly controversial nature and ambiguity of the credibility of popular culture as an

academic discipline makes for an even stronger testament to the importance of the Browne

collection. There are books and other print publications including a collection of popular fiction

from the 1880s to the present, pulp magazines with Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, L. Ron

Hubbard and other fantasy, science-fiction, and comic-book authors. There are also 10,000-plus

mystery novels as part of the Arthur & Phyllis Rieser collection. The library's largest collected

genre, is romance novels dating back to Harlequin in the 1950s.

The Mystery Writers of America, Inc. has recognized the Browne Library's commitment to the mystery genre with a Raven Award that was presented on 29 April 2004. Unique serial resources at the BPCL include dime novels, pulp magazines, and fan and collector publications.The BPCL's holdings of juvenile series fiction - including the perennial mystery series featuring the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew - are also important resources.6

Just as faculty had a hard time convincing people that the popular culture department was

valid, so did BPCL strive for relevance amongst the backdrops of university libraries like that of

some larger more conventional academic libraries such as at Ivy Leagues. Yet, this paper reflects

the essential aspects of having an institution like the BPCL exist such as the archiving of

everyday or more “common” culture present in the artifacts such as dime store novels, comics,

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and pulp fiction. "When the program first started, highbrow academics looked down on it and

didn't see it as a legitimate form of study," said Matt Donahue, instructor in the department and

one of its 10 full-time faculty members.7 Yet, there is something extraordinary in the

ordinariness of the collection, but the collection is anything but ordinary.

The Collection

BGSU has been a suitable place for BGSU Popular Culture studies program and library.

Over the[BSU] university's history, it developed from a small rural normal school into a

comprehensive public university. As of 2012 Bowling Green offered over 200 undergraduate

programs,  as well as master's and doctoral degrees through eight academic colleges. Its

academic programs have been nationally ranked by Forbes Magazine, U.S. News & World

Report, and Washington Monthly. The 2011 Carnegie Foundation classified BGSU as having

"high research activity.”8 Many faculty members study social science and STEM fields, and the

Libraries at BGSU support the curriculum in these subject areas, but the popular culture

collection is unique. It does support the curriculum for its popular culture programs, but its

resources are so diverse that the applications of its content are myriad for researchers.

Ryan Smith writing for the Toledo Blade explains:

“Chances are what [other] libraries didn’t collect is what the popular culture library did,” said, Bill Schurk, the university s original popular culture librarian. ‘If they didn’t want it, it’s because it was popular.’ Times have changed in the last four decades. The biggest problem these days is finding space for everything on the fourth floor of BGSU s Jerome Library, where the collection is housed.9

Indeed, what started out initially as a repository for frivolous remnants of popular

sentimentalities, eventually blossomed into a full-blown collection of valuable artifacts. For

example, pulp magazines were previously thought of as trivial, trite, and “junky”. Now it is

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widely accepted that some of the greatest genre writers in history started out in these pulps.

Thankfully, BPCL has been a place to save these “treasures.”

Browne saw that popular culture items spoke for the time and the historical significance

of a particular mode of expression that they were created in. The items are not collected for

intrinsic value. Many feel that these items have something to say or a story to tell about their

creators, audience, and time in which they were produced

Nancy Down, the current chief librarian of the collection explains:

The popular culture collection started out as a collection designed to support the new courses and program in popular culture studies which Dr. Ray Browne was starting at BGSU some forty years ago. The original approach was to collect a little of everything that could be called popular culture -- romance books, movie posters, postcards, pulps, science fiction magazines, manuscripts, etc. We collect United States popular culture primary materials from about the 1890s to the present. Our collection has grown through the years in large part through gifts. Even today about ninety percent of our collection has come through gifts.10

The generosity of gifts to the collection has been a consistent source of valuable knowledge for

many. The materials gathered have been abundant. So abundant, that chief librarian Nancy Down

explains,” In recent years, the BPCL has faced space constraints and has had to re-examine its

collection development plans.” Down has been at Browne Library for over twenty years and

started out as cataloger.11

Down discussed maintaining the science-fiction collections they have already built.

When reevaluating the Library collection development policy they only selectively add new

authors. When the Library was started, most any popular culture representation was welcomed.

Down explains that outreach efforts have centered on creating finding aids for website so that

researchers are more aware of holdings. They have also scanned some of the nickel weeklies for

both preservation and access, and plan to digitize more of the collections as copyright permits.12

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Space is always a library and librarian’s consideration. Because of the vast network of

popular culture, the BPCL has been faced with the challenge to be more discerning in the

inclusion of material into the collection. It is a daunting challenge to choose between artifacts

that may be pertinent to one researcher, but not to others. As a result, does this mean that popular

culture is more selective as well, as the market becomes saturated? Yet, it seems that the Library

seeks to maintain and archive the most relevant of all materials submitted and donated.

Interestingly enough, the Library sprouted initially from collecting things that were deemed

worthless by academia, and possibly even society.

The Collection now includes:

● Original movie, TV, and radio scripts● A Civil Defense Kit, complete with hard hat and toilet paper● A century of the Sears Wish Book and J.C. Penney catalogs● World War II propaganda posters● Classic board games● McDonald’s Happy Meal toys● Lunch boxes● New and used postcards● Original movie, TV, and radio scripts● An E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial head mask

Origins

The BPCL originally started out as an Audio media center to support classes. Bill Shurck,

and Ray Browne built that addition, but their mutual academic interests and their friendship led

to creation of the institution that is so vital today,

The Popular Culture Library began with a gift of various materials (books, phonograph records, artifacts, etc.) worth approximately $100,000 from Bill Randle, Cleveland, Ohio radio personality."2 From June through December 1969, articles about the program and collections appeared in a number of publications, including the Bowling Green Daily Sentinel Tribune, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Dayton Daily News, the Chicago Tribune Magazine, the Mamaroneck (N.Y.) Daily Times, Newsweek, and the Buffalo Evening News.[3] Schurk and

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Browne also made appearances on television and radio programs in Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, and Philadelphia.13

The promotional campaign to bring attention to the general community as well as the

academic community is somewhat anomalous in comparison to the opening of most academic

libraries. It was a necessary component to explain to laymen and academics alike the relevance

of what was previously deemed irrelevant.

Bill Schurk’s initial audio library’s holdings included more than two thousand recordings

of speeches, plays, and a wide variety of popular music. Initial holdings came from purchases,

duplicates from Schurk's personal collection, and donations from area radio stations

e center's collections also included print materials--such as periodicals, catalogs, and

discographies--related to the sound-recording industry. Yet, the library has grown to include the

visual, literary, and memorabilia. “Schurk was always aware of the need to continue to build

collections at BGSU that are not priorities elsewhere. Thus, among the particular strengths of the

Archives are rock and roll and post-1980 music genres such as rap, heavy metal, contemporary

Christian, and punk.”14

Nancy Down explains that materials that continue to be collection are very fragile and

any handling does put some wear and tear on them. She explains about the newspaper size Story

Papers, which are more fragile, especially since many of them were stored folded in half.

Down has challenging aspects of maintaining the collection. For example, she expresses

the balance of preservation with accessibility as a priority. It would seem that this balance is

something that all libraries strive for those who maintain archives with research materials.

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However, because many of these items were not meant to be preserved, the challenge may be

exceptional for the Browne Library.

Down explains the scanning of documents, “ not so much for preservation, but more for

accessibility.

After we have finished scanning we are planning to store them offsite where we will have more control over temperature and humidity We store materials using the best archival practices, but we are a working library and patrons ask to use materials. We don't allow photocopying of the vintage materials and scanning is a case by case basis. The materials have to be used in our reading room. But even materials stored offsite can be requested and, with advance notice of a few days, available for use in our archives.15

There is arduous amount of work in maintaining the collection stemming from malleable

and brittle materials to dying media forms. The BPCL has additional challenges from other

academic collections, not only in relationship to space, but in collection development decisions,

preservation practices, and the ever daunting task of making the collection accessible to the

public.

Preservation Trends

The BPCL attempts to maintain collections with the latest trends and technologies, and

adapt with the growing digital influence in library collections and archives. Nancy Brown

explains digitization, preservation trends, and the challenges to keep current:

We have several digital projects we are doing at BGSU and we have materials included in primary source digital projects through Adam Matthew. It is still our mission to preserve and provide access to the materials, but we are slowly evolving into different ways of doing that other than a physical visit to the archives. On campus, we have more students involved in digital humanities projects. Our mission as librarians seems to be evolving to, not just connect them with our materials, but to show them the digital humanities software for their projects.16

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“The University Libraries has been collaborating with the British

company Adam Matthew Digital (London) on “Rock and Roll, Counterculture,

Peace and Protest, Popular Culture of Britain and America 1950-

75.”  Focusing on music, politics, fashion and youth culture, the database is

a resource for students and scholars offering thousands of color images of

manuscript and rare printed material as well as photographs, ephemera and

memorabilia. Users can also view an interactive chronology of the 25-year

span.17

`When asked about the changing trends in preservation and archiving,

meeting patrons’ needs, Down explained,

“I don’t think it is possible to meet everybody’s needs anymore since popular culture is proliferating and changing. Right now, we basically are a print based collection, and there are areas of popular culture we just aren’t covering. More and more archives are developing popular culture collections and we can rely on other institutions to cover areas we cannot. We are trying to go with our historical strengths and develop new subareas within them.18

Influence of the Collection

Progress from the 1967 meager origins to the collection that stands in 2017, is highly

notable and obviously noted. Some scholars and works that have used resources from Browne

Popular Culture Library include: Jackson and Friedman, who analyzed the principles of the

Library set forth by Ray Browne and discussed their usefulness in teaching culture. They

explained, “He also understood, as did Marshall McLuhan, that new media technologies

influence not only distribution systems for information but people’s expectations, values, and

thinking patterns as well.”19 Bonna J. Boettcher collected a bibliography of music and musicians

in mystery crime fiction using the BPCL. The Library is now an fundamental part of cultural

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studies. Cultural critics, scholars, academics from all over the world have come to Browne

Library to delve into the collections ripe with material from the 20th century and beyond.

Conclusion

What started as a humble audio collection to support some aspects of Bowling Green

State University’s curriculum, developed into one of the most comprehensive and important

collections in popular culture in the world. With its manuscripts, ephemera, pulps, paperbacks,

comics, memorabilia, counter-culture archives, and various genre holdings, the BPCL at

Bowling Green has extended its influence into many researchers’ work. One cannot help, but to

come across references to this collection when studying literature on film, mystery, crime,

hardboiled, cozy, and comics. The library has defied skeptic critics who seemed to have

previously scoffed at the idea of common and everyday literature and art could have its place in

academia. Few scoff now seeing that art and the study of society does not rest in the so-called

“high-brow” literature, but rather in the entertainments, escapes, and expression of the people.

Nancy Down details some the challenges of maintaining the collection including

primarily issues with space and the policy of being more selective with materials. The content of

collection has been filled through generous donations of many enthusiasts and collectors. Some

of the materials are now superfluous. The vision of Ray Browne and Bill Schurk, the two

academics, the latter being the first academic librarian of the collection, has seemingly been

realized. From skepticism to enthusiasm, from scoffing to respect, from sparse to comprehensive,

the Browne Popular Culture Library is now a landmark for cultural critics and scholars.

1 Shapiro, T. Reese. "Ray Browne, 87; pioneer in study of popular culture." Washington Post,

October29,2009.AccessedFebruary1,2017http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/

2009/10/28/AR2009102804766.html.

2

Shapiro, “Ray Browne, 87.”

3

“Scholars of American Popular Culture: An Interview with Ray Browne." Americana, Fall

2002.AccessedFebruary3,2017.http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2002/

browne.htm.

4 Marcus, Jon. "Pop goes academy as nerds revel in American splendour." Times Higher

Education no. 1941 (April 2010): 18-19. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed

February 8, 2017).

4

5 Marcus, “Pop Goes Academy.” 18-195

66 "Mystery." Browne Popular Culture Library. Accessed February 4, 2017.

https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl/mystery.html

7 Marcus, “Pop Goes Academy.” 18-19

8 "About." BGSU. Accessed February 2, 2017. https://www.bgsu.edu/.

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9 Smith, Ryan. “ Movie posters, kryptonite rocks are favorites in BGSU's pop culture library.”

ToledoBlade.May13,2007.AccessedFebruary1,2017.http://www.toledoblade.com/Culture/2007/

10

Werts, Cybèle Elaine. 2009. "Interview with Nancy Down Head Librarian at Bowling Green State

University Popular Culture Library, Ohio." Education Libraries 32, no. 1: 31-34. Library &

Information Science Source, EBSCOhost (accessed February 3, 2017).

11

Werts, “Interview” :Nancy Down,” 31-3412

Werts, “Interview”: Nancy Down,” 31-34

13 Boettcher, Bonna J., and William L. Schurk. "From games to grunge: popular culture research

collections at Bowling Green State University." Notes 54, no. 4 (June 1998): 849-859. Library &

Information Science Source, EBSCOhost (accessed January 29, 2017)

14 Boettcher and Schurk, “From games” 849-85915

Werts, “Interview:” Nancy Down,” 31-3216

Blick, William M. "Nancy Down." E-mail interview by author. February 8, 2017

17 "Digital Archive Captures A Pivotal Quarter Century." BGSU News, February 23, 2012.

Accessed February 4, 2017. https://www.bgsu.edu/news.

18 “Nancy Down” Interview, 19

Jackson, Kathy Merlock, and Monroe Friedman. "Teaching American Culture in a Global Society:

Ray B. Browne's Legacy." Journal Of American Culture 34, no. 1 (March 2011): 1-2. Academic

Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 13, 2017).=

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Blick, William M. "Nancy Down." E-mail interview by author. February 8, 2017

Boettcher, Bonna J., and William L. Schurk. "From Games To Grunge: Popular Culture Research

Collections At Bowling Green State University." Notes 54, no. 4 (June 1998): 849-859. Library &

Information Science Source, EBSCOhost (accessed January 29, 2017)

Carlson, Scott. "Not-Yet-Rare Collections: Libraries Preserve Pop Culture." The Chronicle of Higher

Education, June 17, 2005. Academic OneFile (accessed February 8, 2017).

http://go.galegroup.com.qbcc.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/ps/i.do?

p=AONE&sw=w&u=cuny_queensboro&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE

%7CA147069951&asid=cc7988c7d2e779185c2b09d12f5abd2

"Digital Archive Captures A Pivotal Quarter Century." BGSU News, February 23, 2012. Accessed

February 4, 2017. https://www.bgsu.edu/news.

Down, Nancy. "The Ray and Pat Browne Library for Popular Culture Studies." Science Fiction Studies 37,

no. 2 (July 2010): 174-175. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed January 27, 2017).

Jackson, Kathy Merlock, and Monroe Friedman. "Teaching American Culture in a Global Society: Ray B.

Browne's Legacy." Journal Of American Culture 34, no. 1 (March 2011): 1-2. Academic Search

Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 13, 2017).=

Marcus, Jon. "Pop Goes Academy As Nerds Revel In American Splendour." Times Higher Education no.

1941 (April 2010): 18-19. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 8, 2017).

"Mystery." Browne Popular Culture Library. Accessed February 4, 2017.

https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl/mystery.html

Shapiro, T. Reese. "Ray Browne, 87; Pioneer In Study Of Popular Culture." Washington Post, October 29,

2009.AccessedFebruary1,2017http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/

2009/10/28/AR2009102804766.html.

"Scholars of American Popular Culture: An Interview with Ray Browne." Americana, Fall 2002.

AccessedFebruary3,2017.http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2002/

browne.htm.

Smith, Ryan. “ Movie Posters, Kryptonite Rocks Are Favorites In BGSU's Pop Culture Library.” Toledo

Blade.May13,2007.AccessedFebruary1, 2017. http://www.toledoblade.com/Culture/2007/05/13/

Werts, Cybèle Elaine. 2009. "Interview with Nancy Down Head Librarian at Bowling Green State

University Popular Culture Library, Ohio." Education Libraries 32, no. 1: 31-34. Library &

Information Science Source, EBSCOhost (accessed February 3, 2017).