University librarian Gary Strong ends UCLA chapter

As a high school student in northern Idaho immersed in the pages of “A Passion for Books” – a novel by Lawrence Powell, the namesake of UCLA’s Powell Library – Gary Strong knew he wanted to become a librarian.

“I love to tell stories, and the library is the embodiment of stories,” Strong said.

Strong is closing the book on his tenure as UCLA’s university librarian after 10 years of fluctuating budget cuts in the system. Strong had planned to retire in December, but is staying on staff until a search committee largely comprised of faculty members finds his replacement.

“Gary is leaving us in a better place than he found us,” said Susan Parker, the deputy university librarian who has worked with Strong for many years.

Librarianship seemed to be a natural calling for Strong. His high school teacher introduced him to Powell’s book and instilled in him a love of literature, Strong said.

“My high school teacher was my inspiration for becoming a librarian professionally,” Strong said.

Growing up, Strong worked as a librarian in his church in his small town in northern Idaho. He took his passion for books to college, as well. He worked in the University of Idaho library as an undergraduate student and later at the University of Michigan as a graduate student, he said. Before coming to UCLA, he also worked as the state librarian of California under three governors.

Strong has faced several financial hardships with the library during his time at UCLA, but has seen the collection of UCLA’s volumes increase from 7.5 million to more than 10.5 million.

In 2009, Strong had to downsize the library’s budget, cutting nearly $1.9 million because of the university’s shrinking budget.

Strong said he focused on making the resources the library had go as far as possible.

Strong was able to combat some of the budget cuts with money from private donors, he said. He used the library’s endowment and fundraised for extra projects to stretch the library’s budget, Parker said.

Some of the donations helped to reestablish Night Powell, a program that allows students to stay in the library past normal closing hours and that had previously been eliminated because of budget cuts. He oversaw the Charles E. Young Research Library’s recent renovation, as it went from an underutilized library to a frequented study spot.

Strong has dedicated his life to a variety of literature, and said it would be hard to choose a favorite special collection at UCLA. Strong is most interested in books about California and written by Californian authors, particularly mysteries and art books.

This interest drove Strong to support the Los Angeles general education cluster, which history professor Jan Reiff taught a few years ago.

“He was so engaged in getting the library involved in the lives of students, teachers and researchers at UCLA,” Reiff said. “We were lucky to have him.”

With many libraries closing across the country, Strong said he still sees a bright future for books in the new digital age. However, some special collections, such as the ancient Ethiopian scroll collection at UCLA, would be difficult to translate online and would need to be housed in libraries, he said.

“UCLA’s collection is a collection of scholarly record,” Strong said. “You can’t just throw away the physical record just because it is now digital.”

Once UCLA hires a replacement and Strong retires, he said he plans to split his time between northern Idaho and Los Angeles.

“(My advice for the next university librarian) is to bring passion and guts,” Strong said. “They will need both to find ingenuity for fighting lapses in funding.”

As he prepares to move on, Strong said he will miss the people of UCLA above all else.

“I told the provost when he hired me that I’d stay on as long as I was having fun. I’m still having fun; I’m just tired,” Strong said with a chuckle. “I’ve had 10 years (at UCLA), and I wish I had 100.”

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