Ron Curtis, the Ultimate Librarian

I first met Ron Curtis when I was a Junior Programmer at Central State University (later known as University of Central Oklahoma – UCO) in 1975.  I would see him go in and out of the computer room with a deck of punched cards and come out with reams of printed reports.  I was not specifically assigned to maintain the library programs, all written in BAL, but since I was the only one who could understand that programming language, I was asked to troubleshoot whenever problems arose.  It was then I met and started working with Ron who was then the Librarian for technical services at the library.

In order for me to be able to help him, I had to learn about the system we had for processing library materials.  He had the patience to explain the whole system to me so I could understand what the programs were supposed to do.  He also took me to the Library and showed me the process followed by the staff from the time a book was ordered until the book was on the shelf.  This was also the period when the OCLC system was starting to become popular in libraries.  So in the late 1970s I also had to become familiar with the MARC record format.  Again, I had to rely on Ron to help me understand why the format was important for libraries.

Online catalogs were fast becoming the buzz word at universities in the ‘70s and of course Ron was very interested in UCO getting one.  But with the system we had, it would have been a monumental task to create an online catalog.  Ron would go to Library conferences and come back with ideas about how we may achieve this.  I told him that whatever we do, we had to have a system that would run on an IBM mainframe.  At the beginning of the ‘80s we discussed several possibilities for achieving our goal, with Ron doing the feasibility study.  It was then he heard about NOTIS from his friends at the Tulsa Public Library and the rest is history.

The success of the NOTIS installation at UCO can be attributed primarily to Ron who gave an enormous amount of time and energy to the project.  He not only was involved in all of the details in converting our records to NOTIS but also in  convincing the Library Director and the Library staff that this was the best system available to us.  Without this buy-in, we would not have been successful.  During the installation period he and I would be communicating 7 days a week and at all hours.  If he could not talk to me in person, he would leave messages in my voice mail box.  At UCO, due to lack of space on disk, the length and number of voice mail was limited.  He often called my secretary to ask me to clean out my voice mail so he could leave messages.  But, when I attempted to do so, I would find that all of the messages in the filled mail box would be from Ron!!  As one of the early adopters of NOTIS, its success was critical for both UCO and NOTIS.

In the ‘90s, with the increased use of desktop computers, Ron was faced with younger librarians’ demands for a system that would provide information in realtime.  Ron’s main goal had always been to have a system that would satisfy all users.  NOTIS provided this for over a decade.  It was time now to look at other systems.  When I left UCO in 1996, they had a few systems they were interested in.  And Ron, as the Director of Technical services at the Library, had a major say in the selection.

The quality that I admired in Ron was his dedication to the Library and the University.  In spite of illnesses that sometimes hindered his ability to accomplish his goals, he never gave in.  He had two main interests in his life; his family and the Library.  I call him an Ultimate Librarian because he just did not stumble into his vocation.  Ever since his high school days when he worked evenings and summers at the Tulsa Public Library, all he wanted to do was to work in a Library.  He focused his educational goals to achieve this and performed in his job admirably.  In the California State University system, I had the opportunity to work with several of the Librarians of the 23 campuses.  I found very few that had the insight and dedication that Ron did.

After working with Ron for over two decades, I miss him as a colleague and a friend. 

Maithreyi Manoharan

Associate Vice President Emerita, California State University, Stanislaus