Oral Histories

Interview of Everett T. Moore

Head of the UCLA library reference department. Known for his involvement in the case Moore v. Younger, which challenged issues of censorship and intellectual freedom in libraries.
Subtitle:
Librarianship: Freedom to Read and the Right to Know
Series:
Z: Orphan Interviews pre 1999
Topic:
UCLA and University of California History
UCLA Librarians
Biographical Note:
Head of the UCLA library reference department. Known for his involvement in the case Moore v. Younger, which challenged issues of censorship and intellectual freedom in libraries.
Interviewer:
Treleven, Dale E.
Interviewee:
Moore, Everett T.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Abstract:
Moore's parents; Highland Park in the early part of the century; Moore's Presbyterian upbringing; introduced to libraries; teachers at Franklin High School; Moore's wide-ranging interests; decides he is not suited for an architectural career; Occidental College; labor unions in Los Angeles in the 1920s; transportation in Southern California before World War II; University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University; UCLA's competition with Berkeley; Professors Benjamin Stelter, Percy Houston, and Carlyle F. MacIntyre; Occidental's president, Remsen Bird, and the college's transformation into a modern liberal arts school; Moore's changing political views; discovers that he does not have the inclination to be a scholar; comes to support Franklin D. Roosevelt; the army's education program under Roosevelt; Moore's opposition to the Vietnam War; the Campaign for Economic Democracy; the Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University; cultural life at Harvard; George Lyman Kittredge's Shakespeare course; discussion with Thompson Webb about taking a job at the Webb School; the Library Services and Construction Act; traveling across country in the 1930s; Webb School; Horace Boynton; composition of student body; relations with the local community; Moore looks for a job at other private schools; begins purchasing books for the Webb School library; Myron Hunt's design for the library; Louis Epstein and Willis Kerr aid in developing the collection; religious services and speeches at the school; Lawrence Clark Powell; Sydney B. Mitchell encourages Powell to go to library school; Moore also decides to go to library school; construction of the present Los Angeles City Central Library; changing fashions in library design; importance of libraries in a democracy; professors at University of California, Berkeley, School of Librarianship; Evelyn Steel Little and the School of Librarianship's efforts to gain recognition; John D. Henderson; Frances Clarke Sayers; Sydney Mitchell; begins working part-time in the acquisitions department of the Berkeley library; Jerome K. Wilcox; Moore accepts position as a reference librarian at the University of Illinois; Harold Leupp; joins the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU); isolationist debate prior to United States entry into World War II; staff and intellectual atmosphere at University of Illinois; Moore ordered to report for military service; educating new recruits in the special services program; Moore is promoted to second lieutenant and sent to Washington and Lee University; army library programs; Moore is transferred to the United States Armed Forces Institute in Madison, Wisconsin; the army's information and education division; sailing to New Guinea; assigned to censor mail; civil liberties during wartime; development of a high-powered information program under Ken Dyke;