ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


124

Richard K. Gardner Resigns 
as Editor of Choice

Richard K, Gardner

Richard K. Gardner, editor of Choice, has re­
signed to accept a position on the faculty of the 
Graduate School of Library and Information 
Science of the University of California, Los 
Angeles. Dr. Gardner served as the founding 
editor of Choice when it began under a grant 
of the Council on Library Resources in 1963. 
He continued in that position until 1966, when 
he left to teach at the School of Library Science 
of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Gard­
ner returned to edit the journal in 1972.

During his more than six years as editor of 
Choice, Dr. Gardner has succeeded in making 
it one of the most respected reviewing journals 
in the world. Choice is currently on the sub­
scription lists of well over 90 percent of all col­
leges and universities in the United States and 
Canada. Academic libraries throughout the 
world use Choice; there are subscribers in 
Great Britain, France, India, Australia, and 
New Zealand. Moreover, 80 percent of all pub­
lic libraries in communities with populations of 
more than 50,000 subscribe to Choice.

Choice’s success and widespread use is due 
to the editorial policy introduced by Dr. Gard­
ner in which reviewers are required to compare 
the work in hand with previous publications in 
the field. Dr. Gardner and his staff have en­
listed faculty members interested in undergrad­
uate education from many colleges throughout 
the country to provide reviews. This policy has 
brought the journal the respect of the scholarly 
community as well as the gratitude of librarians 
responsible for building strong undergraduate 
collections.

The subscribers of Choice, members of

ACRL, under whose auspices the journal is 
published, and scholars everywhere owe Dr. 
Gardner a great debt for his efforts in founding 
a new reviewing journal and in building it into 
a publication distinguished for its scholarship 
and one which remains economically viable. 
The ACRL Board, the ACRL Publications 
Committee, and the Choice Editorial Board at 
their Midwinter meetings approved resolutions 
honoring Dr. Gardner.

A graduate of Middlebury College, Dr. Gard­
ner also holds the degree of Master of Science 
in Library Science from Western Reserve Uni­
versity, a diploma in literature from the École 
Superieure de Preparation et Perfectionnement 
des Professeurs de Français à 1’Ētranger, 
Faculté des Lettres, Université de Paris, and 
a Ph.D. in library science from Case Western 
Reserve University.

Dr. Gardner has had a variety of working 
experiences both in libraries and through teach­
ing in library schools. He has served on the 
library staffs of Middlebury College; the New 
Bedford, Massachusetts, Public Library; the 
Foundation des États-Unis, Cite Universitaire 
in Paris; and the Case Institute of Technolo­
gy; and from 1959 until 1968, he directed the 
Marietta College Library in Marietta, Ohio. 
Between his two associations with Choice. 
Dr. Gardner served on the faculty of the 
School of Library Science, Case Western 
Reserve University, from 1966 until 1969, and 
at École de Bibliothéconomie at the Université 
de Montréal from 1969 until 1972, serving as 
Directeur et Professeur Titulaire from 1970.

Dr. Gardner has traveled extensively, partic­
ularly in France, where he completed his dis­
sertation Education for Librarianship in France: 
An Historical Survey; and in Vietnam, where 
he was library advisor to the Vietnamese gov­
ernment. Dr. Gardner’s publications include 
many periodical articles and several books, in­
cluding Bibliography of Periodicals Published 
in Vietnam, with Nguyen Xuan Dao, and the 
Opening Day Collection, published by Choice 
and now in its third edition. Dr. Gardner is 
currently under contract to write a new book 
on book selection.

In addition to his other activities, Dr. Gard­
ner finds time to serve on the board of the 
Forest Press, the Lake Placid Club Education 
Foundation, and the publishers of the Dewey 
Decimal Classification, and as a trustee to the 
Russell Library of Middletown, Connecticut.

Melvin R. George, Chairman
Choice Editorial Board 

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