Scope and arrangement
Included are: correspondence, reports, memoranda, surveys, questionnaires, legal and financial documents, press releases, New York State bills and other government documents concerning pensions, calendars of the the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of New York City containing communications from the Committee, and printed material, 1929-1932. These document the formation of the Committee, its efforts to obtain salary increases, pensions (this was accomplished in 1937 when the city librarians joined the New York State pension system), and uniform job titles for the librarians. Correspondence is among Committee officers and members, and with New York City officials; directors and trustees of the three library systems, and of libraries in other cities; the Carnegie Corporation; United Staff Associations of the Public Libraries of New York City; and with civic, educational, and women' s organizations.
Correspondents include: Howard Lee McBain, Ellwood M. Rabenold, Robert E. Simon, Henry Bruere, Spencer Miller, Jr., Assistant Secretary Marinobel Smith, and members: Eunice Fuller Barnard, Bruce Bliven, Alvin Johnson, Paul Klapper, William F. Russell, Dorothy Straus, Mary Van Kleeck, Ella T. Sullivan, and others.
Also included is a transcript of a meeting held June 27, 1927 between Joseph V. McKee, President of the New York City Board of Aldermen, and representatives of the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and Queens Borough Public Library. McKee had been appointed by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment to make a survey of the libraries, and called the meeting to present his findings to their representatives. Discussion centered on salary increases, pensions, and standardization, topics the Citizens Committee later addressed.