Paul Buck to Step Down in June As Director of University Library

Paul H. Buck will retire as Director of the Harvard University Library and Librarian of Harvard College on June 30, it was announced yesterday.

Buck will continue as Carl H. pforzheimer University Professor and will devote his time to teaching and completing a history of the University's development under the Eliot, Lowell and Conant administrations.

For 38 years a member of the Faculty, Buck has held several high administration posts since 1942, when he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Library System has Grown

Buck became the head of the University's library system in 1955. Under his guidance, the library underwent a period of growth and adjustment to the demands of contemporary scholarship and research.

The collections have grown by about 25 per cent since Buck became Librarian. Circulation outside the library has grown by 50 per cent, the number of students using the stacks has gone up almost 80 per cent, and the use of rare books and manuscripts has more than doubled.

Enlarged Facilities

Under Buck, new or enlarged quarters were provided for ten units of the system, which now comprises 90 units. In addition, construction is under way on two other units, the Behavioral Sciences Library and the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.

In a statement issued after yesterday's meeting of the Corporation, President Pusey said. "It is a matter of deep regret to me and the members of the Harvard Corporation the Professor Buck has requested that he be permitted to lay down the heavy burden of administrative responsibility which he has ably and gallantly carried during more than two decades of outstanding service to Harvard."

Buck has long specialized in the history of the Southern United States. He teaches History 165, "History of the South," and in 1938 his study of the post-Civil War South. The Read to Reunion, won the Pulitzer Prize for history.

Provost of the University from 1945 to 1953. Buck was acting President during President Conant's wartime government service and again during the interim between the Conant and Pusey administrations.