Her father built CSULB's library; now she's funding what comes next

Jo Anne Boorkman remembers running around in the stacks of Cal State Long Beach’s University Library as a child, and racing book-carrying trucks across the floors.

Her family lived across the street from the growing campus. She recalls filling her stroller with clowns made from socks and pushing it across the street to visit her father, who was the director of the campus library.

“We’d be up there running around when the library was closed,” she said. “It was just where we grew up; we were close all the time.”

Jo Anne, now a retired university librarian herself, is the daughter of founding librarian Charles J. Boorkman, who led the library for 27 years before retiring in 1976. He was the third person to be hired in 1949 and oversaw the construction of the first library building — a one-story, 25-by-35-foot wooden structure seating 48 students. He also shepherded its evolution into a five-story building at its present location.

Under Charles’ watch, the collection grew from zero to more than 1 million items, including rare books, subscriptions, manuscripts, fine art prints, photographs, audiovisual equipment and vinyl records. Boorkman is credited for having a profound and lasting impact on the development of CSULB’s treasured Special Collections and University Archives.

Today, CSULB’s University Library is one of the largest in the CSU system, with six stories, high-tech facilities and a seating capacity near 4,000.

In honor of her father’s contributions, Jo Anne has established the Charles J. Boorkman Library Fund, which is creating an endowment to benefit the library, its faculty and staff. The Boorkman gift will help library faculty and staff stay current with emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, data tools, digital scholarship platforms, accessibility technologies and new library systems.

That knowledge will help students through stronger instruction, more effective research assistance, improved digital services and better support for students navigating a rapidly changing information environment, according to University Library Dean Elizabeth Dill.

“We think it will be transformative,” Dill said of the Boorkman gift and endowment. “As library budgets are constantly shrinking, there aren’t always funds for professional development. This will keep us on the cutting edge of technology and technological change.”

Jo Anne Boorkman — whose younger sister, Mary Harrelson, and nephew Michael Harrelson both graduated from The Beach (in 1977 and 2005, respectively) — grew up using CSULB’s library through high school and college, particularly while writing her college thesis on microbiology. She also worked in Reserves Services during summer breaks. She eventually became a university librarian, first at UCLA and later at UC Davis’s Carlson Health Sciences Library.

Charles Boorkman died on Aug. 1, 1983. Jo Anne thinks back fondly on her father’s ambition, unique character and dedication toward a world-class library and collection. But she also remembers his never-ending desire to help students and faculty at Cal State Long Beach.

“My father was driven to create a library that provided the resources to support the academic teaching and research needs of faculty, staff and students, with a staff that offered knowledgeable approaches to the resources,” she said. “His vision included using the most up-to-date available information formats and technology.

“I decided this (gift) is a good way to honor him, something (the library) could use to keep moving forward. Because, contrary to whatever you read and hear about, libraries are not dead. We are there to access the resources available, and to teach people how to access things and identify what’s appropriate, valid information, as opposed to junk.”