Interview with Frank P. Grisham, September 27, 2016

Interview Summary

Frank Grisham is the former Director of the Joint University Libraries, Vanderbilt University Library, and SOLINET. In this interview he talks about his original intention to become a Methodist minister, and how through his studies at Birmingham Southern College he became involved with libraries. He continues his discussion of his career after he began working for JUL. He talks about working for SOLINET, as well as Vanderbilt University. He discusses the various ways he was involved with his community, including his position on the Nashville school board, among other organizations. He talks about how he came to work for JUL and the issues he faced when he was assistant director, then director of the organization. He describes how JUL was formed, and how it was later disbanded. Grisham gives his views on the importance of ASERL. He talks about the organization's leadership, their meetings, and some of the issues they faced. He talks about SOLINET's creation by ASERL and the purpose it was meant to serve. He talks about their conflict with OCLC, as well as other issues they faced. He discusses planning for the future of ASERL in the 1970s, and talks about his support for the idea of a regional storage facility to be shared by multiple academic libraries, and why this idea never came to fruition. Grisham discusses issues libraries face and how those have changed over time due to changing technology and changing user needs.

Interview Keyword

Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) Joint University Library Corporation (JUL) Southeastern Library Network, Inc. (SOLINET, now part of LYRASIS) Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) Nashville (Tenn.)

Interview LC Subject

Library science Libraries Academic libraries College administrators Vanderbilt University Academic librarians Library resources College facilities Library finance

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may only be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.