The one-university idea--that the University of California is a single institution whose campuses are united in the pursuit of a common mission and common standards of quality--has been a guiding organizational principle since UC President Robert Gordon Sproul first articulated it in the 1930s. This paper examines the origins of the one-university…

The need for organizations to adapt nimbly in a fast-paced global society is a given. But ask any education leader or business person how to do that in a way that truly drives the organization forward and one may get silence--or worse, a weary look that bespeaks a grievous experience. Leaders know all too well that the gap between a new idea and…

Recovery of significant achievements by exemplary individuals and institutions in public education and librarianship informs our present understanding and motivates future efforts. This narrative history recounts some of the struggles and successes of a great city library when the very conception of a free, public library was still being defined.…