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Ronald Albert Hagler, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia

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Announcing the Ronald Albert Hagler Prize — https://crowdfundraising.ubc.ca/projects/ronald-albert-hagler/

https://donate.give.ubc.ca/page/188355/donate/1

March 2026: A group of Ronald's colleagues and friends have worked with UBC Development to establish a prize in his memory.

  • Dean Giustini said: "...Dr. Hagler set very high standards for his students, many of whom became his friends after going on to careers as librarians and archivists. A group of former students and colleagues have established the Hagler Prize in his honour to recognize his unique contributions to the library, archival, and information professions, and to carry forward the generosity he showed us as both a teacher and a friend."

The Hagler Prize will be awarded annually to a graduate student at the UBC iSchool in recognition of academic excellence in either technical services—broadly defined to include bibliographic control, cataloguing and classification, indexing and abstracting—or book history, an interdisciplinary field concerned with the creation and reception of printed materials, and with the cultural history of authorship, editing, printing, and the book arts.

In memoriam

Early life and education

Dr. Ronald Albert Hagler, UBC faculty photo, circa September 1961

Dr. Ronald Albert Hagler (1934–2022), B.A., A.M., A.M.L.S., PhD, was Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia and founding faculty member of UBC’s School of Librarianship, later renamed the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS). He was born in Kitchener, Ontario, on 15 May 1934 and died in Vancouver, British Columbia, on 20 May 2022.

Ronald grew up in Kitchener as the only child of immigrant parents, Marie and Albert, who came from Gotsche (Goče), a German-speaking region of present-day Slovenia. He attended St. Jerome’s Catholic School in Kitchener, where his academic promise was encouraged by his teachers. In 1955, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Jerome’s College at the University of Ottawa. Soon thereafter Ronald pursued graduate studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he worked in the technical services department of the university library and, during summers, at the Kitchener Public Library. He completed a Master of Library Science (A.M.L.S.) in 1957, a Master of Arts in Greek and Latin in 1958, and a PhD in library science in 1961.

Early years at UBC

In 1961, shortly after completing his PhD, Ronald moved to Vancouver to begin what would become a lifelong association with UBC’s School of Librarianship. At just 27, he joined the School as one of its original faculty in a newly established librarianship degree program.

According to the School’s 40th-anniversary monograph, its founding director, Dr. Sam Rothstein, sought to appoint lecturers from whom students would both enjoy and benefit. Ronald readily accepted the offer and quickly became an integral part of the faculty. Although initially hired to teach cataloguing, he soon expanded into other areas reflecting his wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, including book history, then an emerging discipline.

Teaching, scholarship, and professional service

Ronald’s scholarly interests were closely aligned with his teaching, and he published widely. In the mid-1960s, he was invited to serve on the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing for the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR), where he played a key role as a committee member and later as an editor of two subsequent editions.

By 1980, Ronald had written a textbook addressing the impact of computers on the creation and maintenance of library bibliographic records. Published by the American Library Association in 1982 as The Bibliographic Record and Information Technology—widely known as BRIT—the book was written for prospective reference librarians and cataloguers seeking to understand changes to the bibliographic record in the computer era. A second edition appeared in 1991, followed by a third in 1997. (See this Wikipedia entry on Cataloguing that includes Hagler's Six functions of bibliographic control taken from the 1997 edition.) Long regarded as an influential textbook, BRIT continues to be cited today.

Throughout his long career, Ronald was frequently invited to speak on Canadian publishing, the subject of his doctoral dissertation, as well as on the history of the book and printing. He taught courses and workshops internationally and was active in professional organizations including the American Library Association, the Canadian Library Association, and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. He also served for many years on juries for the Alcuin Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada. In 1990, Ronald received the Margaret Mann Citation from the ALA’s Cataloging and Metadata Management Section in recognition of his outstanding professional achievements.

Life beyond the classroom

For more than 60 years, Ronald’s Point Grey home was a gathering place for friends and colleagues who came together to enjoy good food, wine, and lively conversation. His dinner parties were especially noisy and spirited, in part because of the opera and symphonic recordings he played at full volume on his prized Tannoy stereophonic speakers. Ronald had a wide circle of friends, and supported a range of artistic and musical organizations.

Well into his eighties, Ronald could be seen swimming laps at the UBC pool, shopping on West 10th, and walking with friends in the Endowment Lands. Former students remember him as an outstanding teacher and lecturer who spoke in complete sentences and paragraphs, often for long stretches without notes. On occasion, he would digress on several topics simultaneously and someone would ask, "Dr. Hagler, is this going to be on the exam?" - causing us all to laugh, including Ronald. Despite his gifts as a public speaker, he was by nature a shy, private man who avoided the limelight.

Retirement and final years

Ronald retired in 1999 after 38 years of service to UBC, having progressed from instructor to assistant professor and ultimately to full professor. In retirement, he supported numerous charities and causes, attended opera, symphony, and chamber music performances whenever possible, and made several memorable trips to Bayreuth, Seattle, and San Francisco to experience Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle.

He spent his final years at Crofton Manor in Kerrisdale. Although his prodigious memory gradually faded, his love of friends, good food, and classical music remained undiminished until the end of his life. Ronald is fondly remembered by close friends, colleagues, and former students.

"Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, deerit nihil." – Cicero

Ronald Albert Hagler Prize Update

Ronald's colleagues and friends are working to establish a prize in his memory. Details will be forthcoming re: donations, dean.giustini@ubc.ca

A tribute from the UBC iSchool

  • "Hagler arrived in Vancouver in 1961 with a PhD from the University of Michigan to work in UBC’s School of Librarianship ...His research area was Canadian publishing, and he taught courses on cataloguing and classification, “technical services,” and the history of books and printing ...According to the autobiography of Sheila Egoff, Once Upon a Time: My Life with Children’s Books, Dr. Hagler “was a night owl and could be contacted on any matter at two in the morning,” while his keen eye proved useful for deciphering the illegible text on early woodcuts. Dr. Hagler was a gifted public speaker, and former students remember him as a dedicated teacher."

Quotations in library publications

  • DR. RONALD HAGLER, senior instructor, is a young man who has compressed a maximum of study and library experience into a minimum of years. After undergraduate work and a tour of library duty at St. Jerome's College at Kitchener, Ontario, he put together A.M., A.M.L.S., and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Michigan while working concurrently in the technical service departments of the University of Michigan Library and the Kitchener Public Library. His research interests, as indicated by his recently published dissertation, are in the field of Canadian publishing. He will teach courses in cataloging and classification, the technical services, and the history of books and printing.

According to Ex Libris Association Newsletter (2004), the newly-formed UBC School of Librarianship was notable for getting its accreditation by 1963, only two years into its development:

"...The first faculty members, Rose Vainstein, Ronald Hagler, Sheila Egoff, and Bert Hamilton had to meet not only Director Rothstein’s high professional and scholastic expectations, but also a stricture “never [to be] boring and dull and inconsequential and niggling.” Most of the first faculty were practitioners, and did not, as Dr. Ronald Hagler has expressed it, “have the baggage of the old style library school..." - Ex Libris, 2004

Interviews

  • Hagler, Ronald. Interview by Judith Saltman and Maurizio Dattilo, March 12, 2001. Special Collections, Main UBC. Micro-cassette and transcript.

Photographs in archival collections

Finding aids to archival materials

Contributions as editor

  • Edwards, Gail, Saltman Judy. 2010. Picturing Canada: A history of Canadian children's illustrated books and publishing. University of Toronto Press.
  • Egoff, Sheila A; Hagler, Ronald A. 1992. Canadian children's books, 1799-1939, in the Special Collections and University Archives Division, the University of British Columbia : a bibliographical catalogue. — Compiled with the assistance of Margaret Burke, Ronald Hagler and Joan Pert. — Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library.
  • McGrath, Leslie. 2000. "Books that Shaped Our Minds, a Bibliographical Catalogue of Selections Chiefly from the Arkley Collection of Early and Historical Children's Literature in the Special Collections and University Archives Division, the University of British Columbia Library, by Sheila A. Egoff and Ronald Hagler, comp., with the assistance of Margaret Burke and Joan Pert." Papers of The Bibliographical Society of Canada 38, no. 1 (2000).
  • Preface to Stokes, Roy Bishop, and Romano Stephen Almagno. Esdaile's manual of bibliography. Scarecrow Press, 2001.

Articles

  • Hagler, Ronald. 1954. Waterloo Historical Society Museum. 042 1954 06
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1963. Local Autonomy. Libr Resourc Tech Serv. 7:340-49.
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1966. "Ontario Libraries, a Province-wide Survey and Plan, 1965". (Book Review) College and Research Libraries 27(6): 488-489.
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1975. "The Development of Cataloging Rules for Nonbook Materials." Library Resources and Technical Services 19(3):268-278.]
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1977. "Changes in cataloging codes: rules for description." Library Trends 1977:603-623.
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1979. "Where's That Rule?: A Cross Index of the Two Edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules". Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Library Association.]
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1977. Access Points for Works. International Conference on the Principles and Future Development of AACR Toronto, Canada, October 23-25, 1997.
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1979. "Nonbook Materials." In The making of a code: the issues underlying AACR 2: papers given at the International Conference on AACR 2, held March 11-14, 1979 in Tallahassee, Florida. 1980.
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1980. "Nonbook materials: chapters 7-11." The making of a code: The issues underlying AACR2 (1980): 7-11.
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1980. "Nonbook Materials: chapters 7 through 11." The Making of a Code: the Issues Underlying AACR2: Papers given at the International Conference on AACR2 held March 11-14, 1979 in Tallahassee, Florida. Ed. Doris Hargrett Clack. Chicago: American Library Association, 1980. 72-87.
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1985. "The Machine-readable bibliographic record in the fifth year of AACR2". Singapore Libraries 15: 11-18.
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1989. "The Consequences of Integration" in The Conceptual Foundations of Descriptive Cataloging. Monograph edited by Elaine Svenonius, 197-218. New York: Academic Press.
  • Hagler, Ronald. 1994. "Professional reading." Emergency Librarian 21(5): 40.
  • Vainstein, Rose; Hagler, Ronald. 1966. Public libraries in British Columbia: A survey with recommendations. Public Libraries Research Study, British Columbia.

Chapters in monographs

Contributions to rules and standards

  • Anglo-American Cataloging Rules / prepared by the American Library Association, the Library of Congress, the Library Association, and the Canadian Library Association. – North American text. – Chicago : American Library Association, 1967.
  • Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules / prepared by the American Library Association, the British Library, the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing, the Library Association, the Library of Congress. – 2nd ed. / edited by Michael Gorman and Paul W. Winkler. – Chicago : American Library Association ; Ottawa : Canadian Library Association, 1978. [Note: Also published: London : Library Association, 1978]
  • Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules / prepared by the American Library Association, the British Library, the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing, the Library Association, the Library of Congress. – 2nd ed. revised / edited by Michael Gorman and Paul W. Winkler. – Chicago : American Library Association ; Ottawa : Canadian Library Association, 1992.
  • Canadian Task Group on Cataloguing Standards, G. C Burgis, Ronald Hagler, and National Library of Canada. 1972. Cataloguing Standards: The Report of the Canadian Task Group on Cataloguing Standards, with Recommendations to the National Librarian, Guy Sylvestre. Ottawa: National Library of Canada.

Monographs

WorldCat Entries

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