The cover.

Which is your favorite Libraries & Culture cover story? You have a wide choice. One hundred and seven cover stories have been published through 2004. The first cover story appeared in 1977, when Donald G. Davis, Jr., became editor and the journal, then titled the Journal of Library History, moved to the Graduate School of Library Science at the University of Texas at Austin. Davis wrote in his first issue as editor, "It is expected that future covers will follow the pattern established by this issue in featuring a graphically attractive bookplate from a significant library or book collection." (1) Davis recalls establishing the bookplate as a "cover motif" because it "represented the institutional library equivalent of the printer's mark on Library Quarterly." (2)

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The first Libraries & Culture cover story, written by Philip A. Metzger, Davis's first doctoral student, focused on the private collection of Genaro Garcia (1867-1919), a Mexican private collector of books, pamphlets, and manuscripts about the history of Mexico. (3) It is Garcia's 6-by-6-cm personal bookplate that appeared on the cover of that first issue and is reproduced in the upper left of the bookplate montage on the cover of this issue. The Garcia collection became the catalyst for the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, which contained over 350,000 books, periodicals, and pamphlets in 1977 when the cover story was written and which now holds nearly 900,000 items. Metzger continued as cover story editor until he graduated in 1982; he wrote fourteen cover stories between 1977 and 1982.

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