This endowment supports purchases for the Library’s music collection. Established in 1993, it honors Ronald J. Harlan, who served as the Library’s music librarian from 1956 until his retirement in 1992. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of music, but was particularly interested in opera and musical theater. He was one of the founders of Fresno’s Good Company Players, worked with the fledgling Fresno Opera Association, and was musical director for countless local musical theater productions. He built the Library’s music collection from a small collection that was moved to the Library from the Music Department in the mid-1950’s, to one of the finest music collections in the state of California.
This fund supports that collection, primarily purchasing scores, CDs and DVDs of operas and musicals. Books from this fund include:
