1919
The Bureau of Public Administration (BPA) is founded in the Department of Political Science. The BPA Library is established in 1920, and in 1926, combines with the Department of Economics' Library of Economic Research (est. 1918). The goal of the bureau is to provide students, faculty, and public officials with current information on the administration of cities, states, and nations. The bureau remains essentially a specialized library collection until 1930.
1921
Samuel C. May is appointed director (until 1955).
1924
Helen Page Bates is appointed head librarian (until 1932).
1927
Dorothy C. Tompkins, renowned IGS bibliographer, begins a 47-year career at IGS.
1930
The Rockefeller foundation gives the bureau a six-year grant to support further library development and to add research and training in public administration to its purpose,
1932
Anita M. Crellin is appointed head librarian (until 1946).
1934
The 'Legislative Problems Series' begins, publishing studies requested by state legislators legislative committees, and slate officials. Series terminates in 1963.
1937
Samuel C. May establishes the Western Governmental Research Association and BPA, and then IGS acts as secretariat.
1940
In the decade of the 1940s, research and publications often focus on problems confronting California state government. Among the special reports delivered to the legislature and the governor are:
"The Central Valley Project" (Herbert Simon, 1941).
"Civic and Research Agencies in the San Francisco Bay Region'" (Victor Jones, 1941),
"The Legislature and the Budge" (Victor Jones,1941).
"Financial Support to College Students in California" (Heinz Eulau, 1941).
"The County Jail in California" (Milton Chernin, 1942).
"Sources of Information for the Study of Notional Defense and the War Effort" (Dorothy C. Tompkins, 1943).
"The General Fund Surplus Problem in California" (Dorothy C. Tompkins, 1943).
"State Organization for Postwar Planning" (Samuel C. May, 1943).
"Financial Aspect of Health Insurance" (Samuel K. May 1945).
"The Crime problem in California: A Selected Bibliography" (Dorothy C. Thompkins, 1947).
"Selected Districts in California Local Government" (Stanley Scott and John C. Bollens, 1949).
Some studies in the 1940's are published by other agencies, including:
"City Manager Government in Berkeley" by Arthur Harris (Public Administration Service, 1940).
"Metropolitan Government" by Victor Jones (University of Chicago Press, 1942)
"Sources for the Study of the Administration of Criminal Justice" by Dorothy C. Tompkins (California State Board of Corrections, 1949).
1946
Barbara Hudson is appointed head librarian (until 1972).
1955
Milton Chernin is appointed acting director (until 1958).
The BFA conference on legislative reform leads to reorganization of the state assembly research system and the initiation of the Assembly fellowships, and internship, program in legislative offices for graduate students.
1958
Dwight Waldo is appointed acting director until 1959, and director until 1967.
BPA cosponsors the Pacific Coast Conference on Metropolitan Problems, followed in 1968 and 1970 by conferences on Bay Area Regional 0rganizofion.
Income from the Franklin K. Lane Fund is allocated by Chancellor Clark Kerr to BPA. This income is initially used to support a 17-monograph series edited by Stanley Scott under the title 'The Problems and Future of the San Francisco Bay Area.' The fund also supports studies of the governance of metropolitan regions around the world, resulting in books published by UC Press on London (1972), Toronto (1972), Stockholm (1975), New York (1982), Winnipeg (1983), and Montreal (1984).
1960
The Public Affairs Report is inaugurated. The PAR begins as a bimonthly bulletin focusing in each issue on a single policy question and providing analysis of scholarly research for both academic and nonacademic audiences.
1962
The bureau is renamed the Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS), with expanded research and funding capabilities.
1963
IGS publishes The Future of Son Francisco Bay, by Mel Scott, whose research on the disparate plans of Bay Area city and county government for Bay development leads him to call for the establishment of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
1967
Eugene C. Lee is appointed director (until 1988).
1968
IGS publishes Earthquake Hazard in the San Francisco Bay Area : A continuing Problem in Public Policy, by Karl V. Steinbrugge, one fo the first reports to translate what is known by scientists into public policy recommendations.
1970
During the 1970s the IGS research staff initiates several long-term projects, including:
Studies on the governance of the California Coast funded by the California Coastal Commission and the Sea Grant program. One notable result: publication in 1975 of Governing California's Coast by Stanley Scott.
A study examining the social, political, and ethical aspects of disposal of radioactive wastes in outer space funded by NASA. Gene I. Rochlin, principal investigator for this study publishes Plutonium, Power, and Politics: International Arrangements for the Disposition of Spent Nuclear Fuel in 1979.
A charting of public attitudes in California toward future-oriented technologies and more general perceptions, of science and technology, funded by NASA aid the Notional Science Foundation under the direction of Todd LaPorte. LaPorte also edits a study in organizational theory, including the work of graduate students: Organized Social Complexity: Challenge to Politics and Policy (1975).
Two studies on the governance of major public university systems, funded by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education, resulting in The Multicampus University (l 971 ) and Managing Multicampus Systems (1975), co-authored by Eugene C. Lee and Frank M. Bowen.
Bay Area Regionalism, by Victor Jones, an extensive analysis of local metropolitan developments published by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in 1973.
G. K, Hall Company publishes book version of the IGS Library subject catalog in 27 volumes.
1972
Jack Leister is appointed head librarian (until 1991).
Todd LaPorte is appointed associate director (until 1988).
1973
Joseph P. Harris Fund is established to support research, public service, Grid educational programs of IGS in fields of government, politics, and public policy.
The IGS Library receives the archives of the California Special Masters on Reapportionment of the California Supreme Court, and prepares an index to the legal documents, office files, working papers and papers included in the collection.
1974
The birth of the Berkeley Project: a study of Berkeley city government and changes in its politics and structure culminating in publication in 1978 of Experiment and Change in Berkeley. Essays on City Politics, 1950-1975.
1976
IGS publishes Ethics of Newborn Intensive Care, by Albert R. Jansen and Michael J. Garland, a volume including essays by pediatricians, nurses, economists, as well as theologians and philosophers discussing problems that are still pertinent today.
1977
California Policy Seminar (CPS) is established, a joint U-state government program to fund universitywide research project on policy issues.
Publication of the first California Data Brief occasional reports with new, unexpected, or thought-provoking data on emerging trends and issues in California.
1978
A book catalog of all IGS Library materials catalogued between 1970 and 1977 is published by G.K. Hall
Company and has been purchased by research libraries around the nation.
IGS plans and implements a briefing for newly elected members of Congress prior to their initial departure for Washington.
The Committee on the Study of Public Organization is established under the leadership of political science professor Martin Landau to sponsor student and faculty seminars and working papers on problems of organizational design.
IGS begins a series of seminars under the name Images of California Culture, which highlight aspects of California as seen through the work of artists and humanists: novelists, historians, poets, and musicians.
1979
The National Policy Studies Program is formed, bringing journalists, politicians, and research specialists from Washington to campus to discuss national politics and policy formation.
IGS publishes four studies on the impact of Proposition 13, funded by the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development.
IGS Researcher Ted K. Bradshaw co-authored rural Communities in Advanced Industrial Society: Development and Developers with Edward J. Blakely.
1980
IGS has its first Chili Cookoff.
1981
The Rural Development Policy Project is funded by the Ford Foundation to analyze new rural growth patterns and economic development.
IGS publishes Across the Border: Rural Development in Mexico and Recent Migration to the United States, by Harry E. Cross and James A. Sandos, recommending ways for both the U.S. and Mexico to change and improve current immigration policies.
1983
The IGS Library joins OCLC, a national computerized shared cataloging system.
IGS initiates and implements the California Forum, television programs on public policy issues for public television and high school use.
The IGS Library automates the cataloging system and begins contributing catalog records to MELVYL, the University of California's online public access catalog.
1986
The Harris Trust is established in a bequest to IGS by the late Joseph P. Harris, political science professor and longtime friend of IGS.
1988
Nelson W. Polsby is appointed director.
Adrienne Jamieson is appointed assistant director (until 1994).
1989
Bruce Cain is appointed associate director.
Jerry Lubenow is appointed publications director.
1990
The Public Affairs Report is redesigned and expanded.
Publication of Ralph Huitt's Working Within the System initiates the Classics of Political Science Series, which makes exceptional works that have gone out of print available to a new generation of students. IGS also published Watching Politicians, by Richard F. Fenno, Jr. and Alternative Techniques for Managing Growth, by Irving Schiffman.
1991
Jack Leister retires as head librarian after 31 years of service at the Institute.
Terry Dean begins rotational appointment as head librarian (until 1993).
IGS Press publishes Racial and Ethnic Politics in California, edited by Michael B. Preston and Byran O. Jackson.
A group of distinguished scholars of American government gather at IGS under the auspices of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to examine " What's Wrong with American Political Institutions?"
IGS sponsors conference " Campaign '90: A Look at the California Governor's Race." The published proceedings are entitled " California Votes: The 1990 Governor's Race," edited by Gerald C. Lubenow.
1992
IGS establishes the Statewide Database Project, which combines updated census data, registration figures, and precinct level returns. The database also provides the most comprehensive information in the state about California's political geography and voting behavior.
Publication of Welfare Reform in California by Eugene Smolensky, Eirik Evenhouse, and Siobhan Reilly initiates " IGS Smart Voter's Guide," a series on specific policy issues for students, policymakers, and the general public.
IGS sponsors " Election Night 1992," bringing together scholars, journalists, and interested citizens to monitor November elections returns.
1993
IGS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences launch the New American Federalist with a symposium on American democracy. IGS Press publishes Robert Dahl's paper and responses as The New American Political (Dis)Order.
Three Faces of Berkeley is first in a series of Chapters in the History of the University of California published jointly with the Center for Studies in Higher Education, edited by Carroll Brentano and Sheldon Rothblatt.
IGS Press and the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queens University jointly publish three volume study of the North American Federalism Project. Edited by Victor Jones of IGS, the project involves 18 Canadians from 11 universities and 21 Americans from 14 universities.
Ron Heckart begins rotational appointment as head librarian.
1994
IGS establishes the Novell local area network, LAN-MINE.
1995
Tom Cordi is appointed assistant director.
IGS conducts a University of California-Stanford conference on " California Constitutional Reform" sponsored by the Koret Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the Office of the President of the University of California. IGS Press will publish the conference proceedings.