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BOWLING GREEN — It started with a fight.

With a librarian.

Ray Browne, who founded Bowling Green State University’s popular culture department, still remembers the first time he tried to place some books reflecting pop culture in the library.

It was 1967 and he wanted to teach popular culture as contemporary folklore. So he dropped off an armful of books that would be useful in his class. Let’s just say, the librarian wasn’t amused.

“[He] told me to get that junk out of my library since libraries were for serious and high quality literature,” the soft-spoken 85- year-old Mr. Browne said.

Forty years and well over 190,000 pop culture items later, you know who won that argument.

The popular culture library, formally created in 1969 and later named for its founder, Mr. Browne, and his wife, Pat, has become one of the top such collections in the country.

It is a place where everyday favorites find a home: Classic movie posters share a room with old copies of TV Guide and comic books. A Shakespeare play translated into Klingon mingles with used postcards and JCPenney mail-order catalogues.

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This is where people come when they want to study how small towns are represented in romance novels. Or how Hillary Clinton has been portrayed in tabloid magazines. It’s the kind of collection that invites inquiries about ... anything.

“Sometimes I get questions, like the history of the cream pie in America,” said Nancy Down, the collection’s head librarian.

It’s also the kind of material that other libraries ignored.

“Chances are what [other] libraries didn’t collect is what the popular culture library did,” said

Bill Schurk, the university’s original popular culture librarian. “If they didn’t want it, it’s because it was popular.”

Times have changed in the last four decades. The biggest problem these days is finding space for everything on the fourth floor of BGSU’s Jerome Library, where the collection is housed.

“We were motivated by noble purpose,” said Mr. Browne, now a distinguished university professor emeritus. “What we’re trying to do is save the junk of today until it becomes the treasure of tomorrow, as indeed it will.”

Looking back at 40 years of this “junk,” it’s hard not to get attached to some of the items. We asked several people who are familiar with the library and its contents to pick their favorites.

Contact Ryan E. Smith at: ryansmith@theblade.com or 419-724-6103.

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