On September 1, 1939, the day the Second World War broke out, Circulation Librarian Harlan Craig Brown (1906 – 10 October 1982) was appointed as Kellam's successor. Appointed as the circulation librarian in 1936, he had helped to transform that area of library operations; during his 25 years as Director, he would oversee the transformation of D. H. Hill into a major university library. Library holdings reached 60,000 volumes in 1940. During the Second World War, all male library staff members entered the services, including Brown, who left for the army in November 1942. He served as an infantry captain in Europe. During his absence, reference librarian Reba Davis Clevenger served as acting Director, with a staff of six professional librarians and four others. In 1945, Clevenger and the Library Committee presented a report which highlighted three urgent needs: a new, centralized library building, a greatly increased book and periodicals budget and more and better-paid staff.