Gulledge left in the spring of 1926 to take up a position at Louisiana State University, and the position of librarian was eliminated. Instead, to save money, the college placed the library under the aegis of the Library Committee, with the intention of using the savings to purchase books. Frank Capps, the committee's executive secretary, was designated library supervisor, though he lacked the required qualifications. While the annual library expenditure had increased to about $3,000 by the early 1930s, library services remained poor. In 1931, the collection totaled 30,000 volumes. In 1933, the University collaborated with UNC and Duke University to form the North Carolina Union Catalog, the first shared catalog among the three universities. Capps resigned in July, and was briefly succeeded by the History chair Hugh Talmadge Lefler (1901–1981) as acting Library Director before being replaced with William Porter Kellam (1905–1993) on July 1 the following year.