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The Russell E. Bidlack subseries, which includes material received in several accessions, is divided into Personal and Administrative Files, Faculty Correspondence, Statistics, Topical Files and Miscellaneous Files

The Personal and Administrative Files consist of correspondence, reports, lectures and speeches and professional papers. Although most of this material is personal, much of the correspondence does relate to the administration of the school. There are five major files: American Library Association (ALA); Association of American Library Schools (AALS); Consulting; Correspondence; and Lectures, Papers, Publications, Speeches, and Testimony.

The ALA and AALS files consist of materials that document Bidlack's participation in various committees and projects. Listed ALA committees include: Accreditation, Professional Ethics, History Section, Nominating, Standards, and Statistics. For the AALS, the information is available on Deans and Directors, Statistics, and Tele-colloquia.

Bidlack's service on the ALA Committee on Accreditation (COA) is the most extensive and best documented. There is material on Bidlack's co-writing of the COA Standards for Evaluation in 1972. There is also correspondence regarding surveys and questionnaires Bidlack sponsored on the accreditation process. The bulk of the material relates to his participation on COA visiting committees to various library schools.

Consulting is a file relating to Bidlack's work as a consultant. Between 1970 and 1984, he visited and evaluated numerous library schools, assisting with accreditation and self-study. The subseries is arranged alphabetically.

Correspondence is arranged both topically and chronologically. The topical portion consists primarily of correspondence with various individuals. Of particular interest here is Bidlack's frequent correspondence with Dean Edward Holley of the library school at the University of North Carolina. The letters provide insight into the problems of library school administration. The chronological files are more extensive, touching on a wide variety of subjects.

Lectures, Papers, Publications, Speeches, and Testimony files contain materials relating to presentations by Bidlack. In some cases, there is correspondence in addition to the text of the presentation. This is especially the case with Bidlack's testimony before Congress and his 1979 paper, "The Place of Specialization in the Master's Degree."

The Faculty Correspondence and Topical Files sub-subseries complement items found in the earlier accessions. Correspondence consists mostly of memos from Bidlack to the faculty and from the faculty to him. These provide a good source of information on the daily activities of the school and issues that were being dealt with by the faculty as a whole. The Statistics series contains statistics on every aspect of the school from number of students to break downs on faculty grade distributions. Many of these statistics were used for reports, both for university and non-university purposes.