Royal Library

“ More than a century has passed, since the printing of the catalogue of the Royal Library at Paris was commenced. It is not yet finished. No one feels in it the interest which he would, if he could hope to have its completeness sustained, when once brought up to a given date. ”

“ If copies of these imported works were certified as fit for sale in France and as worthy of acceptance for the Royal Library, the librarian was to make payment for them at the same price as that charged to others. The ground given for the collection in the Royal Library of copies of all works issued in France or imported into the kingdom, was the importance of preserving for future generations valuable literature which might otherwise have disappeared altogether from the memory of man, or which might in later issues have been altered from the original and accurate text. ”

“ As a natural consequence of the revival of learning in the fourteenth century, private libraries began to increase in size and in number, and the collection of books was no longer left to monks and priests. King John of France gathered a little library, some say of only twenty volumes, which laid the foundation of the great Royal Library, now the Bibliothèque Nationale. ”

“ The library and proposed collection of books of reference will form a library establishment honourable to the British nation, favourable to science, [Pg 205] advantageous to the pursuits of scientific men, and very conducive to the increase of the funds and of the utility, prosperity, and permanency of the Institution.
He thus ended his report:
The fabric of the Royal Institution is now completed by the efforts of individuals.... ”

“ The five libraries thus briefly described are the principal ones in the United Kingdom, and they are all entitled to receive a copy of every new work on its publication; so that they are continually on the increase, and enabled to keep pace with the activity of the press. Of the numerous other libraries in this country we have no space to give a detailed account, and must therefore content ourselves with merely indicating the names of the more extensive ones. In London are the libraries of the Royal Society and the Royal Institution; Sion College Library ”

“ The general public is comparatively indifferent to bibliographical rarities, and books which are merely curious or scarce should not be bought from the present restricted funds of British municipal libraries. There is a certain advantage in making a small special collection, on the museum plan, to trace and illustrate the evolution and history of printing and book production from the original manuscript forms, but the general connection of incunabula and rare specimens of typography by modern municipal libraries is neither possible nor desirable. ”

“ The chief reason for this is no doubt the cherished tradition that libraries are to be made as large as possible, because they are the repositories of the literature of the ages and the storehouse for every kind of printed matter. The museum idea of a public library, however, is now giving place to the workshop idea, and few librarians nowadays of average-sized municipal libraries hold the view that it is their function to provide and retain every book, irrespective of its value or appeal, and to attempt to rival the British Museum or Bibliothèque Nationale on a reduced scale. ”

“ It is also very doubtful whether a conscientious passage through a "cut-and-dried" list of books will feed the mind as a more original selection by each reader himself would do. It is probably best to start the student well on his way and then leave him to pursue it according to his own tastes. Each book will help him to another, and consultation with some of the many manuals of English literature will guide him towards a good choice. This is in effect what Mr. Bond, Principal Librarian of the British Museum, says in his reply, to the circular of the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. ”

“ Thus in such places as Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, the Free Libraries should be smaller British Museums, and in this spirit their founders have worked; but in smaller and less important towns a more modest object has to be kept in view, and the wants of readers, more than those of consulters of books, have to be considered. ”

“ What, moreover, would be the object of these precious collections, gathered at so great expense by fortune or by science, if they were not consecrated, according to the intention of their generous founders, to the advancement, the glory, and the perfection of science and literature?
But that a library may fully attain the end of its foundation,—that it may be in reality useful, and useful with equal certainty and facility,—it should be administered by a librarian distinguished for soundness of judgement no less than for the readiness and accuracy of his memory. ”

“ It is easy now to collect, for books of interest are to be found on all sides; but in old times this was not so, and we must therefore admire the more those men who formed their libraries under the greatest difficulties. In a book devoted to the formation of libraries it seems but fair to devote some space to doing honour to those who have formed libraries, and perhaps some practical lessons may be learned from a few historical facts. ”

“ It is thought by some that an open access library is itself a book exhibition, but even with this system, and certainly with the indicator system, there are many things that can be exhibited with advantage. Such works as Williams’s History of the Art of Writing, the facsimiles published by the British Museum, and other large treasure houses ”

“ It would add enormously to the educational resources of London, for example, if, in return for an annual Government grant, the general public could have access to the reading-rooms of some of the more important literary, scientific and artistic libraries, especially those which are rich in the current periodical literature of other countries. ”

“ Studies for the use of artists are also collected, mounted on cards, and made accessible, and some of these attempts to popularize art should be made in British libraries. Photographs are comparatively cheap, and almost every kind of picture and study can be obtained in this medium. What is particularly required is some kind of practical list or guide, drawn up by an expert, from which libraries could make their selections. ”

“ There is no more important factor in the success or failure of a library than the classification of the books and other material which form its stock. Some of its uses are obvious to all readers; it brings the material on any subject together on the shelves and in the catalogues, and thus enables both librarian and reader to find books readily. It has perhaps more important uses, because it enables the librarian, and, in open access libraries, the public, to see the strength and weakness of the collection in various subjects ”

“ Yet printed books must almost always make the greater part of a collection, and it may be well to give some rules as to the features that distinguish the productions of the early press. But no amount of “rules” is worth six months’ practical experience in bibliography. That experience the amateur, if he is wise, will obtain in a public library, like the British Museum or the Bodleian. Nowhere else is he likely to see much of the earliest of printed books, which very seldom come into the market. ”

“ The Pears' soap plan of printers' ink is one of the finest and best.
If a library has or is a good thing for the community let it so be said, early, late, and often, in large, plain type. So doing shall the library's books enter—before too old to be of service—into that state of utter worn-out-ness which is the only known book-heaven. Another way, and by some found good, is to work the sinfully indifferent first up into a library missionary, and then transform him into a patron. A library is something to which he can give an old book, an old paper, an old magazine, with no loss to himself. ”

“ As a rule the bookseller is sufficiently master of his business to enter likely material, under county and town headings, but not infrequently books which have a local appeal appear in other parts of the catalogue. In this work the librarian will naturally and wisely make use of his whole staff, and every inducement should be held out to assistants to help in the discovering of local material and to make suggestions for the extension of the collection. ”

“ This is an unsuitable variety for a public library, and should not be used for cataloguing purposes.
The British Museum public catalogue consists of large guard books, in which printed or manuscript slips of book entries are mounted on the tough cartridge paper leaves, so as to leave space for additions. When a page becomes congested, the slips can be lifted by means of a paper-knife, as they are secured only at the ends, another leaf can be inserted on the adjoining guard, and the old and additional slips can be redistributed over the whole of the newly created space. ”

“ Nevertheless, it is a very practical one, covering the popular side of most subjects, and including a body of imaginative literature which no household need be ashamed to possess. The bulk of the works are those which enjoy great and continuous popularity in Public Libraries, many of them are classics, a few are included because of their historical value, and every book is interesting. From this series of suggestions, any householder can gradually build up his Home Library, varying the selection to meet his own views or tastes, and omitting anything which may seem unsuitable. ”

“ In England the Universities have noble libraries, more especially those of Oxford and Cambridge, but although some colleges possess fine collections of books, college libraries are not as a rule kept up to a very high standard. ”

“ The object of this paper is to give a short account of the sliding-press or hanging book-press now in use at the British Museum, and to suggest the importance of its introduction elsewhere where possible, and of regard being had to it in forming the plans of libraries hereafter to be built. Every successful library is destined to be confronted sooner or later with the problem how to enlarge its insufficient space. ”

“ Most librarians in libraries of several years’ standing have been confronted with the difficulty of obtaining copies of certain books which have been allowed to go out of print by their publishers. The number of such books is rapidly increasing, and among them are works which have taken a recognized place in English literature, as well as many others which have obtained a certain value by being enshrined in the catalogues of hundreds of public and other libraries. ”

“ Some English public libraries, because of their accumulations of old, useless and effete books, resemble gardens choked with weeds; and their efficiency is clogged by the necessity for storing and caring for books which are of no value or interest. ”

“ Next to the Bibliothèque nationale of France, comes the Library of the British Museum, with 2,000,000 volumes, very rich both in manuscripts and in printed books in all languages. A liberal Parliamentary grant of $60,000 a year for purchase of books and manuscripts keeps this great collection well up to date as to all important new works, besides enabling it constantly to fill up deficiencies in the literature of the past. ”

“ The older libraries were usually in the charge of scholars, whose main work was that of “keeper” of the books, a title which the librarian in charge of the British Museum still bears, although it does not now comprehend his work. The municipal library required a man who was not primarily a scholar, although scholarship was an invaluable basis for his work; he was rather required to be an administrator, a purveyor of books, and, because of the very limited moneys at his disposal, something of a business man. ”

“ There are relics of the age before circulating libraries, there are fragments of the lettered store of some scholarly great-grandfather, and these, with a few odd numbers of magazines, a few primers and manuals, some sermons and novels, make up the ordinary library of an English household. But the amateur, whom we have in our thoughts, can never be satisfied with these commonplace supplies. He has a taste for books more or less rare, and for books neatly bound; in short, for books, in the fabrication of which art has not been absent. ”

“ The love of books will often form a tie of connection between very divergent characters, and in dealing with men who have formed libraries we can bring together the names of those who had but little sympathy with each other during life.
George III. was a true book collector, and the magnificent library now preserved in the British Museum owes its origin to his own judgment and enthusiastic love for the pursuit. Louis XVI. cared but little for books until his troubles came thick upon him, and then he sought solace from their pages. ”

“ Having heard to-day, with great surprise, that a Reader of the Library of the British Museum had expressed dissatisfaction at the new regulations which you have introduced for obtaining Books, I take the liberty of offering you the opinion of a person who has constantly used the Library for sixteen years, and who, perhaps, is not very likely to be suspected of bestowing indiscriminate or venal praise. ”

“ THE SMALL MUNICIPAL LIBRARY With certain honourable exceptions, the smaller municipal libraries of the United Kingdom may be said to become formed by a process which involves the accumulation of books to the exclusion of literature. In other words, the matter-of-fact business men who usually control such institutions, prefer in most cases to have quantity rather than quality, and desire to see a number of books, no matter how useless, rather than a well-selected library of representative literature. ”