University library

“ Yet I hope it will cheer these splendid workers for civilization.
The library is not "doing as much as it might to be a true University to the People." Books alone will not attract the insensitive or indifferent, nor will handsome buildings. Equal to other necessity of the library to be "a true university to the people," is that of arousing interest, awakening curiosity and alluring into path ways that lead to books and reading. I know of nothing better than to have cheap, popular, illustrated lecture courses that constantly refer to books and the special theme. ”

“ The college library which spent any considerable share of its funds for research material which really belongs only in the university library would have no means whatever of justifying itself—would be worse off than an institution which had no research material whatever. ”

“ Andrew Keogh, of Yale University Library, under the title, "Some general bibliographical works of value to the students of English."
There is a phase of library economy that every teacher should know, and which it seems must always have its proper place in the curriculum of the normal school. That is the knowledge of how to obtain books. Every teacher should know what the laws of his state are regarding the establishment and maintenance of the public library and the public school library, and how these laws compare with those of other states. ”

“ There would never have been so large a development of the departmental libraries if the university libraries had been in a position to answer the demands made on them. As it is, when an expensive book is wanted and the university library has not the funds to secure it, there immediately appear from two to three copies in as many departmental libraries, while there is no copy in the university library. The situation which results is intolerable. ”

“ In the same year an old scholar, not known by name, gave 31 books, and in 1490 Dr. Litchfield, Archdeacon of Middlesex, presented 132 volumes and a sum of £200. These gifts mark the culminating point in the history of the first University library—a collection over a century and a half old, accumulated slowly by the forethought and generosity of the University’s friends, only, alas! in a few years’ time to be almost completely dispersed and destroyed. ”

“ We have not yet learnt that the Library is not only the first convenience of a University, but that it is the very first necessity,—that it is the life and spirit,—and that all other considerations must yield to the prevalent one of increasing and opening it, and opening it on the most liberal terms to all who are disposed to make use of it. ”

“ Must the use of this great collection be limited to Washington? How many of the students who need some book in the Library of Congress—perhaps there alone—can come to Washington to consult it at the moment of need? A case is conceivable: a university professor at Madison or Berkeley or San Antonio, in connection with research important to scholarship, requires some volume in an unusual set. The set is not in the university library. It is too costly for that library to acquire for the infrequent need. ”

“ This agricultural department of the university is housed in a group of buildings at the extreme western end of the campus. The general university library is situated at the extreme eastern end, a full half mile away. It therefore seemed advisable to establish a departmental library for the convenience of our agricultural workers.
In our college the funds received from the United States are not nearly sufficient to finance all of the station work, or research work as we call it. ”

“ Instead of one good library, we get three poor ones; and so, instead of twenty men of real learning, we are vexed with a score of sciolists, who are so through no fault of their own. We hope that the movement now on foot, to give something like adequacy to the University Library at Cambridge, will receive the aid it deserves, not only from graduates of the College, but from all persons interested in the literary advancement of the country. ”

“ Granting the importance of serving the convenience of visiting investigators, their convenience must always be subordinated to that of the large number of students and professors of the university. Practically all the valuable results of concentration could be secured by a catalog of all the departments in the general library and a system of underground book railways and telephone communication. ”

“ The universities have felt the touch of popular demand, and in this country at least some of them have attempted to respond. Through correspondence courses, short courses, university week conferences, summer schools, local forums, traveling instructors, and other media of extension, many institutions of higher learning have given recognition to the appeal of the masses. Logically with this enlargement of educational opportunity, the amplification of library facilities has kept pace. The libraries have become in a real sense the laboratory of learning. ”

“ To make the public library realize fully its possibilities as the People's University calls for more than the opportunity which every public library now offers; it requires active effort to reach out and bring the people to the library by the fullest co-operation with the school and by means of attractive lecture courses, which shall stimulate reading and guide it in profitable channels. ”

“ In closing this paper it is difficult to refrain from expressing the opinion that whatever the policy adopted with reference to its library system, a university owes it to its constituency to see that a strong and well balanced general library constitutes an integral part of the scheme. ”

“ We must premise that no two departments use their books in exactly the same way, and that, consequently, methods of administration must differ. It is generally for the advantage of all, for example, in a university where there is a law school, that the books on private law should be separated from the main collection and treated as a branch library. ”

“ And in the later university extension movement which, along new lines, is to make of universities having a state foundation really the instrument of the state for the good of all the people in place of the few, the libraries have a great opportunity to become an important factor. ”

“ Fourth—A municipally-controlled library is owned by the people, and experience has demonstrated that they take a much greater interest in an institution belonging to them.
Fifth—Public libraries supplement the work of the public schools. "Reading maketh a full man," wrote Lord Bacon; and Thomas Carlyle thus expressed the same idea: "The true university of these days is a collection of books." Libraries, like the schools, should be supported by the people. ”

“ Here is the chance of a lifetime for the exponents of the uses and utility of the Library of which they should take every advantage. There are some people who do not even know that public libraries actually exist in their midst, and what facilities they freely offer. They have yet to realize that the Library is in reality the People’s University, instituted to enable everyone to acquire knowledge and enlightenment.
It would not be impossible to prepare a film on a much wider scale, the production of which would probably run into similar figures to those of the biggest “releases.” ”

“ Others eke out their means by begging at street corners. All get their teaching by gathering round masters whose rostrum is the church doorstep or the threshold of the lodging-house. Amid the manifold distractions of this queerly-ordered life the maker and seller of books earns what living he can; his chief patrons being indigent masters, who often must starve themselves to get books, and students so poor that pawning becomes a custom regulated by the University itself.
Not till the University became firmly established as a corporate body could a common library be formed. ”

“ In the first place, the public library has to serve, as libraries of all times have served, those who have had all the advantages of systematic education—those in the learned professions and in other walks of life who have had given to them, through college and university training, a wider vision than that of the average citizen ”

“ Nevertheless library schools too have had their beginnings. In the immediate past schools or university courses of palaeography or archival science have been practically library schools. In European countries, where the handling of documents and manuscripts have been so much the more difficult share of the problem that library economy and all the rest has been counted negligible and has in fact been neglected, these were real library schools, in that they were chiefly or wholly intended for and used by those who were intending to be librarians. ”

“ Not only have we such rich collections as those of the Avery Architectural library at Columbia, the Fogg Museum at Harvard, or Yale University, but collections of casts, photographs and books will be found at the disposal of the art departments of a number of other colleges. Such resources might be drawn upon so that some modicum, at least, of art influence may be extended to the rest of the institution. ”

“ It is, of course, quite impossible for each instructor to have in his office all the books necessary for his work. The duplication necessary for this purpose would be impracticable even for the most wealthy university. He must, therefore, go from his office or class room to the department library and search for the book himself. With the confusion which generally reigns in a library of this sort, and with the lack of effective registration of loans, this is quite often a matter of some difficulty. ”

“ Miss Sharp told of the instruction in bibliography given to the students in University of Illinois Library School by the professors at the university. Several of the professors give lectures on the bibliography of their various subjects; a subject is assigned to the students before the lecture, they are required to examine bibliographies, reviews, and the books themselves, as far as accessible in the library, and to select ten books which they would buy first for a library of 10,000 vols. ”

“ Long before 1410 the “good clerk’s” books had been made of real service to students. Fittings were put up in{136} the library room (1365) . Then regulations for managing the library were drawn up (1367) . The books were to be put in the chamber over the Congregation House, marshalled in convenient order and chained. There, at certain times, scholars were to have access to them. Now first appeared upon the scene a University librarian. ”

“ Closer analysis of these figures enforces still more strongly the actual concentration of the available book supply. The hundred largest cities of the United States, varying in size from a minimum of 53,684 to a maximum of 4,766,883, possess in the aggregate more books than all the rest of the country together, and represent the bulk of the trained professional service rendered. The great majority of the 3,000 graduates whom the library schools have sent into service since the first class was organized in 1887, are in these libraries and in the university libraries. ”

“ An interesting feature is the Library, composed of a collection of about five thousand volumes, selected wisely for the purpose of interesting as well as instructing the scholars. To the library there have been added during the past year, three hundred new books of recent publication.
In connection with the library is a reading room, in which can be found the leading magazines and daily papers.
The future of the University seems truly bright, and a better opportunity can never be given our colored citizens for a thorough education. ”

“ Educational libraries are the oldest in the country, and the most venerable of them is naturally that of the oldest educational institution, Harvard University, which dates from 1638. Before the end of that century three others had been started, and singularly enough, all at about the same time: King William school at Annapolis, 1697, King's Chapel Library at Boston, 1698, and Christ church at Philadelphia, 1698. Yale and William and Mary Colleges began their collections in 1700, and then proprietary libraries began their existence. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Without it, the librarian, teachers, and pupils are handicapped in their work and the library fails of its full usefulness. A knowledge of how to use a library will be of the greatest value to the student not only through his high school course, but even more so in college, if he goes that far, or in continuing his reading and self-culture through the means of the public library when he discontinues his academic career. ”

“ The Karl Weinhold Library, presented to the University by John D. Spreckels, is now in seminar [18] 113. It was the private library of the late Professor Weinhold of the University of Berlin, who had gathered together in it over 6000 volumes and more than 2000 pamphlets devoted to Germanic language, literature, folklore, and antiquities. The original editions of works of literature in which it is especially rich are listed in Library Bulletin 16. ”