The flyleaf, 1962

THE FLYLEAF

PUBLISHED BY THE

FRIENDS OF THE
FDNDREN LIBRARY

AT RICE UNIVERSITY
HOUSTON, TEXAS

THE FLYLEAF

Quarterly
Vol. XIII, No. 1 October I962

THE MTURAL HISTORY OF THE LIBMKEAN

It is not imcomraon for a writer to say-
that no profession is more misunderstood than his
o^wn. This is especially true of librarian ship,
and the complaint is made more poignant by the
doubts which have been expressed as to whether it
is indeed a profession.

Actually there seems to be no reason to
withhold the cachet of "profession" from the pursuit
of library science. Tlie characteristics by which
one distinguishes a profession are most of them
present: those engaged in a profession are usually
clannish and conscious of their mutual interests;
librarians cling together like bees at swarming
time. A profession should have its o\m jargon
incomprehensible to others, or at least a highly
specialized vocabu3-aryj this is undoubtedly true
of librarians, although in this respect they cannot
compete with the sociologists. There should be a
specialized professional literature and periodicals
devoted to its dissemination, and in fact there is
a large body of library literature, both general
and specialized.

A profession should have a code of ethics,
highminded and idealistic, although occasionally a
bit snobbish and infuriating to the laity, as in
the medical profession; librarians possess such a

code, part -written, part understood.-^ There is
usually a forinal postgraduate training for a pro-
fession, centered on the study of a body of theory
and not merely the learning of techniques, "iTith a
final granting of degrees; this is also true of
library science, althou^ a few librarians slip
in at the back door. In the opinion of many,
there should be a sense of dedication in imder-
taking a profession, and its practitioners should
feel that they are serving humanity and even be
willing to accept comparatively low financial
rewards in doing so; this is certainly tioie of
many librarians and should be true of all.

One of the most interesting and
creditable characteristics of librarians is their
fierce sense of democracy. They will not tolerate,
so far as they are able to prevent it, any dis-
crimination based on color, race, religion, or
sex. That women are not discriminated against is
not surprising, since librarianship was one of the
first professions oi)en to and considered respectable
for women. 2 Lady librarians outnumber the men at
least three to one; remove the women and all
libraries would have to close tomorrow.

At the national meetings, all librarians,
black or white, Protestant, Jewish or Roman
Catholic, are considered to be of equal importance

Helen E. Haines, "Ethics of Librarianship, "
Library Journal, LXXI (15 June 19if6), 848-851.

^ The writer is well aware that few women
make it to the top in university libraries, but
the American Library Association has had many
women presidents, and in general there is equality
of opportunity.

in the eyes of God and the American Library ■-"-'■ • .
Association; the Association will not meet in any
city where hotel or dining room discrimination is
practiced against any of its meiribers. In the state
associations and local meetings of the South a
certain amount of segregation in the housing and
feeding of members has to be accepted, but this is
done with the greatest reluctance,

■'-- '"' '^ It will also strike an outside observer
forcibly that there is no privileged class among
the different types of librarians. The college
and university group does not dominate the scene
or the national meetings as it does, for example,
in the American Historical Association. This is
because the academicians have no monopoly on
libraries, either quantitatively or qualitatively.
One finds that public librarians, school librarians,
and librarians of the special reference collections
of industry, all have their prominent and active
places in any national meeting or national journal;
all these groups have their special sessions and
publications ]feflecting their sxjecial interests,
but on a national scale all librarians are con-
stantly associated. Obviously this tends to make
their organization larger and stronger, as well as
less academic in every sense.

Similarly, the college and university
side of the library profession is not dominated by
the Ivy League, althougli the great libraries of
Harvard, Columbia, and so on are held in high
respect. But of the twenty largest American aca-
demic librEiries, eight are in the East, nine in the
Middle West, ajid three in the Far West; size,
although not a sure guarantee of quality, is more
so in the case of a book stock than of a student
body. Library schools are similarly distributed,
and a degree from an Eastern library school dees

not carry the special prestige which Eastern
degrees do in some fields of college teaching.

■ : .- By the same tokens, namely that the
American Li^brary Association draws its mentiers
from all parts of the field and that even college
and university librarians are not culturally
guided hy Eastern institutions, the librarians v^,
range more widely and imaginatively in their
meetings. Whereas the Modern Language Association
confines itself to a few well-worn centers in the
Northeast, with an occasional daring sortie as
far as Chicago, so that Eastern professors will
not have to leave their firesides "before Christmas,
librarians travel far and wide; they think nothing
of meeting now in Los Angeles, now in Minneapolis,
now crossing the border to Montreal, their scope
limited only by the availability of hotels to
accommodate the thousands who attend the meetings
and by their antipathy for segregation, to which
reference has already been made.

It is a dull week in library circles
that sees no convention. The national body, the
ALA, meets not once but twice a year. There are
regional groupings, such as the Southwestern
Library Association, which meets at least bienni-
ally. All states have library associations, and
these meet annually. Many states, like Texas,
are divided into library districts, and these
divisions have their meetings too. Many
communities have their local library clubs.
Groups such as the Special Libraries have addi-
tional meetings of their own. Sliould all else
fail, there are always workshops on some phase
of librarianship to relieve the librarian of the
tedium of independent existence, and it is not
unknown for the staff of one library to pay
friendly and exploratory visits to a sister

institution. It is hardly necessary to remark that
the committees subservient to all these organizations
and conferences are only less numerous than the
sands of the sea or spawn of the codfish.

At worst ^ this passion for organization
and for meeting together is always time-consuming
and sometimes futile, and on occasion it appears
almost as if there were a conspiracy to keep the
individual from paying sufficient attention to his
own problems. The demands upon him to engage in
membership drives_; to promote regional arrangements
for sharing library resources, and to expand library
service in underprivileged areas are very consider-
able. But at best, this signal characteristic of
librarians denotes and promotes a wider point of
view, a desire for self -improvement, and self-
sacrifice in the finest sense.

Another marked characteristic of
librarians, related to their democratic spirit, and
stimulated by their fondness for gathering together
for discussions of all sorts, is that they are
extremely sensitive to public opinion and are con-
stantly seeking for improvement in their procedures
and techniques. Library literature is full of plans
for improved charging systems, streamlined ordering
and cataloging procedures, and in fact better methods
of doing everything which can be done, from the
administration of million-volume enterprises to the
display of book jackets. It is no unusual thing
(indeed it is almost standard practice) for a
library association to have the title "As Others •
See Us" as the theme for its annual meeting.
Librarians constantly worry about the opinion which
their public, or their board of trustees, or their
faculty will have of them.

This driving spirit of collective

self-criticism, this constant striving for self-
improvement, is not uncommon in the business world,
but it is relatively unknown to institutions of
higher learning except on the football field. Few
departments of instruction engage in the critiques
of past practice and future endeavor which are
commonplace and of almost daily occurrence in
libraries. This is mentioned not as an unfriendly
criticism of teachers, who probably do a better job
by going their ways individually, but to emphasize
this outstanding characteristic of the library
profession. Librarians always talk shop and never
stop talking about library affairs; they work at
their Jobs with extraordinary concentration; although
life may have beaten some of them into submission,
most of them are conscious of a suppressed excit-
ment, a series of challenges, a succession of
problems, which keeps them on their toes. Since
libraries are quiet places, often with an air of
somnolence about them, this may be hard for the
layman to believe; but those on the inside know
that there is always something exciting happening
around a library, even though it may lack the spice
to make it a popular movie.

II

In the struggle for survival and self-
justification, the librarians have some weapons.
No one can publicly be against books, any more
than he can be against motherhood, social security,
installment buying, or any other beneficial insti-
tution of the present day. But some people are
opposed to books and feel that it is subversive of
librarians to make available to the ordinai^y man
the apparatus for thinking. Such people cannot
say so, and they can attack only certain books.

"basing their objections on grounds of their own
definitions of moral and patriotic behavior. 3
Therefore the librarian remains the custodian and
purveyor of that respectable commodity, the book^
and his place in society is secure. . . .■..■-.'.

It worries him, however, that people do
not read enough books, and he does not wait for
people to come to him. In universities, of course,
the librarian has a captive audience, sent to him
by the assignments of the faculty; also he has
another and more matiure clientele who need no adver-
tising to inform them of the beauties of research.
But with the general public the case is different,
and the modern public librarian is appalled by the
competition to reading set up by radio, television,
motion picture, and comic book. However innocuous
or even excellent these media may be, they do offer
serious competition to the art and recreation of
reading. The librarian therefore arranges displays,
contests, bookwoeks, and all sorts of devices to
bring the customers in, and he is likely to venture
out in a bookmobile to spread the gospel.

"A college training is an excellent
thing, " said James Russell Lowell, "but, after all,

3 The librarians' answer, expressing the
convictions of the vast majority of the profession,
was contained in the statement "The Freedom to
Read", published among other places in the Summer,
1953, issue of the AAUP Bulletin. This official
statement of the ALA affirms the duty of the
librarian to make available material showing "the
widest diversity of views and expressions, " not to
intrude his own opinions, not to label books in other
than the literal sense, and to resist encroaciaraents
upon the people *s freedom to read.

8

the better part of every man's education is that
which he gives himself, and it is for this that
a good library should furnish the opportunity and
the means." Not content with a merely passive
role, the American Library Association has long
had its Office for Adult Education and its Adult
Services Division, their work designed to help
adults continue their educational development and
their recreational reading in all tjTpes of
libraries. The details are not so important as is
the rejection of the storehouse idea and the doing
of work which lazier and less dedicated people
would leave undone.

To the same end, the AIA has promoted
the American Heritage Project, to help citizens
appreciate their couatry, and in addition many
libraries serve as hosts to the sessions of the
Great Books discussion groups. All in all,
librarians have a stubborn belief in education,
self -given or not, and in the eventual prevalence
of truth in any free market of ideas.

Ill

For all their concern with extracur-
ricular activities, there are times when librarians
turn their attention inward to their own libraries.
But even in so doing they are conscious of obli-
gations to their readers. The keynote speech for
this aspect of the librarian's profession was
delivered by James Russell Lowell at the opening
of the Free Public Library in Chelsea^ I^ssachusetts,
on December 22, I885. On that occasion he said:

;: Formerly the duty of a librarian was
considered too much of a watchdog, to keep
people as much as possible away from the

9

books, and to hand these over to his :-•.''
successor as little worn by use as he .•-...
could. Librarians now, it is pleasant :
to see, have a different notion of their
trust, and are in the habit of preparing,
for the direction of the inexperienced,
3J.sts of such books as they think best
worth reading. ; ^

Bibliographical and reference work has
grown much since 1685, but it is to be hoped that
the spirit is the same. The app3.ication of science
to industry has been a major factor in this develop-
ment. Eapid as the establishment of special libraries
by industry has been, an increasing task of reference
work has been assumed by the public libraries, and
by college libraries beyond the needs of their own
teachers and students. The big problem of the
present and future is that there is too much
potentially useful material. With tens of thousands
of articles appearing in thousands of journals, and
the number growing every day, it is impossible to
find out quickly all that is being done in many
fields. Most librarians are concerned about this
problem of retrieval of information. It may be that
a super -machine will some day give out both references
and abstracts in response to a suitable stimulus.

Side by side with reference and circulation
are those divisions of the library that go by the
name of technical processes. These are the minis-
trations that go into the preparation of a book,
from its ordering to its launching as a fully
recorded, labelled, and identified book, ready for
circulation. The various methods of acquisition
come under technical processes, as also does a
considerable amount of record-keeping and, above
all, cataloging. Here are the librarians who seldom
see the light of day or the public whom they serve.

10

toiling in little cells and ■workrooms like cooper-
ative insects, each having some organ, sense, or
skill more highly developed than any other. These
workers, "whose tasks might "be though dull and
routine "by the iminitiated, are in fact fiercely
proud of their calling and not infrequently refer
to themselves as a corps d* elite. Nowhere in the
library is there such pride and so much sensi-
tivity. Cataloging can be learned but the aptitude
for it must be hereditary.

"Tell me, " said the lady next door, "do
all your books have numbers?" They do indeed have
numbers, and the principle behind the nunibers is
to bring order out of potential confusion and to
provide a government of laws and not of men. Most
librarians know they are mortal, and they seek, in
this as in other procedures, to adopt a system
which will hold up after they and their personal
knowledge have passed from the scene. Few of the
frequenters of a l3.brary will object to a numbering
system of some sort, but the specific assignment of
a call number is sometimes open to argijment.

Those few libraries which operate with
completely closed stacks have no need of a system
other than the assignment of a number from one to
infinity. Each acquisition can be given a simple
accession number and placed in the next vacant
spot on the shelves. Books may be designated as
small, mediLim, and large, and arranged by size,
which permits much tighter shelving and saves
space. But in such a library, where works on
ornithology may rest companionably with those on
gasoline engines, the delight of browsing cannot
be enjoyed; no one can range along the ranges,
seeing what the library has on Napoleon or reptilia
or astrophysics. Since this practice is not only
delightful but almost a necessity for the serious

11

student^ it follows that the books on a given
subject are kept together in most libraries, at
least so far as possible. Sometimes this is not
possible^, and then sensibilities are wounded. One
research man was grieved to find a work on the
hymenoptera of North America among works on agri-
cultural statistics, "Are the ants and bees compelled
to be in such company?" he inquired; "it seems un-
just." And plaintively he added, "I love ants and
bees." Here is the librarian in a dilemma, torn
between his desire to se27ve his client and the
stern rules which dictate that ants and bees, to
say nothing of birds, must find themselves now in
a section of pure science, now among works on plants
and animals considered for the use of man, and again
in economics, as in the case of the work just men-
tioned. Presumably one man's songbird is another
man's potpie, and each will want the bird-books
similarly differentiated.

A great deal of trouble is also caused
by monographic work in series, where the series
element is relatively unimportant. The series is
made up, say, of separate works on organic, analytic,
and other subdivisions of chemistry; shall they be
kept together as a set, or dispersed as their
subjects indicate? Some will say one thing, some
another, and the librarian, caught like a Secretary
of State between two quarreling nations neither of
whom he can afford to antagonize, is likely to be
gored by at least one horn of another dilemma.

To change the metaphor, there is in this
stormy sea of argument over classification one sure
and strong haven of refuge, the catalog. Here the
librarian can rest his case; here the bee -lover will
find his pets all in one hive; here the organic
chemist will find all the books on his subject
grouped under one heading, whatever may be their

12

fate upon the shelves.

"Catalog" in library i)arlance means
"card catalog", spelled without the final "ue" in
all libraries save some in New and Old England.
Catalogs in book form exist, and many of the
largest libraries are seriously considering the
adoption of this form. The Library of Congress
issues a multivolume catalog, with supplements,
in which all its cards are reproduced on a smaller
scale by offset printing; this printed catalog is
of inestimable value in the identification and
ordering of books. The saving of space afforded
by such a catalog is obvious, and so is the con-
venience to the user, who can scan a whole page,
with many entries, at one time; but the disad-
vantage of issuing a reference book which will '• •
necessarily be out of date before it is published
is equally obvious.

Now to bear them to the rock of the
catalog, the reader and the librarian have one
unfailing raft, and this is the Library of Congress
card. In 180O, an Act of Congress established a
library for the use of the legislators, and this
has grown into the world's largest and one of the
world's greatest libraries. It is far more than
a place for the preparation of speeches which are
franked out all over the country; it is more even
than a great research institution and a truly
national library; it is also the headquarters for
a vast bibliographic enterprise, selling printed
cards by the millions annually to libraries large
and small.

Cards are made and printed for
practically all the books cataloged at the Library
of Congress, and the fee is modest considering the
service rendered, l\lhen one orders a book from a

13

dealer, it is customary to order the LC cards from
Washington at the same tine. These cards come in
little packets of three or four or six or whatever
number is requisite. They are all duplicates of
each other, the necessary distinctive touches being
supplied by the recipient. All have the name of the
author or other main entry, the title, and much other
information about the book. At the bottom of most
cajrds are the IC and the Devey call numbers, which
have been assigned to the book by the subject
specialists at the Library of Congress. Whichever
system a library uses, the card will serve equally
well when the number is copied onto its usual place
in the upper lefthand corner. If the library has
its own system as do the Widner at Harvard and the
Newberry at Chicago, the same cards may be used;
but in such cases a cataloger must assign a number
to each book, making sure that it duplicates no
other in the library.

Vast as it is, the Library of Congress
does not possess all books, particularly older
books and foreign* In such cases, of which there
are many, it is necessary to do the work oneself.
All the necessary information must be provided,
\;hich is called descriptive cataloging, a logical
call niM)er assigned, which is called classification,
and subject-headings made which is called subject
cataloging. These cardless items are at once the
joy and the despair of the cataloger 's life. They
are necessarily a bit out of the ordinary, and if
they were written in Latin a couple of centuries
S'go, by an author with a fondness for pseudonyms,
they present certain problems in accurate classifi-
cation and description.

Once a .given work has been classified,
that is to say assigned to its proper branch and
twig on the tree of knowledge, and the cards

Ik

completed^ the cards are placed in various
strategic locations in the catalog^ each serving
to locate the hook from a different point of view.
As Mr. Lowell put it in I885:

Cataloging has also, thanks in
great measure to American librarians,
become a science, and catalogues, ceasing '
to be labyrinths without a clue, are fur-
nished with finger-posts at every turn.
Subject catalogues again save the beginner
a vast deal of time and troiible by supplying
him for nothing with one at least of the
results of thorough scholarship, the
knowing where to look for what he wants.

It comes as a surprise when one first ^. ' '
realizes that libraries have more than one card
per book, but of course it is the added entry
cards, those in addition to the main or author
card, which makes the catalog of any good library
a magnificent index and series of bibliographies
all in one. Librarians do their best to anticipate
all wishes and satisfy all tastes, but they cannot
foresee everything and they have difficulty pro-
viding that subject-heading which some readers
seem to want, namely "All the Books in \'^ich I ,
Take a Particular Interest".

As increasing amount of library effort
is being spent on works issued in some kind of
series form, generally amounting now to more than
50^. "Serials" is the library term for all works
which are issued periodically or in a series,
whether one is speaking of the daily paper or of
the annual volume of a learned society. In the
larger libraries there are both serials and peri-
odicals departments, but serials is the handy word,
and some libraries have a separate catalog for

15

these works. In a typical serials catalog are
found the title and call nuaiber of each item, a
notation if it is currently received, and one or
more holdings cards, on which the volumes actually
in the library's possession are ticked off by number
or year. In addition another main entry or title
card appears in the main catalog. Nothing would
appear simpler than to provide this information,
particularly if the Library of Congress has made
the basic cards, but there are many pitfalls for
the unwary, and serials cataloging is about as
highly specialized an art as the library can show.

Serials have a way of changing their
names and even their size without warning, providing
problems for both cataloger and binder. In addition,
publishers of a periodical have been known to forget
where they were and to publish two successive
volumes with the same nuniber; they have also been
known to grow tired and erratic and publish now
ten, now thirteen, numbers of a journal which is
supposed to be monthly throughout the year. All
this must be duly confirm.ed and the necessary
adjustments made, Tiie changing of titles is the
most annoying habit, both for cataloger and reader.
Sometimes a journal devoted to several branches of
a science will undergo fission, producing several
individuals where only one grew before; sometimes
the process is fusion, with alliances produced oy
affection or necessity. Here is a true case history,
admittedly extreme, so well described by Erhard
Sanders in a periodical called Serial Slants (V, k)
that it would be a pity to spoil it by paraphrase:

.■■• , J THE METAMORPHOSES OF A JOUEML

Once upon a time there lived a little
magazine called Television Engineering. It
was a slender little thing full of useful

16

information and beloved by many.

But along came a big bully -with the
pompous name of FM ^fegazine and K4 Radio -
electronics which had at one time been
infected with the TV virus and thereafter
called itself FM-TV and Radio Communication.
Under this disguise^ it devoured little
Television Engineering and ruminated it
from May 1952 'til December 1953. After
the last big gulp, it became diet-conscious
and started the new 195^ quite slender, this
time under the moniker of Communication
Engineering. "..• . ■.'

But all the previous dissipation now
showed its effect and after one brief issue
it became so weak that it fell easy prey .
to another glutton. Radio -Electronic
Engineering* This character had had quite
a career itself. It had entered the world
as a sort of appendix to Radio and Television
News distinguished by a head band with the
inscription Radio-Electronic Engineering
Edition of Radio and Television News. Later
it had made itself somewhat more independent
and gone as Radio -Electronic Engineering
Section and then finally'- eliminated the ; _
section.

It can still be seen on the periodicals
shelves as Radio -Electronic Engineering, but
for how long? ...... .. , .. ,v: :,- - .-

Now all these changes of title must be
noted by any Library possessing this extraordinary
piece of bibliographic confusion. Someone is sure
to want the journal by one of its earlier names,
and therefore a card must be provided for each

17

name, with the notation that one should now look
for the holdings under the latest name. If the
name is changed again, which has actually happened
in the case described by Mr, Sanders, all these
cards must be pulled out and changed. Another way,
of course, would be to treat each title as a separate
serial; but this also involves a lot of careful
checking, a multiplication of cards, and complaints
by those who want a whole run, whatever its titular
vicissitudes.

^';U';j !•::

IV .:•. , ...,:, JO V.;;-

l> _'

'■' 'l:

It is a paradox that librarians suffer on
the one hand from public ignorance of their tech-
niques, and on the other from over-familiarity.
After all, everyone if he really tries can recite
the alphabet and count to a thousand by ones. There-
fore everyone feels that he could be a librarian if
he had to do it, and devise efficient procedures
too, probably simpler than those generally in use.
History teachers, for example, suffer from the same
handicap of their (xcaft's not being sufficiently
mysterious, whereas no cne thinks that he can give
advice to mathematicians and physicists, for their
knowledge is much too abstriise.

The librarian is torn between his incli-
nation to make his profession appear as a science
and his hope that the piiblic will try to understand
the rules, which are simple enough thougih rather
numerous. When on his professional dignity his
reactions may be likened to the time when King
James the First, in one of his many skirmishes
with the Conimon Law and its defender. Chief Justice
Sir Edward Coke, said that since law was based on
reason, and since the royal reason was acknowledged

18

to be superior to all others, therefore he could
judge all cases himself. To this Sir Edvard
replied that the law was indeed "based upon reason,
but that it was not natural reason but artificial
reason, which took years of study and experience
to acquire. So with the librarian. And although
the librarian has a good territory and a good
product to sell, he cannot always retreat into
the mysteries of his craft and ask his public and
his Board to support him on faith alone. Faith
will take him up to a point, but beyond that he
must achieve his effects by statistics of work
performed, cost -accounting of at least a rudi-
mentary sort, and reasonable explanations of why
his procedures are necessary and not merely boon-
doggling.

Just as a teacher, in a momentary fit
of depression, will think that a university would
be a nice place if there were no students, so a
librarian will occasionally reflect that his job
would be a pleasant one if no one gave him any
books. This is because he knows how much it
costs to put a book through the mill and maintain
it on his shelves. Those who cheerfully say
"these books won't cost t'-ou an;^'i:hing" have not
followed through, A recent survey made by the
distinguished Librarian Emeritus of Harvard, Dr.
Keys Metcalf, calculates that each gift book cost
his institution $5.75.^ This sum may be subdivided
as follows: purchase price, acquisition costs,
and binding are nil, although if the book is un-
lucky or overpopular it may have to be rebound
some day. Incidentally, Dr. Metcalf estimates

h

Report on the Harvard University Library;

a Study of Present and Prospective Problems
(Cambridge, Mass., 1955).

19

that the cost of the needed rehinding, relabelling,
and repair of inaterial already in his stacks would
come to $265,000; "but his library is larger than
most. To continue: 25 cents is estimated as the
cost of checking in and handling the gift book, and
$3 as the cost of cataloging. These costs include
materials used but mainly refer to the salaries of
the staff members concerned. The construction cost of
the space occupied by the book is estimated as $1,50,
and the endowment required to provide future income
for maintenance is $1, This last would include
shelving, dusting, issuing, reshelving, and so on.
All this adds up to $5-75. Even if the item of
$1.50 for construction cost of the space occupied
is rejected as being rather arbitrarily introduced,
the cost would still be $4.25, which many would
consider a very conservative estimate.

If the book is purchased, not only must
the purchase price be added, but also the much
higher costs for ordering, so that a $3 book works
out to $10. With a periodical, the cost is higher
yet, for binding must be added. This is said not
to discourage people from giving books to libraries,
but to emphasize a sometimes overlooked but obviously
fundamental part of library operations. Some of the
best things in life are free, but not books.

Having acquired his book, the librarian
cannot always forget it. He may, for one reason or
another, have trouble keeping it. A question
endemic in all university libraries is whether or
not to centralize. If all the books are kept in
one building, some of the scholars will wish that
their particular books could be housed in a depart-
mental library. This is particularly true of those
scholars who sit up all nigiht with projects and
experiments, like the architects and many of the
scientists, and want to have their books at their

20

elbows. The librarian, reverting to the setting-
hen psychology of the 19th century, hates to see
this happen, and he has his reasons too. He knows
that a dispersion of the books will greatly weaken
his collection, for example that the removal of
works on physics from the proximity of works on
mathematics will mean that these two related disci-
plines will not continue to stren^hen each other;
he also knows that the chances of loss and damage
are greatly increased when books leave the central
roof; and he knows that even under the best super-
vision, which is seldom forthcoming in departmental
libraries, there is grave danger of uncoordinated
policies and unnecessary duplication.

The Metcalf Report shows that while the
space problem alone forced Harvard to decentralize,
to say nothing of the widely separated locations of
some of Harvard's colleges and departments, the
results have not been entirely happy; aside from
other difficulties just mentioned, hardly any two
libraries in that great system follow the same
cataloging code, and the results are disastrous
for the efficient maintenance of a central or union
catalog. At another ujiiversity some years ago, the
autonomy of the departmental libraries was so com-
plete and so wilfully exercised that it took a
truly heroic reform to bring order out of a chaotic
situation. At another, the librarians of the
branches like law and medicine are not appointed
by the President upon recommendation of the Director
of Libraries, but rather upon that of the Deans;
doubtless this plan works well at the moment, but
it could promote disharmony. Therefore the typical
university librarian has taken a Hippocratic oath
never to permit decentralization to occur; if lack
of space or other considerations have forced him
to farm his books out, he hopes that the rustlers
will not change the brands.

21

Similarly the librarian is bound by the
rules of his order to resist the kindly-meant
importunities of those who seek to donate special
collections. A special collection is a group of
books which is arbitrarily kept in a certain room
or on a certain shelf in a library, regardless of
the positions which the book would normally occupy.
If all special collections were large and unique
gatherings of valuable material on a single siibject,
there would be few problems other than the ever-
present one of finding the space somewhere, but
many offerings are not of this type. Rather they
represent the work of a collector whose tastes were
catholic, ranging from architecture to zoology;
these books the librarian is expected to keep
inviolate and unsepaxated, out of respect to the
individual's feelings or to his memory. Many
librarians think that if they could have inscribed
upon their tombstones the legend "He Never Accepted
a Special Collection" they would have done enough
to win the gratitude of posterity, for this turning
of a library into a museum of fixed memorials has
little to commend it. It is costly all along the
line, in cataloging, in shelving, and in management,
and it is tJUnewasting for readers who want to find
their books readily.

For more desirable material, all libraries
even the richest, face the problem of book selection.
Obviously the first determinant will be the function
which the library is supposed to discharge. A
special library of an oil company will have one
task, a Junior college library another, and so on.
In the case of a public library the problem is
especially difficult, for it is hard to tell how
far to go in acquiring material for true research
purposes, such items being comparatively rare,
costly, and little used once they are acquired. In
colleges, where faculty recommendation is the most

22

important factor in book selection, the policy is
usually that of "building to strength" or to obvious
faculty interest where strength does not yet exist.

G?he modern trendy which should ease this
problem of there being more useful books and serials
than money with which to buy and process them^ goes
by the name of cooperative acquisition. This has
many variations, but the gist of it is that one
library will buy one things another library another,
and that they will share. There is already a brisk
business throughout the country in inter library
loans, but the new plans will make this more
equitable.

An important development on a national
scale is the Farraington Plan (named for the town
where the agreement was made), by which a large
number of important libraries, both academic and
public, have agreed that each will be responsible
for all procurable library materials on one or
more fields or countries. Thus one will take
music, another Dutch and Flemish literature,
another the Union of South Africa, and so on. The
intent is to make sure that at least everything
current is received in at least one United States
library, but there are also possible economies in
this division of labor, and the plan should be a
benefit to scholars.

Another well-established project, which
will be imitated in other parts of the country, is
the Midwest Inter library Center in Chicago. This
is a large warehouse where the least-used material
of a nun±)er of large midwestern university libraries
is kept, thus easing their space problems. Any of
this material can be made available to the owner
or to the other partners in a very short time, for
it is cataloged and adequately supervised. In

23

addition the participants have reached an agreement
whereby each shall be responsible for subscribing
to certain serials and periodicals, mainly in
foreign languages, for which there is comparatively
little demand; no one library therefore has to buy
everything.

Union catalogs, as for example the one
kept at Emory of the holdings of the Atlanta
libraries and of the University of Georgia, are
becoming more common, and their value is obvious.
In Chicago, it has been agreed that the Newberry
library shall devote itself to the Humanities, the
John Crerar Library to Science and Technology, and
the Art Institute to the Fine Arts, thus relieving
the Public Library of the research materials
problem and allowing it to concentrate on general
reference, current fiction and standard classics,
children's books, and do-it-yourself manuals. Some-
times cooperation can be less formal: for example
it would be wasteful for a college in a city where
there are already large libraries devoted to law and
medicine to spend much in these fields; on the other
hand its collection in political science and biology
may be of great value to lawyers and doctors who
qualify as borrowers because of their research
interests. This kind of cooperative acquisition
does not require an agreement, but merely common
sense .

So, presented in a few snapshots, we
have our librarian. Whatever his function in the
library, he or she is a good deal more than a
lab el- pasting, book-mending drudge. He has with
some consistency stood for democratic principles
and intellectual freedom. He believes in books,
although he has little time to read them himself.
He has a lot of rules and procedures which he at
least believes are necessary to provide good

service. It may take time^ "but if you will leave
your name and address^ he will get you the book.

Hardin Craig^ Jr.
Librarian and Professor

of History
Rice University

(reprinted by permission from the AA.UP Bulletin^
XL^ h, Winter, 196O)

25

MEMORIAL GIFTS
In memory of
Meyer Amolslsy
Jesse Andrews
Ralph R. Arnold

Mrs. H. A. Bartlett, Sr.
Mary Bosworth

F, R, C. Brown

Mrs. Lillian Calhoun
Ernest C. Coker
J, G. Coman, Sr.
Paul C. Creekmore

Donor .-r-.^.-,

Edma l^fey Vaughan .., ., ,. , ,

Dr. & Mrs. Edward 0. Fitch

Mr. & Mrs. W. B. Brooks,
Virginia and Sally

Texas Concrete Reinforcing
Steel Institute

Mr. & Mrs. Joseph A.

Hafner, Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. Edward C,

Hutcheson
Mr. & Mrs. PaLner . -

Hutcheson, Jr.
Mr. & Mrs. Ben B. Neuhaus

Mrs. J. A. Stanton
James Robert Doty

Sam E. Dunnam

E. F. Kalb ■ '■ '■

Mr. 85 Mrs. Ward W. Adkins

Mrs. H. H. Blair

Mr. & Mrs. John Dore'

Mr. & Mrs. Charles W.

Hamilton
Houston Figure Skating Cliib
Mr. & Mrs. Hugh M. Stewart
J. S. Tomlin Family
Mr. & Mrs. T. R. Walker

In memory of

0. D. Crites_, Sr.

Frederick Wm. Crone is

Eoy E. Cundiff

Dr. Charles A. Davis

Frank G. Dyer
Stephen Power Farish

Mrs. Lafayette Fariss
Harold Fletcher, Jr.
Walter W, Fondren_, Jr.
Walker P. Fuller, Jr,
Rodney Hardin
Charles H. Held

26

Donor

Mr, & l^s. J. E. Lowe

Mrs. Elva Kalb Dumas

r^rgaret Patrick

Mr. & Mrs. J. Frank Jungraan
Mr, & Mrs. Charles W.
Hamilton

Mr. 8g Mrs. Robert W, Maurice

Mr, Ss r^s. Edward Burns
Mrs. Greer Marechal
Mr. & Mrs. Reginald Piatt
Mr. & Mrs, Hubert Roussel

Sam E. Duiinam

Mr. & Mrs. Paul Strong

Dr. & I^s, Edward 0. Fitch

Mr, & Mrs. V. P. Ringer

Dr. David J, Braden

Mr. & Mrs. Charles W,

Hamilton
Mrs. Florence M. Jameson
Mrs. L, Vernon Uhrig

Mrs. Mae Ransom Hildebrand

Mr. & Mrs. C. A. Dwyer

W. H. Holland

Mr. & Mrs, Robert Simonds

27

In memory of

Donor

Mrs. Lester Thompson Hubbell

Mr. & I'trs. Charles W.
Hamilton

,.; ,,. *-t: '. , , '" , ^^* & Mrs. Milton R.

Underwood

Eula Jane Hurst

Dudley C. Jarvis
Mi's. Jesse H. Jones

Its, Mary Young KJslley
George Kibler
Joseph Amos Kirkhart
Emil H. Koenig
Harris McAshan

Samuel Glenn McCann
l^trs. I. B. McFarland
^^rs. E. B. McGeever

Mr. 2c Mrs. B. Magruder

Wingf ield
Maud Woods

Dr. & Mrs. Edward 0. Fitch

College Women's Club

Mrs. I. Lee Campbell

Mr. & [/trs. James I. Campbell

Mr. & Mrs, Charles W.

Hamilton
Mr. & Mrs. William L. Tandy
Mr. & Mrs. J, M. Seltzer

Mr. & Mrs. C, A. D\7yer

Ralph A. Anderson, Jr.

Mr. & Mrs. W. Browne Baker

Houston Bank & Trust Co.

Mr. & Mrs. Claude T.

Fuqua, Jr. .--^ ., ,
CiBTtis B. Quarles

Mr. & Mrs. Carl Illig

Lir. & Mrs. V. P. Ringer

Mrs. Jack Phillips

I^. & Mrs. Floyd L. Scctt

28

In memory of

Mrs, E. B. McGeever

H. T. McGill
George P. yb.Tt±n

Elmo S. Mathews

Donor .... ' :

Louie R, Wise

I4rs. Clifton L. Wood

IVbr. 8c Mrs. Robert W. Maurice

Mrs. I. Lee Campbell

Mr. & Mrs. James I. Campbell

E. H. Dayvault

I^. & Mrs. Eldon Daunoy

Mr. & Ivlrs. C. A. DvTyer

E. F. Kalb

Mr. & Mrs. Fell>: A, Runion

Mr. & Mrs. J. M. Seltzer

r/!r. & Mrs, Hugh M. Stewart

Mrs. J. C. Means, Jr. Dr. & ?4rs. Edward 0. Fitch

Mrs. Maxine Tindall Meyer

Mr. & Mrs. Howard Barnstone

James Arthur Mller

Fred Much

Clyde C. Nettles

Mrs. John T. Oliver

Mr. & Mrs. J. Frank Jungman
Lt. Col. & I^s. A. H.
Jungman

Mr. 8; I^s. A. Gordon Jones

Mr. & Mrs. W. Browne Baker

lAr, 8c Mrs. A. Laurence
Lennie

Mrs. Alice Burton Penn Mr. & Mrs. J. Frank Jungman

Tull Alvin Pope Mrs. Alva Kalb Dumas

I^rs. Benjamin B. Rice Mr. & Mrs. J. W. Evans

Mr. & Mrs. J. R. Aston

■d^

In memory of

Mrs. Benjamin B, Rice

Mrs. Anna C. Ridge

Edward Risinger
James Wade Rockwell

^trs. Mabel A. Runion

I'/Ers. Cyrus Scott

Mrs, Lilly Schafer

Mrs. C. Cabanne Smith

Walter Ragsdale Styron

Mrs. Harriet Taft

Charles L. Terry

E, E. Townes

Mrs. Elizabeth Tuttle

Donor

Mrs. A. D. Boice ^:.-(r,
Mrs. W. D. Cleveland «
Mrs. W. S. Farish
Dr. & Mrs. Jesse M. Goss
Mrs. Edward W. Kelley
l^s. Selden Leave 11 .; ,

Mr. & Mrs. Charles W.
Hamilton

Mr. & Mrs. V. P. Ringer

Mr. & Mrs. C. A. Dwyer
Mr. & Mrs. Charles W.

Hamilton
E. F. Kalb

Mr. & Mrs. C. A. Dwyer
W, & Mrs. Walter M.
Reynolds

Ivjrs. r^feiry T. Car others
Miss Ina Mae Towell

Mir. & Mrs. Sam E. Dimnam

Mrs. A. D. Boice

Mrs. Coiirt Norton

Mr. 85 Mrs. Eugene Werlin

Mr. & Mrs. Floyd L. Scott

Dr. & Mrs. Edward 0. Fitch

Mr. & Mrs. Sam E. Dunnam

30

In memory of
Mrs, W, A, Walton
Mason VJatts

Ross White
Charles B. Wier
Mrs. J. C. Wilhoit

Donor

Mrs. Edith D. Beach

Mr. & Mrs. J. Frank Jungman
and family

Mr. & Mrs. James R. Sims

Dr. & Mrs, Edward 0. Fitch

Mr. 8; Mrs. Ewell A. Clarke
Mrs. Ewell A. Clarke^ Sr.
Mr. & Mrs. James R. Sims

Mrs. Carl Wischmeyer, Sr.

Miss Mary Snoddy

31

Despite the plethora of visioal-aid devices
the colleges are using these days, it is worth
repeating that there are no short cuts to reading.
In economics you start with land, and in knowledge
you start with "books, A hook tolerates no arguments
and any modification makes it less than it is,

A book, in short, has a total, global
effect, and the piA)lic library has, by and large,
kept this faith. To use a library you do not have
to subject yourself to a battery of personality and
valus tests as you do to get a job as a typist. The
library, I believe, is the last of our pioblic insti-
tutions to which you can go without credentials. You
don't need a college degree as you do at the Grad-uate
Association, Nor do you need a Statement of Business
Venture as you need for the Chamber of Commerce. You
don't even need the sticker on your windshield that
you need to get onto the public beach. All you need
is a willingness to read . , ■ ....

The free and uncensored library where
young children begin to read and where old men know
a morning of warmth and peace is the truly great joy
of liberty.

Harry Golden
"Books are an Escape into Experience"

32

J^IEHDS OF THE FOI®REW LIBRMIY
AT RICE UNIVERSITY

President^ Mrs. Edward W. Kelley ,;'....,■ A
Vice-Rresident, E. F, Kalb

Msnibership Secretary, Mrs. Charles W. Hamilton
Recording Secretary, Mrs. Raymond Cook .•..•. r;
Treasurer, Chaxles W. Hamilton

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

John H. Auten
Beatrice Harrison
Mrs. Ralph D. Looney
W. L. McKinnon
Frank E. Vandiver

Edward Norbeck, Editor, THE FLYLEAF
Raemond Craig, Publication