College and Research Libraries


By PAUL NORTH RICE 

Has the Association of Research 
Libraries Proved Worth While? 

I T IS very fitting that a number of College and Research Libraries which is pub-
lished in honor ,of Charles Harvey Brown 
should have some discussion of the value of 
the Association of Research Libraries, as he 
was one of the founders and has guided its 
progress during its fifteen years of life. At 
New Haven ·in 1931 the American Library 
Association meetings were so well attended 
that even the section meetings were too 
large for easy discussion. The librarians of 
some of the great research libraries felt they 
had problems which were not shared bJ the 
staffs of smaller institutions. If they could 
get together in a small group and discuss 
their mutual problems, they were sure that 
the meetings would be profitable. 

Charles H. Brown, James T. Gerould, . 
and Phineas L. Windsor constituted them-
selves as a committee to establish ' such an 
organization. They called a meeting at the 
Drake Hotel in Chicago on Dec. 29, 1932, 
during the midwinter session of the Ameri-
can Library Association. They invited the 
heads of libraries represented in the Asso-
ciation of American Universities, as well as 
the librarians of a few other libraries which 
were recognized as great r~search institu-
tions. Forty-three libraries were repre-
sented at this first meeting. 

The organization of the association was 
and still is extremely simple. The principal 
officer is the executive secretary, elected for 
a five-year term. Donald B. Gilchrist was 
the first executive secretary. He was fol-
lowed by Keyes D. Metcalf and then by 

JULY,. 1947 

Paul North Rice. Charles W. David, of 
the University of Pennsylvania, has just 
started the fourth five-year term. The only 
other officers are an advisory committee of 
five elected for five-year terms. ~ 

Mr. Brown served as nominating com-
mittee chairman at the first meeting, and 
accordingly he alone of the three founders 
was not on the ·origipal advisory committee. 
Since then he has twice served a term on 
that committee. Indeed, he is the only man 
who has served more than one term during 
the fifteen years · since the association was 
formed. 

The original conception of the association 
has been carried out. With one or two ex-
ceptions there have been no prepared papers. 
The executive secretary makes up an agenda 
of topics suggested by the membership. The 
senior member of the advisory committee. 
present presides, and the discussion is in-
formal. No stenotypist is present to dis-
courage the freest expression of opinion. 
The skeleton minutes made up by the ex-
ecutive secretary are confidential and dis-
tributed only to members. 

From the discussion at these meetings 
have come certain results that were signifi-
cant to many libraries not members. Doc-
toral Dissertations Accepted by American 
Universities has been published annually 
since 1934. This list was first edited by 
Donald B. Gilchrist, then by Edward A. 
Henry, and in more recent years by Arnold 
H. Trotier. It is printed by the H. W. 
'Yilson Company but financed by the asso-

351 

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c1atwn, which may account for its never 
having been sold on a service basis. 

A still more ambitious publication which 
was sponsored by the Association of Re: 
search Libraries is the CatO,Zog of Books 
Represented by Library of Congress Printed 
Cards. At early meetings of the association 
there was much discussion of the importance 
of duplicating the Library of Congress cata-
log. After considering a film duplication, 
it was decided that a printed catalog ~o~ld 
be far preferable. A committee consisting 
·of Harvie Branscomb, Keyes D. Metcalf, 
and James T. Gerould tried in vain to 
secure permission from the Librarian of 
Congress for such a catalog.- Because of 
his unfortunate opposition it was abandoned. 
It is interesting to not~ that his two main 
objections were the fear that the orders for 
Library of Congress cards would decrease 
if it · was possible to copy entries from a 
printed catalog and the desire to correct 
mistakes before the cards were reprinted. 
While the Association of Research Librar-
ies committee was sur~ that a printed cata-
log bearing Library of Congress card num-
bers would increase the sale of cards and 
was equally sure that the need for correcting 
mistakes would never decrease, th~re was 
nothing to do but postpone the plan. 

In 1940 a new committee was appointed 
to reopen the matter with Archibald Mac-
Leish, the new Librarian of Congress. This 
committ~e was eventually successful · not 
only in persuading the Library of Congress 
that the catalog should be printed but in 
securing Edwards Brothers to do the pub-
lishing and in persuading the Rockefeller 
Foundation to subsidize the project by pur-
chasing fifty sets for foreign libraries at a 
cost of $3750. There is little chance that 
the catalog would have been published if it 
had not been for the efforts of the Associa-
tion of Research Libraries. Encouraged by 
this success .the association has sponsored a 

photo-offset copy of the British Museum 
Cf~talogue and a supplement to the Catalog 
of Books Represented by Library of Con-
gress Printed Cards covering the four-and-
a-half years up to Dec. 31, 1946. -

Discussions 

Discussions at Association of Research 
Libraries meetings have not usually pro-
duced such tangible results as publication. 
Indeed some times the results are . merely 
much talk. That might b~ said to be the 
result of the 'constant discussion of the 
H. W. Wilson Company's service basis. 
Careful investigations and reports on the 
service basis have been made by Miles 0 . 

• Price and M. Llewellyn . Ra~ey, and the 
matter has been much discussed. Had the 
Association of Research Libraries been able 
to influence the Wilson Company, the serv-
ice basis would have been abandoned for at 
least, some of the publications ~here it 
seemed most illogical. 

But if the discussion of this controversial 
topic has to date brought little result, much 
has come from other subjects under discus-
sion. The anxiety of the great libraries to 
get European books unavailable because of 
the difficulty in purchasing was constantly 
discussed with representatives of the Library 
of Congress, which under Mr. MacLeish 
and Luther H. Evans has been actively co-
operating in Association of Research Li-
braries meetings. A direct result of these 
discussions was the magnificent offer of the 
Library of Congress to purchase coopera-
tively European books published during 
World War II, and with full agreement of 
the association, this opportunity was shared 
with many libraries not members of the 
Association of Research Libraries. 

It cannot be emphasize.d too much that 
when results come from the Association of 
Research Libraries discussions they will 
surely be shared by all interested. There 

352 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



must be a small group if there is to be real 
discussion. If out of that discussion there 
should come. a report of a committee on ' 
statistics of libraries, such as the report re-
cently made by Robert Bingham Downs, 
the whole library world will have the 
benefit of the report. 

Members hip of A .R.L. 

Just before his retirement as librarian of 
Iowa State College Mr. Brown headed a 
movement which will go far to assure that 
the Association of Research Libraries con-
tinues to function with maximum useful-
ness. The membership had gradually 
grown to forty-seven institutions. Many 
libraries not members were anxious to be-
long. It was clear that some of the non-
member institutions had more reason for 
belonging than some of the older members. 

The advisory committee was instructed 
to consider this whole matter of increase or 
change in membership, and Charles Id:. 
Brown, then a member of the advisory com-
mittee, was made chairman of a committee 
to make defini~e recommendations. It was 
fel 1: that election for life was not the best 
thing for the association. It was feared 
that if the organization continued to in-
crease it would soon be too large for infor-
mal discussion. At the suggestion of Mr. 
Brown, the association agreed to have the 

JULY, 1947 

membership limited to forty~five members. 
Ten new members were nominated, and 
the forty-seven existing members then voted 
for forty-five of the fifty-seven existing and 
suggested members. After much investiga-
tiqn, Mr. Brown was able to furnish tables 
showing the size, growth, and book expendi-
ture of the various libraries. The final 
vote retained forty-three of the forty-seven 
old members and added two of the newly 
nominated. 

With this strengthening in membership, 
the Association of Research Libraries is 
starting its sixteenth year. The Farming-
ton plan for the division of responsibility 
of full coverage in the purchase of foreign 
books is the subject which is receiving most 
attention at the moment by members of the 
association. 

It is hoped that this short re~ume may be 
convincing proof that the Association of 
Research Libraries has been proved worth 
while. The informal discussion by a small 
group of librarians facing similar problems 
has been most helpful. When the discussion 
has developed into a definite proposal or 
publication, much ,of the library world has 
profited. It is fair to say that in its original 
conception, in its fifteen years of progress, 
and in its present reorganization the asso-
ciation owes much to Charles Harvey 
Brown. 

353 

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