College and Research Libraries


East ^UnC 3°' I94°' 
Pratt Institute is to 
discontinue its pub-

lic library service to the people of Brook-
lyn, operated since 1897, and limit its 
facilities to the students and faculty of 
the institution. 

University of Rochester Library has re-
ceived a very large and unusual collection 
of bookplates from the family of Donald 
B. Gilchrist, its former librarian. These 
include plates by many well-known artists. 

Westminster College, N e w Wilming-
ton, Pa., has been given an unusual col-
lection of books and magazines on chess, 
many of which are rare copies, by M r s . 
Scott N . W a t t of Steubenville, Ohio. 
M r . W a t t was an alumnus of the class of 
1907. 

Syracuse University Library is establish-
ing a special poetry room as a result of a 
gift from Edwin T . Whiffen of Braden-
town, F l a . T h e room will include a 
selected collection of books on modern 
poetry, history, and criticism of poetry, and 
poetry magazines. 

Bard College Library, Annandale-on-
the-Hudson, N . Y . , has received an im-
portant collection of papers, documents, 
and pictures relating to the Bard family 
which includes material on the history of 
Duchess County in the eighteenth and 
nineteenth centuries. 

T h e art section in the Reference De-
partment of the Bridgeport Public Li-
brary featured during the spring and sum-
mer a series of exhibitions covering the 
various arts. These exhibits included a 
number of paintings by George Jourdon-
Herbst and by George Earle, a native of 
Bridgeport. Other exhibits included 
prints of Mexican mountains and lakes, 
wrought bronze and silver, pottery, glass, 
woodcarving, and other interesting items. 

News from 
T h e Reference Department of the B u f -

falo Public Library has compiled local 
supplements to the Union List of Serials 
and Union List of Newspapers including 
many libraries and newspaper offices cen-
tered in Buffalo. T h e department also 
indexes Buffalo newspapers for Buffalo 
and western N e w Y o r k items, especially 
birth, marriage, and death notices, and 
collects these items in scrapbooks. Some 
343 scrapbooks have been compiled. 

Queens College Library, Flushing, is 
working on plans for a new library build-
ing, to have a seating capacity of 1 3 3 3 
readers and a stack capacity of 250,000 
volumes. It is being planned on the de-
partmental basis with five large depart-
mental reading rooms about a central 
lobby and above a basement stack. 

J u n e 5, the new Rose Memorial L i -
brary at D r e w University, Madison, N . J . , 
was officially dedicated. Milton J . Fer-
guson delivered the dedicatory address. 
T h e new library is a fireproof, colonial 
brick building, with three floors of read-
ing rooms and a six-story bookstack 
planned to house 400,000 books. It cost 
about $500,000. T h e library was given 
by M r . and M r s . Lenox S. Rose of N e w 
Y o r k City. 

Bryn M a w r College Library, Bryn 
M a w r , Pa., is constructing a three-story 
wing to their library building through a 
gift of $ 1 1 7 , 0 0 0 . T h i s will increase con-
siderably the reading room space and will 
provide for 60,000 additional volumes. 
T h e wing will also include seminar, study, 
and display rooms, and will be devoted to 
art and archaeology. 

T h e Connecticut State University is 
completing a $500,000 library building 

108 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



the Field 
at Storrs. It is a three story Georgian 
structure of red brick with limestone trim. 
T h e over-all length is 207 feet, the wings, 
106 feet deep. It has seven stories of 
stacks with a capacity of 200,000 books 
and 40 carrells for research workers. 

„ . Acting in response 
Middle 6 , 
^ to a request from 

Wayne University 
Library, Detroit, the Vatican Library in 
Rome borrowed a two hundred and forty 
year old volume of plays by Luis Velez 
de las Duenas y Guevara from the Pala-
tine Library in Parma, Italy. T h i s was 
photographed on microfilm, and the film 
was sent to Wayne University. 

Ball State Teachers College Library, 
Muncie, Ind., has organized a teaching 
materials service—a central place for the 
housing of classified materials to supple-
ment class work. Included are models, 
specimens, and miniatures, mounted col-
lections of minerals and shells, a large 
number of industrial exhibits, costumes, 
period furniture, and pottery. T h e latest 
acquisition is a group of fifty reproduc-
tions of well-known paintings. These col-
lections are lent to teachers just as books 
are lent. 

University of Colorado Library, 
Boulder, is erecting a new building into 
which they expect to move during the 
Christmas holidays. T h e library is based 
on the departmental reading room plan, 
patterned after the public libraries of 
Baltimore and Rochester, and has special 
librarians in charge of these reading 
rooms. 

A new $ 1 2 0 , 0 0 0 library building for 
the University of Wichita, Wichita, Kan., 

is under construction. It will accommo-
date 175,000 books. T h e building is early 
American in style, has two floors and a 
basement, and will seat more than 300 
students at one time. 

Union College 
South Library, Barbour-

ville, K y . , is spon-
soring courses of recreational reading. 
Forty-four percent of the student body 
enrolled for the first course and 54 per 
cent of those registered completed the 
necessary reading to secure a certificate. 

T h e University of Kentucky Library, 
Lexington, has begun the development of 
an extensive alumni collection to include 
anecdotes, traditions, personal histories, 
etc., of the various classes. Snapshots of 
alumni, pictures, newspaper clippings, 
copies of student publications, and alumni 
publications are to be cataloged in the 
collection. 

T h e Reference Department of Carnegie 
Library of Atlanta, is engaged in filming 
the three Atlanta newspapers, the Consti-
tution, Journal, and Georgian. 

T h e Friends of the Library of the Uni-
versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
publish interesting notices relating to the 
library in the University of North Caro-
lina Alumni Review and reprints from 
this page are sent to libraries interested. 
Included are gifts, library needs, special 
collections, special services of the library 
to alumni, and many other interesting 
items. 

T h e annex to Commonwealth College 
Library, Mena, Ark., was destroyed by 
fire, April 16. Hundreds of volumes of 
trade union and other labor periodicals— 
some of them scarce—were destroyed. 

Talladega College, Talladega, Ala., 
opened a new library building in the late 
spring. It not only serves the student 

DECEMBER, 1939 109 



body of the institution but also the Negro 
people of Talladega County. 

In preparation for the opening of the 
new law school to be associated with the 
North Carolina College for Negroes at 
Durham, N.C., work has already begun 
in assembling an adequate law library for 
the college and for members of the Negro 
race who are preparing for bar examina-
tions and may have received their legal 
training elsewhere. 

A t o t a l o f 
Southwest 3 1 8 , 1 9 5 books circu-

lated last year at the 
University of Texas Library was the 
largest in the south. From the total cir-
culation figures, Donald Coney, librarian, 
estimated library books were being charged 
out, read, and returned, at the rate of one 
every fifteen seconds. 

The University of Oklahoma Library, 
Norman, has opened a browsing room 
with about 3000 of the newest and most 
popular books. From time to time various 
faculty members are reviewing current in-
teresting books at informal meetings in the 
room. 

The College of Mines and Metallurgy 
at El Paso, Tex., during the spring held 
an exhibition of rare books borrowed from 
its student body. The volumes exhibited 
included quite a collection of old Bibles. 

The Oklahoma A . and M . College Li-
brary, Stillwater, has assembled a large 
bibliography of all the cards printed by 
the Library of Congress relating to Okla-
homa. These include official publications, 
histories, descriptions of the state, subjects 
relating to the state, state institutions, and 
publications. 

The College and 
Far West University Librar-

ians of the Pacific 
northwest met for the second time for an 

informal discussion at Reed College Li-
brary, Portland, Ore., October 22. War-
ren L . Perry, librarian, College of Puget 
Sound, Tacoma, Wash., is chairman of 
the group, and Ruth S. Reynolds, librar-
ian, Whitman College, Walla Walla, 
Wash., is secretary. 

Reed College had its first annual Li-
brary Day on October 1 1 . In connection 
with the day, the Founders' Room, con-
taining the Simeon G . Reed (founder of 
Reed College) papers, the Bibliotheca 
Belgica, and the library's collection of fine 
printing, was officially opened. 

The University of Southern California 
Library, Los Angeles, notes the acquisi-
tion of three author collections from the 
library of Willard S. Morse. These in-
clude materials relating to William Dean 
Howells, Sinclair Lewis, and Ambrose 
Bierce, and comprise manuscripts, original 
letters, autographed books, and files of 
periodical material. 

A large collection including notes, out-
lines, manuscripts of addresses, lecture 
notes, and syllabi, publications, reports, 
surveys, official correspondence, and news-
papers and periodicals relating to Dr. 
Henry Suzzalo is being assembled at the 
University of Washington Library, Seat-
tle, in recognition of his contribution to 
education and public affairs. 

The University of Oregon, Eugene, ob-
served its third annual Library Day, May 
3, with displays of library gifts and stu-
dent-owned private libraries. The new 
browsing room named the Adelaide 
Church Memorial Reading Room was 
officially dedicated May 13. 

The University of California at Los 
Angeles Library has specialized recently 
in the fields of German linguistics, philol-
ogy, and literature, and has purchased six 
special collections in these fields from for-

110 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



mer professors in German and Scandi-
navian institutions. T h e total collections 
include some 53,000 volumes and a large 
number of unbound dissertations and 
pamphlets, making this one of the out-
standing collections in these fields in 
America. 

A new library building was completed 
during the summer at Pepperdine Col-
lege, Los Angeles, and the library col-
lections were moved into the structure. It 
is of reenforced concrete with a stack 
capacity of 35,000 volumes and reading 
room accommodations for 2 1 5 persons. 

Personnel 

Irmadean Bowen, Los Angeles Pub-
lic Library School, formerly acting head 
of the Education Library, University of 
Southern California, has been placed in 
charge of the training school library at the 
Arizona State Teachers College, Tempe. 

Jean Cook, formerly cataloger, Univer-
sity of Redlands, Redlands, Calif., was 
appointed assistant reference librarian at 
Oregon State College November 1 . 

Frederick Cromwell, California '38, 
formerly assistant librarian of the Eastern 
Washington College of Education, 
Cheney, Wash., has been appointed as-
sistant librarian of the University of 
Arizona. 

Betty Didcott, George Peabody '39, has 
been appointed circulation assistant on the 
University of Arizona staff. 

Ruth Diveley, formerly on the staff of 
Multnomah College, Portland, Ore., has 
been appointed reference librarian at Oc-
cidental College, Los Angeles. 

H e n r i e : M a y Eddy, librarian, Univer-

sity of Florida Library, Gainesville, was 
killed in an airplane accident in August. 

Alice H . Gay, formerly on the staff of 
Carleton College, Northfield, Minn., has 
been appointed head cataloger on the staff 
of Occidental College, Los Angeles. 

Malcolm Hinckley, formerly circulation 
assistant at Vanderbilt University Library, 
has been appointed assistant librarian of 
George Pepperdine College, Los Angeles. 

Helen M . Lewis, Washington '39, has 
been appointed circulation librarian, Col-
lege of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Wash. 

Fulmer Mood was appointed librarian 
of University of Redlands on September 1 . 
Eleanor Symmes became librarian emerita. 

Althea Ragsdale, Denver, formerly li-
brarian, Henderson State College, Arca-
delphia, Ark., has been appointed librarian 
of State Teachers College, Flagstaff, 
Ariz. 

Blanche Steel, assistant in Toronto Ref-
erence Library, was drowned in the tor-
pedoing of the "Athenia." 

J . J . Tallman, acting librarian of the 
Legislative Library in Toronto, has been 
appointed assistant librarian .of the Uni-
versity of Western Ontario, London, On-
tario. 

Members of the Circulation Depart-
ment of the University of Toronto Li-
brary compiled the Canadian periodical 
index which was published during the 
summer of 1939. 

W I L L A R D P . L E W I S 

NOTE: The editors of College and Research 
Libraries will be very glad to receive current items 
relating to college, university, and reference li-
braries f o r publication in the new journal. Such 
items should be sent to Willard P. Lewis, secretary, 
Association of College and Reference Libraries, 
Pennsylvania State College Library, State College, 
Pa. 

DECEMBER, 1939 111 



M I N U T E S OF T H E A.C.R.L. BUSINESS M E E T I N G 
F O L L O W I N G T H E G E N E R A L SESSION 
A T S A N F R A N C I S C O 

T h e business meeting of the Association 
of College and Reference Libraries at the 
San Francisco conference of the American 
Library Association w a s held in the Com-
merce High School Auditorium on Monday 
afternoon, June 19, with Frank K . W a l t e r , 
librarian of the University of Minnesota and 
president of the association, presiding and 
Jackson E . T o w n e , librarian of the State 
College, E a s t Lansing, Mich., acting secre-
tary. 

A f t e r preliminary local announcements 
President W a l t e r called for the secretary's 
report. 

M r . T o w n e explained that at the meeting 
of the Board of Directors the previous after-
noon, reports from the following commit-
tees of the A . C . R . L . had been read and ac-
cepted: Constitution and B y - L a w s , Donald 
Coney, chairman; Departmental Libraries 
and Library Service, Robert A . Miller, 
chairman; Interlibrary Loans, Harold Rus-
sell, chairman. 

T h e Board of Directors voted to approve 
the principles set forth in the report of the 
third Activities Committee and to recom-
mend adoption of the report by the A . L . A . 

President W a l t e r explained that if any-
one wished to hear the reports of the first 
three committees mentioned by the acting 
secretary these would be read aloud. Since 
they were long and would subsequently be 
published, it did not seem arbitrary to read 
them merely by title. 

T h e acting secretary then explained that 
the secretary had presented a joint report 
this year, in view of his second function as 
chairman of the Publications Committee. 

It was also explained that in the former 
College and Reference Section the motion 
for the acceptance of the secretary's report 
automatically carried with it the approval 
of the section to enter upon a contribuitng 
membership ( $ 2 5 ) in the A . L . A . 

T h e secretary's report follows. 

Secretary's Report 
Because my duties as secretary have been 

closely connected with functions as editor 
and chairman of the Publications Commit-
tee it seems wise to present a joint report. 

A s secretary it has been my duty to assist 
the president of the A . C . R . L . in the estab-
lishment of projects and committees and the 
arrangement of program and speakers for 
the general session, to take minutes of the 
Board of Directors meetings and general 
business meetings, to recommend budget ex-
penditures, and help establish the work of 
the new association. T h e correspondence 
files of the secretary have greatly increased 
over those of the previous year. 

A s editor and chairman of the Publica-
tions Committee, the following has been our 
schedule of duties. T h e papers and pro-
ceedings of the A . C . R . L . meetings at Kansas 
City were edited and prepared for publica-
tion in the A . L . A . Proceedings. Because of 
reorganization and the setting up of five sub-
sections our Proceedings occupied more space 
than before—a total of 40 printed pages, 
despite considerable abridgment. Of the 40 
pages, the A . L . A . granted us 20 free pages 
and charged us at the rate of $ 1 0 per page 
for the remaining 20 pages or a total of 
$200. T h e free space permitted w a s con-
siderably more than that allowed in previous 
years. Because of the fact that most of our 
members are only $ 3 members of the A . L . A . 
and do not receive the printed Proceedings, 
and by vote of the Board of Directors, the 
secretary had 1000 reprints made of the 
A . C . R . L . proceedings and distributed to 
members at an approximate cost of $ 1 0 0 . 

On invitation of the A . L . A . College L i -
brary Advisory Board and the A:L.A. Bul-
letin, the secretary undertook the editing of 
a news column of college and university li-
brary news in three spring issues of the 
Bulletin. Owing to the faithfulness of a 
group of willing reporters in all parts of the 

112 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



country, the secretary received an unusual 
amount of material for use, f a r more than 
the editor of the Bulletin, M r s . Beatrice S. 
Rossell, could find space for. A s a result of 
this large increase in news which continues 
to come in, and because the reference li-
braries and reference departments of public 
libraries were not included in the news col-
umns, it w a s decided, by agreement of the 
Board of Directors, to undertake the pub-
lication of a printed News Letter to be sent 
to all members of the A . C . R . L . T h e first 
issue of this News Letter w a s sent to mem-
bers on A p r i l 1 5 , 1 9 3 9 . I t included notes 
relating to reference libraries and reference 
departments of public libraries as well as 
notes relating to college and university li-
braries. T h e A p r i l News Letter cost ap-
proximately $ 2 0 for printing 1000 copies, $ 6 
for envelopes, and $ 1 0 f o r postage. 

T h e matter of future publications of the 
A . C . R . L . must be decided by the members. 
T h e secretary and the Committee on Publi-
cations, in this report, recommend that 
until, and if, a share of A . L . A . income is ap-
propriated to the A . C . R . L . as a result of the 
report of the third Activities Committee or 
some other w a y is found to supplement the 
present limited income of the A . C . R . L . , the 
present program be followed. In other 
words, they recommend that the proceedings 
and papers of the A . C . R . L . be published in 
the Proceedings of the A . L . A . , paying for 
extra space if necessary; that the news col-
umn in the A.L.A. Bulletin including news 
items about reference libraries and reference 
departments of public libraries as well as 
college and university libraries be issued as 
frequently as M r s . Rossell can find space 
for them; and that the secretary be author-
ized to continue the publication of A . C . R . L . 
News Letters as often as the flow of news 
notes, committee reports, association busi-
ness, etc., demand. A recent letter from 
M r s . Rossell indicates that there will prob-
ably be little space available in the fall issues 
of the A.L.A. Bulletin. T h e r e f o r e , w e 
would recommend that the next News Letter 
be issued in September and that the secretary 
be permitted to issue further numbers as 
necessary. 

In conclusion, the secretary wishes to ex-
press his appreciation to the president, the 

DECEMBER, 1939 

treasurer, the directors, and the members of 
the A . C . R . L . , to M r s . Rossell, and to G u y 
R. L y l e , chairman of the College L i b r a r y 
Advisory Board, for their patience and co-
operative helpfulness. H e apologizes f o r 
mistakes made and hopes that there will be 
f e w e r during the remainder of his term. 
It has been a year of experimentation. 

WILLARD P. LEWIS, Secretary 

T h e motion to accept this report w a s 
amended so as to give the board power to 
act at variance from the report's recom-
mendations regarding publications, should 
the board so wish. 

T h e financial portion of the treasurer's re-
port w a s then read by the acting secretary. 

T R E A S U R E R ' S R E P O R T 
Receipts 
Balance on J u n e 16, 1938, when 

the books were audited $ 840.41 
New members to the incumbency 

of the present treasurer 64.00 $ 904.41 

Expenditures from J u n e 16, 1938, 
to the incumbency of the new 
treasurer $128.53 

Caah ualance turned over to the 
new treasurer ($904.41— 
$ 1 2 8 . 5 3 ) 775-88 

Income from memberships to 
J u n e , 1939 (including 1938 
and 1940 payments) 7 1 1 . 4 8 

Final payment from the East 
Lansing State Bank 119.00 

Total cash $1,606.36 

Expenditures 
University Libraries Subsection .$ 100.13 
Refeience Librarians Subsection 43.67 
Junior College Libraries Subsec-

tion 9.23 
E x t r a space in the A.L.A. Bul-

letin f o r proceedings 200.00 
Printing and mailing proceedings 

reprints 109.90 
Printing and mailing of news let-

ter 36.50 
Expenses, secretary's office 12.00 
Expenses, treasurer's office, in-

cluding printing and mailing, 
typing of dues notices and 
membership list 54.61 

Total expenditures $ 566.04 

Cash on hand, June 7, 1939 $1,040.32 

J . P E R I A M D A N T O N , 
Treasurer 

It w a s moved, seconded, and carried that 
the treasurer's report be accepted. 

Louis Shores then moved, and it w a s 
voted to endorse the action of the Board of 
Directors in approving the third Activities 
Report. 

T h e acting secretary then read the fol-

113 



lowing, prepared by Secretary Lewis, and 
here presented in slightly abbreviated form. 

Appeal for Membership in the A.C.R.L. 
The Association of College and Reference 

Libraries, a section (formerly the College 
and Reference Section) of the American Li-
brary Association was reorganized and a 
new set of by-laws adopted in 1938. It was 
reorganized with the hope that it might 
greatly enlarge its membership and establish 
programs and publications which would 
prove of value and stimulation to college 
and reference librarians. 

During the process of reorganization and 
as a result of membership campaigns, the 
membership rose from 140 in November, 
1936, to 761 in December, 1938. But with 
2700 college, university and reference librar-
ians and staff members in the A.L.A., 
the A.C.R.L.—all of whose members must 
also be A.L.A. members—still has a large 
field from which to increase its membership. 
Programs and publications and the general 
usefulness of the new association must de-
pend upon increased financial support and, 
thus far, memberships are the only source of 
funds. As a beginning, the association in 
its first year of reorganized activity, has pro-
vided every member, without cost, with a 
copy of the Association of College and Ref-
erence Libraries proceedings at Kansas City 
and with the first issue of a printed News 
Letter. . . . In addition, news items relating 
to college and university libraries were pub-
lished in three spring issues of the A.L.A. 
Bulletin. Furthermore, subsection programs 
and expenses have been subsidized in propor-
tion to their membership in all five subsec-
tions—the College Libraries, Junior College 
Libraries, Reference Librarians, Libraries of 
Teacher-Training Institutions, and Univer-
sity Libraries. The dollar payment includes 
membership in one or more of these sub-
sections although voting is limited to one 
subsection. 

Will you not lend your support to this 
program for increasing activities and infor-
mation for college, university, and reference 
libraries and librarians by joining the Asso-
ciation and adding your dollar to the fund 
it needs to help your work? 

WILLARD P . L E W I S , Secretary 

At the close of the meeting the acting 
secretary received dues payments to forward 
to the treasurer. 

Charles H. Brown, as chairman of the 
Nominating Committee then reported his 
committee's recommendations. There being 
no nominations from the floor, a motion to 
dclare the officers elected was seconded and 
carried. 

The complete slate of the A . C . R . L . and 
its subsections for 1939-40 is as follows: 
Association of College and Reference Li-

braries 
President, Phineas L . Windsor, Univer-

sity of Illinois Library, Urbana; Director 
(for 3 years), Winifred Ver Nooy, Univer-
sity of Chicago Libraries 

College Libraries Subsection 
Chairman, Lucy E. Fay, School of Li-

brary Service, Columbia University, New 
York City; secretary, Nathaniel L . Good-
rich, Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, 
N . H . 

Junior College Libraries Subsection 
Chairman, Helen Hutchings, Centenary 

College Library, Hackettstown, N . J . ; secre-
tary, Lois Engleman, Frances Shimer Junior 
College Library, Mount Carroll, 111. 

Reference Librarians Subsection 
Chairman, Charles F. McCombs, New 

York Public Library; secretary, Margaret 
Hutchins, School of Library Service, Colum-
bia University, New York City 

Subsection for Teacher-Training Institu-
tions Libraries 
Chairman, Helen A. Russell, State Teach-

ers College Library, West Chester, P a . ; 
secretary, Lucy S. Bell, State Teachers Col-
lege Library, Salem, Mass. 

University Libraries Subsection 
Chairman, Nathan van Patten, Stanford 

University Libraries, Calif.; secretary, Rob-
ert A. Miller, University of Nebraska Li-
braries, Lincoln; director (for 3 years), 
Donald Coney, University of Texas Library, 
Austin 

On motion, the meeting adjourned. 
JACKSON E . TOWNE, Acting Secretary 

114 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES