College and Research Libraries


By H E N R Y B. V A N H O E S E N 

Friends of the Library 
of Brown University 

Mr. Van Hoesen, librarian of Brown Uni-

versity, read this paper at the meeting of 

the Friends of Libraries, June 2 J, 1942. 

I SHOULD LIKE to change this title to " T h e Friends of the L i b r a r y of Blank 
U n i v e r s i t y " and change my name to " X " 

so that anything I say might not be used 

against me. F o r , since there is more than 

one side of everybody, corporeal or cor-

porate, and since it may be novel at least 

to look at something else than the hand-

some ensemble, I am going to begin the 

description w i t h w h a t w e might call the 

patch on the seat of the trousers, the w a r t 

on the end of the nose, or something like 

that. Y o u w i l l visualize this minor mon-

strosity most clearly if I quote a remark 

made by the librarian's secretary w h e n the 

executive committee of the Friends gave 

her an opportunity to comment on a some-

w h a t jubilant report of progress: " I f you 

w a n t to k n o w w h a t I think, the Friends 

of the L i b r a r y are just a big headache to 

m e . " 

I hope there are no reporters present 

foolish enough to think of making a news-

paper feature of this paper, but if there 

a r e — G e n t l e m e n , please, the headline is 

not " 'Friends of the L i b r a r y a Headache,' 

Says L i b r a r i a n " but " F r i e n d s of the L i -

brary G e t B i g L a u g h W h e n T o l d T h e y ' r e 

a H e a d a c h e . " F o r that's exactly w h a t 

happened, and it is no small achievement 

for the Friends of the L i b r a r y to under-

stand just w h a t you mean w h e n you tell 

them they are a headache. 

Perhaps, for the benefit of those of you 

w h o are not as w e l l educated or library 

trained as the Friends of the L i b r a r y of 

B l a n k University, I ought to explain the 

librarian's secretary. T h e librarian's sec-

retary is a very busy person; she does not 

merely w r i t e letters at dictation and file 

correspondence, interview applicants, check 

and tabulate staff time cards, and, in gen-

eral, do w h a t you tell h e r ; she tells you 

w h a t to d o — i n other words, runs the 

office. T o her then, at best, the Friends 

of the L i b r a r y are an interruption and, 

necessarily during their early period of or-

ganization and promotion, the interrup-

tions may be frequent and even long. 

Beginning w i t h a chairman and half a 

dozen other self-appointed or co-opted of-

ficers, no office, no secretary, and a treas-

ury w i t h nothing in it, w h a t else could 

they do but ask the librarian's secretary to 

tell them w h o to w r i t e to, to w r i t e their 

letters, to proofread their printed notices 

and bulletins, and criticize their style, 

and so on. T h e situation improves, of 

course, as the membership increases and 

the treasury gets something in i t ; it is 

possible to farm out more typing, mimeo-

graphing, and p r i n t i n g ; but the Friends of 

the L i b r a r y w i l l always deserve the best 

assistance the library can give them, and 

even w h e n they can afford a first-class 

secretary of their own, they w i l l ask 

D EC EMBER, 1942 5 



whether the money should be spent that 

w a y or on books for the library. O n e of 

Librarian X ' s pipe dreams is that the 

Friends of the L i b r a r y of B l a n k U n i v e r -

sity w i l l some time have its own office and 

its o w n secretary, not entirely discon-

nected from the library and the librarian's 

office, but located near and helping to 

operate, let us say, the browsing room, 

which might be named the " F r i e n d s of 

the L i b r a r y R o o m " and serve both Friends 

and students for recreational reading and 

for occasional meetings. 

The Librarian and the Friends 

T h e librarian's time, also, incidentally, 

is occasionally diverted to the activities 

of the Friends of the L i b r a r y — a t B l a n k 

University they insisted on making him 

honorary chairman, and the distinction be-

tween honorary (spelled w i t h an h) and 

onerary (o-n-e-r-a-r-y) is sometimes very 

slight. B u t that is to be expected, of 

c o u r s e — o n l y , L i b r a r i a n X ' s secretary says 

that he sometimes persuades his callers to 

stay longer than they really need to. 

T h e Friends of the L i b r a r y of B l a n k 

University have meetings—general meet-

ings half a dozen times a year, meetings of 

the advisory committee once or twice a 

year, and meetings of the executive board 

once a month. D a t e , place, luncheon or 

dinner arrangements, speakers, business 

docket, e t c . — a l l to be discussed, arranged, 

and rearranged. T h e chairman w i l l ask 

"about w h e n should w e have another 

m e e t i n g ? " T h e chairman of the program 

committee w i l l ask " w h a t speaker do you 

w a n t me to g e t ? " T h e librarian's secre-

tary w i l l telephone the chairman, " H a v e 

you forgotten that you have to appoint a 

nominating c o m m i t t e e ? " or tell the secre-

tary of the Friends, " N o , you can't change 

constitution or by-laws w i t h o u t special 

advance notice of w h a t the proposed 

amendment is," and so on. Y o u might 

not expect it, but arranging the place of 

meeting is one of the big headaches. T h e 

Friends of the L i b r a r y of B r o w n U n i v e r -

sity consider their prime objective as 

educational and so they like to meet in 

different places—in different rooms in the 

university library, in the home libraries of 

some of the members, and even in other 

local institutional l i b r a r i e s — a n d they like 

to hear about these collections and see, 

more or less on display, the university's 

divisional library of biological sciences, 

Pembroke C o l l e g e L i b r a r y , the L i n c o l n 

collection, the bookplate collection, the 

collection of w a r propaganda, the John 

C a r t e r B r o w n L i b r a r y , and so forth. 

T h i s is an excellent policy, of course, but 

the headache is, h o w many of the four 

hundred Friends w i l l be present and h o w 

many friends w i l l they bring w i t h them? 

W i l l the reading room adjoining the col-

lection they w a n t to see be large enough 

to hold them, or w i l l the staff have to set 

up an exhibition from the collection some-

where else? A n d if the meeting place is 

to be a private home, w i l l the house hold 

them, and, since the hostess insists on 

refreshments, how many shall she provide 

f o r ? 

Additional Work 

" B u t , " many of you may say, "such 

extracurricular activities are to be ex-

pected ; they may be new or strange to 

university libraries but not so to public 

libraries." So let us note some of the addi-

tional w o r k involved for the library's in-

tramural processes and routines. I have 

already mentioned the additional number 

of special exhibitions, the subject, time, 

and place of which is set for, instead of by, 

the special collections staff. T h e special col-

6 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



lections staff, the reference and circulation 

departments, and the divisional libraries 

receive more calls and inquiries from peo-

ple outside the university. T h e s e people 

w o u l d have been welcome before but they 

hesitated to make a nuisance of themselves 

(as they s a y ) — p a r t i c u l a r l y if they are not 

alumni. T h i s is all very g r a t i f y i n g , and 

the more and the oftener they come, the 

happier the library staff w i l l be, but it is 

not to be denied that it adds to the service 

b u r d e n — p a r t i c u l a r l y , as one w o u l d expect 

at the present time, in the division of 

mathematics, physical sciences, and engi-

neering. 

T h e order department of the library 

must be prepared to welcome but also to 

beware the Friends bearing gifts, for, 

while their prime objective is self-educa-

tion, they are also, in the first paragraph 

of their first circular, "interested in the 

library of B r o w n University and its g r o w -

ing u s e f u l n e s s " — i n fact, many of them 

say they w o u l d have no interest in the 

organization if it w e r e not a help to the 

library. T h e y announce that " g i f t s of 

books from members' libraries are welcome 

as additions to the resources of the li-

b r a r y ; " they encourage scouting in other 

people's attics as w e l l as their o w n ; they 

point out to l a w y e r friends that the library 

part of an estate may be settled quickly, 

easily, and satisfactorily by turning it over 

to the library of the university. So g i f t s 

of books come i n — a n d again, the more 

they come, the better for the library. B u t , 

again, there is no denying that the sorting, 

selecting, searching, cataloging, and stor-

age cost the library something; and the 

w o r k of finding a home for the discards 

(perhaps t w o thirds of the w h o l e g i f t ) by 

sale at nominal prices to the library clien-

tele or by exchange to other libraries, is 

a chore, however fascinating and however 

useful educationally it may be. Inci-

dentally, the difficulty w e used to hear 

about, of the donor's overprizing his g i f t 

and w a n t i n g it to be safeguarded forever 

as a memorial or special collection, has not 

been a problem in Librarian X ' s experience. 

H i s greater problem has been w i t h people 

w h o overmodestly find it hard to believe 

that any of their "old j u n k " w o u l d be of 

any use to a great university library, and 

these people are the more pleased and en-

couraged to give w h e n they understand 

that the library w i l l not burden itself w i t h 

books it cannot use but that any useful 

book w i l l still find a useful place some-

where. 

More JVork of Same Kind 

A l l this is simply a little more w o r k of 

the same kind that the library staff has 

been doing all along the line. A certain 

amount of new routine becomes necessary 

in acknowledging, recording, and report-

ing g i f t s — m o r e punctilious and more de-

tailed. T h e gifts must all be counted, so 

that the Friends of the L i b r a r y may know 

that between February 1939 and June 

1942 their net brought in thirteen thou-

sand items. ( M o s t of the individual 

Friends also like to know the extent of 

their g i f t s as they make them, but some 

of them object violently to having even a 

postcard wasted on them.) T h e r e should 

be a donors' file or directory, giving name, 

address, university connection (class nu-

merals and a l l ) , dates of gifts, character 

of gifts. T h e librarian's report, as w e l l as 

the bulletin published by the Friends, 

should publish lists of donors, and the 

lists should be correct. I don't k n o w 

which is worse—omission or misspelling of 

names. O n e retired c o l o n e l — q u i t e prop-

e r l y — p r o t e s t s the omission of the title in 

listing another colonel's name and the in-

D EC EMBER, 1942 7 



elusion of it in still another case where 

the man w a s " o n l y a G o v e r n o r ' s C o l o n e l . " 

A n o t h e r time it is reported to the librar-

ian : "So-and-so, one of your book-a-year 

men, is mad at you because his name does 

not appear in the last annual report." 

A n o t h e r n e w list is an alumni bibliogra-

phy on c a r d s — o n e for each alumnus 

author w i t h the titles of all his books and 

articles as they appear in the library cata-

log, the U.S. Catalog, and the Readers' 

Guide. T h e archivist (an honorary mem-

ber of the library staff and a vice chairman 

of the F r i e n d s ) then asks each alumnus 

to complete his o w n bibliography and com-

plete the library's holdings of his publi-

cations. T h e initial cost of compiling this 

list at B r o w n U n i v e r s i t y w a s contributed 

by the archivist himself and t w o other 

Friends, but the list changes almost f r o m 

day to day as the replies come in, as n e w 

alumni go out, and as old alumni w r i t e 

new books. 

Description of Gifts 

T h e most difficult task, if it is done 

w e l l , is the description of gifts. Friends 

w o u l d like to know just how their particu-

lar g i f t s w i l l be useful to the library. 

Librarian X often says "there should be a 

news story in every book that comes into 

the l i b r a r y , " and some member of the li-

brary staff should be able to tell it, but 

most general libraries have too f e w special-

ists on their staffs to tell all the good 

stories. 

In g i v i n g you so much of the headache, 

I find that the things I have featured as 

troublesome are at the same time some of 

the attractive features of the Friends of 

the L i b r a r y organization. N o t that head-

aches are a good thing for already over-

worked members of the library staff all 

along the line, but foresight of and, so far 

as possible, provision for additional w o r k 

in the library w i l l save some of the head-

ache and enhance the desirability of the 

additional items of w o r k . F o r they are 

desirable—some in themselves, some in 

their social and educational by-products, 

and all in the promise they hold for the 

improvement of the library on the one 

hand and alumni education on the other. 

T h e meetings of the executive board are 

good f u n in themselves—and w i t h o u t bene-

fit of cocktails. T h e secretary's brief 

minutes of brief matters of business have, 

unhappily, failed to report the conversa-

tions in w h i c h so many projects have been 

so merrily sidetracked or wisecracked off 

the docket. F o r example, the librarian 

suggests the purchase of a collection of 

t w e n t y thousand autographs, adding "and 

if no one w i l l give the money, the man 

w o u l d like a loan, depositing the collection 

as security, and a l l o w i n g us free- use of 

the t w e n t y thousand a u t o g r a p h s ; " and the 

answer is, " O n t w e n t y thousand signa-

tures the bank ought to loan him the 

money." 

General Meetings 

T h e general meetings also are good 

shows, once you are sure you have enough 

chairs for the audience and enough audi-

ence to fill the chairs—imported librarian 

speakers like Sir A n g u s Fletcher, L o u i s A . 

W a r r e n , and G e o r g e P a r k e r W i n s h i p , 

and no lack of home talent, both town and 

g o w n . O n e of the most enjoyable meet-

ings at B r o w n U n i v e r s i t y w a s on the cen-

tennial of the birth of John H a y ( f o r 

w h o m the library building w a s n a m e d ) , 

graced by the presence of Clarence H a y , 

addressed by three members of the faculty 

on " J o h n H a y as a Statesman" and " J o h n 

H a y as a P o e t , " w i t h readings of his 

poetry and accompanied by a John H a y 

8 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



exhibition d r a w n from the university li-

brary and the John H a y collection of one 

of the Friends. O n e of the largest meet-

ings w a s a concert, on the occasion of the 

music librarians' conference at B r o w n 

and attended also by members of some 

dozen music clubs of Providence. T h e 

program w a s Rhode Island m u s i c — o l d 

songs selected f r o m the H a r r i s Collection 

of A m e r i c a n Poetry and modern orches-

tral music on such recent themes as the 

hurricane of 1938. 

Friendship is a mutual, not a one-sided 

relationship. T h e Friends of the L i b r a r y 

should be beneficiaries as w e l l as benefac-

tors. T h u s , in the long-range objective, 

the general meetings figure as part of a 

program of alumni education, along w i t h 

the privilege of use of the library resources 

and services and the leaflet or pamphlet 

serial, Books at Brown. M e m b e r s are 

invited to form special reading and discus-

sion groups according to their special in-

terests. F u t u r e plans include a special 

series of lectures on books—e.g. " R e a d i n g 

about the W a r , " " R e a d i n g P l a y s , " and 

so forth. T h e publishing of reading lists 

may f o l l o w if and as interest in them de-

velops. 

Gifts of Books 

T h e g i f t s of books are, of course, a 

direct benefit to the library, and the by-

product of discards brings in a small reve-

nue f r o m sales and helps in exchange 

relations. T h e increase of w o r k in the 

readers' service division is w h a t the li-

brary is for and, in part, can fairly claim 

to have been an early beginning of the 

library's w a r effort. A n d if the improve-

ment of the handling of g i f t s and the 

compilation of the alumni bibliography 

w e r e long overdue, the satisfaction of ac-

complishment should be none the less. 

I have not discussed g i f t s of money be-

fore because I could not think of any head-

ache connected w i t h them, but there have 

been g i f t s of money, in spite of the an-

nounced policy "Solicitation of funds is not 

the aim of this organization." Eleven 

Friends divided the purchase cost of a first 

edition of Isaac N e w t o n ' s Principia 

Mathematica; seventy Friends contributed 

$900 toward rounding out the G e o r g e 

E a r l C h u r c h Collection on South A m e r -

ica ; t w o Friends have started a L i n -

colniana f u n d w i t h $300; one Friend has 

given $ 1 5 0 for the purchase of archives 

m a t e r i a l ; another has been giving $100 a 

year for books in various fields; another 

has transferred to the library his book 

royalties; and so on. 

I did mention the g i f t for the compila-

tion of the alumni bibliography—about 

ten months' s a l a r y — a n d there have been 

other g i f t s t o w a r d the salary budget. In-

dustrial concerns have contributed $185 in 

recognition of the reference service they 

have received from the physical sciences 

and engineering division. Several one-

book g i f t s have been accompanied by dollar 

g i f t s to pay for cataloging and some by 

two-dollar gifts to pay for cataloging and 

housing. O n e g i f t of one thousand dol-

lars w a s to be divided approximately t w o 

thirds for books in A m e r i c a n history and 

other special subjects and one third for 

cataloging. F i n a l l y , the most recent g i f t 

is for the beginning of a fund for an ex-

tension of the library building and the 

increase of the library staff. 

Significance of Gifts Is Large 

N o g i f t to the l i b r a r y — a n d no book 

added to the l i b r a r y — i s insignificant, and 

if the aggregate of the examples I have 

selected does not seem large to some of 

you, their significance for the f u t u r e de-

D EC EMBER, 1942 9 



velopment of the library is large. T h e fu-

ture of endowed colleges depends on the 

support of their alumni, the support of the 

alumni depends upon their interest, and 

their interest is conditioned on their un-

derstanding. In other words, the active 

interest in the university and in the library 

is an educated interest. O f all the college 

activities the easiest thing for the alumnus 

in the street to understand is apparently 

intercollegiate athletics, and it may be that 

it's not even the athletics but merely the 

competition that he understands; in any 

case, it is much more difficult to " s e l l " him 

the academic activities and objectives of 

the college. 

Interest in Rare Books 

In the library objectives there is noth-

ing really easy to understand and get en-

thusiastic about, such as athletics. I have 

sometimes thought of the acquisition of 

rare books as the nearest analogy. I men-

tion this w i t h some hesitation, for fear 

that I shall be misunderstood and give 

ammunition to Randolph A d a m s for an-

other paper on " L i b r a r i a n s as Enemies of 

Books." W h a t I mean to say is that just 

as a man may be enthusiastically interested 

in an athletic competition w i t h o u t know-

ing w h a t the college is all about or even 

w h a t the real significance, purpose, and 

use of college athletics are, so the element 

of competition in the rare book market 

( " U n i q u e copy," " O n l y six other copies 

k n o w n , " " E d i t i o n limited to 250 copies," 

etc.) may arouse the interest of a man w h o 

does not understand w h a t the library is 

all about or w h a t the rare book is all 

about. A n d this w o u l d not be so bad for 

libraries if rare books came as cheaply as 

admission to the bleachers—the alumnus 

in the street does not have the price of a 

really rare book and does not understand 

that the library needs a lot of five-dollar 

books; and so the library gets neither 

f r o m him. 

One Donor and His Gifts 

Before the days of Friends of Libraries, 

I once suggested to a generous donor the 

purchase of some $2000 w o r t h of scientific 

books—things like the A bhandlungen, 

Denkschriften, and Sitzungsberichte of the 

K . Preussische A k a d e m i e der Wissen-

schaften z u Berlin. T h e gentleman did 

not seem the least bit excited but he did 

express interest in a single v o l u m e — t h e 

first issue of W a l t W h i t m a n ' s Leaves of 

Grass. W h e n I showed him that the 

" p o i n t s " of this issue were about like those 

of a postage stamp, he laughed and said, 

" Y o u ought to be ashamed, making f u n 

of the old man and his collecting." So 

the compromise w a s that he gave the li-

brary the first issue of Leaves of Grass 

and the British Museum Catalogue of 

Books. N o w , of course, this friend is not 

an example of the alumnus in the street 

but his reactions illustrate my point about 

the collector's competitive inclinations. 

H e also illustrates my other p o i n t — e d u -

cated interest in the library. H e w a s in-

terested in W h i t m a n ' s points, definitely 

not interested in W h i t m a n (so he s a i d ) , 

keenly interested in the library, and con-

vinced that the book w a s a good thing for 

the library to have. T h e case of the Brit-

ish Museum Catalogue is certainly a case 

of educated interest. 

T o this group of g i f t s and the variety of 

more recent Friends g i f t s I have men-

tioned, inspired by an interest educated 

even up to the point of contributions to 

the cost of cataloging, I w a n t to add one 

more specimen, a poem by the editor of 

Books at Brown, called " T h e C a t a l o g e r . " 

(Continued on page 17) 

10 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



marily directed at the state of Iowa. 

W i t h i n the state it is limited to fields not 

covered by the State University of I o w a 

Libraries or by the State T r a v e l i n g L i -

brary. Outside of the state the library's 

resources have been made available wher-

ever such service could not be rendered 

by corresponding institutions. T h e li-

brary's w a r program has been designed to 

promote efforts toward greater coopera-

tion among research libraries that were 

developing so rapidly in the prewar years. 

T h e w o r k of the I o w a State College 

L i b r a r y as described in this paper is prob-

ably not unique. Certainly all libraries 

could be much more active in providing 

w a r services than they are at present. F o r 

example, it is planned this summer at the 

I o w a State College L i b r a r y to review and 

evaluate the w a r program completely. 

T h e professional staff, with the coopera-

tion of the faculty and the college's C o m -

mittee on Civilian W a r Activities w i l l 

study during the summer all possibilities 

for further w a r services which are needed 

but not now provided. A continuing pol-

icy of re-examination and reinterpretation 

of established policy is necessary if w e are 

to make our maximum contribution to the 

w a r effort and to justify the place of the 

university library in a rapidly changing 

civilization. 

Friends of the Library of Brown University 
(Continued from page 10) 

T h e Cataloger 

Stone walls do not a prison make, it's said, 
Nor books a library—if they're not read. 
Full many a book may blush unseen, unless 
It feels the cataloger's deft caress. 
Her loving touch makes hidden wonders 

known; 
She stores the corn the author has but sown. 
Each single book may shed a little light; 
But grouped with others, it can vanquish 

night. 
So, Cataloger, you must make the bed; 
T u c k each book in; see that a prayer is said 
Against misplacement on the teeming shelves. 
There let it sleep, till prowling scholar 

delves 
Deep in the stacks. Led by your pointing 

pen, 
He wakes it gleefully—to live again. 

W h e n Friends of the Library w a x lyric 

over cataloging, they must be going places! 

It is the g r o w t h of this kind of edu-

cated interest that the Friends of the L i -

brary are building up. " T h e raising of 

money is not the chief desire of the 

Friends. It is not even an important one. 

. . . T h i s is a society of persons w h o are 

lovers of books, interested in the L i b r a r y 

of B r o w n University and its g r o w i n g use-

fulness." B u t they have raised money and 

they w i l l raise more—inevitably, as inter-

est and knowledge of library activities and 

needs increase. A n d whether they raise 

money or not, they are still a good alumni 

education organization, alumni education 

is a proper function of the university 

(whether the alumni are its own or some-

body else's), and educated alumni are, in 

the long run, the university's best asset and, 

thus, assets of the university library. 

DECEMBER, 1942 17