A Working Library

IN 1870, Edwin David Sanborn, Professor of BellesLettres and Librarian of Dartmouth College, who according to the record, inherited from his lovable, gentle, handsome mother a tendency to flesh and humor wrote in his annual report: "To the Trustees of Dartmouth College, Gentlemen: In obedience to law and custom, the Librarian of the college, this year, submits a report in which there is nothing to be reported. The library is in the same condition as it was, at the time of my last report. Very few volumes have been added by purchase. They would not exceed a score in all. . . . If the Board could, possibly, appropriate a thousand dollars, or even five hundred annually to the purchase of new books, the literary culture of the students would be greatly promoted."

Again "in obedience to law and custom" the faculty committee on the library presents an annual report. If it can not prove that the literary culture of the students has been greatly promoted since its last report, it can state confidently that, as a result of the generosity of Professor Sanborn's son, the book collections have grown beyond a score; that the staff has been augmented and better integrated and that additions and improvements have been made in the physical plant. If the year has lacked dramatic occurrences, it has none the less registered silent and steady progress. The growth of the collections has been rapid and, on

the whole, well-balanced and sane. In the life of a library, as of an individual, suddenly acquired wealth has a tendency to cause unwise expenditures; but, thanks to the sympathetic cooperation of the faculty and the careful bibliographical work of departmental representatives, the committee believes that emotional buying has been reduced to a minimum.

THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND BOOKS

The library now contains approximately 330,000 volumes. At last we may take satisfaction in the fact that we have not only one of the best undergraduate collections in the country, but also, when supplemented by inter-library loans, a good working instrument for in dependent investigation and research. As an illustration of this the experience of one of our guest scholars from a large university, who occupied a faculty study during the summer, may be of interest. He had made arrangements with his own librarian to ship him promptly such volumes as he might need for his researches. The event proved that he discovered so adequate a collection on our shelves that he found it unnecessary to send home for any further material. Six visiting historians carried on their researches here during the summer with similar satisfaction. As a knowledge of our resources grows an increasingly large number of scholars from other institutions makes use of our faculty studies for its investigations. This summer that number was fourteen and represented many interests, ranging from the Director of the Social Science Division of the Rockefeller Foundation to a staff writer of the Saturday Evening Post. Columbia University, especially, seems to have discovered our resources, sending a delegation of five. It need not be pointed out to the faculty how great an asset the library will become, indeed has already become, in attracting to our academic staff a highly valuable type of man.

A beginning has been made in building up a definite pamphlet collection as a matter of library policy. There were purchased, this last year, two thousand items for German and half that number for Greek and Latin. This material together with an Italian dialect collection, which is possibly unique, and the collection of over ten thousand Spanish plays, is being catalogued, in spare moments, by members of the departments interested and will early be made available for use. Other fields will be entered as the need arises and the funds permit.

The policy of making special added grants to a few departments was continued. The fields selected for preferential treatment for 1930-1931 were economics, political science, sociology, psychology, history and English. To all of these departments the committee wishes to extend its gratitude for their thoughtful and careful expenditure of the funds assigned. To Professor Anderson, for his untiring devotion to the Herculean task of filling in the gaps of the history collections, the committee desires to pay a special tribute. His wide bibliographical knowledge of the field of history has thus been put at the service of all present and future Dartmouth scholars.

NEW PURCHASES

A number of other departments, eighteen to be precise, ordered beyond their annual appropriation. For the time being these overdrafts will have to be a little more carefully watched: the budget must be allowed a period for precipitation to make known its component elements of fixed charges for periodicals and continuations, of costs of current items at the new level and of the amount that should be reserved for general purchases, which are charged against no department. Leaving out of consideration the Carnegie Corporation grant for the purchase of books in fine arts, the library expended during the past year ten thousand dollars in excess of its normal annual income. This can not continue indefinitely and was only possible owing to a large balance handed down from the year 1928-1929, when the exact income from the Sanborn Fund was not known. Consequently departmental representatives are urgently requested to keep themselves informed as to the status of their appropriation and the library will do its part by sending out more frequent financial statements. Otherwise the allotments may be entirely consumed before the essential items for the year have been purchased. The fiscal year runs from July 1, and a recent estimate of expenditures shows that several departments have already made large inroads upon their funds for 1931-1932.

Professor McCarter represented the library, this summer, as did Miss Harold last, on a purchasing expedition abroad. Taking with him a list of over three hundred desiderata, mostly in periodical runs and academies and publications of learned societies, he visited some fifty or sixty dealers in London, The Hague, Paris, Leipsic, Munich and Vienna. He made many direct purchases and forwarded to the library numerous quotations which resulted in purchases. In addition he had the opportunity to establish closer contacts with our various foreign agents and to clear up several questions of billing, shipping, etc., as well as the vexing problem of French periodical subscriptions. An approximate estimate of the savings runs well over two thousand dollars.

The reclassification of our collections goes on apace. Forty-two per cent of all the books subject to reclassification have already been taken care of; thirty per cent are yet to be reclassified. The remaining books are not to be reclassified at present. Speed in reclassification is a matter of the salary list, and the library staff has been augmented by two for the coming year to hasten it. How that and other expenses of the library have increased recently can be seen by comparing the figures of today with those of fifteen years ago, when President Hopkins assumed office. The amount devoted to library salaries for that year, 1915-1916, was $10,325, a sum approximately equal to the cost of heating and lighting the present building. The item of salaries for the year 1930-1931 was over seven times as large, $76,350, an expense much of which must be borne by the general endowment of the College. The total cost of the library for 1915-1916 was approximately $25,000 (23.336); the total cost last year over eight times as much, or approximately $200,000. These figures tell their own tale of the support given the library by the President and the Board of Trustees, and explain why every desirable improvement in the library can not be accomplished at once.

LIBRARY IMPROVEMENTS

Passing now to matters other than books—changes in the physical plant have been few. A door has been installed at the foot of the east stairway leading up from the reserve delivery hall which makes it possible, at very slight additional expense, to keep the reserve desk open after the rest of the library has been closed. The lighting of the Tower Room, which was the cause of much justified complaint, has been improved. To accommodate our increasing resources new stacks are being erected in the eastern well between the Tower Room and the faculty studies, which will add to our bookcapacity 75,000 to 80,000 volumes.

It will be recalled that, last autumn, the Ferguson Room was opened for the use of the social, science departments. Following the plans worked out by these departments, this center has functioned primarily as a reading room for their honors men. Some fifty men applied for keys to the room, which was kept locked, and it was rather unusual throughout the year not to find two, three or four men reading there during the afternoon or evening. To facilitate work in the honors fields some eight hundred volumes, carefully selected by the four major social science departments, were placed on the shelves. Funds have been appropriated by the library committee to increase this number the coming year. During the past year, also, the political science department, on several occasions, used the room for informal discussions by visiting lecturers. Another department found the room very satisfactory for its monthly meeting of honors men and staff. In all its functions the room proved to be quite as successful as could be hoped.

The demand for faculty studies fluctuates from term to term. This fall the number of applicants exceeded the supply of studies and the committee was confronted by a waiting list. This is gradually being reduced as schedules become systematized and studies are surrendered. It may be in place to remind the faculty that application blanks for studies for the first semester are sent out in the spring. It would be manifestly futile to attempt to gather this information in September when the instructors are scattered to the four winds of heaven. Failure to read the covering spring letter causes occasional inconvenience, which the committee greatly regrets, but for which it is not responsible. In the studies of the tenth level, which are almost sound-proof in regard to the rest of the building, non-noiseless typewriters are now permitted. This appears to satisfy the acute need for such accommodation. The restriction of the studies of the other three levels to noiseless typewriters seems at present judicious.

PUBLISHES OWN BULLETIN

As all are well aware the library has begun publication of a bulletin. It has met with a reception which justifies the continuance of the project. The two numbers thus far issued serve as a medium for keeping the faculty better informed of the activities of the library. Not the least important feature of its contents is the list of major acquisitions, which might otherwise be known only to the departments suggesting the items. Further lists will appear in the bulletin, this coming year, where the results of the summer purchasing campaign, a note on the Rupert Brooke library, etc., may be found.

In addition to those quoted elsewhere in this report, the following data from the statistical report of the Librarian may be of interest. The figures refer to the fiscal year ending June 30, 1931. The number of volumes added by purchase during the year was 18,148, an increase of 23% over last year; the total accessions by purchase, binding and gift, 22,409, an increase of 18%; the total number of cards handled by the catalog department 79,921, an increase of 15%. The summary of expenditures for books, administration and building shows a total of $194,115.15, an increase of 9%. There was collected from fines during the year $2,363.39.

In conclusion, a word about the circulation figures. The first full year since the installation of an automatic counter at the reserve desk shows a total circulation from that desk of 170,516, more than twice the circulation from the main desk. The circulation from the main desk for outside use has increased over eight and one half per cent (.0865). The transfer of readers to the growing collections of Sanborn, Carpenter, the Ferguson Room, etc., had led the Committee to anticipate a slight recession. Perhaps after all "the literary culture of the students has been greatly promoted."

FACULTY COMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY WM. STUART MESSER, Chairman N. L. GOODRICH, LibrarianProfessor J. P. AMSDEN Professor F. L. CHILDS Professor C. J. LYON Professor H. E. B. SPEIGHT Professor W. R. WATERMAN

CIRCULATION DESK, BAKER LIBRARY, 1931

CIRCULATION DESK SIXTY YEARS AGO Delivery room in old library in Reed Hall

WILSON HALL,—"THE FIRST LIBRARY BOTLDIXG