LIBRARIES
- A. Public—general:
- e.g. National, Free, Lending, Circulating, Village.
- B. Public—special:
- e.g. Learned, Theological, Branch, Local.
- C. Institutional—general:
- e.g. Proprietary, Subscription, University, College, Travelling.
- D. Institutional—special:
- e.g. Technical, Professional, Departmental, Museum, Children’s.
- E. Private—general:
- e.g. Aristocratic or dilettante, Scholarly, working Reference.
- F. Private—special:
- Libraries of Collectors of special kinds of books.
Size of Libraries.
It remains to indicate the place among libraries which the Bodleian Library, the Library of the University of Oxford, appears to occupy among the libraries of the world. In the absence of all proper standardization of statistics, size (as estimated by the reputed number of volumes, not works) must be first regarded, and next importance, such as that due to manuscripts, incunabula and the like. Mere size may not connote importance, for the million volumes claimed by Messrs. Foyle, of 121 Charing Cross Road, London, do not raise their twenty miles of shelving to the rank of a really great library. So too the large collections of printed books in the United States are as yet wanting in the special importance derived from the ancient and cardinal manuscripts which enrich some of the libraries of Europe.
The following libraries of the Old World contain a million or more volumes, in the opinion of Dr. Fortescue, late Keeper of the Printed Books in the British Museum, expressed in 1912, and compared with numbers given in the last edition of Minerva (1913), and with other sources of information.
| Library. | Printed volumes. | MS. volumes. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| British Museum, London | 3,750,000 | Fort. | 60,000. | |
| National Library, Paris | 3,500,000 | Fort. | 111,000 | Min. |
| 3,500,000 | Min. | 111,000 | Min. | |
| Petrograd | 1,880,000 | Fort. | ||
| 2,044,000 | Min. | 124,000 | Min. | |
| Berlin | 1,400,000 | Fort. | ||
| 1,450,000 | Min. | 30,000 | Min. | |
| Munich | 1,100,000 | Fort. | ||
| 1,100,000 | Min. | 50,000 | Min. | |
| Vienna | 1,000,000 | Fort. | ||
| 1,000,000 | Min. | 27,000 | Min. | |
The value of the MSS. (45,000 Min.) in the Vatican Library at Rome raises it to the first rank, though its printed volumes are only reckoned to be 400,000 (Min.). The size of the great libraries in the United States is undoubted, but, as has been remarked, the absence of large and valuable collections of MSS. reduces their importance. In the Library of Congress at Washington, where the printed volumes (“books and pamphlets”) are estimated in the Annual Report for 1915 at 2,364,000, the mileage of occupied shelves is believed to be eighty or more, which is not far from double that of the British Museum. The New York Public Library is estimated to contain about 1,920,000 volumes (Fort.) or 2,090,000 (Min.). The Boston Public Library is believed to possess 1,050,000 volumes (Min.).
A statistical survey of the Bodleian Library was made in 1915, with the following results:—
| About | ||
|---|---|---|
| Printed volumes | 1,050,000 | |
| Of which | folios | 175,000 |
| quartos | 350,000 | |
| octavos | 525,000 | |
| Separate pieces | 2,060,000 | |
| Separate items (including fly-sheets etc.) | 3,000,000 | |
| Manuscript volumes | 40,000 | |
| (Not counting characters, rolls, etc.) | 20,000 | |
(Full details are printed in No. 9, Vol. I, of the Bodleian Quarterly Record, April, 1916. The total number of printed books in the world, i.e. separate works, has been estimated at about 12,000,000.)