What renaissance has failed to find literature and architecture quickened alike? The awakening of a love of the beautiful brings a thirst for knowledge concerning the beautiful; as the records will show, the interest excited by that marvellous assemblage of architectural masterpieces at the Chicago Fair, created a demand on the libraries almost beyond belief for books on architecture and the allied arts.
Every conscientious architect must feel his responsibility to his clients as well as to the people and strive he must, to combine the ideal in convenience with simple beauty in design; my one plea is that such a combination is not only possible, but in intelligent hands, should be universal, and if my beliefs, hopes and expectations find sympathy with you, I shall feel repaid in the security of a harmonious co-operation between architect and librarian in the great work which stretches ahead of us into the future.
[THE DEPARTMENTAL LIBRARY.]
By James Thayer Gerould, University of Missouri, Columbia.
The recent discussion of the departmental library system at the University of Chicago and the consequent restatement of the position of that university in reference to such libraries, together with the consideration of the problem in the annual reports of Dr. Canfield and Mr. Lane, have called up anew the question of the expediency of the system. Is the departmental library to be a permanent feature of the university library? Is the highest effectiveness of a library to be secured by a policy of decentralization?
The public library has answered the question, finally, it seems, in the affirmative. Do the arguments which have induced the public librarian to establish branches and delivery stations apply in the case of the university library? Is the university library of the future to be housed in a single building, or is it to be scattered about in class rooms and laboratories? To my mind, there is no more important question of administration before those of us who are trying to render the university library an efficient instrument of instruction than this.
With many librarians there is an element of necessity entering into the question. Mr. Lane is facing a condition where the library has altogether outgrown its building, and some place must be found where books can be stored and used. The situation is much the same in many other places. Shall the facilities of the library be enlarged by building or shall the books be transferred to the various departmental libraries? Mr. Lane, speaking for his own library, says of the latter alternative: "It would commit the library to an entirely different policy from what it has pursued hitherto, and such a change would be little short of a revolution for this library."
At the University of Missouri we are expecting in the near future to begin the construction of a library building, but, before adopting any definite plans, we are trying to work out the problems that have just been stated, and to make ourselves reasonably sure that we are right before we go ahead.
There are arguments enough on all sides of this question, of which Dr. Canfield says that it has not two sides only, but a dozen. We must premise that no two departments use their books in exactly the same way, and that, consequently, methods of administration must differ. It is generally for the advantage of all, for example, in a university where there is a law school, that the books on private law should be separated from the main collection and treated as a branch library. Similarly medicine, theology and possibly a few other subjects may be withdrawn and administered separately.
In some of our universities one or more of the departments are several miles away from the main body of the institution. It is obviously necessary that the books most used in those departments should be near enough so that the students can have access to them without too much inconvenience and loss of time. In the ordinary institution, however, most of the buildings are grouped in a comparatively small area, and it is seldom more than five minutes' walk from the most remote building to the library. In a condition such as this, and with the exceptions noted above, I am inclined to the opinion that the university is best served by a central library containing the main collection, and small, rigidly selected laboratory libraries comprising books which from their very nature are most useful in the laboratory as manuals of work.