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Volume Minutes

Compiled by Chris Densmore

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Founding the Libraries, 1846

The University of Buffalo is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 1996-97. It is appropriate that the celebration of the acquisition of the three millionth volume by the University comes at the time of this Sesquicentennial Celebration.

The founders of the University of Buffalo secured a charter from the New York State Legislature on May 11, 1846, which authorized them to solicit donations and subscriptions to support the academic departments or "for furnishing a library." Of the money subscribed in the summer of 1846 to start the University, more than half was specifically intended for its libraries.

The first department of the University, the School of Medicine, was organized in the late summer and early autumn of 1846. In October 1846, the first catalog was printed, announcing the opening of the Medical School, which could boast a library "of over 500 volumes, including all the late and standard works upon every department of medicine and surgery, with the collateral sciences."

Since October 1846, the University Libraries have added to the original 500 volumes, nearly 2,999,500 additional titles. So-- Happy birthday, UB! Happy Birthday, Health Sciences Library! Happy Birthday, University Libraries!

This is the first "Three Millionth Volume Minute." Additional Minutes will be posted every weekday until the celebration of the acquisition of the Three Millionth Volume on October 20, 1996.

What is a Library? (1882-1893)

When the University at Buffalo Medical School opened in 1846, it had a library of over 500 volumes. In the years that followed, a Library Committee composed of faculty from the Medical School purchased additional books for the collection. However, the early records of the Medical School provide little evidence about how the collection was administered. In the early years, it appears that the book collection was housed with the medical specimens and scientific apparatus in the School of Medicine's "Museum."

At their meeting on September 27, 1882, the Medical Faculty authorized the curator of the Library "to build a partition in the gallery of the museum and furnish the room thus made and to erect cases for books..." The cost was not to exceed $200. Thereafter, the "College Library" was distinct from the Museum.

The upgrading of the Library was noted in Annual Announcement of the Medical School in 1884, which reported:

"The College Library now contains about 1,500 bound volumes, and numerous pamphlets, with files of all the leading medical journals. The regular college librarian is in daily attendance from 2 to 10 p.m.; and students are not only permitted but urged to make free use of the facilities offered."

The Library had tripled in size since its founding in 1846, thirty-eight years earlier. In the decade from 1882 to 1892, the Library began to grow rapidly. When the new Medical School building was constructed on High Street in 1893, the Library had a well furnished new home:

"The magnificent college library contains about 4,000 volumes, admirably selected for reference and study, and freely accessible to students; the leading medical journals are constantly on file, and a competent librarian is in daily attendance from 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. The library has been largely augmented by the bequest of the rich collection for the late Dr. Geo. M. Burwell, with a handsome fund for its maintenance donated by Mrs. W. H. Glenny." [Annual Announcement, 1893-94]

So, what is a library? In 1882, the UB library was a collection of books, housed in the University Museum. A decade later, the library had a separate facility, specifically designed for the library, a librarian, posted hours, and an endowment. It was an important decade in the history of the University Libraries.

UB Medical Faculty Minutes, 1893-1894

From the Minutes of the UB Medical Faculty, December 2, 1893:

"Dr. Mann reported that he had made an arrangement with the Superintendant of the Buffalo Library to have one of the assistants come to the college and help to prepare a card catalogue of the college library."

From the Minutes, January 12, 1894:

"Dr. Mann reported for the library that the work of cataloging was progressing at a rapid rate and that a complete index would be at the disposal of the profession."

These minutes document the arrival of the great late 19th century innovation in information science, the card catalog. Libraries had earlier relied on bound volumes listing books, often little more than an accession lists. From time to time, a library might issue a printed catalog, listing their entire collection, and usually roughly divided into subjects. Such published lists were quickly out of date.

From the perspective of the late 1990s, the card catalog seems ancient technology, but it was an advance in information science that underlies the current high tech solutions to information retrieval. In the "old" world of the printed library catalog, there was generally one place and one place only for each book. With the card system, information about books could be manipulated and reorganized to meet research needs. Rather than one access point, library users could now locate books by author, title, or subject.

The card catalog, and the related 19th century inventions of the file folder (invented by the Charity Organization Society in Buffalo for case files) and the cardex (invented by Darwin D. Martin of Buffalo to replace bound business ledgers), fundamentally changed the approach to information. The computer allows greater speed, but the essential idea that information can be standardized, tagged and then reorganized to fit user needs, took practical shape in late 19th century libraries.

Within Five Minutes' Walk: UB and the Professional Libraries

In the late 19th century, the University at Buffalo was a collection of professional schools -- Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Law. While library collections are essential to support the educational mission of the university, it was not always obvious or inevitable that the University would be the primary source of these collections.

The Medical School established a library at the time of its establishment in 1846, but there were other resources available. The Erie County Medical Society had a library. The Buffalo Library had a medical collection. Private physicians had libraries. In the 1880s, the Buffalo Medical and Surgical Library Association operated a library. Also in the 1880s, there were two other medical colleges in Buffalo, the Medical Department of Niagara University (that would later merge with the UB Medical School) and an "eclectic medical college" considered "irregular" by the physicians of both the UB and Niagara medical schools.

The Buffalo Law School, organized in 1887, did not have its own library!

From the Buffalo Law School "Announcement" for 1888-1889:

"... The Law School is situated WITHIN FIVE MINUTES' WALK [emphasis added] of all the Courts, and the Bar Library.

"Arrangements have been made by which students of the Law School will be given positions in the offices of practising lawyers, where they may spend their time, outside of lecture hours, in study; and where they may have the use of law libraries and see something of the details of practice.

"The large and well selected law library of the Eight Judicial Department, comprising eight thousand volumes of Treatise and Reports, will be open to the students for purposes of reference."

The Law School would ultimately have its own library, but not until 1909, more than thirty years after the establishment of the Law School. Cooperation between the University and local libraries-- the sharing of resources-- is hardly a new concept. The University has always relied on external libraries to support the educational and research missions of the various schools. In the 19th century it was not inevitable that the University Libraries would become the primary research libraries that they became in the 20th century. The story of the University Libraries cannot be told in isolation. UB Libraries have been and remain part of larger information and resources systems that extend beyond the boundaries of the campus.

A Law Library of Its Own: Development Work, ca. 1908; or, Ownership vs. Access

When the UB Law School moved into the Ellicott Square building in 1896, its students gained free access to Bang's Law Library, a private law library owned by the buildings proprietors.

The 1907-1908 Law School announcement described Bang's as "a well-supplied and efficiently maintained library, to which the students have free access at all hours of the day. The library is sufficiently complete for all the usual requirements." Other library needs could be met by the 12,000 volume collection of the Eight Judicial District library, two blocks away.

This convenient arrangement came to an end when Bang's was sold by the proprietors, and the books shipped to New Orleans.

George D. Crofts, then Registrar of the Law School (and the namesake of Crofts Hall on the North Campus of the University at Buffalo), went to Adelbert Moot (the namesake of Moot Courtroom in O'Brian Hall), who told him, "Start a fund to buy a library: I will give $100 and I know half a dozen others who will do likewise."

In ten days, Crofts raised $2000. During the summer, Crofts purchased a library. "It includes a complete set of the report of every court in New York State, numbering in all 1,400 volumes. There are duplicate sets of Appellate Division reports and there will be a three complete sets of Court of Appeals reports. It includes also the United States Supreme Court reports, the Federal Reporter, that part of the National Reporter System covering the states east of Minnesota and north of Carolina, and a splendid collection of textbooks and statutes."

In addition to local contributions of money and books, Crofts was able to secure special terms from publishers, saving $1000, "This was made possible by some of the book book-houses of the country selling to the school practically at cost, the official series in which they had exclusive rights."

Accrediting Agencies and Outside Reporting, 1910

The "Flexner Report" of 1910 on MEDICAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA was a landmark. It provided facts and figures on medical education in the United States, and showed that many schools claiming to train physicians were sadly lacking. Here's a quick look at library resources at the Medical Schools in New York State:

College of Physicians and Surgeons: "The school lacks a general library, though books and periodicals are available in the several departments and in the students' study."

Cornell University Medical College: [no reference to a library]

Fordham University School of Medicine: "There is a library with current scientific journals."

Long Island College Hospital: "There is no library..."

New York Homeopathic Medical College: "There is a library of several thousand volumes."

New York Medical College and Hospital for Women: "There is a small library, a number of anatomical charts..."

Syracuse University. College of Medicine: "There is a good library, in charge of a librarian, but no museum."

UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO: "There is a small museum, but A GOOD LIBRARY OF 8000 VOLUMES, CURRENT GERMAN AND ENGLISH PERIODICALS, WITH A LIBRARIAN IN CHARGE."

Concerns for the Faculty Library Committee, ca. 1929

The following excerpts are from a document in the papers of Ruth Bartholomew, the first University Librarian. Though the document is undated, it appears to have been prepared for consideration at a meeting of the Library Faculty Committee.

Question: Division of books--
Question: Faculty time limit on books.
Speed in getting out books...
Faculty Reading Room...
Reserve books...
Criticism -

Flexibility, Micromanagement and the Bottom Line, 1928-1934

In the old University of Buffalo, the ultimately authority rested in the University Council, which made major policy decisions about the future of the institution. The Council delegated to its "Committee on General Administration" oversight of the university budget. The budget was prepared and managed by the Treasurer, but the annual budget needed to be approved by the University Council, and any changes needed the approval of the Committee on General Administration. And the Committee on General Administration kept a close watch on the bottom line.

November 10, 1928

Chancellor Capen moved, Mr. Bartholomew seconded, that the recommendation of the Medical School that duplicate copies of books in the library of the Medical School be disapproved, as the Committee has no power to dispose of property in that way.

May 20, 1932

Chancellor Capen moved, Mrs. Butler seconding, that the Librarian be allowed to dispose of duplicate magazines no longer of use to the University, with some reliable concern, in exchange for which the University Library will receive credit on future orders. Carried.

December 13, 1934

Chancellor Capen presented the following memorandum from Librarian Charles D. Abbott of the Lockwood Memorial Library:

The problem of duplicate books in the library grows increasingly difficult to solve. They involve a waste which the librarian is very anxious to eliminate: (1) their care and maintenance adds to the cost of running the library and their very bulk takes up space which could be used to better advantage; (2) they can be made into a source of revenue, small to be sure, but valuable in that it could be used to acquire books which the library actively needs. The librarian would like to have the power to dispose of these books, as is the custom in most university libraries, by whatever means would be most advantageous to the library-- principally by sale, whenever the money that could be thus acquired would be sufficient to assist in the purchase of new and necessary books. It should be added that this request concerns only duplicates for which the teaching staff has no need, and that the librarian is firmly opposed to the disposal of any books which are not possessed in duplicate.

Mr. Mitchell moved, Mr. Babcock seconding, that the requested authority be granted. Carried.

Interestingly, the University Treasurer at this time was George Crofts, the individual who led the campaign to establish the Law Library in 1909, Crofts Hall, where the business offices of the University are now located, is named after him. Chancellor Capen is Samuel P. Capen, and Capen Hall now houses the Undergraduate Library, Science and Engineering Library, University Archives, Poetry and Rare Books Collection, and the offices of the Associate Vice President for University Libraries. Mrs. Butler is Kate Butler, the donor of the bells in Hayes Hall, and part of the family memorialized by the naming of Butler Library at Buffalo State College.

Creating A University Library, 1922

Most American colleges and universities began with undergraduate and liberal arts programs and then added graduate and professional programs. UB began with Medicine, and later added Law, Pharmacy and Dentistry. In 1900, the University of Buffalo was a loose grouping of professional schools, each run by its Dean and Faculty.

The leaders of the University, however, intended to build UB as a comprehensive university, and launched the "Greater University Movement." In 1913, "Courses in Arts and Sciences" were first offered-- the start of undergraduate education at UB. In 1920, an Endowment Fund Campaign successfully raised six million dollars for an endowment. In 1922, Chancellor Samuel P. Capen was inaugurated as Chancellor. UB was transforming itself from a collection of quasi-independent schools to an integrated modern university.

Part of this transformation was the appointment in 1922 of Ruth Bartholomew as the first "University Librarian." In the past, each school established a library to support its own particular needs. Bartholomew's appointment was a recognition of the need for a library system that served the entire institution. Bartholomew began the work of consolidating the libraries and book collections scattered across the campuses. The consolidation was not total. The Medical and Law Libraries continued to be administered as part of their respective schools with the Medical and Law Libraries remaining distinct from the University Libraries for many years.

For seventy-five years at UB, libraries had served the individual schools. Now, a University Library was being created to serve the entire institution.

Growing Pains, 1923-1928

From the Annual Reports of Ruth Bartholomew, first University Librarian: [Read the her first Annual Report]]

1923-24 -- Cataloging
"Aside from the routine work of the daily conduct of the library... the most important special task has been to finish as far as possible the work of cataloging... the 10,905 uncatalogued books that remained at the end of my last report. This work has been completed with the exception of 3,000 doctor's theses presented by candidates for higher degrees at German universities and 1,000 volumes of theology.... As the theses are printed in German, the work of classification and cataloging will require special assistance from that department...
[Which means in addition to the general work of running the libraries and their bibliographical instruction program, Miss Bartholomew cataloged seven thousand books with only part-time help]
1923-24 -- Space
"The reading room [in Foster Hall] has become inadequate... and we have had to resort to may makeshift expedients to house and seat the users of the libraries."
1925-26 -- Space
"It is not possible to give the number of students who used the library last year. It is enought to know that the reading room and stacks are entirely inadequate and many makeshifts had to be resorted to. The reading room could not accommodate half the students desiring to use it... All the stacks are filled and the books have overflowed into the floor space between the stacks, and then into the Reading Room floors and tables and even then 3,000 volumes are house in the attic...
1925-26 -- Library Instruction (and Space)
"The Librarian has had the opportunity of meeting the incoming Freshman Class to acquaint it with the scope of the library, its use and regulations." [Read Miss Bartholomew's notes for her bibliographic instruction session]
1926-27 -- Planning a New Library
In her 1926-27, Bartholomew was able to report on the planned move of the UB Libraries from Foster Hall to the newly remodeled Hayes Hall. Among the features of the new space was a faculty reading room:
"The only approach to this room will be from behind the charging desk and through the stacks. It can, therefore, be well guarded from interruptions."
1927-28 -- Moving a Library
"On December 27, [1927] the task of moving the library of 28,000 volumes from Foster Hall to the new location in Edmund Hayes Hall was begun. The Librarian with five library assistants and five custodians completed the moving in two and one-half days. Seventy-five boxes, the size of an ordinary book shelf, 3'6" x 6" accommodating about 20 volumes were constructed by Mr. Leupold. The ends were made higher than the sides allowing for the books to be piled one on top of the other, without injuring the books. These boxes were filled in the stacks, numbered in rotation, put though the library windows on to a slide to the two trucks; thence to the new building and by number to their proper places on the shelves. This insured no rehandling of the books. Not a single volume passed through the corridors of Foster Hall, everything being moved through the windows. The library was in complete readiness for the opening of the school after the Christmas holidays."
Though Miss Bartholomew was pleased with the new quarters, she also reported:
"The main reading room which seats 160 people has several times reached capacity and over, with alarming results as one wonders how soon these new quarters will be outgrown."

Faculty Borrowing, 1932-33

From the University Librarian's Annual Report, 1932-33

"The faculty have no time or quantity limit to the books drawn out on an individual name. At first this worked favorably, but in the last four or five years the problem of faculty drawing out books and turning them directly over to students has become acute. A reason given to substantiate this non-time limit on books, is that professors use "the more specialized books" and that "no one else would want them." In a survey made this year of faculty reading, we find that the books drawn out by them fall largely in two parts: the latest books, fiction and non-fiction (used largely by faculty wives) and books drawn out for students. A small third part were books read in their own fields. When a book is handed arbitrarily to a student, the faculty member has no record of to whom this book is given and when the professor is requested to return the book, the inevitable answer is "I never drew it out." This necessitates much loss of time in locating the books and in some cases the books when lost are never replaced. All members of the faculty are offenders in this case, some making a regular practice of it and others doing it only a little. If there were many copies of a single title, it would not cause so much havoc, but due to the present policy of the purchase of a few copies, it causes much complaint among the users."

Complaints about circulation policies, and the abuse of circulation policies, appear to be as old as libraries. However, the above quotation also illustrates a relatively new approach to library administration--statistical analysis of library collections and of library usage. Confronted with a problem-- the apparent abuse of faculty borrowing privileges-- the University Librarian conducts a user survey to investigate actual practices. Earlier UB librarians were likely to know the size of their collections, and the size of their annual budget, but University Librarian Ruth Bartholomew began in the 1920s to record figures on in-house use, cataloging rates, circulation, and interlibrary loan. In 1931-32, she used figures compiled by the Carnegie Corporation of New York Advisory Group on College Libraries to compare the book and periodical holdings in twenty-one areas (from Astronomy to Zoology) against the Carnegie Corporation's recommended list of titles. By the use of these internal and external statistics, Bartholomew could show exactly how well the University Libraries faired against national norms. The era of scientific library management had arrived.

The Role of a Library: Lockwood Library Dedication, 1935

Architect E.B. Green's master plan for the development of the Main Street Campus of the University of Buffalo placed the library at the center of the design. This library, dedicated in 1935, was Lockwood Library, named after the family of the donors, Thomas and Marion B. Lockwood. With the development of the North (Amherst) Campus in the 1970s, the name of Lockwood Memorial Library was transferred to the facility on the new campus and the "old" Lockwood Library became Abbott Hall, home of the Health Sciences Library.

University Chancellor Samuel P. Capen took up the theme of the centrality of the library -- intellectually as well as architecturally -- in his speech at the dedication of the new building in May 1935:

"For every institution of higher learning the one perennially indispensable possession is a library. The reason is plain. The record of what men have accomplished and thought and imagined and wondered at is stored in books."

Speaking of the donors, Capen said:

"Whoever served a university thus magnificently has achieved something akin to immortality. The University of Buffalo has been created through gifts large and small from those who have believed in the purpose for which it stands. No other institution of equal age has received gifts from so many persons. Their numbers run into the thousands. The gift which we are met today to acknowledge is the greatest single donation ever made to the University. Through this gift Thomas Bell and Marion Birge Lockwood take their place among the founders of the University."

The building was and is stately. But Thomas Lockwood saw his gift in a somewhat different light. Speaking to a reporter from the Buffalo Courier Express in July 1933 about E.B. Green's design of the new building, Lockwood said:

"What I wanted to do was to create an attractive place where students could come and get acquainted with English and American literature. When I was at Yale some of us boys used to spend hours in the library, browsing among the books, finding new interests, and new sidelights on old ones."

Lockwood's sense of the Library as a place for enjoyment was mirrored in the remarks at the dedication of Lockwood by the author and bibliophile Christopher Morley. Morley followed Capen's serious remarks with the following observation:

"I think there is too darn much dignity around universities. I am suspicious of dignity in places of learning. A library is not just a place for serious work; a library is also a place to have fun."

For Lockwood and Morley, a library should be a place of beauty because it was also one of delight.

But even Morley had some serious comments. In the 1930s, it seemed that the world was falling apart. In some places, people were burning books. In Morley's words, Lockwood's library was also "a defense against things gone silently out of mind and the things violently destroyed." What better response to barbarism than to build a library?

Charles D. Abbott, Director of Libraries

In 1934, Charles D. Abbott was appointed Director of Libraries. Abbott (1900-1961) was a young English professor with degrees from Haverford, Columbia and Oxford, who was hired in part because of Thomas Lockwood's desire to build the special collections of the University Libraries.

Abbott's annual reports continued to chronicle the growth of the collection, the attendance, the circulation figures and what seemed to be an unending issue of maintaining quiet in the reading room. His reports also document his efforts to establish the University Libraries as a cultural resource on the campus, and to secure support for the development of the Modern Poetry Collection.

Annual Report, 1938-39

"The efforts begun last year to interest the students in the work of the Old and Rare Book Department have continued with some success. Two exhibitions were so timed as to make possible a considerable student attendance, and a tea, given to the Senior Class, attracted a capacity crowd, more, in fact, than our previous experiences had led us to prepare for. On that occasion I talked informally on the Library's various collections and won a response that was extremely gratifying. It is one of my continual regrets that I do not have more time for this kind of propaganda since I believe it is peculiarly beneficial to the Library's and the University's welfare.

"The Poetry Project received the Carnegie Corporation's grant of $17,000 too late in the year to have achieved, as yet, the results which such assistance will eventually bring. Considerable progress has, however been made... I have been able to continue the necessary ground work by visiting some ninety American poets in three trips, times as follows: January, three weeks in New York City; April, one week in Chicago; May, three weeks in New England and the Central Atlantic States. The complete report of these trips and of the cooperation which they have evoked I should prefer to reserve until the whole of the country has been covered.

"The Friends of the Lockwood Memorial Library have sponsored four exhibitions.... These have all been well attended, and one of them brought us more newspaper publicity than we have hitherto commanded..."

This report documents the early years of several innovations of Charles D. Abbott: (1) the annual Christmas party; (2) the Poetry Collection; (3) the Friends; and (4) the growing importance of development work.

Grace Persch, Medical Librarian, On Using the Library, 1937

Grace Persch served as the Librarian of the Medical School Library from 1905 to 1937. Following her retirement, she prepared an article for the Medical and Dental School student periodical, the Medentian, offering advice on the use of the a library.

Persch advised students that the literature of medicine was complex, and to use the Library required special instruction. Specifically, Persch recommended the development of library skills in the following areas:

Medical Writing. A doctor needed to know how to write case reports and to prepare papers for publication, which required skill in using the library, finding sources, and preparing correct bibliographies.
Use of Indices. Persch mentions three: Index Medicus, in three series, beginning 1879; Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus, beginning 1916; and the Index Catalog of the Library -- Surgeon General's Office, in three series, beginning 1880.
Use of Abstract Journals.
Use of Current Periodicals. In 1937, the library had more than 250 current subscriptions, though Persch noted that there were some sixteen hundred periodicals "of various kinds and languages published."
Use of Monographs, Encyclopedias and Dictionaries. This last category included historical and inspirational books as well as the technical literature:
"Biographies and history of medicine, classical and pioneer writings, such as Hippocrates-- (the oldest, but modern in spirit) can be read to advantage. Works such as Laennec's Ausculation, Hunter's Treatise on the Blood, Beaumont's Physiology of Digestion, etc., represent landmarks in the progress of medical science....

For inspiration and enjoyment, Persch recommended the "Life of Osler", Trudeau's "Autobiography", Bland- Sutton's "Story of a Surgeon" and Sim's "Story of My Life."

A quick check of BISON shows that all of the titles on Persch's list of Medical classics and biography are still available in the Health Sciences Library.

The Centennial: A Look At Budgets And Library Consolidation, 1946

In 1946-47, the University celebrated its Centennial, which was also the Centennial of the Libraries. For the first seventy years of its history, the University was a collection of professional schools, operating almost independently from each other. The Greater University Movement of ca. 1905-1920, ending with the Endowment Campaign of 1920, laid the ground work for a more centralized and coordinated university. The appointment of the first University Librarian, Ruth Bartholomew, in 1922, was part of this consolidation effort. However, the period from 1922 onward was also a time of the development of new programs at the university in the arts, sciences and engineering, all requiring library support.

The University's budget for 1946-47, provides a realistic picture of the state of the libraries in the centennial year:

The University Libraries had a budget of $66,770. The expense of operating the University Libraries was shared proportionately by the College of Arts and Sciences, Pharmacy, the Summer Session, the School of Business Administration, Education, Social Work and Engineering. More than half of the University Library budget came from the College of Arts and Sciences.

The School of Medicine supported a separate library, with a budget of $6,500.

The School of Dentistry included a library as a separate budget item, with $2,000 appropriated. However, the bulk of the Dental collection had already been merged with the Medical School Library to form what would be called in the 1950s the Medical- Dental Library.

The School of Law supported a separate library, with a budget of $4,500.

Millard Fillmore College included a library as a separate budget item, with a budget of $1,300. This was primarily used to support the small library collection at Millard Fillmore College's downtown site at Townsend Hall on Niagara Square.

So, in 1946, most of the academic programs of the university were served by the University Libraries, but the funding for the central library continued to be derived from appropriates from the separate schools. Though it was called a University Library, the main library did not include Medicine, Dentistry or Law. Medicine and Dentistry, though they would continue to be outside the University Libraries, shared a common core curriculum and similar library needs, which resulted in the merger of their libraries and the development of the Medical-Dental Library and finally the Health Sciences Library.

Service Excellence, ca. 1950

Courtesy and willingness to help library users must be kept in mind at all times. If a faculty member or a student appears to have difficulty in using the catalog -- offer your assistance -- remember that catalogs are sometimes confusing to library users.
Try to learn the location of the principal reference books, such books as the World Almanac, Indexes, Educational Directories etc. When opportunity presents itself during the day look through these books and find out, in general, what is in them. You will be able to give better service as a result.
When you are asked for information try and answer as best you can. If you do not know the answer call the Circulation Director or Assistant Director. Do NOT send the inquirer out of the library until you are sure the library does not have the information or cannot get it. Often books which are not in the library can be ordered by the Circulation Director through interlibrary loan. By following through on a question you will learn yourself and, at the same time, protect the reputation of the library.
Be as tactful as possible when enforcing rules or maintaining discipline. If the situation seems difficult for you, call the Circulation Director or Assistant Director.
Members of the Library staff should not indulge in lengthy personal conversations with students at the desk. It is perfectly possible to be friendly and maintain a certain professional dignity.
The library telephone is for business use. If personal calls are received keep them brief. Students are not permitted to use the library telephones.

Thirty Years Ago Today: Benchmarking With Annual Reports

From the Oscar Silverman's Annual Report for 1966-67:

"Our election in 1967 to membership in the Association of Research Libraries signals to the academic community our coming of age: fewer than eighty American and Canadian libraries are members. Membership essentially means that we are potentially, if not actually, capable of supplying bibliographic tools for research in a considerable number of fields. Membership carries many cooperative privileges which we shall make increasingly make use of....

"Now "cooperative" takes on greater meaning through the loose association in 1967 of Five Associated Universities: Buffalo, Binghamton, Cornell, Rochester, Syracuse. Recognizing that none of us is able to be eminent in all or nearly all fields, we are exploring ways of avoiding needless duplication, of making one another's resources easier of access to the others (speedier inter-library loans, long-distance transmission of photo-copy, compatibility of catalogs through automation), and of the possibility of arranging for a common storage or depository library.

"Our relationship with these four libraries, as well as close ties with other units in State University, the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, and the State Library, may well, historically, be the most significant beginnings of 1966-67."

[The report goes on to discuss the lack of space. UB had merged with SUNY in 1962, the next several years was marked by a rapid expansion in the size of the university. Plans were already underway for building a new campus in Amherst.]

"... Until we are finally settled on the new campus, we shall have to improvise; but we see that the brilliance of the new plan [for the Amherst Campus] will cause us to think anew of the problem of libraries on a new campus. We must try to avoid the dichotomy of the fragmented departmental libraries, and the intractability of the monolithic library so large that it defeats itself... We must match our conceptions to the imagination shown in the plans for re-organizing the University."

[Automating the Card Catalog]

"The recently appointed dean for the new school of library and information techniques will be of great importance to us as we proceed with our own automation. Already in progress is a machine-readable catalog which we hope will be completed by 1968. Conversations with the other Five Associated Universities as well as with the Central Administration in Albany indicate that we are progressing in a way which they, when they begin their automation, will find compatible."

What Do I Do With This Form? Library Reporting, 1924

In 1924, the American Library Association circulated a survey to American libraries, designed "to give an honest, fair, unbiased statement of facts, based on actual conditions of library work in America, concerning every phase of library maintenance, administration and service."

The survey was meant to be comprehensive. The section on "Selection of books" included six sub-headings, and fifty-three questions, such as:

"Do you follow the principle of "the best books" or "the best books that people will read"?

"Do you select to satisfy the reading needs of all the community elements, with the hope of winning all of them, or do you select to meet the needs of your present body of readers."

"What books, in general, do you read (or have an assistant or some other advisor read) throughout?"

To which Ruth Bartholomew replied,

"All that is humanly possible."

In total, the questionnaire ran to one hundred and eighty-five pages. My best estimate is it contained something in excess of 1,800 questions, most of which required narrative answers.

Ruth Bartholomew got to page nineteen, then filed the unfinished survey. The survey instrument, which even in its unfinished state provides an interesting window on library concerns of the 1920s, survives in the Ruth Bartholomew Papers in the University Archives.

Library Folklore: The Story About the Pencils Is True

The annual reports, minutes, budgets, and other official documents of the University Libraries record its history. However, there are other stories which leave little or no trace in the papers. Some of these stories have become part of library folklore. This "minute" is in part a plea for those who know stories that ought to be recorded and passed on to write them out and send them in.

For example, the annual Christmas party has been held since at least the mid 1930s. At these events, tales are told of the alcohol content of the punch bowl in the "old days."

A certain individual with an organized mind would arise in meetings to declare that he had three points to make, and proceed to logically lay out, in numerical order, points one, two, three, four, five and six. Always edifying, but it probably drove the note-takers crazy.

Who is that graduate student who has been here for thirty years?

Some stories have documentation. Yes, the steps of the old Lockwood Library (now Abbott Hall, home of the Health Sciences Library) did explode. In 1938, and probably from "sewer gas."

In some cases, verification comes from oral testimony. Yes, I have been told on good authority, that the story that Ruth Bartholomew made you bring in the stub of your old pencil before issuing you a new one is true.

The Role of a Professional School Library, 1956

"Like any unit of a university library system, a professional school library serves students and faculty as an adjunct to the curriculum, aids faculty research, and offers service to agencies outside of the university to an extend that does not interfere with the library's primary task."

"The professional school library exists as a separate unit because: (a) it places materials in a location convenient for those who make the greatest use of them; (b) it broadens the basis of support of the university library system; (c) it gives the school a direct interest in its library; and (d) it makes more efficient use of librarians with special subject knowledge when they are available."

"Some drawbacks of a de-centralized unit are: (a) duplication of certain library materials; (b) possible deviation from the policies of the university library system and (c) the danger that the library may develop beyond the legitimate needs of the university."

The above is from a report by John Rather, dated July 24, 1956, concerning the possibility of moving the Engineering Library.

Rather's report goes on to critique the acquisitions policies of the Engineering Library. Among other things, he suggests:

That a science collection should consist of 60-75 per cent periodicals to avoid becoming obsolete.
Gifts could be a burden. Even in 1956, the cost of processing could be as high as $3.00 per volume. "Apart from this, it may be said that not all books are of equal value; thus it seems hard to justify acquiring a 60 year old edition of a third-rate textbook. The occasional research use of such material can be served by interlibrary loan..."

"A surprising number of gifts added to the [Engineering] library have no legitimate place in the collection. The fact that The Psychology of Language, The Art of the Motion Picture and Making Money in Stock Trading came as gifts does not warrant having them in the Engineering Library. Moreover, the first and third titles are unique in the university libraries. They should be transferred to Lockwood Library where they will be more accessible."

(Almost) Thirty Years Ago Today: Libraries, Computing And Audio-Visual, 1967

On September 26, 1967, the Communications Committee of the University at Buffalo issued a position paper on "The Organization of Academic Resources at the University."

According to the position paper, the academic resources at UB consisted of the library, computing and audio-visual facilities. While traditional libraries had been the "preeminent academic resource" of any university, recent developments in computing and communications technology, particularly television, the paper argued, called for a new form of organization. The paper concluded that what was required was a "Director of Academic Resources" who would oversee Computer Services, University Libraries and Instructional Communications."

"His [sic] background should be academic so that he will understand the needs and functions of the libraries, computing center and instructional communications facilities and so that he will be able to deal as an equal with the academic community."
"It is important that he have at least some background and understanding of modern communications and computing technology which will affect so significantly the developments in all three academic resource areas. In lieu of this he must at least be capable of and interested in developing this understanding."
"He should be a person of demonstrated initiative and leadership."
"Finally we would note our belief that the Director of Academic Resources should not also double as the director of one of the other three organizations. We say this not because we are worried about any possible bias in such a case but rather because this directorship is a full time job and should be treated as such."
It has been an underlying theme in many of these minutes that many of the issues confronting the libraries or the university at large are not new. UB has, for example, a century of experience with "distance learning" beginning with post-graduate correspondence-based instruction offered by the Medical School in 1896, and continuing to the present, including a short lived attempt, 1968-1971, to provided closed-circuit engineering courses to local industry. The University Libraries has been sharing resources with other libraries since 1847. Interlibrary loan arrangements have been operative since at least the 1880s. Digitization is a modern effort to preserve and share resources. Will its impact be as great as the microfilm revolution of the 1930s?
This is the last "Three Millionth Volume Minute." I will close by quoting the motto of the National Archives:

What is Past is Prologue