| This is a transcription of the 1922-1923 Annual Report of the University of Buffalo Librarian. To view a facsimile of the report, click on the picture to the right: |  |
I beg herewith to submit my report as Librarian of the University of Buffalo for the year 1922-1923.
The libraries of the University embrace three principal collections: The University Medical Library in the Medical College on High Street; the University Law Library in the Law School on Eagle Street; and the University General Library at Foster Hall.
The Medical Library is an excellent collection of eighteen thousand volumes in charge of Miss Grace Persh of the Medical Department and is growing at the rate of five hundred volumes per year. A card catalogue covers the collection to date. The Medical Library was founded in 1846 by Dr. James P. White, Dr. Frank Hamilton and Dr. Austin Flint. In 1891 Mrs. Esther Glenny gave as a memorial to her brother, Dr. George Buswell, his library of fourteen hundred volumes and an endowment of twenty-five hundred dollars. The medical library of the late Dr. Roswell Park was also given to the Medical School and embraces many rare and special works on surgical and medical history which could not be replaced.
The Law Library of six thousand volumes had its beginning in the year 1909 at which time Mr. George D. Crofts, now Treasurer of the University, but at that time Registrar of the Law School, interested a group of thirty-six citizens in contributing funds for the foundation of a library as an adjunct to the Law School. To this original sum has been added an annual library fee charged all students of the Law School, and today it is the best and most complete collection of law books in Western New York outside of the State law libraries. The Law School Library is in charge of law student assistants.
A small library of six hundred and seven volumes of Psychology and Pedagogics is maintained at Townsend Hall for the use of student teachers who as special students attend the late afternoon classes at that building.
The collection, which is now designated as the University Library, is housed in the Library Reading Room and Stack Room at the southeast corner of the first floor of Foster Hall, having been moved from Townsend Hall and the former rooms of the Chemistry and Pharmacy Departments on Goodell Street in the fall of 1922, shortly after the undersigned was appointed University Librarian. This Foster Hall collection, as is distinguished from the University Medical and University Law Libraries, is under the personal charge of the University Librarian, and to it this report will accordingly be confined.
The University Library today numbers 17,930 volumes, of which 14,696 are books and bound volumes and 3,234 are pamphlets.
The work of the Librarian during the past year divides itself into four parts:
| 1. | The purchase of
new books. |
| 2. | Accessioning, collating and cataloging these new books and current
gifts according to standard library methods. |
| 3. | The extension of these
standard library methods and cataloging back into the 12,000 books of the
library owned by the University prior to my appointment. |
| 4. | The daily
conduct
of the library at Foster Hall during the academic year, including
continuous reference work both in obtaining for library users the
reference books desired by them, and looking up and answering reference
questions submitted; the charging and discharging of all books taken from
the library in accordance with the library rules; the maintenance of order
among students using the library during library hours from eight A. M. to
five- thirty P. M. daily. |
The Council of the University allots in the budget an annual appropriation for the purchase of books. This sum is allocated for the purchase of books of general library value and special books needed by the various departments of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Chemistry and Pharmacy. Recommendations are received from the heads of these departments as to the new books needed in the library as collateral reading and for reference in the various courses. After requests for such purposes within the budget appropriations come to the Librarian from the heads of the respective departments, requisitions are drawn upon the Treasurer's Office and the books purchased through that office. These accessions have in the main been standard reference books in the various subjects taught by the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry. We have acquired in this way a small, well-working reference collection, which is on open shelves in the library reading rooms, accessible to professors and students alike. The students do not have direct access to the main portion of the library which is housed in the Stack Room. Although the Foster Hall collection is primarily a reference library, 11,763 books have been withdrawn during the year for outside reading.
Each professor has been given the use of one or more shelves in the reading room on which he may place books which are reserved for the use of his students only. These books are drawn out of the regular collection and placed on his shelves together with others which he may add. As these books were used in reading room only, it has been impossible to keep statistics as to their use.
In addition to the purchases outlined above, your Librarian has had the constant assistance of the Library Committee of the Council, consisting of Mrs. Edward H. Butler, Mr. Philip B. Goetz and Mr. George D. Crofts, in the general purchase of books. As a direct consequence of the World War many European libraries have been forced into the market at extraordinarily low prices with the rate of exchange greatly in favor of American remittances. Mr. Goetz, who is intimately familiar with foreign book sellers through purchases made by him over many years for his private library, has studied the foreign catalogues continuously, and through his efforts many important accessions have been made in the past year to the library.
Special mention should be made of 3,000 doctors' theses presented by candidates for higher degrees at German universities. This collection is especially rich in studies of early English and will furnish a wealth of reference material for our graduate students when that department of the University comes into existence. As these theses are printed in German, the work of classification and cataloging will require special assistance from that department of the Arts faculty.
The University has been exceedingly fortunate in its recent accessions by gift. Through the generosity of Mr. Goetz, we have received from him a gift of 120 volumes of standard German classics from the library of the late Philip Becker. Our largest gift was 2,000 volumes from the library of the late Rev. Frank B. Carlton of Buffalo, presented by his wife. Five hundred volumes of the collection cover general topics; the balance being works on theology and religion. Dr. Julian Park has given many volumes from time to time from his father's library and his own. During the year 1921, all publications put out by the Yale University Press that year were presented to the University of Buffalo by Mr. Frank H. Goodyear in memory of his father, the late Charles W. Goodyear. Federal and State governments, as well as various institutions and societies, have supplied the library with copies of many of their reports and publications. Among the list of donors are: Mrs. Nina Bull, Mr. A. Cotter, Dr. W. G. Gregory, Mr. Theo. B. Hewett, Mr. F. Hill, Dr. William Irons, Dr. D. B. Leary, Dr. Long, Dr. Julian Park, Mrs. Julian Park, Mrs. F. L. Pratt, Mrs. L. Reichel, Mr. Edwin Sears, Mr. F. B. Spaulding, Jr., Dr. Albert Sy, Mr. C. W. Whitney, Miss Jane M. Welsch, Mr. James F. White, Allyn & Bacon, American Red Cross Society, Cornell University, Lake Forest College, Macmillan Co., Syracuse University, United States Department of Commerce, United States Department of Labor, University of Michigan, Yale University and Grosvenor Library.
All current purchases made by Librarian have been listed on "Order Cards" by author, title, name of publisher, date and price. On delivery of the books this card is checked and removed into a "Filled Order" file, which gives us a check against duplication of orders. The books are then entered in a serially numbered "Accession Record" together with the date shown on the order card. The books are collated by cutting and counting of pages, insertion of book plate, book pocket, date slip and book card. The books are then catalogued with their classification number and catalogue cards made out for author, title and various subject headings into which it is classified. The "Call Number" is placed on the front and back of the book and after shellacing [sic] the books are placed on the shelves.
Since the appointment of your Librarian, 5,095 volumes have thus been accessioned, classified, cataloged and placed on the shelves. This work has been seriously handicapped by lack of working tables and room space and the constant demand upon the Librarian's time for reference work, charging and discharging of books taken from the library during the academic year, and the less exacting duty of maintaining order among students users of the library. It is evident that these duties are compelling when we consider that 20,743 professors and students have made use of the library during the academic year last past. In spite of these handicaps, current purchases by the Librarian have been accessioned, collated and cataloged and also the current gifts, with the exception of the theology portion of the Carlton gift and the German theses.
A more serious problem is that of installing a standard library system and cataloging into the sixteen thousand books comprising the libraries prior to my appointment. Prior to such appointment an effort was made to keep a list of these books and cards to the number of several thousand were in existence referring to prior accessions. No adequate accession record was, however, in existence and no attempt had been made to classify and catalog the books under a standard library system. By working throughout this summer real progress has been made in this direction, but the work of cataloging the pre-existing library must be discontinued at the opening of the fall term with its incoming reference work and instant duties, unless an assistant with library training can be added to the staff. With such aid and the help of student assistants, the current work of the library can be continued and the cataloging of the pre-existing library advanced apace.
Your Librarian extends her grateful thanks to the Library Committee of the Council of the University, without whose constant and sympathetic aid it would have been impossible to have added so materially and intelligently to the growth of the library and to have faced the pressure of daily duties and arrearages of cataloging accumulating over the past years. Your Librarian further wishes to express her appreciation of the loyal work during the academic year of her student part-time assistants, Maxwell Williams, Marion Hershiser and John Little, and of the aid given in cataloging during the summer by Miss Catherine Holmes, Miss Henrietta Christen and Miss Erna Ziebarth.
- Respectfully submitted,
- RUTH BARTHOLOMEW, Librarian