Excerpt from Report of the Committee Appointed in November, 1914: To Investigate the Relations of Departmental Libraries in the University of Chicago

The Committee held its first meeting on November 21, 1914, with Dr. Burton, Director of the Libraries, in the chair, and Mr. Hanson, the Associate Director, acting as Secretary. A report on conditions in the Libraries was read which aimed to point out some of the more serious shortcomings of the present system.

It called attention, among other things, to the fact that the strong interest of the University from the beginning in research work, accompanied as it was by insufficient funds for the development of the Libraries, and inadequate general supervision had led to a disproportionate emphasis on purchase of books as compared with cataloguing, binding, arrangement, and preservation, to a dis proportionate development of the Departmental Libraries as compared with the General Library, and to inadequate co-ordination of the former with one another and with the General Library. In particular some of the Departmental Libraries had acquired and were acquiring books outside their proper fields, books on the same subjects were found in several different libraries, sets of books remained incomplete, fragments of the same sets or series were found in different libraries, and books, especially serials or collections, of interest to several departments were often found, not in the General Library, but in some one Departmental Library. When to these conditions it is added that some Departmental Libraries had reached the limit of their space, it was evident that the time was ripe for some modification of the practice hitherto followed in respect to the purchase and distribution of books.

A large amount of illustrative material and detailed evidence was submitted Without reading.

It was voted to send a list of questions to a short, selected list of libraries, with a view to drawing out their experience and judgment. Mr. Manly and Mr. Parker, the latter having taken the place of Mr. Judd on the Committee, were appointed with the secretary as a Subcommittee to draw up the questions.

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