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Download This PDF File By HENRY BIRNBAUM The Research Library and the Scholar HAT DO SCHOLARS THINK of the re- librarian? What are their ideas in respect Wsearch library and research librar- to the future of research libraries? These ians? Librarians have written extensively questions provide a framework for the of how useful libraries are to scholarship discussions by faculty members, research- and research. Do scholars agree with ers, and directors of research. them? Are libraries essential for national Before entering directly into these dis- survival, for supporting the economic cussions, however, it may be useful to life of the nation, and for providing the describe briefly "the research library," sources of data necessary for a trained "scholar," and "scholarship." youth and informed public?1 Howard Three types of scholarly or research Mumford Jones, professor of English, libraries may be identified: (1) special Harvard University, states that the pri- libraries serving a small area of learning; mary aim of the research library is to (2) university libraries which undertake collect, enrich, and preserve records of to cover the whole field of scholarship;4 intellectual achievement from every cul- and (3) libraries which fall somewhere ture and all time.2 Richard D. Altick, in between, such as "special collections*)' professor of English, Ohio State Univer- made up largely of rare and out-of-print sity, asserts that the whole edifice of books dealing with the same or related modern scholarship rests upon the foun- subjects.5 Variations in aims and pur- dation of research libraries.3 poses of each type of research library Other scholars have commented on re- occur and influence the collections. search libraries. It is the purpose of this Conyers Read, professor of history, review to examine a selected group of University of Pennsylvania, defines re- such views published since 1945. This search libraries as institutions designed date has been chosen because since to assist those engaged in extending the World War II the demands upon re- boundaries of knowledge,6 and E. H. search libraries have increased substan- Wilkins, Harvard University, sees the tially. What do these views tell us of the research library in a university as the wants and needs of scholars? How does custodian of the world's actual knowl- the problem of library growth appear to edge and the reservoir of its potential them? What do they think of current knowledge.7 practices in cataloging and classification? Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary What do they expect in terms of research defines a scholar as one who has engaged assistance from librarians? What do they in advanced study and has acquired consider to be the attributes of the ideal knowledge in some special field.8 A schol- ar also may be defined as an individual 1 Kurt Peiser, "The Research Library in Contem- porary Society," in Pennsylvania. University. Library. Changing Patterns of Scholarship and the Future of 4 Conyers Read, "Libraries and Scholarship," in Research Libraries (Philadelphia: 1951), p.54. Op. cit., 2 Pennsylvania. University. Library. p.98. "Opportunities and Support for College and Uni- 5 Louis Gottschalk, "Possible Readjustments by the versity Libraries," CRL, XIV (1953), 9-21. Scholar," in Chicago. University. Graduate Library 3 "The Scholar's Paradise," CRL XV (1954), 382. School. Librarians, Scholars and Booksellers at Mid- century (Chicago: 1953), p.49. 8 Loc. cit. 7 "The University Library and Scholarship," Harvard Mr. Birnbaum is Chief Circulation Library Bulletin, IV (1950), 16. 8 Webster"s New Collegiate Dictionary, 5th ed., 1948, Librarian, Brooklyn College Library. p.889. SEPTEMBER 1959 355 who is engaged in extending the bound- that some selectivity is inevitable. Baugh aries of knowledge, who develops new suggests that the available funds be dis- or syntheses of knowledge, and who tributed among four categories: (1) basic needs and uses research libraries to at- tools such as bibliographies, works of tain his goal. reference, and the important serials A narrower definition of a scholar, by which should be purchased no matter Louis Gottschalk, professor of modern what else the library does; (2) the most history, University of Chicago, is that he important books in most fields; (3) spe- is an investigator whose research material cial collections in those fields where spe- is to be found in printed sources that cial work is being done by the faculty; are relatively rare or out-of-print; hence and, (4) a luxury sum for modest ad- the investigator who, for the most part, ditions to collectors' items, rarities, and 11 is engaged in either historical or human- manuscripts. istic research. This definition is not James D. Hart, professor of English, meant to exclude the natural scientist University of California at Berkeley, con- concerned with the study of the history curring, notes that if a university is to of his science from rare and out-of-print be maintained as a scholarly institution, books, or the social scientist concerned its library must not only possess a vast with the more remote historical develop- basic collection of research materials, but ment of either the thought or the institu- it must each year buy the many pub- lished books and journals which repre- tions that fall within his field.9 sent its appropriate coverage of the Scholarship is defined by Merle E. world's knowledge put into print. He Curti, professor of history, University of and John D. Millett, president, Miami Wisconsin, as high competence in a de- University, Oxford, Ohio, agree how- limited field of conscious and sustained ever, that a ceiling can be placed on an inquiry for related facts, valid generaliza- undergraduate book collection, because tions, and workable truths.10 a library with more than a quarter mil- The Scholar's Wants and Needs. The lion volumes seems to present college literature reveals that the wants and students with almost as many problems needs of scholars in libraries are related as solutions. On the other hand, Hart to subject interests. The statements believes that no simple limits can be selected, therefore, have been separated put on the library of an educational in- into two groups, those from humanists stitution offering strong graduate pro- and social scientists, and those from nat- grams in a large number of subjects.12 ural scientists. According to Crane Brinton, professor Albert C. Baugh, professor of English, of ancient and modern history, Harvard University of Pennsylvania, points out University, and John F. McDermott, as- that for the humanists and social scien- sociate professor of English, Washington tists, the research library has to be the University, the humanist and social laboratory as well as the research tool, scientist also will demand obscure ma- providing a key to the results of previous terials and materials that in the past did scholarship. Not only are current ma- not attain the dignity of "literature," terials needed, but also original texts such as old Sears, Roebuck catalogs, out- and documents of all kinds. He recog- 11 "The Balance of Conflicting Interests in the Build- nizes, however, that the ideal of com- ing of Collections. Discussion," in Pennsylvania. Uni- versity. Library. Op. cit., pp.80, 82. pleteness is impossible in all fields, and 12 Hart, "What a Scholar Expects of Acquisitions," in Edwin E. Williams, ed. Problems and Prospects of 9 Loc. cit. the Research Library (New Brunswick, N.J.: Scare- 10 American Scholarship in the Twentieth Century crow Press, 1955), p.59; Millett, Financing Higher (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1953), Education in the United States (New York: Columbia pp. 1-2. University Press, 1952), p.123. 356 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES of-date textbooks, dime novels, and other Library Growth. It is perhaps natural fugitive writings. These materials, Brin- for the scholar to desire and demand all ton believes, are needed to satisfy the de- that he thinks he needs for his research. mand for what is called "the new history However, Hart recognizes that there and the new criticism," and are an at- must be limitations, despite the necessity tempt to get as great a range of concrete for growth of the library if his university facts as possible on which to test con- is not to stagnate. But, Hart also realizes cepts, hypotheses, and ideas about hu- that while the making of books for li- man behavior.13 braries is endless, the balancing of books Meeting the demands of the natural in the comptroller's office has a definite scientists is no easier task for a research end. His suggestions for controlling library than meeting the needs of the growth are an increased move towards humanists and social scientists. While cooperative storage libraries and the use natural scientists will want materials of more microreproductions.17 that cover the historical aspects of their Altick recognizes that the modern uni- particular field, Philip M. Morse, pro- versity library fulfills a highly complex fessor of physics, Massachusetts Institute purpose and he views it as inescapable of Technology, finds that the main em- that the book-stock must be distributed phasis is on current literature. Contrary in a number of places in addition to the to the humanists and social scientists, he main stack. His hope is that decentrali- feels that the research physicist's library, zation be minimized. On the other hand, for instance, is much better if it does not if the books do have to be decentralized contain books that are very rarely used.14 and in some instances stored, he pleads According to Fred L. Pundsack, senior that their current whereabouts be clearly research chemist, Johns-Manville Cor- noted in the public catalog.18 poration, the user of a scientific library Millett blames the librarians for the expects to find a comprehensive file of growth of research libraries in universi- periodicals relating to his field of in- ties.
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