BOOKS AT BROWN

VOL. I, NO. I iufSyil JUNE, I938

PUBLISHED BY THE FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY

GREETINGS! The organization of the Friends of the Library delights me. No problem in connection with a university is more perennially acute than that of the library. If it does well, one is encouraged to hope that it will do better. If it is not performing its function adequately, one is determined to see that it does so. Thus in bright days one's ambition runs ahead of achievement and in dark days determination grows stronger. Help is therefore necessary at all times and at no point does the reinforcement of active interest bring so much real assistance to the effective discharge of University functions. It is a matter of deep interest not only to the students and the Faculty, to the Corporation and the Alumni, but to the community as well, for the existence of a great library effectively administered is of utmost importance to the public at large. Even though those services are not immediate or perfectly obvious, they are no less important. Therefore we welcome the reinforcement that comes to us in the Friends of the Library. President Henry M. Wriston

WHO ARE "THE FRIENDS"? It is good to be a friend and it is good to have friends. A group of "friendly" people has been meeting recently on College Hill. The object of their affection is the Library of Brown University. These friends include Brown men and men from other universities, women as well as men, who are lovers of books and who enjoy helping to stimulate the gifts of books, maps and manuscripts to the Library of Brown University. Many universities have such groups. At Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, Chicago, Harvard and M. I. T., Friends of the Library are doing rare service in secur­ ing the gift of books and collections which cannot be bought within the library's ordinary budget. How will the Friends function? That is for each Friend to de­ termine. Some will wish to give books, as the spirit moves, from their own or their family libraries. Some will be keenly interested in a particular fieldo f knowledge or in a certain department of the University. They will enjoy most the building up of Brown's collections on their favorite subject. Some will have no definite hobby. They will be glad to be told of some of the Library's more pressing needs and to help there. Others who know and love books may not feel in a position to make many gifts. Such a Friend can be of especial service as a "Scout." He can learn of collections whose owners wish to give or will their libraries to some institu­ tion that will appreciate and use them. Many collections have come to Brown already as a direct result of the suggestions of loyal Friends of the University. It is told of Sir Thomas Bodley that he importuned high and low, royalty and commoner, for gifts of books to his beloved Oxford. He was a great "scout" and the great Friend of the Library. Oxford's finestjewe l fittingly bears his name. Brown University has a library of more than half a million volumes. It ranks fifteenth among the universities of the country. The quality of its collections is high. Nevertheless it is weak in certain departments. Brown has an outstanding collection of early Americana in the John Carter Brown Library, but it is weak in the fieldo f Medieval History. Its Harris Collection of American Poetry is the country's largest, but the Art Library is not out­ standing. Brown is very proud of its Mathematical Library but the new organization of the Department of Astronomy suggests more systematic and more ambitious attention to its library needs. Later issues of Books at Brown will point with pride to the strengths and view with alarm the weaknesses of the Library. Meanwhile, the Friends will find out for themselves which way their interests run. The raising of money is not the chief desire of the Friends. It is not even an important one. Anyone who will give but one book or one periodical a year or who will simply enjoy rendering personal service to the Library is welcome. Members will receive Books at Brown several times a year. They are invited to take books from the Library. Speakers on books, libraries and collecting will be sought and our meetings made interesting by the discussion of topics close to the heart of a bibliophile. "This is a society of persons who are lovers of books, interested in the Library of Brown University and its growing usefulness.'' To every prospective member we say, '' You are cordially invited to join with us, but with the distinct understanding that you will do your best to get all the fun and enjoyment you can out of being a Friend of the Library of Brown University." CD. M. FIRST FRUITS Six hundred volumes on the history and development of the Middle West came to John Hay Library recently from Frederick S. Peck. The gift included many scarce and unusual books that strengthened one of the weaker spots in the Library's historical collections. This great addition to Brown's resources was given through the Friends. We have reason to be proud! The first meeting of the Friends brought immediate and tangible results. Dr. G. Alder Blumer, long a friend and neighbor, asked if Brown could use the privately printed Reports of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England. Brown could indeed. So a score or more of interesting and useful volumes found a home.

MEETINGS Twenty-one Friends of the Library of Brown University attended the firstmeetin g of the society at the home of Chancellor Henry D. Sharpe on March 23rd. A full account of the meeting was printed in the April Brown Alumni Monthly. Dr. Wriston spoke informally at the second meeting at John Hay Library on May 27th. Many members went on a personally conducted tour of the Library—some of them for the first time since graduation. The Bookplate Committee, with Dr. Royal B. Farnum as Chairman, reports progress. Designs are being made. They will be exhibited at a later meeting. A number of other meetings have been planned.

THE LIBRARIAN SAYS— Friendship is a mutual, not a one-sided relationship. Friends of the Library should be beneficiaries as well as contributors. What services that the Library must provide for Faculty and Students may be useful to the Friends? What special services to the Friends can be developed by the Library Staff within its present capacity and abilities, or by the Library Staff, Faculty and Friends working together?

Issued from John Hay Library, Providence, Rhode Island