Among Harvard's Libraries: Justin Winsor on libraries in 1885

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Citation Carpenter, Kenneth E. 1992. Among Harvard's Libraries: Justin Winsor on libraries in 1885. Bulletin, Spring 1992: 9-10.

Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42662018

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part of the inventory computerized, only a To a lot of people, fostering kinship with portion of the mailing list in such a form that the past is an element in furthering solidarity labels can easily be produced. For the non- among all sorts and conditions of women and computerized portion, options would be pre- men throughout the globe. That matters very cluded. The attention of the managers would much, and so, in its way, does this project. go to the computerized, rather than the non- computerized part of the business. That is simply how human beings are. In the library, not only would opportuni- ties be missed, the non-computerized portion JUSTIN WINSOR would become devalued. Even with the best ON LIBRARIES IN 1885 intentions oflibrarians, that would happen. It is, in fact, in process of occurring now- n the fall of 1991, Elaine Benfatto, who car- on the part of the library's users. To see this, Iries the HLB through from floppy disk to one need only walk to the second floor of the film used in printing, gave birth to a son; Widener and compare the number of HOL- and our mores have undergone such change LIS users with those sitting at the card cata- that it was acceptable, even desirable, for a log. At 12:10 on a recent Monday, seventeen male boss to behave in grandfatherly fashion people were sitting at HOLLIS terminals, and pay a visit to mother and baby. The visit while two individuals were looking up things over, I inquired about the location of the in the Public Catalog. Predictably, they had Somerville Public Library, learned that it was gray hair. nearby, and decided to pay another visit that The divergence cannot be accounted for day. A collector of material on libraries never solely by the scope of the two catalogs, pre- knows when entering a library will prove 1976 publications in one, and those received fruitful. since 1976 in the other. Newer publications, The result was unexpected. In the vertical to be sure, do on the whole receive more use file of the Somerville Public Library was a than earlier ones, but increasingly scholars are clipping from the SomervilleJournal of 5 Octo- set up to download cataloging records, to cre- ber 1885, headed "OUR PUBLIC LIBRARY. ate their own databases or bibliographical files, DEDICATION OF THE NEW BUILDING. to pull a record from such a file and insert it as INTERESTING EXERCISES - ABLE AD- a footnote. Undergraduates use Internet to DRESSES BY PROMINENT CITIZENS. search databases, to communicate with spe- FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING cialists at other universities, to interview AND ITS INTERIOR FINISH." It contained someone halfway around the world. For such the major portion of the remarks of the "ora- individuals it would be painful to sit at a card tor of the evening, Mr.Justin Winsor, librar- catalog and fill in 3 x 5 cards, so much so that ian of Harvard College." they do not do it. Justin Winsor, of Harvard from Ever since the Distributable Union Catalog 1877 to 1897, succeeded a great librarian/ col- on microfiche was introduced in 1981, the lector, John Langdon Sibley, who was assis- danger has existed that the older books would tant librarian from 1841 to 1856 and then become a dead collection, in comparison with librarian until 1876. Sibley wrote in 18 56 the the newer-not for intellectual reasons, but famous statement, "It [Harvard College Li- simply because of ease of access to the recent brary] ought to contain at least one copy of materials. That danger will be averted by ret- every book, map, and pamphlet, written or rospective conversion, and the benefits will published in this country, or pertaining to extend well beyond the Yard. Conversion of America." Three years later, after that warm- Harvard's bibliographical records will make it up, he expanded his vision: "I think it would easier for other libraries to do likewise (they be well if it were generally known that there will be able to draw on our records). Also, was never anything printed of which we scholars elsewhere will be able to use should not be grateful for one copy." Harvard's catalog, even if their own institu- Justin Winsor was followed by Archibald tions have not converted. It is likely, indeed Cary Coolidge, who was Director of the Har- almost certain, that this project will foster vard University Library from 1910 to 1928, more historical and literary scholarship on and even before was extending the scope of earlier centuries than there would otherwise the library's collections. Coolidge, as William have been. Bentinck-Smith put it, with an absence of IO HARVARD LIBRARY BULLETIN

hyperbole, in his Building a Great Library: The Winsor. Thus, a more extensive extract 1s Coolidge Years at Harvard (1976), "left a heri- printed here: tage of strength to the next generation, mak- There is a tendency in our modern life ing possible the bold new departures in to devote too much time to the book historical and international studies which fol- that has a current fame. I suppose of the lowed the Second World War." books published in I 8 8 5 we shall find Winsor, bracketed by Sibley and Coolidge, hardly a quarter remembered in a has tended to be seen as someone who merely twelve-month. Of the books of two concentrated on expanding use of the library, centuries ago there are scarcely fifty on making it a "workshop," to use his term. that would bear reprinting, and of He was highly successful in doing so. In those of the last century there are 1874-75, fifty-seven percent of the students scarcely more than one hundred and used the library; in 1879-80, seventy-seven fifty known to other than special stu- percent did so, and by 188 7 the figure was dents. It is always a question to a library ninety percent. Winsor's emphasis on access how far it shall encumber itself with went hand in hand with Eliot's expansion of books of which the chance of use is the elective system and with the efforts of very small. A large library must aim to such instructors as to end supply all wants, but the question of lockstep movement through textbooks. the care of obscure matter is very prop- Although Winsor's great success was in erly absent from the interests of free transforming the library into a "workshop," public libraries. The history of every the remarks he made in Somerville indicate town is dear to its people, and so are that he did not differ fundamentally from the lives and fame of its distinguished Sibley and Coolidge. His emphasis on access citizens, and a town can well afford to seems proper for his era, but he also provided be exhaustive in gathering such continuity in collection building and in his records. aspirations for the collections. He neither broke with the past nor precluded a future of The great books of an age are repro- building on strength in existing collections. duced and can be had in the succeed- Winsor said in Somerville: "A large library ing age, but it is those books and tracts must aim to supply all wants, but the question which appear insignificant to us, be- of the care of obscure matter is very properly cause we are too near to discern their absent from the interests of free public librar- relations, that are preserved in obscu- ies." He went on: "To-day it is the rule of all rity, to be treasures upon which the the great libraries in this country and in Eu- binder's skill is exhausted. The com- rope to reject nothing, having long ago monness which makes us despise them learned the folly of discriminating." No ring- now gives the flavor which makes ing statements there, unless one chops off them representative then. To-day it is phrases. The style is typical of Winsor. It is as the rule of all the great libraries within if he wrote sentences or phrases on cards, [sic]in this country and in Europe to sorted them (roughly) into categories, and reject nothing, having long ago learned then merely arranged them indifferently the folly of discriminating. Such a within the categories. Still, the message was policy is, of course, expensive, and clear: Winsor was continuing to collect vig- would be foolishly extravagant in a orously, even if not with great fervor. small collection. The preservation, Winsor is sufficiently important in the his- however, of all books of a serious pur- tory of that a collection of pose, even if that purpose be no more his writings, preceded by a biographical than the creation of a healthy pastime, sketch, appeared as Justin Winsor: Scholar- all students of literature will unite in Librarian, ed. Wayne Cutler and Michael H. commending. The active question of Harris (Littleton, Colorado, 1980). The ad- the modern local library is the kind of dress in Somerville is not printed in that work, influence it shall have on its immediate nor is it recorded in its bibliography of constituency.

Kenneth E. Carpenter