ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries May 1989 / 363 vey? Most people did not w rite any comments when they did the survey, and it would be helpful to have comments th at explain why you rated the director as you did. 2. Please comment on areas of strength, accom­ plishments or on other positive aspects of the direc­ tor’s performance. 3. Please comment on areas in which you feel the director needs to improve. ■ ■ A cad em ic library postcard s, part II By Billy R. Wilkinson Director, Albin O. Kuhn Library ir Gallery University o f Maryland, Baltimore County Interior views o f notable libraries. E ditor’s Note: In November 1988 w e published the author ’s article on postcards w ith exterior views o f academic libraries. He regaled us w ith a discus­ sion o f his and others’ collections o f cards ranging fro m pioneer cards to the contemporary. In this is­ sue Billy W ilkinson, back by popular dem and, holds fo rth on interior views. His fu tu re plans in­ clude an article on foreign library postcards, par­ ticularly if he is successful in obtaining a grant to study interiors o f libraries in England. He is also peddling a bim onthly column to the media entitled “M y Favorite Library Postcard. ” Scarce, rare, even precious, might be the words to describe library postcards w ith views of interiors of academic libraries. In the author’s November 1988 article in C&R.L News (pp. 646-651; please see for a general background on library postcards and those who collect them ), a count of individual cards in two leading collections revealed th at the largest num ber of cards of an academic library was 57 for the Low L ibrary at Columbia University, in the author’s collection of 5,205 library postcards. The Judith E. Holliday Collection had 38 Low Li­ brary cards. These are in contrast to the 158 New York Public Library and 156 Boston Public Library cards gathered by the author and 48 NYPL and 75 Boston Public ones held by H olliday. In even greater contrast, both the Holliday and Wilkinson Collections have no interior views of th at magnifi­ cent McKim, Mead and W hite building, the Low Library. How strange th at the glorious marble- columned Low R otunda is missing in Postcard Land? Not even the Columbiana Room now in the Low Library has an interior card. Does anyone have a postcard w ith the Low Rotunda? Cornell and Yale Libraries W hat about interior views of the other academic libraries th at are most numerous in the Holliday and Wilkinson Collections? The exterior of the 1890 Cornell University Library w ith its distinctive clock tower numbered 16 in the Holliday Collec­ tion and 41 in the Wilkinson Collection. There are no interiors in either collection! Not even of the triple-tiered Andrew Dickson W hite Historical Li­ brary, the scene of one of the murders in th at de­ lightful mystery, The W idening Stain, by W. Bo- lingbroke Johnson (pseudonym of Morris Bishop), which is set in the Cornell Library. Surely someone out there has a postal of the W hite Library? Marjorie Markoff has a wonderful postcard of the m ain reading room of the Cornell L ibrary showing readers at long tables w ith bentwood 364 / C&RL News ch airs (m ailed from C o u rtla n d , N ew York, to Quincy, Illinois, in 1908; see below for a descrip­ tion of the M arkoff Collection.) In th e Wilkinson Collection, Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and M anuscript L ibrary is rep­ resented by 23 cards (Holliday Collection: also 23). T he interiors of Sterling M emorial L ibrary are seen on 14 cards (Holliday: 11). W hen one counts the “O ld L ib rary ,” the “New L ib rary ,” and the Cross C am pus Library, Yale is represented by an addi­ tional ten cards for a total of 47 postals of its li­ braries in the Wilkinson Collection (Holliday: 40 Yale cards). W e finally find some interiors. In the Wilkinson Collection, 14 of the 23 Beinecke cards are interior views and three of th e 14 Sterling Li­ brary cards are also interiors. There is one interior of the Cross Cam pus L ibrary. The Holliday Col­ lection has four interiors of Beinecke and four of Sterling. The Markoff Collection Recently M arjorie M arkoff has kindly furnished d ata on her outstanding collection. She estimates th at she has 6,500 library postcards, of which ap ­ proximately 1,000 show academ ic libraries. Does she have the second largest library postcard collec­ tion in private hands (only surpassed by the N or­ man D. Stevens Collection)? Only about 300 of all her cards are of interior views, and only 36 are aca­ demic lib rary interiors. T h a t’s 0.0055% of the Markoff Collection! The special collection lib rari­ ans of the profession w ould definitely declare inte­ rior views of academ ic library postcards ra re .1 Questions for discussion W hy are interior views of academic libraries so rare on postcards? W hich are extant? How m ay they be categorized? Do other countries do better than the U.S. in publishing interior views of aca­ dem ic libraries? Do p u b lic, special, and o th e r kinds of libraries, as well as other kinds of organiza­ tions, publish m ore interiors of themselves th an do academic libraries? In contem plating w hy interior views are so rare, perhaps it is because academ e’s library buildings lack the statues o r the architectural m onum entality of the great public and special libraries. W e have no Patience and Fortitude, the lions in front of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. W e lack the C ourt of N eptune F ountain, w ith large fig­ ures spouting w ater in front of the L ibrary of Con­ gress. On the inside we do not have the m urals of Clio, Minerva, L abor, Invention, and m any others adorning the walls of the L ibrary of Congress. W e lack the G rand Stairway of the L ibrary of Con- 1The author has recently applied to the Moles- w orth Institute, Storrs, Connecticut, for a grant to seek definitive quantification w ith an exploration of the N orm an D. Stevens Collection of L ibra- riana. gress. Only the Boston Public L ibrary has the De­ livery Room designed by E dw in Austin Abbey (1852-1911) as the setting for his “Quest of the Holy G rail” murals. The au th o r’s collection con­ tains m any of these lovely interiors, including 80 different cards of the m urals in the L ibrary of C on­ gress. Academ e, how ever, does it occasionally and m uch m ore subtly. There is the postcard of a small fountain w ith four figures in the L ib rarian ’s C ourt Yard of the Sterling L ibrary at Yale (Fig. 1). It is not flaunted on one of New H aven’s busy streets, b u t inhabits an interior, private place for m ore in­ tim ate enjoyment. It m ight be used for chilling cham pagne at a reception. There is the colum nar D e liv e ry Room o f th e U n iv e rs ity o f Illin o is, C ham paign-U rbana (Fig. 2). There was space and funding in at least one library in the American h eartlan d to increase the scale and im portance of the circulation desk lobby. An astute observer of both postcards and archi­ tecture suggests th a t interior cards are scarce be­ cause interiors are very difficult to photograph. They w ere even more difficult to photograph in the past w hen we lacked the sensitive film, reflectors, flashes, and other recently developed equipm ent. The cavernous spaces of the Low L ibrary Rotunda are especially difficult to photograph if you lack equipm ent to light the upper reaches. T he religious colleges and seminaries m ay have cared more about their libraries—even enough to publish a postcard. Two examples are the College of O u r Lady of the Elms in Chicopee, Massachu­ setts (Fig. 3) and the Crozer Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania (Fig. 4). But one has to go abroad in academe to m atch the m onum entality of the vaulted ceilings, grand staircases, and colum nades of the interior post­ cards of the NYPL, Boston PL, or LC. An excellent example is the Upper L ibrary, Old College, Uni­ versity of E dinburgh (completed in 1827) which certainly soars, at least in the postal in the author’s collection (Fig. 5). The Divinity School, Bodleian L ibrary, Oxford University also flies exquisitely high (see cover). Back home again in Indiana, there w ere arches above chairs aw aiting students and faculty at the V alparaiso University L ibrary (Fig. 6). The post­ card designer even threw curves into the card. Special collections and rare book libraries Back in America, academ e seems most interested in im m ortalizing through postcards its special col­ lections departm ents in the m ain college or univer­ sity libraries, or really flaunting the separate build­ ings for rare books, m anuscripts, and other special collections—if one m ay judge from the au th o r’s collection. In the beginning, there was the H oughton L i­ b rary at H arvard University. Handsome black and w h ite interior postcards w ere published. Then May 1989 / 365 Fig. 1. Fountain, University Librarian’s Court Yard, Sterling Library, Yale University. Fig. 2. Delivery Room, University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 366 / C&RL News Fig. 3. Reading Room, Library, College o f Our Lady o f the Elms, Chicopee, Massachusetts. Fig. 4. Library Room, Crozer Seminary, Chester, Pennsylvania. Fig. 5. Upper Library, Old College, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Fig. 6. Reading Room, University Library, Valparaiso University, Indiana. May 1989 / 367 368 / C&RL News there was the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington with early color chromes published for each of its special rooms (see Figure 7 for the Po­ etry Room of the Lilly Library). The author has five postcards of Lilly interiors and only one of its exterior. The culmination of these very special aca­ demic library postcards m ight be the Beinecke R are Book an d M an u sc rip t L ib ra ry a t Yale University—th at “tower of books rising six stories high and encased in glass.”2 As noted above, the au­ thor has 23 Beinecke cards w ith 14 of them showing the interior’s glorious display. Did academic libraries borrow the idea of pub­ lishing postcards of the interiors of these special li­ braries from the many postcards of Thomas Jeffer­ son’s library at Monticello, George Washington’s library at Mount Vernon, the Harry S Truman Li­ brary and Museum in Independence, Missouri, and many other such special libraries? O r are they simply marketing the cards in response to a de­ m and by tourists? O r responding to requests by the campus bookstore, the development/fundraising office, or their own Friends of the Library group? Major categories Just as exteriors of academic libraries may be di­ vided into various categories (pioneers, linens, chromes, leather, photographic, or even ones with glitter; advertising cards, political and social his­ tory, sets, signed artists, or “Greetings from ...”)— so can interiors. Unhappily, the author has no pio­ neer card of an academic library interior. There is no leather one or an interior to which a loving hand has glued glitter. T hat seems to be the thing to do w ith the exterior of Low Library at Columbia. On the other hand, there appears to be a marked dif­ ference in the prevalence of linen and chromes. There is only one linen interior (Fig. 8). The au­ thor, however, bought 25 copies of this linen card in San Francisco: it depicts the fireplace of the Ru- disill L ibrary, Lenoir Rhyne College, Hickory, North Carolina, a few miles from his hometown. In contrast, he has many linen exteriors. Chromes are plentiful in both interior and exte­ rior academic cards. A good example of an older in­ terior is the Lilly Library (Fig. 7). An excellent con­ temporary chrome of the Law Library at Golden Gate University, San Francisco, graces the cover of this issue. The author has resisted the tem ptation of including a hideous 1950s chrome in bluish green showing acres of tables and chairs under fluores­ cent lights in a “m odern” university library reading room. The interior fountain of the Yale University Li­ brarian’s Court Yard (Fig. 1) is a perfect example of the photographic postal. 2M arjorieG. Wynne, The Rare Book Collections at Yale Recollections, 1942-1987. Malkin Lecture­ ships in Bibliography (New York: Book Arts Press, Columbia University School of Library Service, 1988), 7. Once again as w ith exterior cards, all interiors are in one sense advertising cards. The interiors of the Lilly Library market the library and the Indi­ ana University campus to prospective faculty, stu­ dents and parents. The Wilkinson Collection lacks a political and social history interior. Did ACRL president-elect Moffett publish a campaign postal of himself sit­ ting at his desk in the Seeley G. Mudd Learning Center at Oberlin and neglect to send it to the au­ thor? It is rumored that the Norman D. Stevens Collection, however, acquired a wonderful card show ing a replica of A zariah Root, th e great Oberlin librarian, sitting at a computer terminal. The author also lacks a set or series of academic library interiors and is still searching for a signed artist card of either an interior or exterior academic library. W ith a dearth of illustrative material for this final section of the article, he was tempted to include his favorite non-library interior postcard. It is the “Rest Room, Womans Building, Sandusky, O .” (with aspidistra, fern, wicker chairs, and re­ clining cot) and was purchased in beautiful down­ tow n Sandusky as the author and his companions stopped to visit on the way to an ALA conference in Chicago. Suspecting th a t the esteemed editor might delete such an irrelevant illustration, the au­ thor was in despair. The Davis Gift The finale, however, was beautifully provided by James Davis, special collections librarian at UCLA’s University Research Library. A friend re­ cently sent him an elegant English card of Longleat House and Safari Park (Fig. 9) and Davis immedi­ ately donated it to the Wilkinson Collection. The accessions officer/cataloger, Ann Wilkinson, pro­ tested that the card should not be included in the collection because the word “L ibrary” does not ap­ pear anywhere on the card. This has previously been a requirement for inclusion in the collection. She was, however, overruled on the simple premise th at such a delightful card cannot be excluded. Several of you more fastidious readers may write to point out that Longleat House is not an aca­ demic library, and you are right. But the card must be seen by those who will appreciate it. Im portant trivia from the card’s verso: “In the Spring of 1966, the Marquess of Bath and Mr. Jimmy Chipperfield established in the grounds of a Stately Home, the first Safari Park in Europe.” The lion on the postal is Marquis, the first cub born at Longleat. One more American illustration must also be seen (Baltimore chauvinism wins). The author will refrain from illustrating the lovely cards showing the “Great Window in the Vassar College Library” w ith the central figure of the window being “Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, the first woman in the world to be granted the degree of Doctor of Philos­ ophy at the University of Padua, June 25, 1678”; the handsome color card showing women studying May 1989 / 369 Fig. 7. The Poetry Room, Lilly Library, Indiana University. Fig. 8. Reference Room, Carl A. Rudisill Library, Lenoir Rhyne College, Hickory, North Carolina. 370 / C&R L News Fig. 9. Library, Longleat House, Warminister, Wiltshire, England. at Agnes Scott College’s Carnegie Library (from the Marjorie Markoff Collection); the black and white view card of the “Library in Academic Hall” of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis (also from the Markoff Collection); and the rare early color view of the Cornell University Library discussed above (again a prized item from the Markoff Col­ lection) . Baltimore’s best is the golden interior of the Pea­ body Library, Peabody Institute (Fig. 10). It is truly one of the great interior spaces of any aca­ demic library in the world; some would say one of this country’s great interior spaces! Nor is there space to explore various other theo­ ries concerning academic library postcards, such as the Molesworthian one that the number of post­ cards of an academic library is in inverse propor­ tion to the functional qualities of the building— w ith the Sterling Library at Yale and the Low L ibrary at Colum bia clearly dem onstrating the point. The author instead invites his colleagues who care about library postcards (interior, exte­ rior, academic, public or whatever) to pursue that and other ideas in future articles in this and equally appropriate journals. Postscript It is impossible to list the many donors (some as far away as Brazil) who responded to the plea for postals by the author in his first article. He, how- Fig. 10. Interior, Peabody Library, Peabody Institute, Baltimore. May 1989 / 371 ever, has written his thanks to each person for the 198 postcards of lib raries w hich he received. Twenty-four of the cards were of interiors, with the most exquisite gift being ten photocards of the Sterling L ib rary at Yale University from Gay Walker, curator of the arts of the Book (see Fig. 1 for one of the more active and probably the inner­ most of the cards: the fountain in the Yale Librari­ an’s Courtyard). She and the other donors are also thanked publicly for their largess w ith such gems as the “Nyack Public Library, Nyack on the Hudson, New York,” framed in living color with lovely blue forget-me-nots; and the “Rosenberg Day, Rosen­ berg L ibrary, Galveston, Texas” postcard w ith many citizens and their children proudly posed in front of the building. Public thanks are also grate­ fully extended to two continuing donors of many postals: Frederick D uda and James Davis. Second plea As announcers on radio programs continually re­ peat: “Keep those cards and letters coming!” The author asks for more. He received cards and letters from old and new friends along with library post­ cards. He continues to welcome postcards (aca­ dem ic interior or exterior), questions and com­ ments mailed to him at the Kuhn L ibrary and Gallery, UMBC, Baltimore, MD 21228. He again promises to send you a library postcard in return, but probably not an interior. ■ ■ INNOVATIONS Student pre-surveys as bibliographic instruction tools By Tony Amodeo Bibliographic Instruction Coordinator Loyola M arymount University It happens again and again to every BI librarian- lecturer: “W ho is my audience? To whom am I talking?” You are called in on relatively short notice—yes, policy says “two weeks advance no­ tice,” but when your mission is to reach as many students as possible, you almost always give in. You know you will be faced w ith a jumble of lower and upper division students, some of whom have had the orientation tour, the freshman library lecture, and perhaps one or two presentations in their other classes, some of whom have not known there was a library on campus—or so it seems. You try to pump the teacher for information, but this one is the type that is almost never reachable on campus, and who sends a student assistant w ith a scribbled note that they w ant a library lecture on the day they will be in Fredericton, N.B., for a conference. At such moments, a good solution may be to hand to the student assistant a stack of short but well thought-out survey forms to be given to the class, filled out, collected and sent to you by the teacher or the assistant. Such a form can be of help in a num ber of ways. W ith a little thought, the survey can w arm up the class to a library lecture. It can let them identify some of the issues you will address, and some as­ pects of the library to begin thinking about. A sur­ vey can request feedback on problems encountered in the library, employing a list of possible problems to be ticked off, plus room for comments and sug­ gestions. It can also solicit their expectations and their “wish-lists” regarding the material to be cov­ ered, which can be very helpful in designing the lecture for this specific audience. Answers from the survey can tell you a lot about the level of library understanding in the class, e. g ., w hether or not the students have had previous lec­ tures, a tour, or no presentation at all; w hat level of