College and Research Libraries By L O U I S R . W I L S O N The Challenge of the 1930's to the 1940's A summary of developments, proposals, and objectives concerning college and re- search libraries in the 1930's and 1940's, by the dean of the Graduate Library School, University of Chicago. WH A T W E R E the major developments in college, university, and research libraries during the 1930's? What were the principal proposals advanced • for de- velopment in them during the decade ? W h a t goals may be set up as their major objectives during the 1940's? In this paper I shall undertake to answer these questions. Major Developments in College Libraries in the 1930's Seven developments in college libraries may be set down as having been of major importance in the decade just closed. I. Book collections. First of all, the book collections of liberal arts, junior and teachers colleges were greatly strengthened to support effective teaching by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of N e w Y o r k . Grants of from $5000 to $25,000 made to eighty-four liberal arts colleges and totaling $ 1 , 0 1 1 , 0 0 0 were spent for this purpose. Ninety-two junior colleges received grants of from $ 1 5 0 0 to $6000 — a total of $300,000—in 1 9 3 7 , and twenty-nine teachers colleges were award- ed grants of from $3000 to $6000—a total of $180,000—in 1939. Lists pre- pared by Shaw and Mohrhardt served as purchasing guides for liberal arts and junior college libraries, and purchases are being made by the teachers colleges under the direction of W . W . Bishop, who has served as chairman of the three advisory committees which have had charge of these undertakings. As a result of this program a new consciousness concerning the larger role which the library plays in the teaching program was developed among some college presidents and facul- ties, and college library book collections at the end of the decade were much better adapted to teaching requirements than formerly. 2. Endowed librarianships. T h e im- portance of the library as one of the principal means of achieving the educa- tional and administrative aims of the college was further emphasized by the Carnegie Corporation when it endowed the post of librarian at Lafayette, Oberlin, and Swarthmore colleges and Wesleyan University by giving $ 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 to each of these institutions for this purpose. 3. Library standards. College library standards also received intelligent con- sideration in the period. T h e North Cen- tral Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, by replacing quantitative with qualitative standards in its accrediting procedures, laid the foundation for the effective measurement of the college library as a teaching instrument. In these new 121 standards, as well as in those set up earlier by the advisory committees of the Carnegie Corporation, emphasis was shifted from number of volumes, per stu- dent expenditure for books, periodicals, and staff, and other quantitative meas- ures to the adequacy of the book collec- tions which support the course work of the college, the ability of the library and instructional staffs in integrating library use and instruction, and the actual signifi- cant use made of materials by students and faculty. 4. Experiments in teaching. A logical outgrowth of the changes in the concep- tion of the role of the library in the college was the development of new plans of teaching. T h e University of Chicago and Stephens College may serve as illustra- tions. A t Chicago, a number of carefully selected instructor-advisers are available to students for conference in offices just off the special college library reading rooms. A t Stephens, the librarian is also dean of instruction, some members of the library staff are also members of the instructional staff, and class instruction is carried on in as close proximity and with as much reference to library mate- rials as possible. Both institutions plan to provide buildings which will be designed to facilitate this type of integration. 5. Publications. Publications consti- tuted the fifth activity of major impor- tance. T h e functions of the college li- brary had been defined in a paper entitled " T h e Emergence of the College L i b r a r y " in 1 9 3 1 . 1 Randall in his College Library, which grew out of his investigation of the libraries of 205 liberal arts colleges, gave convincing evidence that the library was in f a r too many instances the neglected stepchild of the college. Waples and his colleagues in the North Central Associa- tion set forth in The Library what have proved to be rather sound criteria for judging the effectiveness of the perform- ance of the library in terms of college objectives. Randall and Goodrich, in the Principles of College Library Administra- tion, wrote significantly about the duties of the president and instructional staff of the college in aiding the library properly to perform its functions. Wriston2 and Wilkins,3 writing from the point of view of the college president, contributed to the understanding of the role of the library in the college, and Johnson,4 Raney,5 and Kuhlman6 gave intimate case studies of the operation of the junior college library in instances in which librarians and in- structors worked in close cooperation. An Estimate of Standards for a College Li- brary by M c C r u m , Circulation Work in College and University Libraries by Brown and Bousfield, Carnegie Corpora- tion and College Libraries, 192Q-1938 by Bishop, books on library buildings by Gerould7 and Hanley,8 the volume of papers read before the groups now in- corporated in the Association of College and Reference Libraries in 1938, edited by Kuhlman,9 and an occasional article by Branscomb from materials which are more extensively treated in his Teaching with Books, which appeared in January, 1940, rounded out a decade of fairly definitive writing in this field. 6. An association established. A sixth and very significant event of the decade was the establishment of the Association of College and Reference Libraries in 1938 and the launching of the new journal, College and Research Libraries, in De- cember, 1939. T h i s double action contem- plated the bringing together of college and university librarians into a united, working organization and providing for them a 122 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES clearly defined program of action and an official organ of communication and criti- cism. 7. Professional status. Librarianship in the college field became perceptibly more professional in the decade. Evi- dences of this fact are clear and cumula- tive: ( a ) T h e two associations formed provide for the professional consideration of a common body of knowledge and prin- ciples; (b) the new journal supplies a medium of criticism; (c) the body of professional literature is increasingly sig- nificant; (d) a definite personnel and salary scheme is being formulated for col- lege and university libraries by the A . L . A . , and (e) college administrators in making appointments are seeking librarians who, in their personality, scholarship, profes- sional knowledge, and administrative ex- perience are qualified to direct the library in an educationally and professionally ef- ficient manner. Major Developments in the University Library Field in the 1930's T h e list of activities in the university and research library field during the dec- ade was extensive and notable. T h e fol- lowing merit consideration: I. Buildings and gifts. In spite of the fact that the period was one of profound financial depression, of slashed mainte- nance budgets, and of painful readjust- ment, it was none the less one in which the erection of library buildings, the pro- vision of gifts for library purposes, and the development of the Friends of the Library movement were unusually note- worthy. T h e Sterling Library at Yale, South Hall at Columbia, the Deering Library at Northwestern, and the Annex of the Library of Congress stand at the head of a long and imposing list of build- ings for college and research libraries. T h e new building at the University of Colorado received considerable attention because it was planned on a functional basis. T h e gift of $1,000,000 for the li- brary building in Nashville, which is to serve jointly Vanderbilt University, George Peabody College, and Scarritt Col- lege, was likewise notable because it repre- sented a new type of cooperation in the field of higher education in which the li- brary assumed the role of leadership. An amount equal to the building fund was also secured for endowment. T h e library building completed at Atlanta University in 1 9 3 2 likewise not only serves that insti- tution but four or five Negro colleges associated with it. Library buildings were also completed during the decade at How- ard and Fisk universities which greatly increased the effectiveness of those uni- versities for Negroes. Another factor which contributed to the increase in num- ber of buildings was the financial aid furnished through the Public Works Ad- ministration of the federal government. T h e fine new $1,000,000 building at the University of Virginia is an example of this type of building. 2. Friends of the Library. T h e 1930's likewise witnessed a considerable exten- sion of the Friends of the Library move- ment begun by Harvard, Y a l e , and Columbia in the 1920's. Chicago, Prince- ton, North Carolina, Duke, N e w Y o r k University, Johns Hopkins, Wellesley, Colby, Knox, and other universities and colleges increased the total organization of this character from three to fifty during the ten-year period. Their development is significant not only on account of the contributions which they have already made to the libraries concerned, but be- cause of the recognition which they give MARCH, 1940 12 7 to the functions of the library in the field of higher education. 3. Surveys. Several surveys of uni- versity libraries may next be noted. In University Libraries, Raney presented the results of the survey made by himself, the staff of the library, and the faculty of the University of Chicago. T h e publication is notable in that it indicated the extent of the holdings of the library by subject fields and estimated, with equal thorough- ness, the materials required to bring the collection up to the point where it could adequately support the program of re- search carried on by the various depart- ments and schools of the university. Carlson1 0 dealt realistically with the fi- nancial support of the libraries of seven western state universities, and Wilson, Branscomb, Dunbar, and L y l e 1 1 outlined a program of development for the library of the University of Georgia which would enable it to support graduate study and re- search as well as undergraduate instruc- tion. A self-survey of the curriculums of Vanderbilt and George Peabody, as well as of the library, disclosed opportunities for avoiding duplication of courses at the college level, and of greater specialization in library resources in the graduate field. T h e survey of the libraries of the land grant colleges by B r o w n 1 2 also appeared early in the decade and revealed their general inadequacy. 4. Cooperative agreements. Coopera- tive agreements of an informal character have been characteristic of college, uni- versity, and reference libraries for many years. Frequently cited examples are those of the N e w Y o r k Public Library and the library of Columbia University with re- spect to the purchase and binding of news- papers, and of the major libraries of Chicago concerning the acquisition of ma- terials in their special fields. T h e decade witnessed extension of these agreements in three forms of organization: ( a ) the gentleman's agreement type of cooperation, as represented by North Carolina and Duke, by which the two libraries ex- changed copies of their main author cards, provided for an extensive inter-university loan service, and undertook to avoid du- plication in purchase of materials in cer- tain fields; (b) the contractual type as represented by Vanderbilt, Peabody, and Scarritt by which three institutions were obligated, by a thoroughgoing legal instrument, to pool their interests in pro- viding a central library building, ac- quiring materials for instruction and research, and maintaining adequate library service; and (c) legislative enactments such as those in effect in Georgia and Oregon, as a result of which the libraries of the various state institutions of higher education are united in one library system. T h e first and second types of agreement have been especially notable in the south, with examples of unusual importance at Chapel Hill-Durham, in North Carolina, and at Atlanta, Nashville, and N e w Or- leans. T h e libraries of Oregon furnish the most highly developed example of the third type. A n extensive thesis describing the various types of cooperation was writ- ten by M r s . M . H . Lowell at the Uni- versity of Chicago in 1 9 3 9 and is avail- able from the university on interlibrary loan. Cooperation has taken other forms of which at least five should be mentioned. a) Document centers. T h e first of these, and one of the most important, has been the nation-wide understanding reached with regard to libraries which serve as centers for collecting and pre- serving municipal, state, and federal docu- 124 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES ments. T h i s movement was begun by a committee of the Social Science Research Council, but was carried forward by a committee of the A . L . A . of which A . F . Kuhlman and J . K . Wilcox, respectively, have been chairmen. A list of the libraries which are serving in this capacity has been published, and since 1 9 3 3 six annual pub- lications dealing with various phases of documents, archives, and microphotogra- phy have been issued by the A . L . A . under the editorship of the chairmen. A part of this program has been the liberal- ization of state laws relating to the allo- cation and exchange of state documents and the revision of federal laws governing the distribution of federal documents. b) Union catalogs. T h e development of union catalogs and bibliographical ap- paratus was closely related to the develop- ment of document centers. Notable examples of this character are to be found in Chapel Hill, Nashville, Denver, Lin- coln, Cleveland, and Philadelphia. T h e idea of service to scholars on a regional basis has been emphasized in these under- takings, and the foundation has been laid for the easier and quicker location of ma- terials, especially in areas more or less re- mote from the Library of Congress and the major libraries of the northeastern and north central states. Altogether, some sixty union catalogs of varying scope are now in existence. These catalogs not only serve local scholars directly, but, by sup- plying cards for unusual items to the Union Catalog of the Library of Con- gress, they have increased its service as the major finding list for the nation. c) Resources for research. Coopera- tion in the description of the resources for research found expression in the south through the publication of Resources of Southern Libraries by a subcommittee of the A . L . A . Board on Resources of Ameri- can Libraries. T h i s study, made possible by a grant from the General Education Board and carried out cooperatively by southern librarians under the chairmanship of R . B. Downs, indicates the nature and location in the south of some 10,000,000 titles available for the use of scholars. It supplements information contained in the Union Catalog of the Library of Congress and the Union List of Serials. d) Cooperative cataloging. Participa- tion of university libraries in cooperative cataloging made significant progress dur- ing the decade. Entries for new foreign books not in the Library of Congress and analytical entries for monographs in series not cataloged analytically by it were pre- pared by a number of cooperating libraries under the auspices of the Cooperative Committee of the A . L . A., the cards being printed by the Card Division of the L i - brary of Congress. Cards for 23,841 dif- ferent titles were reported at the time of the last published report in June, 1938. Inclusion of decimal classification numbers on printed cards of the Library of Con- gress was also a development of the last decade. e) Union lists. T h e importance of the record of cooperative enterprises during the decade was also increased by the publication of a number of union lists in special fields and by the tremendous amount of bibliographical assistance given libraries through the W o r k Projects Administration and National Youth Ad- ministration. Among the former lists were: American Newspapers, 1821-1936; a Union List of Files Available in the United States and Canada, edited by Win- ifred G r e g o r y ; Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, edited by Seymour MARCH, 1940 12 7 de Ricci; International Congresses and Conferences, 1840-1937; Union List of Publications Available in Libraries in the United States and Canada, edited by Win- ifred G r e g o r y ; and the List of Serial Publications of Foreign Governments, 1851-1931, also edited by Miss Gregory. T h e aid rendered by W . P . A . and N . Y . A . took a wide variety of forms, but was particularly notable in the compilation of union catalogs and in the preparation of innumerable local lists of newspapers, municipal and state documents, indexes to local historical collections, etc. 5. Microphotography. Possibly the most rapid and spectacular development of the decade took place in the field of the photographic reproduction of library ma- terials, especially reproduction on film. T h i s development expressed itself in a number of ways. T h e following require special mention: a) Bibliofilm Service. In 1934 Biblio- film Service was inaugurated in connection with Science Service and the Library of the Department of Agriculture in Washington. Through this service it be- came possible to secure the reproduction on film of articles or materials which pre- viously had been supplied through inter- library loan, or to secure copies on film of any manuscript deposited with the service. T h e cost per page for such repro- duction has been kept low—approximately one cent per page—and as devices for read- ing film have been developed and installed in libraries, the amount of material which can be made available to scholars has been greatly increased. b) Equipment. T h e perfection of cameras for use in making films and of machines for reading them received con- stant attention throughout the latter part of the decade, and newer types of apparatus largely supplanted earlier cam- eras and projectors of an amateur charac- ter. T h e interest in these devices was so great that extensive exhibits of them were made under the direction of M . L . Raney at several of the midwinter meet- ings of the A . L . A . at Chicago, and at the annual meetings at Richmond, N e w Y o r k , and San Francisco. A committee on the Photographic Reproduction of Li- brary Materials was appointed by the A . L . A . in 1936 to consider various mat- ters in this field and to serve as a clearing house for information on this subject. An exhibit of cameras and reading machines was maintained at the Paris International Exposition in 1937 under the auspices of this committee through a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. D r . Raney and Herman Fussier, of the University of Chicago, were in charge of the demon- stration. c) Film laboratories. T h e availability of suitable equipment and the demand for low priced reproduction offered by micro- filming made possible the establishment of major and minor laboratories in many libraries throughout the country. T h e largest and most fully equipped labora- tories are those of the National Archives, the University of Chicago, the Library of Congress, and Bibliofilm Service of the U . S. Department of Agriculture Library. Moreover, the major universities have installed filming facilities or made ar- rangements for filming by commercial organizations within their libraries. Ca- pacity production, experimentation in the development of better apparatus and film- ing processes, the formulation of specifica- tions for installations in other libraries, and information concerning the use and storage of films can now be provided. d) Materials filmed. T h e availability 126 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES of reading equipment in libraries and the astonishingly low cost of reproductions that are made possible by microfilming resulted in a series of major filming projects, some purely commercial, others of a cooperative noncommercial nature. Among the latter were the filming of the Agricultural Adjustment Act and the Na- tional Recovery Act hearings, the filming of foreign current newspapers (sponsored by Harvard University), the filming of books in English printed before 1 5 5 0 by University Microfilms, and the film- ing of French Revolutionary journals by the A.L.A.-University of Chicago Demonstration of Microphotography at the Paris International Exposition in 1 9 3 7 . T h e widespread reproduction of current and back newspaper files either through Public Works Administration projects or projects sponsored by the publishers was carried out during the decade, so that approximately one hundred and forty of the major American newspapers are now available in film form. e) Professional organizations. T o fa- cilitate the work of librarians, archivists, and others interested in greater use of film, the A . L . A . Committee on the Photographic Reproduction of Library Materials was formed in 1936, the American Documentation Institute was formed in 1937, and the Journal of D ocumentary Reproduction, a quarterly issued by the American Library Associa- tion, began publication in the winter of 1938. Further assistance in this field has been provided through the Committee on Scientific Aids established by the Carnegie Corporation and the active participation of other foundations. 6. New library associations. Reference has been made earlier to the organization of the Association of College and Refer- ence Libraries in 1938. T h i s association was preceded by the organization in 1 9 3 2 of the Association of Research Libraries, which has held meetings regularly since its establishment and has given considera- tion to a number of questions relating to research libraries. It has assumed re- sponsibility for the publication of the an- nual list of doctoral theses formerly published by the American Council of Learned Societies, has dealt with the ac- quisition of foreign periodicals, and has considered other subjects of interest to major research libraries. It sponsored the publication of the Union List of News- papers, published by the Bibliographical Society of America, and has cooperated with other associations and organizations in library matters affecting inter-associa- tion and international interests. As soon as war was declared in September, 1939, it joined other library organizations in a concerted effort to secure uninterrupted receipt of German periodicals. T h e activities mentioned above have been connected directly with university and research libraries. A number of ac- tivities affecting libraries which have been carried on largely by organizations of the federal government and have added to the significance of library service may now be mentioned. 1. The National Archives. T h e estab- lishment of the National Archives, the appointment of R . D . W . Connor as the first national archivist, the organization of the Association of American Archivists, and the founding and publication of the American Archivist may be placed at the head of this list. A l l of these movements have affected librarianship in the United States, and, as the work of the national and state archives develops, the extent of the influence of these organizations upon MARCH, 1940 12 7 research libraries will be increased. Sev- eral courses for the training of archivists have been provided by the library schools of the University of Chicago and Colum- bia University, and many university and research libraries have been involved in various archival enterprises undertaken by the national and state organizations. T h e Historical Records Survey has been of national scope and has involved libraries in every section of the country. T h e task of locating, cleaning, mending, and de- scribing records of local, state, and national importance and of making inven- tories of early imprints has been under- taken on a large scale, and a tremendous amount of material has in this way been made available to scholars. 2. The Library of Congress. T h e L i - brary of Congress engaged in two activities during the decade which further increased the value of its services to libraries. It inaugurated a nation-wide cooperative service for the location of materials not to be found in its Union Catalog and helped implement a plan of cooperative cataloging by means of which extensive series of monographs and transactions of learned societies are being analyzed and cataloged. 3. Other federal agencies. T w o fed- eral agencies established during the decade gave evidence of their interest in library development. T h e National Resources Committee, in its study of the resources for research in the United States, devoted a chapter to the description of the re- sources and services of the Library of Congress in the field of research, and the Library Service Division of the U . S. Office of Education prepared, with the A . L . A . , a new form for the collection of data concerning college and university libraries. T h e division also held a special conference of librarians and directors of library schools in 1 9 3 9 to consider a con- certed program of research in a number of phases of librarianship, some of which lie specifically in the college and university library field. 4. International relations. T h e Inter- national Federation of Library Associa- tions held its second conference in Spain in M a y , 1 9 3 5 , and the U . S. Department of State held a special conference on cul- tural relations with Hispanic America at the Library of Congress in November, 1939. M a j o r research libraries of the United States were represented at both conferences as they have been at other conferences concerned with libraries and documentation, and the role which Amer- ican libraries could play in the affairs of world scholarship was clearly evidenced. Major Proposals for the Development of College and University Libraries in the 1930s Numerous proposals for the develop- ment of the libraries under consideration were made during the decade. M a n y of them have already been carried into effect, others are in the process of being carried out, and still others are receiving con- sideration. Eight of these seem to justify inclusion here. Five were related to mat- ters not connected with federal agencies. Three, on the contrary, involved federal action. A l l were concerned primarily with the multiplication of resources for research and the extension of facilities for their use. I. Union catalog costs. T h e decade witnessed the rapid multiplication of union catalogs. Altogether, some sixty odd were in existence at the end of the decade, a description of which is now being pre- pared by Arthur Berthold of the Phila- 128 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES delphia union catalog. As a result of this rapid growth, representatives of the A . L . A . and the American Council of Learned Societies named a committee late in 1939 to seek funds for a study of the cost of developing and maintaining such catalogs and the character and amount of service rendered by them. Several stu- dents at the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago have also been engaged in the study of the potential users of such catalogs and the cost to contrib- uting libraries in maintaining them. 2. The Philadelphia bibliographical center. Closely related to this proposal is that of the Bibliographical Planning Committee of Philadelphia for which the University of Pennsylvania received a grant of $20,000 in 1939 from the Car- negie Corporation, to study the role of union catalogs and other bibliographical apparatus in serving scholars, libraries, and the business and industrial interests of a metropolitan area. This study was started in 1939, and a preliminary report concerning it is to be made early in 1940. 3. Resources for research. A s indicated earlier, a subcommittee of the A . L . A . Board on Resources of American Librar- ies published the Resources of Southern Libraries in 1938. T h i s board proposes the extension of this type of description to the resources of scholarly libraries throughout the nation. T h e suggestion has been made to the board that this is a matter which might well be brought to the attention of the National Resources Committee and to those organizations which have been responsible for the ac- tivities embraced in the Historical Records Survey. 4. Libraries for little used books. As far back as 1902, President Eliot of Harvard University advocated the estab- lishment of libraries for little used books. T h e matter has received little con- sideration in the United States in recent years, but such storage has been provided in several instances, notably by the Biblio- theque Nationale, which built an extensive annex at Versailles to house materials not frequently in demand. Storage for news- papers has been provided for a number of years by the British Museum, and the London School of Economics has for some time maintained a section of its building for infrequently used volumes. T h e proposal has recently been made anew by President Hutchins of the Uni- versity of Chicago, who advocates the provision of such a building which would serve not only the University of Chicago, but other universities and libraries of the middle west. T h e Bibliographical Plan- ning Committee of Philadelphia is also considering certain aspects of the question in relation to the libraries of the Phila- delphia area. T h e fact that the American Council on Education has a committee exploring the possibilities of more exten- sive cooperation in the field of higher edu- cation and that the Southern Conference on Education devoted its 1939 meeting to a consideration of cooperative enter- prises add importance to the proposal. 5. Library studies in translation. A proposal was made in 1938 by D r . Pierce Butler to the A . L . A . and the American Library Institute for the translation into English of important papers in foreign languages dealing with scholarly libraries in other countries. Many of the problems with which American libraries are now dealing have been seriously considered by European libraries and careful studies bearing upon them are to be found in foreign publications, but are not easily available on account of the difficulties of MARCH, 1940 12 7 language. A joint committee of American and European libraries has been appointed to carry out the undertaking. 6. Regional libraries. T h e first of the proposals involving federal agencies was submitted by the Honorable Ross Collins of Mississippi. It was embodied in a bill, introduced in the House of Representa- tives in 1937 ( H . R . 3699, 1st Session, 75th Congress), which provided for the establishment and maintenance of five regional libraries at N e w Y o r k , Mem- phis, Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco, the libraries to be the property of the United States and supplementary to the public library system of the United States. These libraries were to receive most of the books copyrighted in the United States, and they were to be regional depositories for United States documents. T h e bill was not acted upon and the proposal has not been widely discussed. It served the purpose, however, of centering thought upon the idea of regional library service and the development of resources of re- search at places other than Washington. 7. Federal Library Council. In Library Service, Carleton B. Joeckel proposed in 1938 that a Federal Library Council, composed of representatives of federal li- braries, should be established to coordinate the policies and procedures of the libraries of the federal government. It was sug- gested that it maintain close relationship with the National Resources Committee and that through grants-in-aid and the services of its own libraries, the federal government "should aid in the develop- ment of regional library centers for li- brary service and in a general program of cooperation and coordination of library resources on a regional and national scale." 8. Foreign materials threatened by war. A final composite proposal which assumed fairly clear form in the last months of : 9 3 9 relates to acquisition of materials in Europe and other countries which are es- sential to American scholarship. T h e pro- posal involved the cooperation of libraries, foundations, and federal agencies, espe- cially the Library of Congress and the U . S. Department of State, and was em- phasized by the conflagration of war now raging in Europe and other parts of the world. Recent events have made it only too clear that the libraries of the United States must assume the responsibility for securing and preserving for scholars much of the material previously available in other countries but now seriously threat- ened with injury or destruction. T h e proposal or proposals under this rubric came from a number of sources— the Library of Congress, various national and local associations, and individual li- braries and librarians—and they all em- phasize the necessity of speeding up the ac- quisition of such materials. Three meth- ods of acquiring them are suggested: ( a ) acquisition of foreign governmental docu- ments through exchange arranged by the appropriate agencies of the federal govern- ment; (b) purchase of materials through individual libraries and the Library of Congress; and (c) acquisition of film through libraries and federal agencies. T h e emergency is such that all of these methods, including grants-in-aid from the federal government, may be necessary to secure materials if they are to be available to scholars in this part of the world where they may be preserved and considered in an atmosphere which makes objective study still possible and fruitful. Objectives for the 1940's With two strong associations of college 130 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES and research librarians recently organized, with additional organizations in the fields of archives and documentation, with new journals established in both fields, with so much solid achievement on the part of libraries recorded in the past decade, and with the determination of libraries to go forward in the 1940's, American college, university, and research libraries should find a forceful challenge in the decade ahead. A program which would point the way to certain major ends and could be pursued with enthusiasm would include: ( 1 ) the development of regional biblio- graphical centers; ( 2 ) the description on a national basis of resources for research ; ( 3 ) the provision of regional libraries for infrequently used books; ( 4 ) the organ- ization of a Federal Council on Libraries; ( 5 ) the cooperation of libraries, founda- tions, and agencies of the federal govern- ment in the acquisition through exchange and purchase of documents, books, periodi- cals, manuscripts, films, and other foreign materials essential to the promotion of American scholarship; and ( 6 ) the devel- opment of a program of research and pub- lication in the field of college, university, and research libraries which will enable these institutions more effectively to play their important role in higher education in America. If any one aspect of this program should be singled out for special emphasis, it should be that of cooperation in the pro- vision of resources for scholarship on a scale hitherto unknown. T h e frontier in higher education and the day of institu- tional rugged individualism, like the physi- cal frontier, have passed. If the scholarly libraries of America have sufficient imag- ination, it is within their power to supply the leadership necessary in this new form of educational statesmanship. References 1. Wilson, Louis R. "The Emergence of the College Library." School and So- ciety 34:483-92, Oct. 10, 1931. 2. Wriston, Henry M . The Nature of a Liberal College. (Chapter V, "The College Library," pp. 64-78.) Law- rence College Press, 1937. 3. Wilkins, Ernest Hatch. The College and Society: Proposals for Changes in the American Plan of Higher Educa- tion. Century [C1932] 4. Johnson, B. Lamar. Vitalizing a Col- lege Library. American Library Asso- ciation, 1939. 5. Raney, M . Llewellyn. "Books and the New College Plan at Chicago." Junior College Journal 4:281-86, Mar., 1934. 6. Kuhlman, A. F. "Some Implications in the New Plan of the University of Chi- cago for College Libraries." Library Quarterly 3:21-36, Jan. 1933. 7. Gerould, James T . The College Li- brary Building, Its Planning and Equip- ment. Scribner, 1932. 8. Hanley, Edna Ruth. College and Uni- versity Library Buildings. American Library Association, 1939. 9. Kuhlman, A. F., ed. College and Uni- versity Library Service; Trends, Stand- ards, Appraisal, Problems; Papers Presented at the 1937 Midwinter Meet- ing of the American Library Association. American Library Association, 1938. 10. Carlson, William Hugh. Development and Financial Support of Seven West- ern and Northwestern State University Libraries. University of California Press, 1938. (Planographed) 1 1 . Wilson, Louis R., Branscomb, Harvie, Dunbar, Ralph M., and Lyle, Guy R. Report of a Survey of the University of Georgia Library for the University of Georgia, September-December, 1938 . . . American Library Association, 1938. (Mimeographed) 12. [Brown, Charles H.] "The Library." U. S. Office of Education, Survey of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities; directed by Arthur J . Klein. Part V I I I , Government Printing Office, 1930. (Bul- letin No. 9.) MARCH, 1940 12 7