Part 148

A distinctly new era in the history of American libraries—and in the history, it may be said, of libraries throughout the English-speaking world,—was opened, in 1876, by the meeting of a conference of librarians at Philadelphia, during the Centennial Exhibition of the summer of that year. The first fruit of the conference was the organization of a permanent American Library Association, which has held annual meetings since, bringing large numbers of the librarians of the country together every year, making common property of their experience, their knowledge, their ideas,—animating them with a common spirit, and enlisting them in important undertakings of cooperative work. Almost simultaneously with the Philadelphia meeting, but earlier, there was issued the first number of a "Library Journal," called into being by the sagacious energy of the same small band of pioneers who planned and brought about the conference. The Library Journal became the organ of the American Library Association, and each was stimulated and sustained by the other: Their combined influence has acted powerfully upon those engaged in the work of American libraries, to elevate their aims, to increase their efficiency, and to make their avocation a recognized profession, exacting well-defined qualifications. {2022} The general result among the libraries of the country has been an increase of public usefulness beyond measure. To this renaissance in the library world many persons contributed; but its leading spirits were Melvil Dewey, latterly Director of the New York State Library; Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University, formerly of the Boston Public Library; the late William F. Poole, LL.D., Librarian of the Newberry Library and formerly of the Chicago Public Library; Charles A. Cutter, lately Librarian of the Boston Athenæum; the late Frederick Leypoldt, first publisher of the "Library Journal," and his successor, R. R. Bowker. The new library spirit was happily defined by James Russell Lowell, in his address delivered at the opening of a free public library in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and published in the volume of his works entitled "Democracy and other Addresses"; "Formerly," he said, "the duty of a librarian was considered too much that of a watch-dog, to keep people as much as possible away from the books, and to hand these over to his successor as little worn by use as he could. Librarians now, it is pleasant to see, have a different notion of their trust, and are in the habit of preparing, for the direction of the inexperienced, lists of such books as they think best worth reading. Cataloguing has also, thanks in great measure to American librarians, become a science, and catalogues, ceasing to be labyrinths without a clew, are furnished with finger-posts at every turn. Subject catalogues again save the beginner a vast deal of time and trouble by supplying him for nothing with one at least of the results of thorough scholarship, the knowing where to look for what he wants. I do not mean by this that there is or can be any short cut to learning, but that there may be, and is, such a short cut to information that will make learning more easily accessible."

The organization of the American Library Association led to the formation, in 1877, of the Library Association of the United Kingdom, which was incident to the meeting of an international conference of Librarians held in London.

LIBRARIES: United States of America: Principal Libraries.

The following are the libraries in the United States which exceeded 100,000 volumes in 1891, as reported in the "Statistics of Public Libraries" published by the Bureau of Education. The name of each library is preceded by the date of its foundation:

1638. Harvard University Library, 292,000 volumes; 278,097 pamphlets.

1701. Yale College Library, New Haven, 185,000 volumes; 100,000 pamphlets.

1731. Philadelphia Library Company, 165,487 volumes; 30,000 pamphlets.

1749. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 100,000 volumes; 100,000 pamphlets.

1754. Columbia College Library, New York, 135,000 volumes.

1789. Library of the House of Representatives, Washington, 125,000 volumes.

1800. Library of Congress, Washington, 659,843 volumes; 210,000 pamphlets.

1807. Boston Athenæum, 173,831 volumes; 70,000 pamphlets.

1818. New York State Library, Albany, 157,114 volumes.

1820. New York Mercantile Library, New York, 239,793 volumes.

1821. Philadelphia Mercantile Library, 166,000 volumes; 10,000 pamphlets.

1826. Maryland State Library, Annapolis, 100,000 volumes.

1849. Astor Library, New York, 238,946 volumes; 12,000 pamphlets.

1852. Boston Public Library, 556,283 volumes.

1857. Brooklyn Library, 113,251 volumes; 21,500 pamphlets.

1857. Peabody Institute, Baltimore, 110,000 volumes; 13,500 pamphlets.

1865. Library of the Surgeon-General's Office, Washington, 104,300 volumes; 161,700 pamphlets.

1865. Detroit Public Library, 108,720 volumes.

1867. Cincinnati Public Library, 156,673 volumes; 18,326 pamphlets.

1868. Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York, 111,007 volumes; 25,000 pamphlets.

1872. Chicago Public Library, 175,874 volumes; 25,293 pamphlets.

1882. Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, 106,663 volumes; 1,500 pamphlets.

1890. University of Chicago Library, 280,000 volumes.

1891. Sutro Library, San Francisco, 200,000 volumes.

LIBRARIES: United States of America: Library Gifts.

A remarkable number of the free public libraries of the United States are the creations of private wealth, munificently employed for the common good. The greater institutions which have this origin are the Astor Library in New York, founded by John Jacob Astor and enriched by his descendants; the Lenox Library in New York, founded by James Lenox; the Peabody Institute, in Baltimore, founded by George Peabody; the Enoch Pratt Free Library, in Baltimore, founded by the gentleman whose name it bears; the Newberry Library, in Chicago, founded by the will of Walter L. Newberry, who died in 1868; the Sutro Library in San Francisco, founded by Adolph Sutro, and the Carnegie Libraries founded at Pittsburg, Alleghany City and Braddock by Andrew Carnegie. By the will of John Crerar, who died in 1889, trustees for Chicago are in possession of an estate estimated at $2,500,000 or $3,000,000, for the endowment of a library which will soon exist. The intention of the late Samuel J. Tilden, former Governor of the State of New York, to apply the greater part of his immense estate to the endowment of a free library in the City of New York, has been partially defeated by contesting heirs; but the just feeling of one among the heirs has restored $2,000,000 to the purpose for which $5,000,000 was appropriated in Mr. Tilden's intent. Steps preparatory to the creation of the library are in progress. The lesser libraries, and institutions including libraries of considerable importance, which owe their origin to the public spirit and generosity of individual men of wealth, are quite too numerous in the country to be catalogued in this place. In addition to such, the bequests and gifts which have enriched the endowment of libraries otherwise founded are beyond computation.

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LIBRARIES: United States of America: Government Departmental Libraries at Washington.

A remarkable creation of special libraries connected with the departments and bureaus of the national Government, has occurred within a few years past. The more important among them are the following:

Department of Agriculture, 20,000 volumes and 15,000 pamphlets;

Department of Justice, 21,500 volumes;

Department of State, 50,000 volumes;

Department of the Interior, 11,500;

Navy Department, 24,518;

Post Office Department, 10,000;

Patent Office Scientific Library, 50,000 volumes and 10,000 pamphlets;

Signal Office, 10,540 volumes;

Surgeon General's Office, 104,300 volumes and 161,700 pamphlets (reputed to be the best collection of medical literature, as it is certainly the best catalogued medical library, in the world);

Treasury Department, 21,000 volumes;

Bureau of Education, 45,000 volumes and 120,000 pamphlets;

Coast and Geodetic Survey, 12,000 volumes and 4,000 pamphlets;

Geological Survey, 30,414 volumes, and 42,917 pamphlets;

Naval Observatory, 13,000 volumes and 3,000 pamphlets;

United States Senate, 72,592 volumes;

United States House of Representatives, 125,000 (both of these being distinct from the great Library of Congress, which contained, in 1891, 659,843 volumes);

War Department, 30,000 volumes.

LIBRARIES: Canada.

"In 1779 a number of the officers stationed at Quebec, and of the leading merchants, undertook the formation of a subscription library. The Governor, General Haldimand, took an active part in the work, and ordered on behalf of the subscribers £500 worth of books from London. The selection was entrusted to Richard Cumberland, the dramatist: and an interesting letter from the Governor addressed to him, describing the literary wants of the town and the class of books to be sent, is now in the Public Archives. A room for their reception was granted in the Bishop's Palace; and as late as 1806, we learn from Lambert's Travels that it was the only library [?] in Canada. Removed several times, it slowly increased, until in 1882 it numbered 4,000 volumes. The list of subscribers having become very much reduced, it was leased to the Quebec Literary Association in 1843. In 1854 a portion of it was burnt with the Parliament Buildings, where it was then quartered; and finally in 1866 the entire library, consisting of 6,990 volumes, were sold, subject to conditions, to the Literary and Historical Society for a nominal sum of $500. … Naturally on the organization of each of the provinces, libraries were established in connection with the Parliaments. We have therefore the following:

Nova Scotia, Halifax, 25,319; New Brunswick, Fredericton, 10,850; Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, 4,000; Quebec, Quebec, 17,400; Ontario, Toronto, 40,000; Manitoba, Winnipeg, 10,000; Northwest Territory, Regina, 1,480; British Columbia, Victoria, 1,200; Dominion of Canada, Ottawa, 120,000. Total volumes in Parliamentary libraries, 230,249.

By far the most important of our Canadian libraries is the Dominion Library of Parliament at Ottawa. Almost corresponding with the Congressional Library at Washington in its sources of income and work, it has grown rapidly during the past ten years, and now numbers 120,000 volumes. Originally established on the union of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841, it was successively removed with the seat of government from Kingston to Montreal, to Quebec, to Toronto, again to Quebec, and finally to Ottawa. … The 38 colleges in Canada are provided with libraries containing 429,470 volumes, or an average of 11,302. The senior of these, Laval College, Quebec, is famous as being, after Harvard, the oldest on the continent, being founded by Bishop Laval in 1663. … In 1848 the late Dr. Ryerson, Superintendent of Education from 1844-1876, drafted a school bill which contained provisions for school and township libraries, and succeeded in awakening a deep interest in the subject. … In 1854 Parliament passed the requisite act and granted him the necessary funds to carry out his views in the matter. The regulations of the department authorized each county council to establish four classes of libraries—

1. An ordinary common school library in each schoolhouse for the use of the children and rate-payers.

2. A general public lending library available to all the ratepayers in the municipality.

3. A professional library of books on teaching, school organization, language, and kindred subjects, available for teachers only.

4. A library in any public institution under the control of the municipality, for the use of the inmates, or in any county jail, for the use of the prisoners. …

The proposal to establish the second class was however premature; and accordingly, finding that mechanics institutes were being developed throughout the towns and villages, the Educational Department wisely aided the movement by giving a small grant proportionate to the amount contributed by the members and reaching a maximum of $200, afterwards increased to $400 annually. In 1869 these had grown to number 26; in 1880, 74; and in 1886, 125. The number of volumes possessed by these 125 is 206,146, or an average of 1,650. … In the cities, however, the mechanics institute, with its limited number of subscribers, has been found unequal to the task assigned it, and accordingly, in 1882, the Free Libraries Act was passed, based upon similar enactments in Britain and the United States. … By the Free Libraries Act, the maximum of taxation is fixed at ½ a mill on the annual assessment. … None of the other provinces have followed Ontario in this matter."

_J. Bain, Brief Review of the Libraries of Canada (Thousand Islands Conference of Librarians, 1887)._

"The total number of public libraries in Canada of all kinds containing 1,000 or more volumes is 202, and of this number the Province of Ontario alone has 152, or over three-fourths of all, while Quebec has 27 or over one-half of the remaining fourth, the other provinces having from 2 to 6 libraries each. The total number of volumes and pamphlets in all the libraries reported is 1,478,910, of which the Province of Ontario has 863,332 volumes, or almost 60 per cent, while the Province of Quebec has 490,354, or over 33 percent; Nova Scotia, 48,250 volumes, or 3½ per cent; New Brunswick, 34,894 volumes, a little over 2.3 per cent; Manitoba, 31,025 volumes, or 2.1 per cent; British Columbia, 10,225 volumes, or not quite 0.7 per cent; and Prince Edward Island, 5,200 volumes, or over 0.3 per cent of the total number."

_V. Flint, Statistics [1891] of Public Libraries in the United States and Canada (United States Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No.7, 1893)._

LIBRARIES: Mexico.

The National Library of Mexico contains 155,000 books, besides manuscripts and pamphlets.

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LIBRARIES: China. The Imperial Library.

"It would be surprising if a people like the Chinese, who have the literary instinct so strongly developed, had not at an early date found the necessity of those great collections of books which are the means for carrying on the great work of civilization. China had her first great bibliothecal catastrophe two centuries before the Christian era, when the famous edict for the burning of the books was promulgated. Literature and despotism have never been on very good terms, and the despot of Tsin, finding a power at work which was unfavorable to his pretensions, determined to have all books destroyed except those relating to agriculture, divination and the history of his own house. His hatred to books included the makers of them, and the literati have not failed to make his name execrated for his double murders of men and books. When the brief dynasty of Tsin passed, the Princes of Han showed more appreciation of culture, and in 190 B. C. the atrocious edict was repealed, and the greatest efforts made to recover such literary treasures as had escaped the destroyer. Some classics are said to have been rewritten from the dictation of scholars who had committed them to memory. Some robbers broke open the tomb of Seang, King of Wei, who died B. C. 295, and found in it bamboo tablets containing more than 100,000 peen [bamboo slips]. These included a copy of the Classic of Changes and the Annals of the Bamboo Books, which indeed take their title from this circumstance. This treasure trove was placed in the Imperial Library. So the Shoo-king is said to have been found in a wall where it had been hidden by a descendant of Confucius, on the proclamation of the edict against books. Towards the close of the first century a library had been formed by Lew Heang and his son Lew Hin. … Succeeding dynasties imitated more or less this policy, and under the later Han dynasty great efforts were made to restore the library. … In the troubles at the close of the second century the palace at Lo-Yang was burned, and the greater part of the books destroyed. … Another Imperial collection at Lo-Yang, amounting to 29,945 books, was destroyed A. D. 311. In A. D. 431, Seäy Ling-Yuen, the keeper of the archives, made a catalogue of 4,582 books in his custody. Another catalogue was compiled in 473, and recorded 5,704 books. Buddhism and Taouism now began to contribute largely to the national literature. Amongst the other consequences of the overthrow of the Tse dynasty at the end of the fifth century was the destruction of the royal library of 18,010 books. Early in the next century a collection of 33,106 books, not including the Buddhist literature, was made chiefly, it is said, by the exertions of Jin Fang, the official curator. The Emperor Yuen-te removed his library, then amounting to 70,000 books, to King Chow, and the building was burnt down when he was threatened by the troops of Chow. The library of the later Wei dynasty was dispersed in the insurrection of 531, and the efforts made to restore it were not altogether successful. The later Chow collected a library of 10,000 books, and, on the overthrow of the Tse dynasty, this was increased by a mass of 5,000 mss. obtained from the fallen dynasty. When towards the close of the sixth century the Suy became masters of the empire they began to accumulate books. … The Tang dynasty are specially remarkable for their patronage of literature. Early in the eighth century the catalogue extended to 53,915 books, and a collection of recent authors included 28,469 books. Printing began to supersede manuscript in the tenth century, plentiful editions of the classics appeared and voluminous compilations. Whilst the Sung were great patrons of literature, the Leaou were at least lukewarm, and issued an edict prohibiting the printing of books by private persons. The Kin had books translated into their own tongue, for the benefit of the then Mongolian subjects. A similar policy was pursued by the Yuen dynasty, under whom dramatic literature and fiction began to flourish. In the year 1406, the printed books in the Imperial Library are said to have amounted to 300,000 printed books and twice the number of mss. … The great Imperial Library was founded by K'in Lung in the last century. In response to an imperial edict, many of the literati and book-lovers placed rare editions at the service of the government, to be copied. The Imperial Library has many of its books, therefore, in mss. Chinese printing, however, is only an imperfect copy of the caligraphy of good scribes. Four copies were made of each work. One was destined for the Wan Yuen Repository at Peking; a second for the Wan-tsung Repository at Kang-ning, the capital of Kiang-su province; a third for the Wan-hwui Repository at Yang-chou-fu, and the fourth for the Wan-lan Repository at Hong-Chou, the capital of Cheh-Kiang. A catalogue was published from which it appears that the library contained from ten to twelve thousand distinct works, occupying 168,000 volumes. The catalogue is in effect an annotated list of Chinese literature, and includes the works which were still wanting to the library and deemed essential to its completion. Dr. D. J. McGowan, who visited the Hong-Chou collection, says that it was really intended for a public library, and that those who applied for permission to the local authorities, not only were allowed access, but were afforded facilities for obtaining food and lodging, 'but from some cause or other the library is rarely or never consulted.' Besides the Imperial, there are Provincial, Departmental and District Libraries. Thus, the examination hall of every town will contain the standard classical and historical books. At Canton and other cities there are extensive collections, but their use is restricted to the mandarins. There are collections of books and sometimes printing presses in connection with the Buddhist monasteries."

_W. E. A. Axon, Notes on Chinese Libraries (Library Journal, January and February, 1880)._

For an account of the ancient library of Chinese classics in stone,

See EDUCATION, ANCIENT: CHINA.

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LIBRARIES: Japan.