College and Research Libraries


By MAX LEDERE~ 

A Stroll Through English Libraries 

Dr. Lederer is a fellow of the Library of 
Congress. 

W
HEN VISITING English libraries, one 
looks back to six centuries of devoted 

service to the reader. Within convenient 
range of the traveler are London and Ox-
ford. The libraries of these two cities offer 
a good choice for a general view. 

Let us start with Oxford, the ancient seat 
of learning fQr almost seven centuries, 
whose coat of arms humbly points to the 
eternal source of all truth and wisdom: 
Dominus illuminatio mea. In the venerable 
Merton College Library-the building was 
erected in the years I373-78-the lance-
shaped, narrow windows throw a dim light 
on rows of leather-bound volumes, the gilt 
titles and edges of which have long ago 
faded. The structure and arrangement are, 
on a smaller scale, similar to those of the 
Bodleian Library. There is a central aisle 
with bays on both sides and the books on 
shelves above the desks-simple boards-
within . easy reach of the reader. Valuable 
books were chained to the shelves-as still 
may be seen-to be on the safe side in those 
insecure times. In those days the work of 
a scholar must have been somewhat less 
cumbersome than now, to judge from the 
signs on top of the frontsides of the bays; 
only a few bays were dedicated to the old 
"schools" of theology, jurisprudence, medi-
cine and philosophy. A few shelves sufficed 
for what was probably the whole knowledge 
in each field. In the corner where two 
wings form a right angle is a bust of Sir 
Thomas Bodley whose name is forever con-
nected with the Bibliotheca Bodleiana. The 
old Merton College Library is hardly used 

OCTOBER~ 1949 

now, a modern library having been estab-
lished right below the old one. The Bod-
leian Library, however, is still, as it has been 
for ages, a working library, not only one of 
the most revered, but also one of the largest 
and most important institutions of its kind. 

The old Bodleian is too well known to 
require a minute description. Generation 
after generation has climbed the shallow 
steps of the quaint wooden staircase. One 
would not suspect when passing the modest 
entrance in a corner of the Old Schools 
Quadrangle that he was entering one of the 
noblest repositories of man's wisdom and 
learning. Founded in the fifteenth century 
it was despoiled IOO years later, and then 
restored by Sir Thomas Bodley at the end 
of the sixteenth century. The !-square 
shaped hall with its beautiful old roofing, 
adorned with college arms, has been the 
workshop of countless scholars. There are 
untold treasures among the 42,000 bound 
volumes of manuscripts, oriental and west-
ern, some dating from the fifth century. 
The "Theorem of Pythagoras" can be seen 
in a manuscript of Euclid's Elements~ al-
most I IOO years old. King Alfred's Anglo-
Saxon translation of St. Gregory's Liber 
pastoralis~ the Cura pastoralis ( 890-897) 
next catches our eye. 

Thousands of manuscripts and incu-
nabula, and two million books fill the stacks 
of the New Bodleian Library. This mod-
ern structure-too modern, perhaps, for 
many old Oxoni::ms in these noble surround-
ings of the Clarendon building, the Old 
Schools Qua-drangle, Exeter and Trinity 
Colleges-was finished in I 940, at the time 
of the "phony" war. During the war the 
premises were used by the government. 

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The library was formally opened by the 
King and Queen in 1947, exactly 500 years 
after the opening of the oldest part of the 
Bodleian, which once contained the manu-
scripts of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. 
The New Bodleian meets all the standards 
of a ~odern library. The light and large 
reading room, which is used mainly by stu-
dents in the social, economic and historical 
fields, contains an excellent reference li-
brary for the convenience of the readers. 
A ll the other books, including the valuable 
old manuscripts, are brought over to the old 
Bodleian reading room by means of an elec-
tric conveyor leading through an under-
ground tunnel which connects the two 
buildings, the calls being transmitted by 
means of pneumatic tubes . S. Gillam, as-
sistant secretary, serves as an expert guide 
through all the intricacies and technicalities 
of a modern library. The steel shelves are 
similar to those of the Library of Congress, 
but the books are shelved by size as indi-
cated in the call number, a-d . The subjects 
are indicated by a number system which is 
used by this library exclusively, and the in-
dividual works are arranged alphabetically 
within the size groups. A special peculiar-
ity which dates far back is that newspapers 
are bound by date, with titles in alphabeti-
cal order. This makes it possible to view 
t he news of the day from various political 
angles. To trace a particular fact, how-
ever, it is necessary to know the exact date. 

Many volumes, especially manuscripts 
and early prints, are turned with their backs 
to the wall, the call number written in ink 
on the edges. They were originally chained 
and one can still see the spot where the 
chains were fastened to the covers. The di-
visions are the same as in · any other large 
library, but are modestly termed "rooms," 
e.g. a cataloging room, a map room, etc. 
Although the simple cataloging system used 
does not require a large staff of specialists 
and is actually done in a single room, the 

process takes much longer because of the 
traditional use of ledgers rather than cards. 
The slips for the entries, formerly written, 
are now printed on sheets which have to be 
cut; then the single slips are pasted on the 
left-hand pages of the ledger, and additions 
on the right-hand pages. To catalog new 
accessions, slips have to be removed and 
moved on until the page, or the entire vol-
ume, is ready for a new, up-to-date arrange-
ment-which, however, does not stay up-to-
date very long. This system is certainly 
less flexible than the use of car-ds, and it 
takes longer for new accessions to be en-
tered. On the other hand, it is more con-
venient to look over an author's complete 
work, or a subject, in a bound volume than 
to go through long files of cards. Because 
of the simple procedures the library requires 
a relatively small personnel; the whole staff 
includes only 100-120 persons. It is true, 
however, that it sometimes takes an hour 
before a book is received by the reader and 
the catalog may not yet record a book which 
has been received months before. On the 
whole, however, it does function if one may 
conclude from the scholarly work which 
has been accomplished in the Bodleian Li-
brary. And here they are still sitting either 
in their traditional, time-honored cap and 
gown or in the plain clothes of our more 
prosaic age: the young student trying out 
his first groping steps in the universe of 
letters ; the famous scholar, sure of his ways 
through the labyrinth of knowledge neatly 
bound up between covers, tracing the steep 
paths which lead to unknown lands no 
man's eye has ever beheld. 

The magnificent library of the British 
Museum, one of the largest of the world, 
with approximately four million volumes is 
a comparatively modern institute compared 
with the old Bodleian. The magnificent 
dome of the reading room, which was only 
slightly damaged during the war, houses an 
excellent reference library accessible to the 

330 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH, LIBRARIES 



reader. Arthur Ellis, the keeper, one of the 
leading officers of the library and a noble 
type of a quiet and friendly English scholar-
librarian, F. D. Cooper, assistant keeper of 
printed books, first class, and for many 
years in charge of the Documents and State 
Paper Room, and Mr. King, in charge of 
the Music Room, dedicated a good deal of 
their .precious time to inform this visitor 
about the library in general and to show 
him around in the various divisions, here, 
too, called rooms. As in the Bodleian we 
are again surprised at the simplicity of the 
procedure. The cataloging system is simi-
lar to that of the Bodleian, although the 
numbers used for the subjects are -different; 
and here, too, the books are cataloged and 
shelved by size. Cataloging is done in two 
rooms by about two dozen employees. A 
staff of about ro persons in two rooms 
handle the copyright. Here, as in the Bod-
leian, ledgers are used, not cards. The 
stacks are, naturally enough, somewhat old 
fashioned and filled to the high ceilings with 
shelves so that ladders must be used. 
Thousands of volumes of medieval manu-
scripts, incunabula and historical documents 
(e.g. a copy of the Magna Chart a) make 
the British Museum Library a worthy rival 
of the Old Bodleian. Numerous collec-
tions are kept together, many of them in 
special period-furnished rooms. The li-
brary suffered heavily during the war; 
about 200,000 volumes have been lost en-
tirely, many more thousands damaged. In 
many parts of the building, especially the 
"King's Library" the destruction provides 
a grim reminder of the war devastation. 

Neither the Bodleian, nor even the 
British Museum Library are public li-
braries in the sense that the prospective 
reader may simply walk in and order a book 
as he will do in the New York Public Li-

OCTOBER~ 1949 

brary or in the Library of Congress. There 
he has to get a personal permit either for 
the day or a longer period, stating precisely 
the object of his studies. 

A neighbor of the British Museum Li-
brary is the University of London Senatr 
House and Library. This is a modern 
skyscraper, housing 500,000 books and serv-
ing a student body of 50,000 residents and 
about 20,000 nonresidents, besides the facul-
ties of 40 affiliated schools, as the librarian, 
J. H. P. Pafford, explains. It has a beauti-
ful reading room with a reference library 
and all the facilities for quick and expert 
service. The library specializes in political 
and social sciences. The single institutes 
(e.g. for Slavonic studies and history) in 
the same building have their own special 
libraries. 

This little stroll through libraries in 
England concludes with a glance at a small 
but important collection: the American Li-
brary on Grosvenor Square, next door to 
and connected with the American Embassy, 
numbering only about ro,ooo volu~es, has 
developed into an indispensable reference 
library on American questions-as its direc-
tor, Sargent Child, formerly of the Library 
of Congress, points out. This is a difficult 
assignment for such a small collection but 
one that is solved successfully. Not all the 
answers can be found in books, however. 
Hence a good deal of the work consists in 
answering telephone calls from embassies, 
government offices, representatives of indus-
try and trade, etc. This service is provided 
by a small but well-trained and informed 
staff. This institution, which has existed 
only a few years, is a worthy symbol of 
American culture and efficiency in the heart 
of England, and although small, it con-
stitutes an important link between the Eng-
lish-speaking nations. 

331