University of Virginia Library

A SURVEY OF RESEARCH MATERIALS IN VIRGINIA LIBRARIES

INTRODUCTION

This is an attempt at a survey of the research possibilities
in Virginia libraries. It has been undertaken as the Virginia
section of a project embracing thirteen southern states: Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi,
North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and
Virginia. This project is being supervised by a Committee on
Resources of Southern Libraries of which Mr. Robert B. Downs of
the University of North Carolina is Chairman and Mr. Wilmer L.
Hall of the Virginia State Library and Mr. Harry Clemons of the
University of Virginia are the Virginia members. This Committee
itself is a regional unit of a Board on Resources of American
Libraries of which Dr. William Warner Bishop of the University
of Michigan is Chairman. Both Committee and Board bear appoint-from
the American Library Association. The Virginia survey has
been compiled by Mr. Clemons; and the combined survey of the
thirteen southern states is being compiled by Mr. Downs. The
work of this combined survey has been facilitated by a grant
from the General Education Board.

A degree of uniformity in the survey has been attained by
the use of a special guide for the description and evaluation of
research materials prepared by Mr. Downs with some assistance
from the committee on southern libraries. A further result of
the use of this guide has been to make the report something more
than a list of special collections. In actual use any special
collection requires support from both general and bibliographical
materials in the particular subject and also, to some degree, in
related subjects. The research possibilities of a region depend
on the strength of its libraries in fundamentals as well as on
the presence of special and unique material. From this point of
view it is a matter of interest that a library which can at
present make little claim to the possession of significant research
materials is giving evidence of wise selection in the
acquisition of its standard sets, bibliographic works, and
periodical files.

This larger aim of the survey has naturally added to its
difficulties; and any hope of carrying it through has had to depend
on the willingness of Virginia librarians to cooperate. But
so notable has been the willingness that it has actually become
the outstanding feature of the whole Virginia project. This survey
itself will in a few months become merely a momentary glimpse
at one stage of a changing and accelerating development. But
that scores of librarians were willing to sacrifice literally
hundreds of hours of work to make such a general survey possible

affords evidence of a spirit of cooperation and of devotion to a
common goal that is in itself a vital and lasting resource for
library development.

No full list of those who have thus cooperated has been
attempted. A brief suggestion of the extent of such a roll call
may, however, be included. The project was endorsed by two
annual meetings of the Virginia Library Association. At the disposal
of the compiler was placed the material collected for the
very useful `Handbook of Virginia Libraries' which was compiled
in 1936 by a Committee of Junior Librarians — this Handbook itself
being an excellent example of cooperation. At twenty-three
libraries preliminary surveys were carried through by the local
staffs through the use of the `Guide for the Description and
Evaluation of Research Materials' — a document which in its
extent throws into the shade even the questionnaires prepared by
the Federal Government. It is known that in one Virginia
Library over twenty staff members contributed time and effort
towards the filling out of this questionnaire for the local
collections. Four tours were made, east, west, north, and south,
from central Charlottesville by Messrs. Cappon, Wyllie, and
Clemons of the University of Virginia Library in order to visit
some of these twenty-three and to cover other libraries.
Effective help was given at all stages of the work by Mr. Hall,
the State Librarian. The first draft of this survey was read
by Dr. E. G. Swem of the College of William and Mary, by
Messrs. Hall and Randolph W. Church of the State Library, and by
Messrs. Cappon, Dalton, and Wyllie of the University of Virginia.
If anyone seriously attempts to peruse the text which
follows, he will be able to appreciate the quantity of this
contribution of these librarians. The quality of this contribution
of theirs must fortunately remain unknown, for it includes
the errors that have been corrected in this final draft. But
even their untiring efforts are liable not to have been
entirely successful; and for the errors that remain the Virginia
compiler regrets that he must be held solely responsible. To
him also must be charged the tedious delays in the process of
compilation. The collection of statistics on which this survey
is based was practically completed in the academic year 1936-37,
and as a document in the history of Virginia libraries it
should therefore bear that date.