 | A survey of research materials in Virginia libraries, 1936-37 |  |
SUMMARY
If anyone has possessed the endurance to read this survey
through, there is no need to summarize for him the research situation
in Virginia. But even though the genus librarian is apparently
a hardy stock, it seems advisable to append a summary, with
perhaps a word or two of generalization.
A merely casual examination of the foregoing pages will reveal
in every division lists of six or eight or ten libraries
with collections which often do not vary greatly in size. In most
cases a majority of these are college or university libraries.
Attention has naturally been focused on these rather than on
public library collections, since even in such effective public
libraries as those in Richmond, Norfolk, Roanoke, Lynchburg,
Petersburg, Winchester, or Newport News the emphasis on research
will probably continue to be largely incidental. But what has
not emerged into visibility on these pages is the fact that the
roll of the college libraries could readily have been doubled or
inadequacy of the book collections in the lower ranges of the
lists. The suspicion that Virginia is overstocked with colleges
is strengthened by library tests. The natural conclusion that
the state's book budgets are being too much expended for duplication
of commonplace items, and that concentration on fewer
libraries would work benefit to research possibilities is obvious.
But it is also quite unrealistic as a solution. In the words of
a former President of the United States, this is a condition and
not a theory that confronts us. We have the colleges with us;
and being colleges, their libraries must not be permitted to
starve. To readjust existing budgets so as to afford greater
emphasis on book collections and their administration would be
drastic, but it would also undoubtedly be educational statesmanship.
To this generalization it may be objected that it has no
legitimate place in a survey of research materials; that college
libraries are for undergraduates and that no pretense is made to
offer research possibilities. That fact may readily be granted.
And it is certainly no thesis of this survey that superstructures
of research should be reared on inadequate foundations. But
quite aside from the more immediate injury to the undergraduates
and their teachers from the meagre book collections that are to
be found too frequently in Virginia, there is involved injury to
research also. Research collections are the tools of the trade
for trained scholars. In these latter days trained scholars do
not spring full-grown from a Jovian headache. They must patiently
learn to read and to use books. Lack of the essential means may
even prevent latent scholarship from ever realizing its powers.
A well chosen and a well administered college book collection is
a constant means of attraction and stimulus — it is a vital
asset to a college and to the development of scholarship. To
cramp and retard scholarly impulses at their origin is poor
service to this Commonwealth.
But for the libraries which have emerged on to the lists in
the foregoing pages there can be a different verdict. In them
there is much of promise and something of real achievement. The
record is for the academic year 1936-37. That record has already
slipped back from `present conditions' to `recent history.'
There is much matter for satisfaction that the generous cooperation
exhibited during this survey has brought to librarians the
compensation of a clearer knowledge of their own collections.
This knowledge is already bringing forth fruit in planned and
systematic growth. That the present survey should by no means be
regarded as the conclusion of the whole matter is a distinct
reason for encouragement.
To sum up, then. In the general classes there are noteworthy
collections at the State Library, at the University of
Virginia, at the College of William and Mary, at Sweet Briar, at
Randolph-Macon Woman's College, at the University of Richmond.
items; and of adequate foreign material there is a
common lack. But in its manuscript collections Virginia can
claim notable research possibilities, particularly in Richmond,
in Charlottesville, and in Williamsburg.
For their collections in the humanities mention should be
made of the University of Virginia, of the State Library, of
William and Mary, of Randolph-Macon Woman's College, of Sweet
Briar, of Washington and Lee, of Hampton Institute. The most
noticeable weakness is in modern languages such as Italian and
French. There is strength in classical languages, English, fine
arts, architecture, philosophy; and in religion the Union Theological
Seminary and the Episcopal Theological Seminary afford undoubted
opportunities for research.
In social sciences there are commendable collections at the
State Library, the University of Virginia, William and Mary,
Washington and Lee, the University of Richmond, Randolph-Macon
Woman's College, and Hampton Institute. There is more or less
general weakness in anthropology and ethnology, in mediaeval
history, and in Latin American, African, Asiatic, and Oceanic
history. Other sections in history, particularly American
history, are much more adequate; and so are the materials in education,
and in commerce and economics. There are fair collections
in law at the State Law Library and at the University of
Virginia.
In science the strongest collections are at the University
of Virginia and at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The
subjects most adequately equipped are perhaps astronomy, chemistry,
geography, geology, and psychology. The specialized collections
at the Coast Artillery School and at the Mariners' Museum are a
boon to research in Virginia; and the Medical College of Virginia
and the Medical Library at the University of Virginia have made a
promising start in the collection of materials on medicine.
In technology the libraries at the University of Virginia,
the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, the Mariners' Museum, the
Coast Artillery School, Hampton Institute, and the College of
William and Mary deserve mention. The main strength is in
agriculture, engineering, and military and naval science. The
material in home economics and textiles is wide spread but is
not very important.
The largest collections in Virginia are at the State Library
and at the University of Virginia. The former has a truly remarkable
range for a library of the character conventionally
attributed to a state library. On the latter falls the main
responsibility for supporting graduate work on the Ph.D. level;
and in the doubling of the size of its combined collections
during the past eleven years there has been an earnest effort to
buildings. But that there is a more adequate library building
in process of erection at the University of Virginia and that
there is immediate hope of a similar new building for the State
Library are items of significance.
Such, then, is this 1936-37 survey of the research possibilities
in Virginia libraries. It has been an attempt at reality.
It shows cause not for boasting nor for discouraged resignation
but for persistent effort.
| A survey of research materials in Virginia libraries, 1936-37 | |