University of Virginia Library

Section B. Bibliography.

For bibliographical material, libraries in Virginia have the
geographical advantage of easy access to the resources of the
Library of Congress. Local bibliographical collections are
making progress in effectiveness; but there is much distance to
go before any of them can lay claim to complete adequacy.

Depositories of Library of Congress printed cards are located
at the Coast Artillery School (partial), at Hampton Institute
(partial), at the State Library, and at the University of
Virginia. The College of William and Mary receives all Americana
and Virginiana cards. The State Library, Washington and Lee
University, and the University of Virginia are are subscribers to
the new edition of the printed book catalogue of the British
Museum. The University Library receives also the general catalogue
of the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Gesamtkatalog der
Preuissischen Bibliotheken, the cards printed by the Library at
the Vatican, the genealogical cards compiled by a committee of
American librarians with headquarters at Wesleyan University, and
the Shakespeare cards issued from the Folger Library in Washington.
Book catalogues of other libraries are scattered among half a
dozen collections. For example, the catalogue of the Astor
Library is at the State and the University Libraries; the catalogue
of the Boston Athenaeum is at William and Mary, the State Library,
and the University Library; the catalogue of the Carnegie Library
is at the Randolph-Macon Woman's College, at the Richmond Public
Library, at William and Mary, and at the University of Virginia;
and the Peabody Institute catalogue is at the Randolph-Macon
Woman's College, the State Library, Washington and Lee, William
and Mary, and the University of Virginia.

Similar conditions prevail with regard to the general bibliographies.
Brunet is to be found at most of the libraries already
mentioned and at the Union Theological Seminary in Richmond; Hain
is at Washington and Lee, Graesse and the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegandrucke
are at the University of Virginia, and Sweet Briar
possesses copies of the British Museum Catalogue of Books Printed
in the Fifteenth Century.

Of the American national bibliographies, Evans and Sabin
are to be found at the State Library, Washington and Lee, and
the University of Virginia. These three libraries and Hampton
Institute, Hollins College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College
have the English Catalogue; and the same three and William and
Mary have copies of Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual of English
Literature. Other foreign national bibliographies are infrequent,
though the University of Virginia has an incomplete

set of Hinrich's Fünfjahrskatalog, Washington and Lee and the
University of Virginia have Lorenz's Catalogue Général de la
Librairie Française; and the State Library and the University
of Virginia have Arber's Term Catalogues.

The H. W. Wilson Company seems to have found a fair market
for its index publications in Virginia, most of the libraries
so far named and a number of others, including the four State
Teachers' Colleges, subscribing to one or more. The same is
true of the New York Times Index; and Dr. Lester J. Cappon's
recent bibliography, `Virginia Newspapers, 1821-1935', has
found its way into a considerable number of Virginia libraries.
Available in Richmond is a typescript union list of periodicals
currently received by nine Richmond libraries, compiled by Miss
Mary L. Garland.

The State Library, Washington and Lee, William and Mary,
and the University of Virginia subscribe to the Bibliographical
Society of America Papers; and the State and the University
Libraries receive two or three of the foreign bibliographical
journals and society papers. But in general, Virginia libraries
are not notable for foreign bibliographical or documentary
publications.

Strength in subject bibliographies is also scattered, and
no single library has at present an adequate collection that includes
all subjects. In philosophy and psychology the University
of Virginia is perhaps strongest. In religion the Episcopal
Theological Seminary in Alexandria and the Union Theological
Seminary (Presbyterian) in Richmond are outstanding. In the
social sciences fairly good collections of subject bibliographies
are to be found at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute,
the State Library, the College of William and Mary, and the
University of Virginia; and the Hampton Institute Library is
strong in education and the Negro. In science reasonably adequate
bibliographies are located at the Randolph-Macon Woman's
College, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, at Washington and
Lee, at William and Mary, and at the University of Virginia.
For technology one finds good bibliographical equipment at the
State Library, at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and at the
University of Virginia; the Medical College of Virginia, at
Richmond, is notable for medicine; and there is an important
collection of bibliographic material on naval science at the
Mariners' Museum[2] near Newport News. The College of William

and Mary and the University of Virginia appear to be best supplied
in the fine arts. Most of the libraries mentioned in this
paragraph and some others, such as the Richmond Public Library,
have given considerable attention to bibliographic material in
literature and history.

Special card bibliographies are being compiled in several
Virginia libraries; as, for example, on miscellaneous military
subjects at the Library of the Coast Artillery School, on Robert
E. Lee books and manuscripts[3] at Washington and Lee University,
and on Virginiana at William and Mary and at the University of
Virginia. Akin to these are the archival undertakings at the
State Library and at the University of Virginia, and the activities
in Virginia of the Historical Records Survey under the
Works Progress Administration. For the University project, conducted
by Dr. Lester J. Cappon, there have recently appeared the
bibliography `Virginia Newspapers, 1821-1935', which has already
been mentioned, and various bibliographies published in Doctor
Cappon's annual reports.

There are useful collections on the history of books and
libraries at the University of Richmond, at the University of
Virginia, and at Sweet Briar. Some emphasis on this general subject
is evident also in the collections at the Farmville State
Teachers College, at Hollins College, at the State Library, and
at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute. Specimens of incunabula
are rare, there being a few examples at the Randolph-Macon
Woman's College, at the Richmond Academy of Medicine, at the
Union Theological Seminary, at Washington and Lee, at the
Packard-Laird Memorial Library of the Virginia Episcopal Theological
Seminary, and at the University of Virginia. The collection
of early Americana at William and Mary, the Williamsburg
material at the Library of Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated,
the Miller Collection of old medical works at the Richmond
Academy of Medicine, and the sixteenth century volumes on
geography and travel and on the astrolabe at the Mariners'
Museum are notable.