THE TRUSTEES, GOVERNORS, AND PRINCIPAL WILLIAM CARNELLEY. The RIGHT HON. LORD COZENS-HARDY OF LETHERINGSETT, P.C. GERARD N. FORD, J.P. SIR ALFRED HOPKINSON, K.C., B.C.L., LL.D., etc. WILLIAM A. LINNELL. SIR GEORGE WATSON MACALPINE, J.P., LL.D. SIR THOMAS THORNHILL SHANN, J.P. EVAN SPICER, J.P. SIR ADOLPHUS WILLIAM WARD, LITT.D., LL.D. WILLIAM CARNELLEY. SIR GEORGE WATSON MACALPINE, GERARD N. FORD, J.P. LITT.D. LL.D. L. E. KASTNER, M.A. CO-OPTATIVE GOVERNORS.* The REV. ROBERT MACKINTOSH, M.A., | A. S. PEAKE, M.A., D.D. D.D. TRUSTEES. REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNORS.* The REV. J. T. MARSHALL, M.A., D.D. CHAIRMAN OF COUNCIL VICE-CHAIRMAN HON. TREASURER HON. SECRETARY HONORARY GOVERNORS. + The RIGHT HON. LORD COZENS- CANON H. D. RAWNSLEY, M.A. The RT. REV. The BISHOP OF LIN- The MAYOR OF SALFORD. The REV. F. J. POWICKE, M.A., PH.D. SIR GEORGE WATSON MACALPINE, J.P., LL.D.. SIR THOMAS T. SHANN, J.P. HENRY GUPPY, M.A. * The Representative and Co-optative Governors constitute the Council. THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY MANCHESTER JANUARY-MARCH, 1916 LIBRARY NOTES AND NEWS. A T the January meeting of the Council of Governors the sixteenth annual report was presented, in which the work of the library during the past year was reviewed. As the circulation of this report is restricted to the governing body of the library it may not be out of place in these pages briefly to summarize such portions of the information which it contains as are likely to be of interest to our readers. VOL. 3 No. 1 1915. As we looked forward at the commencement of the year it was not unnatural to anticipate a decline in the library's THE YEAR activities. We had become obsessed by the war; it had entered into every phase of our work, and at times it seemed to overshadow, if not actually to obscure all our visions of usefulness. It is therefore with feelings of relief, as we look back, that we find our gloomy forebodings have not been realized. Libraries, museums, and art galleries have been marked down as victims of municipal and state retrenchment to an extent which astonishes all who care for the intellectual future of England, and we are grateful to the Editor of the "Saturday Review" for the strong and timely protest which he raised against this mistaken policy. "It will not materially help the country financially to economize in things of the mind, or in any of the things which give a genuine grace and dignity to life. The financial results of such economy are small, and they are tremendously outweighed by the irreparable loss to the country of intellectual force, and of all means by which a nation's spirit is kept alive and fresh. Those who think literature a mere luxury to be cut down with as little compunction as petrol are exceedingly ill-advised. They can have very little idea as to what precisely it is we are fighting to preserve. The nation which is starved in mind and fancy is as little likely to survive the searching test of war as the nation which is starved for bread and cheese." 99 Libraries are the keepers of the forces which more than any other can effectively fight against and resist the intellectual enslavement which may be described as the roots from which the present world conflagration has sprung. The fruits of the world's thought upon our shelves are a never-failing store of weapons calculated to help the public to assert that freedom to think, to choose, and to believe for themselves if militarism is to be prevented from becoming the pattern to which the whole world is made. Another direction in which the libraries of the country can help at this time is to provide avenues of escape from too much thinking about the war. Fortunately, the governors have had no illusions of the kind referred to; they have realized their responsibility, not only to "carry on, "but also to open out, wherever possible, new avenues of service, and with most encouraging results. The number of readers in the library not only has shown no decline, but has actually shown an increase, with this difference from former years that there have been fewer male readers, for obvious reasons, whilst the lady readers have increased to such an extent, that at times the seating capacity of the library has been taxed to the point of congestion, and the need for increased accommodation, to which we look forward, is once more emphasized. By the approaching completion of the new building which should be ready for occupation towards the end of the present year, or at the commencement of 1917, not only will the congestion in this respect be relieved, but the sorely needed additional accommodation for book storage will be available, to the relief of the overcrowded bookshelves. RECON OF THE LOUVAIN At the meeting of the Council held in December, 1914, the Governors resolved to give some practical expression THE to their deep feelings of sympathy with the authorities of STRUCTION. the University of Louvain, in the irreparable loss which they had suffered through the destruction of the University buildings and the famous library. It was further decided that this expression of sympathy should take the form of a gift of books, to comprise a set of the publications of the library, together with a selection from the stock of duplicates, which have gradually accumulated in the library, through the purchase en bloc from time to time of large and special collections. A list of upwards of two hundred volumes was drawn up to accompany the offer, when it was made to the Louvain authorities through the medium of Professor Dr. A. Carnoy, at that time resident in Cambridge, who, in gratefully accepting the gift, stated that "this was one of the very first acts which tend to the preparation of our revival". Since the University was, as it remains for the present, dismembered and without a home, we gladly undertook to house the volumes, which thus formed the nucleus of the new library, until such time as the new buildings should be ready to receive them. At the same time it was felt that there must be many other libraries, and similar institutions, as well as private individuals, who would welcome an opportunity of sharing in this expression of practical sympathy. An appeal, therefore, was made in the pages of the "BULLETIN," which met with an immediate and encouraging response from all classes of the community, not only in this country, but in many parts of the world, thanks to the valuable assistance rendered by the Press, in giving to our appeal a publicity it would have been impossible to secure in any other way. Already upwards of 6000 volumes have been either actually received or definitely promised, and each day brings with it fresh offers of assistance. We feel encouraged, therefore, to entertain the hope that the new library, which is already rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the old one, will be richer and more glorious than its predecessor, and we are anxious that the agencies through which this is to be accomplished should be as widely representative as possible. A careful register of the names and addresses of the donors of the various works, with an exact record of their gifts, has been instituted for presentation with the library. This will serve as a permanent record of the widespread desire to give tangible proof to the people of Belgium of the sympathy so widely felt with them in the calamities that have befallen them, and also of the high and affectionate regard which their heroic sacrifices have inspired. This is an excellent beginning of the new library, yet, when it is realized that the collection of books so insensately destroyed at Louvain numbered nearly a quarter of a million of volumes, it will be evident that very much more remains to be done if the work of replacement is to be completely successful. It is with the utmost confidence that we renew our appeal for help, and in doing so we desire to ask those of our readers who may be |