LIBRARY PROGRESS IN AMERICA. 137 



has grown greatly. Library clubs, state associations, interstate con- 

 ferences and the American Library Association have all grown in 

 membership, while their number has increased threefold at least. 

 Two new schools for training librarians have been established in the 

 past decade, and the older schools have strengthened their curricula 

 and raised their standard for admission. One new journal devoted 

 particularly to the work of public libraries has come into existence. 



Any summary of this decade would be incomplete which failed to 

 mention the great additions to American libraries in the shape of 

 special collections or endowments for special purposes. Such gifts 

 as the John Carter Brown Library of Brown University, the Biant 

 collection at Harvard, the Yale collection of Semitic manuscripts, the 

 Dante collection presented to Cornell by Willard Fiske, the Avery 

 Architectural Library at Columbia, the Morgan collection of Vergils 

 and the Garrett collection of Arabic manuscripts at Princeton, and the 

 Ford and other collections of the New York Public Library, are but 

 conspicuous examples of the collector's generosity which has been so 

 prominent a part of recent library history. The man of wealth may 

 easily give money for a building, but the scholarly collector who turns 

 over to a library for keeping and use the result of his efforts of years 

 gives perhaps even more munificently. The libraries of this country 

 are yearly receiving such donations in ever increasing numbers. 



It would be a rare and happy fate were the librarians of America 

 able to remind themselves of no great losses from their ranks in the 

 past decade. Such is, unfortunately, not the case. Three of the pio- 

 neers in library progress have died during this period. Those who 

 know intimately the history of the library movement will at once 

 acknowledge that in the loss of Wm. F. Poole, Justin Winsor and C. 

 A. Cutter the library world has been sorely stricken. Dr. Poole is re- 

 membered by historians and librarians alike for his services to Ameri- 

 can history and bibliography. Mr. Winsor's achievements as a cartog- 

 rapher, historian and librarian are too well known to need more than 

 mention. Mr. Cutter, whose death occurred only last summer, was not 

 so widely known outside the circle of technical workers. To librarians 

 he was celebrated for a long series of most valuable contributions to the 

 problems of classification and cataloguing, while his personal qualities 

 endeared him to all. That such men were to be found foremost among 

 American librarians is one of the occasions for pride in their calling. 

 Their memory should prove one of the greatest incentives to future 

 workers in their chosen field. 



It would be a rash man who should venture to predict the direc- 

 tions of library growth in the next ten years. Certain tendencies, 

 however, may be inferred from the immediate past. It is almost cer- 

 tain that the impetus given to public libraries by Mr. Carnegie will 



VOL. LXVI. — 10. 



