August 25, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



213 



in the northern Mississippi Valley. But tlieio 

 is no reason that I can see why we shoivkl 

 attempt to duplicate and surpass, for exam- 

 ple, the White Collection of Tolk-lore in Ihe 

 Cleveland Public Library, or the Burton Col- 

 lection of local history and genealogy in the 

 Detroit Public Library. Nor should we fail to 

 agree with the Chicago libraries and those of 

 Ohio (and even perhaps of western New York 

 and Ontario) as to certain fields of learning 

 which they will leave to us, and others in 

 which we shall not aim at more than general 

 works. I should like to see the Association of 

 University Professors, or some other body rep- 

 resenting various universities, take up this 

 problem in a practical fashion. The inter- 

 library loan and the photostat put the re- 

 sources of each library at the disposal of its 

 neighbors. Why neglect so obvious a step as 

 conference and agreement on subjects of spe- 

 cialization? But, of course, when it comes to 

 self-denying ordinances, only the men con- 

 cerned may pass them. It is not for me to 

 say what any group of professors shall forego. 

 It is "up to" them in the interest of science as 

 a whole and of its progress in our land. I can 

 merely point out one very obvious step to be 

 taken — and perhaps push a little towards that 

 step. 



Our present situation here at Michigan is 

 better than it was, but it is far from satisfac- 

 tory. We have a goodly list, for example, of 

 journals and society transactions — but we have 

 far too many gaps in the sets, gaps that are 

 very hard to fill. We have a fair lot of expedi- 

 tion publications — likewise badly defective. We 

 have a few of the great monumental publica- 

 tions, and very incomplete sets of congresses 

 and museum publications. I have already indi- 

 cated that our collections of monographs are 

 reasonably large. But we are distinctly worse 

 off in the pure sciences and the applied sci- 

 ences than we are in literature or American 

 history. We are far worse off as regards eco- 

 nom,ics or philosophy than in scientific fields. 

 We have a faculty and a student body prob- 

 ably third in size in America. But the library 

 ranks about eighth among universities in num- 

 ber of volumes. We have, therefore, very much 

 to add before our book collections correspond 

 to our size in students and faculties. Harvard, 

 for instance, has more than four times as many 



books as we have, Yale three times as many, 

 and Columbia and Chicago about twice our 

 holdings. This is a situation not to be reme- 

 died in a day — even were adequate funds in 

 hand, as I have tried to show. AH the more 

 reason, therefore, why we should think clearly 

 and plan wisely, and should cooperate with 

 our neighbors. 



The country as a whole is in about the same 

 relative state as regards the record of scientific 

 work the world over as is the University of 

 Michigan. That is to say, by diligent effort we 

 can find the obscure and the rare, and without 

 too much trouble can secure the obvious and 

 ordinary run of books. But taken as a whole, 

 the country is decidedly worse off than most 

 European lands. Our scientists are at a dis- 

 tinct disadvantage when it comes to hooks as 

 compared with those of Great Britain, Prance 

 or Germany, or even Italy. We can only over- 

 come this handicap — ^^vhich is very real — by 

 the most careful bibliographic work and by 

 lending freely. 



This brings me to that aspect of our topic 

 which was probably most in my friend's mind 

 when he spoke so disparagingly of bibliog- 

 raphy. Most people ignore the practical and 

 administrative side of the bibliographer's 

 labors. They think of him merely as one who 

 records what other men have done and said. 

 That he is also the gatherer of material, and 

 to a large extent its interpreter they forget. 

 But the major function of the scientific bib- 

 liographer is that of indexing the record of 

 science, after he has got it together. This is a 

 highly technical job and has been very well 

 done in certain fields, and very poorly done in 

 others. Perhaps medicine has the best indexes. 

 The great catalog of the library of the Sur- 

 geon-General's OiEce in Washington forms one 

 of the most remarkable pieces of index work 

 ever attempted. The Index Medicus is a won- 

 derful clue to the currently appearing work 

 of the world of medicine. Both have proven 

 frightfully expensive. Both are due to the 

 energy of one man, John Shaw Billings, and 

 the extraordinary skill and devoted patience of 

 his associate and biogi'apher, Fielding H. Gar- 

 rison. Neither has ever paid expenses and 

 both have had a hard struggle to survive, 



