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Honnold Library Record: Honnold Library

From the Honnold Library Record, Volume 5, Number 1. Spring 1962:

The First Days of the Honnold Library

On July 1 of this year the Honnold Library will have been open ten years. On that date in 1952 the Library was indeed open, but there were as yet no doors on the building. In order to close the library at night, large panel boards were placed in the doorway. On the second floor in front of the loan desk the carpenters doing the finishing woodwork operated a power saw. This activity, although making the normal routine of checking out books somewhat difficult, was of extraordinary interest to the students.

At the same time that the carpenters were finishing the woodwork, the last coat of paint was being put on the outside of the building. This operation brought out the fact, hitherto unsuspected, that of two hundred members of the Claremont Colleges faculties, one hundred and ninety-five were experts on color. Also, of one hundred and thirty trustees, one hundred and twenty-five were similar experts. The faculty appointed its color committee and the trustees appointed theirs and on one occasion they assembled in joint session; never were such great questions debated by so many so learnedly.

The library was one of the few buildings in Claremont scheduled when construction began to go into operation on a certain day which actually went into operation on that date. The completion of the building, the moving of books from the old libraries, the consolidation of collections, and the opening of the summer session were all so interdependent that the library had to open regardless of the fact that the building was not quite completed.

But even after a building is completed it takes years to so place the counters, tables, lights and bookcases that the library is a comfortable and efficient place in which to work. Now after ten years of use, the Honnold Library, modified and arranged as experience has indicated, is a functional, attractive, and efficient building.

The Size of the Collections Ten Years Ago and Now

When the book collections were moved into the present building, Claremont University College owned in round figures 79,000 volumes; Claremont Men's College 7,000; Pomona College 131,000, and Scripps 42,000.

At the end of the last academic year the colleges possessed a total of 375,000 volumes, an increase of 45%. During the same period the number of United States Government Documents has increased from 157,000 to 242,000, an increase of 54%.

The number of periodicals currently received has risen from 1,745 in 1956 to 3,110 in 1961, an increase of 78%.

These figures reflect nine years’ growth so that almost certainly the library will double in size in twenty years and very probably in less time than that.

The Increased Use of Books in the Last Decade

During the first year of the Library’s operation students and faculty checked out 36,500 books at the circulation desk. In the last academic year they checked out 70,000, an increase in nine years of 92%. This year, our tenth, the increase may well reach 100%.

Part of this increase is due, of course, to a larger student body, but by far the greater part is owing to the simple fact that students and faculty use more books. This increased use is the natural consequence of the steady improvement in the quality of students and the quality of work expected of them.

The duties of a library are two-fold and in part contradictory: to preserve books and to promote their use. We feel that while providing appropriate safeguards for the collections, we have at the same time made it possible for the members of the colleges to use books generously and freely.

The Growth in the Rate of Acquisitions

In the first year in the Honnold Library 8,780 books were added to the collections. Last year 17,945 volumes were added, an acceleration increase of more than 106%.

Certainly the Colleges, the Friends of the Colleges and of the Library may view these statistics with satisfaction. We are frequently overpowered with contemplating the vast numbers of old books we do not have and with the vast numbers of new books pouring from the publishers. It is some satisfaction to recall that we have been aware of the task before us and have constantly increased our rate of acquisitions.

Gifts to the Library from the Honnold Library Society

The Honnold Library Society since its founding has every year consistently provided funds for the purchase of important books and collections. Only a few of these purchases can be singled out here.

In 1955 the Society purchased an extensive collection of materials on George Washington from the library of the late Rupert Hughes. In the following year a collection of 700 books on the languages of Southwest Asia was purchased which contained many rare items. In 1957 the Society provided $5,000 for the purchase of books in Europe by the Librarian, and a similar gift of $3,000 was given in 1961.

Four members of the Society, Edward D. Lyman, Dr. Seeley G. Mudd and Mr. and Mrs. Howard D. Mills, established a biography collection which they add to yearly.

Many individual members of the Society are perennial donors to the Library. A few of these are Dr. and Mrs. Egerton Crispin, H. W. Pittenger, Mrs. Elbert Shirk, Mr. and Mrs. Homer D. Crotty, Garner Beckett, Carl I. Wheat, William Clary, Mrs. Fred Smith, Earl Huntley, Thornton Douglas, Frank R. Seaver, R. J. Wig, and Herbert Rempel.

Gifts to the Library

Over the past nine years the Library has received more than twenty-two hundred gifts. Of this number it is only possible here to note a few of the books and collections which have been given.

In the first year of the Honnold Library, Mrs. Adelaide McCormick gave her collection of more than a thousand Korean books to the Library, certainly one of the outstanding collections on this subject in the country.

Mr. Leonard Bell not only gave his Stevenson collection but gave an endowment for its continued growth. Mr. William Clary endowed the Oxford Collection, provided a room for it, and continued to add many volumes to it each year.

One of the finest gifts this Library has received was the collection on the Italian Renaissance given by the late Harold C. Bodman of Santa Barbara. This valuable and extensive collection has attracted Renaissance scholars from the entire country; its excellence is owing to Harold Bodman’s knowledge and discrimination and his years of patient effort in acquiring the books.

Two collections which have been received, those from the estate of Elizabeth McIntyre and from the estate of Professor John Mill McClelland, have contained not only valuable books but also prints and paintings. Most of the pictures now hanging in the Library are from these two gifts.

What may well prove to be one of the most remarkable collections in the Library is the collection on hymnology, given to the Library by the late Dean Robert G. McCutchan and Helen C. McCutchan. This collection actually is broader than it sounds; it contains song books of temperance societies, political parties, Civil War songs, and children's song books from the late eighteenth down to the present century. It is of great value to students of the history of American music generally.

One group of books which Southern California book collectors will look on with great affection is the collection on fine printing gathered by the late Arthur Ellis and given to the Library by his daughter, Mrs. Joseph Fenton. Arthur Ellis was not only one of Los Angeles’ outstanding collectors, but he inspired others to collect books. He was a member of that very select brotherhood, those who have private presses, and he was also one of the founders of the Zamorano Club.

The largest single gift of books that the Library has received has been the private library of Professor Waldemar Westergaard, an extensive scholarly collection on the history of Northern Europe.

The Ralph B. Lloyd Foundation’s unique contribution over the past six years has been funds for the purchase of books in American literature. The library now has an excellent working collection in this field.

Where Shall We Go in the Next Ten Years?

In attempting to plan for books and libraries in Claremont for the next ten years, it must be borne in mind that we are presently acquiring books at the rate of 18,000 per year and that over the last nine years we acquired 85,000 government documents. Thus, if the rate of acquisition does not increase, at the end of the decade we will have nearly 300,000 more volumes than we have now, far more than the present building will hold. As has been shown, the rate of acquisition has been constantly accelerated; hence the Library holdings in 1972 will probably show far more than a 300,000-item increase. If, as may be the case, new colleges are founded, this fact will further accelerate the rate of increase.

Undoubtedly photo-duplication methods will be much more highly developed ten years hence than they are now; but if past experience is a guide, this will not materially decrease the number of conventional books acquired but will simply increase the library’s usefulness by adding on microfilm, microcards, etc., books which it would be hopeless to think of acquiring in the conventional form.

The big library problem ten years hence will then be simply a problem of housing. The problem may be solved in two ways and perhaps by both, by either adding to the present building or constructing new buildings. We are already committed to the idea of a joint science library building to serve Claremont University, Harvey Mudd, Scripps and Claremont Men’s Colleges.

It would also be desirable to have a small building adjacent to Honnold devoted entirely to rare books and special collections. It might also be desirable to have adjacent to these two a third building, well lighted and conveniently arranged, which would house those books most useful to undergraduates.

Some of the materials mentioned here are physically located in Special Collections. For more information on those materials, contact Special Collections.

What is the Honnold Library Record?
The Honnold Library Record, published from 1958 until 1975, was the publication of the Honnold Library Society, the friends of the library group, founded in 1954. All the issues of the Honnold Library Record are available online in the CCDL in the Honnold Library Record Collection.

— michael | April 21, 2008 04:29 PM | The more you know