The Ryerson Library of the Art Institute

MAN

ANY people who seem to know the Art Institute will make the following exclamation on entering the library, "Why I didn't know there was a library here! I've been through the Art Institute many times but I never saw this place before." Because we hear this remark so often our first impulse in telling about the library is to explain where it is.

If you can resist the invitation of the big stairway leading to the picture galleries, and turning to the right steel yourself again to pass the inviting corridor of the Naples bronzes, you will find beyond in the corner an unobtrusive little entrance bearing above it the words, "Ryerson Library;" and if you will make bold to enter we shall try to reward you for resisting the lure of the galleries by showing you all our

treasures.

One of these treasures is the room itself, which has been much admired for its beauty. It is really a separate little building within a court of the main edifice. The decorations were designed by Mr. Elmer Garnsey, who had general charge of the interior decorations of the Library of Congress and of parts of the Boston Public Library. It is named the Ryerson Library because it was Mr. Martin A. Ryerson, for many years an officer of the Institute, who gave the money for its erection in 1901, and who has each year since made donations for the purchase of books. Indeed his gifts aided by those of other generous friends, prominent among them Mrs. A. M. H. Ellis and Mr. H. H. Getty, have practically made the library, for it has had no regular source of income except the matriculation fees of the students in the Art School.

To these fees, however, it owes its start in life, for when the school was opened in 1879 and the first student paid $2.00 for the privilege of entering, that money was used in purchasing the first book for the library, and this fund has been devoted to library uses ever since. Of course it was for many years and indeed still is primarily a school library, but with its change of habitation and name in 1901 it became in ad

dition a museum library, a recognized department of a big public institution. As the Director's report of that year states: "A new régime is of necessity inaugurated. Our library becomes practically a free public library and is now brought into immediate comparison with other similar institutions of the city".

The hours of the library are the same as those of the Museum, 9 A. M. to 5 P. M., with this exception: on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, when there are evening classes in the school, the library is kept open until seven for the benefit of these evening students, most of whom are otherwise occupied during the day, and to whom access to the library is a much valued privilege. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, the free days of the Museum, the library is practically a free public library and has usually a large attendance of visitors. On other days it is used mainly by the students of the school and members of the Institute, though it is made free at all times to any serious student of art.

Perhaps the most attractive feature of the library is the fact that people consulting it are allowed to go to the book shelves and help themselves freely, a rather unusual privilege in an art library but one invaluable to the student. It is probably due largely to this privilege that the library is so very much used by the students and has become so important a part of their school life, and it has given it also a popular character which few libraries of its sort seem to possess. The character of the books has of course helped to create this atmosphere too, for while we have had many beautiful and costly volumes given us we have not undertaken to buy such works to any great extent, but have aimed rather to supply the practical working books of art and make it above all things a practical working library.

At present we have only a few more than 6,000 volumes, but of perhaps equal importance and invaluable for reference purposes is our collection of 16,000 large carbon photographs, the Braun Clément Company's autotypes of the works of great masters ancient and modern from all of the great galleries of the world. This collection, with one exception the largest of its sort in America, was presented to us by Dr. D. K. Pearsons in honor of his wife. It is a mine of information in itself and has served as a happy substitute to many a poor artist and art lover unable to go abroad and study the

great masterpieces themselves.

Of our books our strongest departments are Painting, Decorative Design, and Architecture. Although most of the collection is strictly along the line of Fine Arts, we have in the past few years developed our department of Travel, buying especially well illustrated works of travel and description. While the library is in the main a reference collection, a number of the smaller books such as art histories, lives of artists, and text books are allowed to circulate among the students, and the books on architecture and design are loaned freely for use in the class rooms.

The books are classified by a modification of the Dewey Decimal System, and as much analytical cataloguing is done as is possible, our index of the material in current art magazines being especially useful. Few of these, particularly the foreign ones, are entered in any of the published periodical indexes, and their wealth of valuable material which would otherwise be lost sight of is made accessible in this way.

In addition to the 6,000 bound volumes and the 16,000 Braun autotypes we have an interesting collection of pamphlets on art matters, most of them the publications of art institutions of this country and Europe; a collection of some 5,000 smaller photographs, largely of architecture and sculpture, which may be borrowed free of charge by schools and clubs; and about 6,000 lantern slides which until last year were used only by our lecturers but may now be rented (at five cents per slide) by the general public. Valuable additions to this collection have been made by Mr. Taft, who has given us a great many of his choicest slides of sculpture, and by Mrs. John B. Sherwood, who has presented most of the beautiful slides, many of them colored, which she has used in her interesting travel lectures this winter.

Adjoining the room for slides and photographs is what is known as the Library Class Room, where art classes and groups of school children and other visitors are allowed to take the books and photographs for purposes of consultation and discussion. Arrangements for the use of the class room should be made beforehand to avoid conflicting engagements.

It is hoped that the teachers and any others who may read this article and have not before known of our resources may find opportunities to visit the library and make use of its collections.

Librarian,

MARY VAN HORNE.

American Library Association

LTHOUGH the executive offices of the American

Library Association were opened in Chicago within the last six months, the Association itself is not a new organization, as it came into existence 34 years ago.

Its membership numbers nearly 2,000, and it has been of inestimable service in increasing both the number and the effectiveness of libraries throughout the country. Its purposes are the promotion of library interests, the interchange of experience and opinion, the obtaining of larger results from library labor and expenditure, and the advance of the profession of librarianship. In addition to advancing library interests generally, the Association aims, by organization and force of numbers, to effect needed reforms and improvements which could not be brought about by individual effort; by co-operation, to lessen labor and expense of library administration; by discussion and comparison, to utilize the combined experiments and experience of the profession in perfecting plans and methods, and in solving difficulties; by meetings and correspondence, to promote acquaintance and esprit de corps.

The Association has been instrumental in establishing library organizations in 39 states, besides many local library clubs and districts. Four sections are maintained: Cataloging, Library Work with Children, Trustees, and College and Reference. The Association has affiliated with it three national organizations of kindred purpose: the National Association of State Libraries, the League of Library Commissions, and the American Association of Law Libraries.

The most important activity of the Association is the Publishing Board, which operates under a gift of $100,000, made in 1902 by Andrew Carnegie. The income from this fund is used in the preparation of indexes, of bibliographies, reference helps and literature for promoting library extension, and the selection of books.

It published, in 1902, an important bibliography of American history; in 1904, it prepared the A. L. A. Cata

log, a guide to classification, cataloging and book selection; in 1909, work was started on a supplement to this catalog to cover the years 1904 to 1909 inclusive; in 1906, the Library of Congress published an extensive index to 120,000 portraits upon which the Publishing Board had been at work for over ten years.

The executive offices of the Association were in Boston for many years. Librarians, in the West and South particularly, were anxious that the headquarters be moved to Chicago, to be in closer touch with the active library development now in progress in those sections. The removal to Chicago was made last September after the trustees of the Chicago Public Library made a generous offer to provide office space for the Association free of cost in the library building. The Chicago Library Club, also with great generosity and spirit, offered to furnish the offices free of cost to the Association. As a result, the A. L. A. has attractively furnished rooms of ample size in the very heart of the business district of Chicago.

Librarians and library workers from all sections of the country have called at the office. There have been a number of visitors who were interested in library work and who came for advice and assistance. Many letters have been received asking for advice in library matters also. Suggestions have been asked as to building plans, and the pictures and plans at the executive office have been examined. Other visitors have asked for suggestions regarding good library and library commission laws, in establishing new libraries, in book selection, conditions of financial assistance from Mr. Carnegie, information as to library schools, preparation for library schools and library work.

Frequently the A. L. A. publications have given all the assistance necessary. No request which has come to the Chicago office has gone unheeded; but, when it has come from a state where there is a library commission or state library which could give help and advice, the questioner has been referred to these sources of direct local aid.

The office correspondence has increased rapidly in volume, and the work in general seems to be increasing in scope. A few personal requests for advice regarding library buildings have been received, and a number of letters regarding library plans have come to the office. The office's collection of plans of interiors and pictures of exteriors of