New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-02-27

remedy which you are applying. Inc error Vi
which 1 speak is that OF attempting TO make
great libraries without a librarian Such is
Universally the mistake among u.s. And this
leads to the necessity of that false remedy,
which believe you are about to extend from
the ordinary state of things to an extra.
ordinary one: the remedy, | mean, of trying
to make Supervisory Committee supply
the place of competent librarian. Now,
this is q thing impossible Even under ordi
nary circumstances, where you have only TO
conduct the current additions to collection
already in being, committee can very i'll
perform the chief offices of skillful librarian;
but still less can it supply his place, under your
actual state Of things, when collection is to be
Systematically made up db initio. This latter
can only be done as the work, the study, the
design of single mind, trained to the pursuit,
and occupied with it alone.
81 need scarcely say that, in the modern
multiplicity of books, q knowledge OF them, OF
their individual merits of their several editions,
and of the particular body of works necessary
to complete in library the information on each
separate subject, has grown to be, OF Itself,
science apart One can be great scholar, and
| vet be a poor photographer; for the art re-
| auires special study, and. indeed, peculiar
| faculty; great facility OF recolecting the
| minute history of books, and wide acquaint-
apee with literature generally. Now, COM
There are not half dozen good photographers
in the United States; for as yet very few have
turned their attention to this special subject
Did q legislative committee chance to embrace
one of the five or six in America, how could he,
engrossed in the more exciting duties Of the
legislator and politician, dedicate himself to the
tasks of the librarian, sufficiently for the ac-
complishment of that which is the consummate
work of q biblographer-the founding of a
nh 1,,1V hn
10 attempt it is saG error, and would, at the
present juneture, be to sacrifice the opportunity
that has now occurred for making just that
suspicious beginning of noble collection, which
will render its gradual completion easy and
certain. ...
If you will examine the history of Libra
| ries, you will find that all the great ones have
owed their formation to the individual labor of
d succession of fit librarians
ga second great fact to which must direct
your attention is, that it is chiefly by absorbing
valuable private collections, and such espe-
oially as have completed some special subject,
/! that public libraries must perfect themselves
When you can do, this, you not only accomplish
in moment the minute labor Of years, but can
always do it at as great an economy of money
rs of time. For fine private collections seldom
bring, when sold off, one half of what it cost to
collect them, book by book The new books of
the day must unavoidably be purchased in de-
tall but to complete, in that way, any one
branch of learning is the labor of almost life
time A public library cannot afford such a
long delay of its usefulness; of which it can
nave little, until it has begun to offer completed
bodies OF information. 1t is the possession of
such alone which can render it really valuable,
6 You will thus, I think, perceive, that the
method upon which you are proceeding is, in
| its ehiefest points, totally erroneous. 1t is
true that, as yet, all the public collections OF
| our country have, for the want Of bibliogra-
| pliers, been accumulated at random, and with
an expense but little proportional to their real
utility but it is time that truer process were
set on foot; and | hope to see it now brought
about, under the influence of your intelligence
If these views strike you as just, shall be glad
to submit to you in detail, not only all that is
| necessary to elucidate and confirm them, but
the general plan for beginning the formation
of your library