El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-02-19

I During the Hundred Years war these
/ books were scattered. Many fell into
/ the hands Of the English and were
/ carried TO London Louis AI tried 70
! revive the library and Henry " gave
( IT a place in the College de ClarmOnt
/ and appointed De Thou as librarian
/ Two of the Librarians of the Bibiio-
! theQue Rationale were guillotned dur
I ing the French revolution.
This library is situated in the hear
/ Of Paris, occupying whole square OF
I land. 1t contains considerably over
! 5000 600 volumes and more than IS
4 miles Of shelving. 1t is the great rel
! erence library Of France and is open
I TO the public with some slight Tor
! malities. The copy tax which was
I passed in the 18th century gives X
/ two copies of every book published IN
l France. Among its specialties is the
I largest collection Of current neWspa-
] pers and periodicals IN existence, la l-
J best collection OF French history u
/ the world, and a large collection Of
I coins, medals and engravings.
Others Worthy of Mention
I There are several other Libraries IN
[ France worthy OF mention. Inc 81
I GenevieYe. which was founded IN the
/ 18th century. has a beautiful building
/ IN the renaissance style Of architecture
7 and contains over Sog.o0o ToIune5s
There is a municipal library in each
Of the 20 wards Of Paris and there are
also I'D artisan or Industrial lorarles
| peculiarly French in their design.
Q
trial art in addition to uhs loan II
books on various trades.
In connection with the Libraries OF
France. IL IS interesting to know tnat
there Is an organization known rs So
ciete de BENJAMIN franklin, organ
lied IN 1852, which has been largely
instrumental in founding new ibra-
ries. This society issues a popular
small library and in other ways per
forms the duties Of library commits
sion.
British Museum second Largest.
Second in size 10 tae Bibli0theQue
Rationale among the libraries Of the
world IL the British museum Of Lon
fdOn, the largest library in the United
Kingdom. In comparison with the
French library this Is comparatively
modern, since 1t was founded in 1888
by the union OF four large collections.
namely: the Sir Hans Sloane collec-
lions Of books manuscripts and cuTlos'
the Royal library the Harleian collec-
ton Of manuscripts and the Cottonlan
manuscripts, augmented by a copy tax
which now adds nearly 10000 volumes
per year to the library.
The British museum makes Sre-
-cialty Of foreign literature and arch
aeOlOgy- Among its collections are
1900 Hebrew books. zl.OOV Chinese
books. 1900 books in other oriental
[ languages, and large collections OF
periodicals and newspapers filed and
bound. Its treasures include manu-
scripts from the second century be-
fore Christ to modern times, a com
plete set Of the seals OF English SOW
ereigns from Edward the Confessor 70
Queen Victoria and many other relics
The library of the British museum
was first opened in Montague house in
1888 and its present building, planned
by Sir Anthony Panizzi was occupied
In l847. The large circular reading
room, now its most important archi-
tectural feature, was added in 1857.
e Irr TED a ~
well adapted TO library purposes. IL
accommodates $50 readers who have
access 70 10000 reference books. In
comparison with the library OF con-
gress, however, the British museum is
antiQuated and clumsy in its working
method. The old trolley, used for it's
book distribution. is noisy and inc0n-
Venient when cOntrasted with the quiet
working OF the electric book carrier
OF the library Of congress and other
great American Libraries The catalog-
ing and other departments are equal
~ backward
One Of the Old Ones
Older. and In some respects more IA
nous, than the British museum Is the
BOdleian library OF Oxford, which was
founded in 1902 by Sir Thomas Bod
1910 II received the copy tax. This IL
brary is a delight to the antiquarians
OF all nations 1t contains 10000 man
uScripts and ffue oriental collections
and collections Of English incunabula
and first editions. It's coin collection
IS one OF the most valuable in the
world This Old library has many
quaint regulations. one of which pro-
hibits the use Of artificial light and
heat In the building. Hence the read
ing rooms and periodical room are IN
Radciin hall The library contains
about 100000 books in addition to its
manuscripts.
Oldest Library in the World
Inc vatican library OF Rome is one
or the Oldest In the world, having been
founded by Nicholas v. in 1447. who. at
scripts. Its present building was
erected By Sixtus Y in 1883 In 1856
tne famous Urban library was added
TO IT, Queen Christiana OF Sweden
gave 1t a special collection Of valuable
manuscripts and books and, in 1746
the OIoburne collection Of $3.50 Ger
man and Latin manuscripts. most of
which were taken from Heidelberg.
were added. This library contains the
archives OF the Vatican to which no
access Is permitted. II Is not a pub
nc library In the full sense. since writ
ten permission from church digni-
tary IS necessary for admission. It is
Closed on sunday and on all saints
days Pope Leo XIII. added largely to
lne collection OF rare antiques in this
library and also took some steps
toward making the resources Of the
vatican library more available to stu
dents Of history.
st Marks library in Venice is re-
markable in that II has contained all
the old archives OF Venice complete
under one roof for 10 centuries. In
some respects the library movement
has made greater progress in Italy
during the past century than in any
other European country. The Italian
Librarians are more enterDrising, bet
ter Informed professionally, and more
eager to be helpful than IN most other
countries, Notwithstanding the fact
they are greatly hampered by lack OF
funds.
Germany's Leading Library
The leading library of Germany Is
the Royal library at Berlin, although
1t Is not so large as that at Munich
The Berlin library was founded pL {
Frederick William in 1850 and received /
many gifts from Frederick the Great l
II obtained copy tax ~ 1
1859. Tt was reorganled in /
1895 and has made much progress /
since tt Is centrally located, but !
poorly housed in an old palace Whien (
has been jestingly referred TO as the
chest OF drawers for Frederick the
Greats papers" because OF its dun,
frontage and the fact
that its early collections included 50
many historic documents. Recently II
was reported that IL required al least
two hours TO get a book because or It's