Connections

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.

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.