Word: metcalfs
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Only twice has this approach been modified: in 1877 when Justin Winsor was called from the Boston Public Library, and in 1937 when Metcalf came from New York. In both cases the problem was simple: the library was doubling in size every twenty years, and funds to administer this collection were not available. In both cases the professionals found ways of containing library growth within the financial limits imposed by the University, and preventing a decline of the library's position in the University...
...Metcalf's greatness as a librarian lies in his willingness to go beyond the academic tradition, placing his knowledge of library techniques at the disposal of the scholars. He is the first to admit that no administrative solution can be permanent, and that Buck will face the same problems he has faced. But if the durability of Winsor's work is a guide, Metcalf has laid the foundations of library administrative development for many years to come...
...Metcalf's work is simple: make more and more books available to the University on proportionally less and less money. Every year the purchasing less and less money. Every year the purchasing power of the endowment has decreased, and every years more books are published. How a University library can keep pace with the ever growing volumes of literature is every librarian's ultimate problem...
...Metcalf's solutions to the problem of growth have been diverse, but to a large degree successful. Today, the staff is under paid, the catalogues are inadequate, reader service has been cut to the bare minimum, and acquisition funds are not sufficient to keep many collections up to date, but the scholar can obtain a larger percentage of the world's books than he did when Metcalf arrived...
...result of administrative economics, the library has, to a large degree, kept working collections in those fields which the University emphasizes. But Metcalf explains that this has been done by cutting into other fields of service, and that Buck will still have to decide in what way the library should be inadequate...