ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


167

welcome the unusual whenever possible. Several 
years ago a midwestern insurance company asked 
for slides of a dozen or so scenes of the Christmas 
story from some of our most beautifully illumin­
ated manuscripts. The request was granted, and 
in the evenings betw een Christmas and New 
Year’s the slides were flashed on the side of the 
company’s building, while an attractive pamphlet 
identifying the scenes and the manuscripts was 
handed out to the hundreds of people who came 
on foot or in cars to see this special display.

Rare book librarians, it seems to me, enjoy a 
life of infinite variety built around the collecting

of early, important, and useful records. The late 
Wilmarth S. Lewis, that great collector and chron­
icler of Horace Walpole, once said of collectors 
that they “appear to noncollectors as selfish, 
rapacious, and half-mad, which is what collectors 
frequently are, but they may also be enlightened, 
generous, and benefactors of society, which is the 
way they like to see themselves. Mad or sane, 
they salvage civilization.” For me, and I am sure 
for many other rare book librarians, it is a source 
of unending pleasure and satisfaction to think that 
we are joined with private collectors in a con­
tinuous effort to salvage civilization. ■■

Letters
Louis Round Wilson
To the Editor:

I should like to mention that in addition to the 
o ther relevant facts of Louis Round Wilson’s 
illustrious life and career (p.71 CirRL News, 
March 1980), the death of this Melvil Dewey 
medal recipient on December 10, 1979, came on 
the anniversary of Dewey’s birthday.—C hrist­
opher A lbertson, director, Orange Public Li­
brary, Orange, Texas.

Closing the Catalog
To the Editor:

The cover article, “Close the Card Catalog?” in 
the February issue is by far the most informative

thing I have found on the impact of AACR 2.
Like other librarians, I have serious reserva­

tions about this business of “closing” the card 
catalog.—Robert Underbrink, head librarian, 
Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois.

“The Reference Librarian”
To the Editor:

Ann T. H inckley’s article “ The Reference 
Librarian” in the March 1980 College Lr Research 
Libraries News really catches the flavor of the 
work of reference librarians. Indeed, her article 
expresses the very reasons why I became a refer­
ence librarian.—Judith B. Quinlan, reference 
librarian, Perkins Library, Duke University. ■■