American Libraries Recalls Deering’s Past

“One of the finest of all libraries must surely be the Charles Deering Library at Northwestern University outside Chicago, combining as it does the beauty of age with absolute newness and every modern equipment, and possessing an excellent collection of books,” observed British tourist Catherine Marsh in 1933. Having come to the US to see the World’s Fair in Chicago, she also made a point of visiting several distinguished contemporary American libraries, and her notes about these visits, kept in longhand in two journals, are excerpted in the January 2007 issue of American Libraries.

“The students are well cared-for," Marsh observed, "but the rules are strict. A borrower who obtains permission to take a book out of the building for a night pays increasing fines for each hour it is retained overdue.”

Also, regarding the Library’s cutting-edge technology and cushy professional perks: “There is an ingenious contrivance for obtaining books from other departments. The usual ‘order’ or ‘call’ slip is filled in and given to an assistant, who puts it into a machine and rings a bell. Very quickly the book is shot forth from a kind of lift, where receptacles are constantly ascending and descending. The staff are fortunate in having a large room for meetings or meals, a luxuriously appointed kitchen, and even a bedroom.”

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