I have mentioned before that Western Libraries (and many other university libraries) are getting rid of books. One of the reasons for this is that the students value more the space, so the stacks are being removed to allow areas for the students to participate in various collaborative endeavours. Now that I have put it that way, I do remember that in the old days students could be quite creative in the ways in which they engaged even between the stacks.
Long before the books were discarded or placed in a remote storage area, the old card catalogue which one used to find them, was sent to the dumpster. There were some muted cries about that and concerns that one wouldn't be able to find the books, back when that mattered. There was also likely some fear among the aging professors that one might have to use some sort of computing gadget. At one university, one far older than Western, the decision was made to keep the old card catalogue as a valuable historical artifact (for an interesting article about why see: "The Old Card Catalog: Collaborative Effort Will Preserve Its History," Anne E. Bromley, University of Virginia News, Dec. 9, 2019.)
The card catalogues were removed and are now not missed. Although I have been sorry to see the books disappear, the electronic catalogue works well and the dwindling number of books and journals can be easily found from the comfort of your home on a snowy evening, while the library is closed. Now, when using the Western catalogue, one can even determine if a book is in one of the other Ontario universities (or in a storage facility) and it can be retrieved.
There are still catalogues in Western Libraries, just not wooden card catalogues. They exist in the form of books which list the contents of various libraries. Many are the catalogues of personal libraries, while others reveal the contents of libraries at other institutions. One can find at Western the Catalogue of the Library at Kildalton Castle and even the Catalogue of the Library of the University of Virginia, mentioned above. It is the catalogue of books found in that library in 1828. There are many, many others and a Baker's Dozen are listed below. I thought it might be useful to record some of them since they are likely to go the way of the old card catalogue.
Catalogue of the library of George Perkins Marsh.
Catalogue of the library of the late Hon. Rufus Choate.
A catalogue of the library of the late John Duke of Roxburghe
Catalogue of the library of John Gray, Haddington
Catalogue of the Library of the William Henry Barrett Estate
Catalogue of the music library of Vincent Novello,
Catalogue of the music library of Charles Burney
Catalogue of the library of the late Lord Byron
Catalogue of the Early English Books of John L. Clawson
A Descriptive Catalog of the Private Library of Thomas B. Lockwood
Catalogue of the library of Robert L. Stuart.
A catalogue of the library of George Santayana
A catalogue of the Library of Thomas Baker
So what? Well, some of these are of interest to scholars. That does not mean they are of interest to people like us, but below, in a bit, I will try to come up with a few samples for those of us with lower brows. As for the scholars, many are interested in understanding how particular intellectuals came up with their ideas. What those thinkers read, may provide a clue. If, for example, you are wondering about Adam Smith and his "invisible hand" you can re-trace his reading and look for it. Western has several catalogues of his library and even A Full and Detailed Catalogue of Books Which Belonged to Adam Smith: Now in the Possession of the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo! One of the reviewers of Mizuta's Adam Smith's Library: A Catalogue, concludes that, Mizuta’s work is highly recommended for all libraries collecting the great products of UK civilization (perhaps not such a great plug in our post-colonial times.) So, professors used such books and libraries acquired them.
Among the samples of catalogues above, you may have noticed that two are related to music library collections and often personal libraries were highly specialized. In many cases, the catalogues came into existence when the contents of private libraries were being sold. When John L. Clawson's collection was sold in 1926, $642,687 was collected. He was from Buffalo as was Thomas B. Lockwood and you can learn more about Lockwood's books at the Rare & Special Books Collection at the University at Buffalo.
The books listed in the Catalogue of the Library of the William Henry Barrett Estate, would have been found closer by, in Port Dover. Mr. Barrett learned in 1926 that he had inherited a huge amount of money and the books of Quinton Dick who had died years before in Ireland. With the money he built a replica of the Irish Clonmel Castle and, you can stay at the one in Port Dover. Here is the link. Apparently, many of the books ended up at the ROM. As I mentioned, there are things of interest to be found in these books, even if one is not a scholar.
Sources:
More can be learned about William Henry Barrett at the Clonmel Castle site. This article described the events at the time of the inheritance: "Port Dover Farmer Wins Court Round for Large Estate: Total May Be Millions," Globe and Mail, July 2, 1926. This useful bit is found at Memorybc.ca:
William Henry "Harry" Barrett was born in Port Dover, Ontario in 1864. He left Port Dover in 1886, travelling west to Spallumcheen to help his Uncle Harry run the 320-acre Mountain Meadow Ranch north of Otter Lake. He married Julia Rebecca "Nonah" Pelly in 1894, and they had three sons. Shortly after the birth of his third child in 1898, Nonah died. Harry left for Port Dover, taking his two sons with him and leaving the new baby with his wife's parents. Harry returned to school in Port Dover, becoming a veterinarian and a sheep rancher. In 1925, he inherited $2.5 million from his grandfather, the founder of the Bank of Ireland. In 1929, he built Clonmel, modelled after an Irish country house. He and his second wife lived there until their deaths in 1942 and 1970 respectively.
The depression was not such a bad thing for Mr. Barrett.
As for the importance of these catalogues see: On the Private Collecting of Book Catalogues," Wm. P. Barlow Jr. The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America Vol. 102, No. 4 (December, 2008), pp. 547-555
The Bonus:
That Western has such a solid collection of book catalogues can be explained by the fact that many of them were held in another Western Library that has disappeared. The records for many of these books indicate they were donations from the "William J. Cameron Reading Room" which was in the old Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS). While many of the books in that collection were discarded, these were kept. Some others were purchased by Dr. John Clouston, with whom I had the pleasure to work. They were donated to King's University College Library and are described here:
SAMUEL & MADELINE CLOUSTON COLLECTION
This impressive collection of 15th — 18th-century imprints was acquired largely from the former rare book collection of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, The University of Western Ontario. The items were purchased by the former Chief Librarian, Dr. John S. Clouston (1993 -2005), and gifted to King’s University College in 1998. Named in honour of his late parents, it consists of works of history, literature, biography, philosophy, theology and travel, chiefly from the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the Low Countries.
Surprisingly enough, such private libraries continue to exist. See: "Private Libraries That Inspire: Difficult to Build and Maintain, These Elaborate Spaces Contain the Passions and Obsessions of Their Owners." By Katy McLaughlin, Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2019.
Forget the Dewey Decimal System: Entrepreneur and inventor Jay Walker’s 25,000 books, manuscripts, artifacts and objects are organized in his personal 3,600-square-foot library “randomly, by color and height,” he said. When he walks into his library, part of his Ridgefield, Conn., home, the room automatically “wakes up,” glowing with theatrical lighting, music and LED-lit glass panels lining various walkways. He finds items to peruse by a system of memory, chance, and inspiration, he said....
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