7 - Clpdigital.org

TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY 435
Departments, the variety of available periodicals and newspapers
both old and current, the processes of ordering and
receiving and cataloguing books, and the great numbers of
books in the book stacks, expressed themselves as having previously
had no conception of the breadth of the field of library
work and of the many interests which it serves. Most of the
visitors felt that they had made only a beginning toward becoming
acquainted with even the things which particularly
interested them.
Among the letters received at the time of the celebration was
one from Miss Elisa May Willard who was the Reference Librarian
of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh from its opening
until she retired from professional work three years ago. Her
reminiscences are quoted here not only because they set forth
the contrast between present and past facilities, but because they
are, to those who have long used the Library, an interesting
reminder of former days.
From Miss Willard's letter.
The approaching twenty-fifth anniversary of the Library brings to
my mind a picture of the Carnegie Library as I first entered it in September
1895. It was a large, empty, unfurnished building with a very
few books in it, many more volumes arriving daily, and a small group of
seven people (the entire staff) working early and late, cataloguing the
small collection of books with which the Library was to open on
November 5. Our aim was to have a printed book catalogue of all the
books in the Library ready to give out on the opening day, and to that
end we bent our chief efforts, while at the same time selecting equipment,
determining policies, and looking after the many details which
were to make the Library our ideal of what a public library should be.
Those last days before the opening were rather feverish, but we had our
printed catalogue ready for the opening—and a queer little thing it
looks now, with its 9,000 books, compared with the stately row of catalogues
of the more than 470,000 volumes now in the Library.
All the assistants were fresh from the library schools and ambitious
to help the librarian, Mr. E. H. Anderson, to develop what we were
sure would be the best library in America. At the very beginning
there was the framework of a great library, the building for it, the
organization for it, and the intention of the founder, but the doors were
opened to the public after only seven months spent in buying books
and equipment, consequently our beginnings were very small indeed,
although our plans were for a large future. There were that first year