College and University In point of time the college and university libraries antedated the other types, and while they have developed to an amazing extent yet the growth of each collection has been determined by the character and demands of the institution of which it forms a part. The collegiate library must co-ordinate its activities with those of its school, forming, as it were, a sort of biblio graphic laboratory. During recent years the conception that the library was but a store house of reference and source material has given way in some cases to a separation of the different groups of books, each group assigned to the care of the academic department most interested. This method was extensively tried out at Johns Hopkins and Chicago universities, but the difficulties of administration, the over lapping of interests and the irregular develop ment of collections has forced the return to the idea of the central library, the principle of the seminary or special departmental libraries being adhered to, yet restricted in scope and usually under control of the university librarian. Hence seminary libraries are to be found in practically every university in the country, some of them constituting special collections of the highest value.
It has already been noted that all that is known of the College of Henrico is the brief notice regarding its gift of books. The ex perience of Harvard, however, was not so un fortunate. By the death of the Rev. John Har vard in 1638 the college came into possession of a collection of about 370 volumes, mainly theological. These were added to, . until the library at the end of a century contained some 5,000 volumes, the largest collegiate collection in America. In 1764, however, this was de stroyed by fire, only a few hundred books being rescued. Steps to reconstitute the library were immediately taken and in 1790 its collections numbered about 12,000; in 1840, 40,000; in 1856, 70,000 volumes and 30,000 pamphlets; in 1875, 154,000 volumes; the aggregate number of vol umes of the various libraries of Harvard being 227,650 volumes. The main library now num bers 792,117 and all the libraries total 1,088,000. In 1840 the collections were moved into the Gore Hall, at that time considered adequate for the growth of many years. Nevertheless owing to the rapid growth of the library it has long been inadequate, making the necessity for a new building imperative, which was realized in 1907 by the bequest of the late Harry Elkins Widener, who also donated to the library a splendid collection of • book rarities.
William and Mary College, founded in 1692 under the auspices of the Church of England, was long the wealthiest institution in the colo nies. It is known to have possessed books from
its beginning, though doubtless the collection was small. It, too, suffered from fire in 1705, but its collections were replenished by gifts from the mother country and from France, Queen Anne, the Georges and Louis XV being numbered among the donors of books. The college went into eclipse during the Civil War and it is only recently that it has again begun to take its place among the schools of the country.
It seems that Yale had a library provided for it before its foundation in 1700, for gifts of books had been made in anticipation of the establishment of a school in Connecticut. In 1765 the collection comprehended 4,000 volumes; in 1808, 4,700 volumes; 1913, 1,000,000 volumes; the total collections of Yale now aggregating 1,025,000 volumes.
During the first half of the 19th century a movement was well under way that forms a most important chapter in American educational and library history. This was the establishment of State universities. The national policy of permitting the States to handle their educa tional problems in their own way has resulted in an unequal, but on the whole a remarkable, development of institutions of learning. Some universities, Harvard and Columbia for exam ple, partook of the nature of State schools at an early date, which they have since lost, hence it remained for the University of Virginia, which sprang to the last detail from the mind of Thomas Jefferson, to be the forerunner and model of succeeding foundations. Jefferson correctly estimated the importance of the li brary in the scheme of a university, and all of his plans for the school centred around that fact. Hence when the university set to work in 1825 the library building was not only com plete but a collection of books, selected by him, was on the way from Europe. It may be noted that this central library building and the funds for equipping it were only obtained after a bitter struggle with short-sighted politicians and reactionaries. As might be surmised, in found ing this institution Jefferson was profoundly in fluenced by English and French models, and the university in turn has transmitted the educa tional principles of its founder to many other schools in the South and Southwest. That it has been outstripped by some of these has been due to conditions that need not be discussed, one of which, the burning of the Rotunda, or library building, in 1895, was a positive disaster from which the library has not yet recovered, although the building was immediately recon structed.