Dear Arlis Colleagues,
Many many thanks for all of your responses identifying those public libraries with circulating collections of 40,000 volumes or more. For those of you interested in why I was asking, here’s a brief update.
The New York Public Library traditionally has been divided into two parts: -- the Research Libraries and the Branch (or circulating) Libraries. The research libraries hold the world-renowned Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art and Architecture Collection (non-circulating and paged); the 52-yr-old circulating art collection has been housed at the Mid-Manhattan Library, which is the central circulating branch. NYPL’s strategic goals include merging the branch and research sides of the house into “One Library” and for a while it looked as if the circulating art collection--very heavily used, by the way--would be split up among the branches. With your help, the Circulating Art Collection appears to have been preserved as a unit—at least temporarily. So from me—profound thanks!
Here’s a summary of the responses:
• Cleveland Public Library: 70,000 volumes in their art circulating collection alone
• Chicago Public Library, Art Information Center, Harold Washington Library Center: Circulating: more than 70,000. Ref: more than 180,000
• Free Library of Philadelphia, Art Department: 60,000 volumes, includes both ref and circulating
• St. Louis Public Library: 115,000 includes both ref and circulating
• Beverly Hills Public Library: Noncirculating: 22,822 (including over 500 catalog raisonnes and 200 Artists Books). Circulating: 26,518
• Boston Public Library: non-circulating: over 200,000. Circulating: estimated 25,000-30,000
• Glendale Public Library: 106,000 including music; estimated art books 45,000-50,000
Also, Arlisians helped with the following observations
• Many public libraries do not belong to ARLIS, so they didn't respond
• An OCLC collection analysis might be a tool. With the permission of the libraries, we can compare collections of libraries by subject.
• It was also suggested that I contact the ALA Arts Section
Again, your responses were of invaluable assistance in crafting our arguments for keeping the collection together as a whole. So here's to you!
Susan Chute
Supervising Librarian, Art and Picture Collections
Mid-Manhattan Library
455 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
212.340.0832
[log in to unmask]
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
http://www.arlisna.org/join.html
Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]
