Thursday, November 20, 2008

Article Annotation: L&M from 1921 through 1940

Williams, L.B. (1931). Museums and their libraries. Special Libraries. 22(6), 207-208.

This article is a transcription given at a 1931 convention of the Special Libraries Association by Lewis B. Williams, President of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The crux of Williams’ argument is that a museum can only achieve its goal as a vital community institution when it has the scholarship of a library to support it. Williams advocates that only "around a carefully chosen library can be built a real museum." Without such an integral alliance, museum and library patrons stand to be at a disadvantage. Williams says in closing, "The museum whose library does not keep pace...will not grow into the place of fullest meaning in public usefulness."

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