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Dissertation Information for Phyllis Dain

NAME:
- Phyllis Dain

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Columbia University (USA) (1966)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Ambiguous

Title: THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY: A HISTORY OF ITS FOUNDING AND EARLY YEARS

Abstract: The New York Public Library, one of the world's
great libraries, owes much of its character to the events
and personalities prominent in its founding years and during
the administration of its first Director, Dr. John
Snaw Billings. It was then that the lines of Broad policy
and physical and bibliothecal development were worked out
and the organization of the library determined.

The library, a private corporation having contractual
relations with the City of New York, was the product of the
amalgamation first of the Astor, Lenox, and Tilden foundations
in 1895 (the basis for the Reference Department) and
then of various free circulating libraries in 1901-1904
(the origin of the Circulation Department). This process,
occurring in a populous city long needing subtantial,
unified public library service, had far-reaching effects
on the New York Public Library's resources, financial support,
organization, pOlicies, services, and relations with
the City of New York. In these early years, too, through
Andrew Carnegie's gift of branch buildings, the distribution
and physical form of many branches were determined.
It was also then decided to confine the New York Public
Library's circulating branch system, the Circulation Department, to Manhattan, the

Bronx, and Richmond: the other
two boroughs of New York City, Brooklyn and Queens, had
separate systems. In all of these various matters, the
Public Library's astute and influential board of trustees,
together with Billings (after 1896), played an important
role.

This Study describes and analyzes in detail the
origins, founding, and early development of the New York
Public Library, both Reference and Circulation Departments,
and including extensive discussion of the consolidation
movements. Tne time covered is mainly from the early
1890's to Billings' death in 1913: for some topics the
treatrment projects beyond.

Major focus is on the basic character of the New
York Public Library, that is, its significant policies and
practices, as determined by tradition and social and
political conditions and decided by the trustees, the
Director, and the chiefs of the two departments. Specific
administrative policies, staffing, financing, development
of the collections, readers services, and technical services

are considered. The qualities of the board of trustees and
their manner of functioning, a modern one, are analyzed, as
are Billings' contributions to the library. Decision-making
among the trustees is described, with special regard to relations
with the municipal government. Detailed attention
is given to the central building, planned in 1897 and opened
in 1911: it was important as an expression of the nature
of the library and its relations with the City and of functional
planning by Billings at a time when both function and
the librarian were often ignored in library architecture.
Public opinion, principally as expressed by the press, is
examined, particularly in regard to the consolidations, the
central building, and the Carnegie gift. The evolution of
the library is viewed within the context of the social and
political history of New York as well as the history of its
libraries and American libraries in general.

MPACT Scores for Phyllis Dain

A = 18
C = 15
A+C = 33
T = 29
G = 2
W = 18
TD = 23.5
TA = 2
calculated 2008-07-25 19:08:56

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