First Number of 'Library Bulletin' Is Due This Week

Publication this week of the first number of the Harvard Library Bulletin will fill an important need in both of the University community and of "the scholarly world in general," according to George W. Cottrell, Jr. '26 editor of the new periodical.

Despite the fact that the Harvard Library is now the second largest in the country, and one of the most important in the world, it has not issued any regular publication intended for general circulation in over fifty years, Cottrell commented in an interview yesterday.

Represents 82 Library Units

The Bulletin will represent all 82 units of the Harvard Library system and its contents will deal primarily with these libraries, including research articles derived largely from their resources; descriptions of important collections and sections, "when such descriptions represent a significant contribution to scholarship;" general historical or descriptive accounts of various parts of the University library organization; discussions of university libraries in general, and Harvard in particular; and relevant news items.

Ninety-Six Page Issues

The first issue of the Bulletin will contain 128 pages, and it is planned to maintain at least an average of 96 pages in subsequent numbers, Cottrell announced. The contents of each issue will be roughly divided between the longer feature articles, and the briefer Notes."

Certain long articles or groups of articles in the Bulletin may subsequently be published in book form. A series of studies of the pictorial history of the University, by Hamilton V. Bail '13, the initial installment of which will appear in the first issue, will undoubtedly be published as a book later on, Cottrell said.

Will Appear Every Four Months

The new Bulletin, which will appear every four months, has been designed primarily to provide "faculty and students not only with information as to specific material, but also with an understanding of library problems and purposes which will enable them to prosecute their teaching, studies, and research under the most favorable circumstances," says Keyes D. Metcalf, Director of the University Library, in the introduction to the first issue.

It will also be of service to bibliographers and students in other parts of the country and abroad, and assist the visiting scholars and researchers "who in normal times come to the Widener building at the rate of 1200 a year," Metcalf concludes.

Annual subscriptions and individual numbers of the Bulletin will be sold at a reduced rate to members of the faculty and students of Harvard and Radcliffe.