Beverly Robinson Betts (August 3, 1827 – May 21, 1899) was an American reverend and librarian, who served as the first "professional" librarian of the Columbia University Libraries.[1]

Betts was born in New York City on August 3, 1827 to William Betts, a law professor and trustee at Columbia University. Beverley Betts himself graduated from Columbia College in 1846, and from the General Theological Seminary in 1850. The same year he was ordained a deacon, and served as rector of various churches in Long Island and New York City from 1851 to 1865,[2] when he appointed head librarian of the Columbia Libraries following faculty complaints about the library's management under William Alfred Jones.[3][4] As librarian, Betts replaced its badly outdated catalog, and accepted 7,000 volumes from the personal collections of alumnus Stephen Whitney Felix, which included a Shakespeare First Folio, an illuminated book of hours, and "several important U.S. literary manuscripts."[4] However, he did little to expand the library's collections, under his ideal "of forming a library of moderate extent indeed, but of the highest character,"[5] leading librarian Kenneth J. Brough to criticize him as "incompetent and lazy".[6] Following complaints by political science professor John Burgess, the university board of trustees reorganized the library, and President Frederick Barnard replaced him in 1883 with the more progressive Melvil Dewey.[4] He died on May 21, 1899.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Hamlin, Arthur (2016-11-11). The University Library in the United States: Its Origins and Development. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-1-5128-0207-8.
  2. 1 2 The American Church Almanac and Year Book for 1899. New York: James Pott & Co. 1899.
  3. ↑ Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1887). Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography Vol. 1. D. Appleton & Co.
  4. 1 2 3 Stam, David H. (2001). International Dictionary of Library Histories. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-57958-244-9.
  5. ↑ "History of Collections | Columbia University Libraries". library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-15.
  6. ↑ Holley, Edward G. (1976). "Academic Libraries in 1876". College & Research Libraries. 37: 33. doi:10.5860/crl_37_01_15.


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