COLUA4BIA
LIBRARY
C O L U iM N S
 

History of Library Friends
and the Phoenix Story of Columbia

A1AR^• C. HYDE
 

ITnT^HIS is a hap

I      rounded b\- s

J V     thouoht abou
 

y \i ^HIS is a happy occasion' for me: one is not often sur-
so many friends! I wondet if you ha\e ever
)ut the general subject of friendships such as
ours? There were a handful of Library Friends Associations in
this country in the 1920's, Columbia included among them. There
were fifty by the end of the 1930's; over a hundred in the 1940*5;
and by the end of the 19jo's, five hundred; and now close to a
thousand. The proliferation continues. The University of ^'ir-
ginia Library has recenth' established an active group and so has
the American Philosophical Society; the Library of Congress is
making plans for one, and the Folger Shakespeare Library has in¬
vitations at the printers. \tn\ can easily see why the Amctican
Library Association has found it nece.ssar\' to establish a special
department devoted to the activities of Library Friends.

How did it all start? Perhaps because there has always been an
affinity between libraries and friends. E\'en in the great Renais¬
sance libraries, which only princes of church and state could af¬
ford, founders and friends mingled freely, wdth mutual pleasure
and profit. The pattern of friendship was established early. Jean

' The Friends t)f the Columbia Libraries' 20th Anniversary meeting on .\hxrch

3, '9T-