The Five Millionth Book

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(/■ If "~^HE acquisition of the five millionth volume by the
Libraries was celebrated at the Friends' reception in the
Rotunda of Low .Memorial Library on February 7. In her
remarks at the reception. University Librarian .Mrs, Patricia Battin
noted that it took 175 years to acquire the first million volumes,
21 for the second, 14 for the third, 10 for the fourth, and "after
nine very lean and financially troubled years, our five millionth
volume, an extraordinary accomplishment given the decade in
which it occurred." The occasion, she said, offered the perfect
opportunity to recognize the relationship of the libraries to the
University, and to honor President William M. McGill, who re¬
tires in June, for his contributions to the development of the Li¬
braries during his ten years as president.

The book selected as the five millionth was written by Elizabeth
McCaughey, who earned her doctorate in history at Columbia
and is now teaching at the University. Entitled From. Loyalist to
Founding Father: The Political Odyssey of William Samuel John¬
son, the biography of Columbia's third president was published on
January 24, 1980, by the Columbia University Press. As a disserta¬
tion it won both the Bancroft Dissertation Award and the Richard
B. Morris Award for the most noteworthy dissertation in early
American history. Mrs. Battin concluded: "Since the mission of
the University is the production, dissemination, and preservation
of knowledge, the circle is completed when we acquire a book
written by a student who studied in our Libraries. The book re¬
turns to enrich the institution." In addition to the regular library
copy in the general stacks, a specially bound and inscribed copy
was placed in the Columbiana Library, and a duplicate special
copy was presented at the reception to President McGill in recog¬
nition of his support for the Libraries.
 

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