special photographic interview
The Christian Dr. Arnold Ehlert
next to having a book is knowing that it exists. We have a bibliography room in our new building, and we call it the ‘nerve center’ of the library. We have in it most of the national and trade bibliographies, as well as many sub ject bibliographies, and we estimate that one can now get access in this room to nearly 3,000,000 titles. How do you divide between the various schools in your buying? We are now buying mostly for the College division, although substantial additions are being made to the Tal bot Seminary and BIOLA School of Missionary Medicine collections. Do you mean that BIOLA really has three libraries? Yes, you might say that. We have the medical and nursing collection still at 558 S. Hope St., but the Semi nary collection is housed in the new building on the La Mirada campus. What about this new building. Is it really meeting the needs of the library? Yes, it is for the present, although we can foresee that before too many years roll around we shall be filled up to capacity at the present rate. How many volumes are you adding a month now? It will run between five and six hundred. Do you have any specialities, that is, are there any subjects in which you are building special collections? I know most libraries have some one area in which they try to excel. Yes, we have several. Because of the nature of the course, we have quite a nice collection in medicine and medi cal missions for the School of Mission ary Medicine. In view of BIOLA’s interest, and the fact that our new library building was given by Daniel Rose, Director for so many years now of the Jewish Department, we are building a special collection in the missionary approach to the Jews and Hebrew-Christian relationships. How do you go about getting books in these specialized fields? Here is where we use our bibliogra- phies, in part. When we find a book in the field, we place an order for it; if it is out of print, we have a dealer search for it. We find many titles of fered in second-hand book catalogs. How are you doing in matters of current interest and significance, say THE KIN G 'S BUSINESS
Dr. Ehlert, how long have you been with BIOLA as librarian? I came the first of August, 1955. This will conclude my fifth year. And I might add that it has been most stimulating and enjoyable period in my library career. How many years in all have you been a librarian? This will make my eighteenth year. How many volumes have you added to the BIOLA library during this time? Something over 20,000 volumes. There were some 23,000 when I came and we have recently gone over the 44,000 mark. How many of these would you say have been acquired as gifts to the library? Perhaps between 4,000 and 5,000 volumes. We have some gift collections that we have not worked through completely and they will yield some very valuable works. Where did all this money come from? In the beginning we had some money in the general budget allocated to the purchase of books, but three years ago when the tuition was in creased a definite allocation was made to the library based upon the number of students registered. So then in reality it is the students themselves who have been largely re sponsible for this substantial increase. That is right. And they really ap preciate the many fine books that have been added. In what fields have you spent this money for the most part? The Library Committee each fall sets up the budget recommendations for the various departments. We have, I suppose, put more money into the general and so-called ‘heavy’ reference than any one field. What do you mean by ‘reference’ materials? These are the sets of dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes, yearbooks, etc., that one usually finds in the reading room and which do not circulate. Some of these sets cost several hun dreds of dollars each. We have, for instance, replaced all the major gen eral encyclopedias that have issued new editions. What are you doing in the realm of bibliography? I understand that
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“ W e now have over 44,000 volumes in the Biola Library. M ore than 5 00 are being added monthly."
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“ Our staff is a wonderful working team. Miss Marilyn W herley is assistant librar ian. Six others work with us in addition to nine students who work part time to assist. W e were given a complete set of L ife magazine."
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