Hidden Treasures May Still Remain In Archives
Justin Dueno
Issue date: 5/5/07 Section: News
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A large stack of old, rare books lay on the floor and in the closet of an upstairs office at the Mercy College Library in Dobbs Ferry. W. Bruce Fulton, Director of Libraries, explained that there is not a plan in place to create an archive for these items because the items have had a small amount of use by faculty and students over the years.
The rest of the books sit in an environment without shelves. The rare collections are in a climate that will not preserve them. Mercy College student Regina Banchs said, "It is a shame that these books are just sitting there falling apart. Even though not many use the books, that doesn't mean that they should be left to deteriorate like that. Someday the school is going to wish that it had done something to protect these old books."
Fulton explained that an appropriate grant could be useful if these items are to be retained. "A true archive would have special climate control, special shelves, and controlled access features that the space in which the materials are currently stored does not provide. In fact, no area of the library currently contains these features. A
larger plan to consider any architectural changes to the Dobbs Ferry Library should definitely include planning for these materials or the portion of them that were kept by the college. We do hope to get them inventoried during the spring semester before further steps are taken."
Fulton explained that the college received the old books when it purchased three closing library collections in the1970's. They represent remaining items left from large collections that were not needed to furnish the then new extension site libraries, and they were stored. Gradually most of these "remainder collections" were sold. For example, the Millbrook Hunt Collection on Equestrian Arts was sold in the 1990's to the Millbrook New York Free Library, which is in the community where the Millbrook Hunt is located.
One title in the group that has not been sold is MaryVaux Walcott's North American Wild Flowers.
Marjorie Jones, a professor of history at Mercy College for 15 years, discovered the collection last fall with one of her classes. She recognized the prints, which were published by the Smithsonian.
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