Local History Materials in One College Library

A COGENT PLEA for the signifi.ance of local history materials for the small college library carne a few years ago from the librarian of Beloit College. Mr. Paine underscored the library's obligation, as a department in a tax-fee institution, to join with certain existing neighboring agenci.es as the pubJic library and hist9rical society in acquiring, preserving and making accessible records of local history. A program planned to avoid overlapping effort among the cooperating institutions was recommended as highly advisable. Possible rewards were suggested in a widening community interest in the college library, and in enriched instruction through the use of original sources for students' independent investigations. At Russell Sage College Library, Troy, N.Y., varied factors have contributed to the possession of a small, not infrequently used collection of books, newspapers, manuscripts, scrapbooks and other items pertaining to the history of Troy and its outlying districts. A vivid and colorful industrial past has truly existed in this city, which has been continuously casting church bells since 1808. It is said to have made the first tower clocks, surveying instruments and detachable collars produced in this country, and its foundries in 1861 supplied armor bars and