Cooperative Collection Building: A Response to Gerald Beasley

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I would like to begin by disputing emphatically Gerald Beasley’s contention that librarians never become rich and famous. Sir Anthony Panizzi (1797–1879), Principal Librarian of the British Museum, was both, and so was Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), Director of the National Library in Buenos Aires. Well, perhaps Panizzi was not exactly a celebrity, and perhaps the source of Borges’s fame and riches was not his role as the National Librarian of Argentina. But what about the Abbé Rive, librarian to the Duc de la Vallière? He was infamous, if not famous, for being one of the most irascible . . .