Dedication of the Ives library building: the gift of Mrs. Mary E. Ives, New Haven, Connecticut

The Hon. Samuel R. Avis, President of the Library Board, accepted the trust, pledging himself and his colleagues to its care and maintenance:

This building will be a depository for books, but it will also be more than that. It will be a center from which books must be circulated among the people—all the people, including every tribe and nation who come to make their homes among us. It must be the people's university, and as the university of the people it must be kept abreast of the times by constant additions of books that disclose every phase of the world's progress. This means large additions of books continually, and if this is not done this library will only partially fulfil its mission. Therefore, it will be necessary for the city to give it liberal support. We have had bequests, the income of which we use for the purchase of books, and we hope this gift of Mrs. Ives will stimulate others to bequests of this kind, and we believe it will; but the city should make its yearly appropriation for the maintenance of this building and the purchase of books as though these bequests did not exist, for they were not made to relieve the city of this obligation, but to aid the library.