Acquisition, Collaboration, Teaching: The Role of the Beinecke Library in Driving Research RAYMOND Clemens For the best part of its history, the Beinecke Library, founded in 1963, concentrated on acquiring signifcant materials that would expand the frontier of human knowledge. It has also made it possible for scholars to locate those materials by providing exemplary fnding aids such as catalogs, inventories and other bibliographic tools. At the turn of the twenty-frst century, under the direction of Frank Turner, and then following his passing under E.C. Schroeder, the library repositioned itself as more than a repository of useful material for scholarship. Instead, the Beinecke sought to actively engage scholars, students, and the general public through exhibits and classroom teaching and by harnessing the power of some of the new digital technologies. The relationships among people and organizations such as libraries and universities fuel the vitality that gives the Beinecke a palpable sense of energy apparent to anyone who has visited or worked there. This essay will delineate the library’ s history and discuss the new programs that make the Beinecke such a unique institution. The Beinecke Library opened in 1963 and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2013. The anniversary provided an opportunity to look back at the library’ s founding and transformation through its relatively short history. Even those who have little knowledge about the Beinecke as an institution might still recognize its iconic building and adjoining sculpture garden designed by Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988). Every year roughly 170,000 tourists fow through the Beinecke’ s single revolving door to stand in awe before the stunning glass-enclosed book tower and marvel at the quality of light transmitted through the building’ s marble “windows.” The building’ s architect, Gordon Bunshaft (1909-1990), was famously reticent when it came to discussing what he was trying to achieve with his design, but for many the building and the book tower appear to be a jeweled box celebrating the raw beauty of the books, which were rarely on display in modern libraries and never literally at the heart of the building. In much modern architecture it can be dif fcult to distinguish the use of the building from the outside; one never mistakes the Beinecke for anything other than a library. In addition to the book tower, tourists are encouraged to view the constantly changing exhibits that are found in two large cases on the building’ s ground foor and eighteen smaller vitrines that line both sides of the top foor. Two magni fcent curved cases were added at a later date; their position at the top of the stairs draws visitors up to view the materials. The library mounts three exhibitions every year; all attempt to reach beyond the university’ s walls to welcome the larger public to share in the enormous wealth of materials and learning on display there. Two permanent exhibits draw international visitors: the elephantine two-volume folio edition of John Jay Audubon’ s The Birds of America (1827-1838) graces the south side of the mezzanine, while the Gutenberg Bible occupies a shrine-like case on the north side of the book tower. If the library can be thought of as a cathedral, with its tremendous vertical space, the case that contains the Gutenberg Bible resembles a massive reliquary, a medieval sculpture that accents the importance of the saints’ bones held inside with clear 一橋大学社会科学古典資料センター年報39 （2019） © 一橋大学社会科学古典資料センター Bul. of the CHSSL 39 (2019) © Center for Historical Science Literrature, HItotsubashi Univ. ─ 13 ─