Independent research libraries are fragile treasure houses of our civilization. They represent vital elements in America's cultural heritage, and they make a unique contribution to the quality of American life.

Our twenty-two member institutions have diverse origins, ranging from the eighteenth-century beginnings of the Library Company of Philadelphia and the American Philosophical Society through the mid-twentieth century founding of the Linda Hall Library and the Hagley Museum and Library.

Some, such as the The Morgan Library & Museum, the Huntington and Winterthur, include major museum collections.

Several of the nation's oldest and most distinguished historical societies are IRLA libraries. Many, such as the Newberry, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the American Antiquarian Society, are national centers of scholarship in the humanities.

Three common threads unite IRLA's members, in effect comprising the criteria for membership:

• Our libraries house collections of national or international significance that are capable of supporting sustained research in a variety of interrelated subjects and of attracting scholars from all over the world;

• They are organized as privately endowed, independent institutions, each with its own act of incorporation or charter, its own board of trustees, and a full-time professional chief executive officer;

• Their primary purposes are to collect and to make available the records of the past, to promote research in them, and to share those materials with scholars and the public.

For more information about membership, please contact Erik Rau (erau@hagley.org), chair of the Nominating Committee at the Hagley Museum and Library. If you would like to know more about the needs and opportunities at the libraries in IRLA, please contact the current President of IRLA, Jessica Ludwig (jludwig@themorgan.org) at the Morgan Library & Museum.