The second order of business at the first meeting of the debating societies was the establishment of a personal library. By 1835, the societies had amassed a collection of books that far outpaced the University's collection. Unfortunately, in 1886 the societies voted to merge their collection with the Universities. This was done due to how the same books were being duplicated multiple times so that both the University and debating societies each had copies.  Creating these duplicates along with maintaining each of the society's libraries proved quite costly, resulting in the decision to consolidate these collections into Wilson Library. If you look inside many of the books at Davis, Wilson, and the Undergraduate library today, you will even find a sticker clarifying that the books were endowed by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Society! At the very least, this merger made the society's vast collection of literature more readily accessible to university students since the Society's libraries could only be opened twice a week since the Society's librarian had to be present while it was open to the public.