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Library Primer
ОглавлениеCHAPTER I
The beginnings—Library law
If the establishment of a free public library in your town is under consideration, the first question is probably this: Is there a statute which authorizes a tax for the support of a public library? Your state library commission, if you have one, will tell you if your state gives aid to local public libraries. It will also tell you about your library law. If you have no library commission, consult a lawyer and get from him a careful statement of what can be done under present statutory regulations. If your state has no library law, or none which seems appropriate in your community, it may be necessary to suspend all work, save the fostering of a sentiment favorable to a library, until a good law is secured.
In chapters 44 and 45 will be found a list of state library commissions, important provisions in library laws, and the names of the states having the best library laws at present.
Before taking any definite steps, learn about the beginnings of other libraries by writing to people who have had experience, and especially to libraries in communities similar in size and character to your own. Write to some of the new libraries in other towns and villages of your state, and learn how they began. Visit several such libraries, if possible, the smaller the better if you are starting on a small scale.
CHAPTER II
Preliminary work
Often it is not well to lay great plans and invoke state aid at the very outset. Make a beginning, even though it be small, is a good general rule. This beginning, however petty it seems, will give a center for further effort, and will furnish practical illustrations for the arguments one may wish to use in trying to interest people in the movement.
Each community has different needs, and begins its library under different conditions. Consider then, whether you need most a library devoted chiefly to the work of helping the schools, or one to be used mainly for reference, or one that shall run largely to periodicals and be not much more than a reading room, or one particularly attractive to girls and women, or one that shall not be much more than a cheerful resting-place, attractive enough to draw man and boy from street corner and saloon. Decide this question early, that all effort may be concentrated to one end, and that your young institution may suit the community in which it is to grow, and from which it is to gain its strength.
Having decided to have a library, keep the movement well before the public. The necessity of the library, its great value to the community, should be urged by the local press, from the platform, and in personal talk. Include in your canvass all citizens, irrespective of creed, business, or politics; whether educated or illiterate. Enlist the support of teachers, and through them interest children and parents. Literary, art, social, and scientific societies, Chautauqua circles, local clubs of all kinds should be champions of the movement.
In getting notices of the library's work in the newspapers, or in securing mention of it from the lecture platform, or in clubs, and literary, artistic, and musical societies, it is better to refrain from figures and to deal chiefly in general statements about what the library aims to do and what it has done.
CHAPTER III
What does a public library do for a community?
And what good does a public library do? What is it for?
1) It supplies the public with recreative reading. To the masses of the people—hard-worked and living humdrum lives—the novel comes as an open door to an ideal life, in the enjoyment of which one may forget, for a time, the hardships or the tedium of the real. One of the best functions of the public library is to raise this recreative reading of the community to higher and higher levels; to replace trash with literature of a better order.
2) A proper and worthy aim of the public library is the supplying of books on every profession, art, or handicraft, that workers in every department who care to study may perfect themselves in their work.
3) The public library helps in social and political education—in the training of citizens. It is, of course, well supplied with books and periodicals which give the thought of the best writers on the economic and social questions now under earnest discussion.
4) The highest and best influence of the library may be summed up in the single word, culture. No other word so well describes the influence of the diffusion of good reading among the people in giving tone and character to their intellectual life.
5) The free reading room connected with most of our public libraries, and the library proper as well, if it be rightly conducted, is a powerful agent for counteracting the attractions of saloons and low resorts. Especially useful is it to those boys and young men who have a dormant fondness for reading and culture, but lack home and school opportunities.
6) The library is the ever-ready helper of the school-teacher. It aids the work of reading circles and other home-culture organizations, by furnishing books required and giving hints as to their value and use; it adds to the usefulness of courses of lectures by furnishing lists of books on the subjects to be treated; it allies itself with university extension work; in fact, the extension lecture given in connection with the free use of a good library seems to be the ideal university of the people.
The public library, then, is a means for elevating and refining the taste, for giving greater efficiency to every worker, for diffusing sound principles of social and political action, and for furnishing intellectual culture to all.
The library of the immediate future for the American people is unquestionably the free public library, brought under municipal ownership, and, to some extent, municipal control, and treated as part of the educational system of the state. The sense of ownership in it makes the average man accept and use the opportunities of the free public library while he will turn aside from book privileges in any other guise.
That the public library is a part of the educational system should never be lost sight of in the work of establishing it, or in its management. To the great mass of the people it comes as their first and only educational opportunity. The largest part of every man's education is that which he gives himself. It is for this individual, self-administered education that the public library furnishes the opportunity and the means. The schools start education in childhood; libraries carry it on.
CHAPTER IV
Suggestions as to general policy of the library
In general, remember always 1) that the public owns its public library, and 2) that no useless lumber is more useless than unused books. People will use a library, not because, in others' opinions, they ought to, but because they like to. See to it, then, that the new library is such as its owner, the public, likes; and the only test of this liking is use. Open wide the doors. Let regulations be few and never obtrusive. Trust American genius for self-control. Remember the deference for the rights of others with which you and your fellows conduct yourselves in your own homes, at public tables, at general gatherings. Give the people at least such liberty with their own collection of books as the bookseller gives them with his. Let the shelves be open, and the public admitted to them, and let the open shelves strike the keynote of the whole administration. The whole library should be permeated with a cheerful and accommodating atmosphere. Lay this down as the first rule of library management; and for the second, let it be said that librarian and assistants are to treat boy and girl, man and woman, ignorant and learned, courteous and rude, with uniform good-temper without condescension; never pertly.
Finally, bear in mind these two doctrines, tempering the one with the other: 1) that the public library is a great educational and moral power, to be wielded with a full sense of its great responsibilities, and of the corresponding danger of their neglect or perversion; 2) that the public library is not a business office, though it should be most business-like in every detail of its management; but is a center of public happiness first, of public education next.
CHAPTER V
Trustees
[Condensed from paper by C. C. Soule]
1) Size of the board.—The library board should be small, in small towns not over three members. In cities a larger board has two advantages: it can include men exceptionally learned in library science, and it can represent more thoroughly different sections of the town and different elements in the population.
2) Term of office.—The board should be divided into several groups, one group going out of office each year. It would be wise if no library trustee could hold office for more than three successive terms of three years each. A library can, under this plan, keep in close touch with popular needs and new ideas.
3) Qualifications.—The ideal qualifications for a trustee of a public library—a fair education and love of books being taken for granted—are: sound character, good judgment, common sense, public spirit, capacity for work, literary taste, representative fitness. Don't assume that because a man has been prominent in political business or social circles he will make a good trustee. Capacity and willingness to work are more useful than a taste for literature without practical qualities. General culture and wide reading are generally more serviceable to the public library than the knowledge of the specialist or scholar. See that different sections of the town's interests are represented. Let neither politics nor religion enter into the choice of trustees.
4) Duties.—The trustee of the public library is elected to preserve and extend the benefits of the library as the people's university. He can learn library science only by intelligent observation and study. He should not hold his position unless he takes a lively interest in the library, attends trustees' meetings, reads the library journals, visits other libraries than his own, and keeps close watch of the tastes and requirements of his constituency. His duties include the care of funds, supervision of expenditures, determination of the library's policy, general direction of choice and purchase of books, selection of librarian and assistants, close watch of work done, and comparison of the same with results reached in other libraries.
A large board ordinarily transacts business through its chairman, secretary, treasurer, and one or more committees. It is doubtful if the librarian should act as secretary of the board. The treasurer, if he holds the funds in his hands, should always be put under bonds. It is well to have as many committees as can be actively employed in order to enlist the coöperation of all the trustees.
The executive committee should take charge of the daily work of the library, of purchases, and of the care of the building; they should carry their duties as far as possible without assuming too much of the responsibility which properly belongs to the full board. It will be best to entrust the choice of books to a book committee appointed for that purpose purely. The finance committee should make and watch investments and see that purchases are made on most favorable terms.
5) Relations with the librarian.—The trustees are the responsible managers of the library; the librarian is their agent, appointed to carry out their wishes. If they have, however, a first-class librarian, the trustees ought to leave the management of the library practically to him, simply supplementing his ability without impeding it. They should leave to a librarian of good executive ability the selection, management, and dismissal of all assistants, the methods and details of library work, and the initiative in the choice of books. A wise librarian the trustees may very properly take into their confidence, and invite his presence at all meetings, where his advice would be of service.
6) Other employés.—Efficiency of employés can best be obtained through application of the cardinal principles of an enlightened civil service, viz., absolute exclusion of all political and personal influence, appointment for definitely ascertained fitness, promotion for merit, and retention during good behavior.
CHAPTER VI
The librarian
If circumstances permit, the librarian should be engaged even before the general character of the library and plan of administration have been determined upon. If properly selected, he or she will be a person of experience in these matters, and will be able to give valuable advice. Politics, social considerations, church sympathies, religious prejudices, family relationship—none of these should be allowed to enter into his selection. Secure an efficient officer, even at what may seem at first a disproportionate expense. Save money in other ways, but never by employing a forceless man or woman in the position of chief librarian.
Recent developments of schools of library economy, and recent rapid growth of public libraries throughout the country, have made it possible for any new library to secure good material for a librarian. If lack of funds or other conditions make it necessary to employ some local applicant, it will be wise to insist that that person, if not already conversant with library economy, shall immediately become informed on the subject. It will not be easy, it may not be possible, for trustees to inform themselves as to library organization and administration. They can, however, with very little difficulty, so far inform themselves as to be able to judge whether the person they select for their chief officer is taking pains to acquaint himself with the literature of the subject, or trying to get in touch with the knowledge and experience of others. They should not submit for a moment to ignorance or indifference on the part of their chosen administrator. Success or failure of a library, as of a business, depends on the ability of the man or woman at its head, and only trained men and women should be in charge. The business of the librarian is a profession, and a practical knowledge of the subject is never so much needed as in starting a new enterprise.
The librarian should have culture, scholarship, and executive ability. He should keep always in advance of his community, and constantly educate it to make greater demands upon him. He should be a leader and a teacher, earnest, enthusiastic, and intelligent. He should be able to win the confidence of children, and wise to lead them by easy steps from good books to the best. He has the greatest opportunity of any teacher in the community. He should be the teacher of teachers. He should make the library a school for the young, a college for adults, and the constant center of such educational activity as will make wholesome and inspiring themes the burden of the common thought. He should be enough of a bookworm to have a decided taste and fondness for books, and at the same time not enough to be such a recluse as loses sight of the point of view of those who know little of books.
As the responsible head of the institution, he should be consulted in all matters relating to its management. The most satisfactory results are obtained in those libraries where the chief librarian is permitted to appoint assistants, select books, buy supplies, make regulations, and decide methods of cataloging, classifying, and lending; all subject to the approval of the trustees. Trustees should impose responsibility, grant freedom, and exact results.
To the librarian himself one may say: Be punctual; be attentive; help develop enthusiasm in your assistants; be neat and consistent in your dress; be dignified but courteous in your manner. Be careful in your contracts; be square with your board; be concise and technical; be accurate; be courageous and self-reliant; be careful about acknowledgments; be not worshipful of your work; be careful of your health. Last of all, be yourself.
CHAPTER VII
The trained librarian in a small library
Julia A. Hopkins, of the Rochester (N. Y.) Public library, in Public Libraries, December, 1897
The value of training for the man or woman who shall take charge of a large city library is now so firmly established that no one thinks of discussing the question. If it is true that technical training is essential for the headship of a large library, why is it not equally necessary for that of a small library? Trained service is always of greater value than untrained service, be the sphere great or small. If a woman argued from the standpoint that, because the house she was to take charge of had only seven rooms instead of twenty she needed to know nothing of cooking, sweeping, and the other details of household work, I am afraid that her house and her family would suffer for her ignorance. So in many departments of library work the accident of size makes little or no difference; the work is precisely the same. The difference lies in the fact that the head of a large library oversees and directs the work done by others, where the village librarian must, in many cases, do all of the work himself. In the distinctly professional duties, such as the ordering, classifying, and cataloging of books, there is a difference only in amount between the greater and the less. And it is precisely these professional duties of which the person untrained in library work is in most cases wofully ignorant.
It is inevitable that in starting a library there should be some mistakes made; but with a trained librarian in charge, these mistakes will be fewer in number. For example, what does the novice know of classification? He realizes that the books, for convenience in use, must be grouped in classes. If he has had the use of a good library (as a college student would) he has some idea as to how the class divisions are made, and knows also that there must be some sort of notation for the classes. Necessity being the mother of invention, he contrives some plan for bringing together books on the same subject. But with the addition of books to the library and the demand which growth makes, he finds that constant changes have to be made in order to get books into their right places; and then some day he awakens to the fact that there is some perfectly well-known and adopted system of classification which will answer all his purposes, and be a great deal more satisfactory in its adaptability to the needs of his library than the one he has been struggling to evolve. Then he exclaims in despair: If I had only known of that at the beginning! He feels that the hours which he has spent in rearranging his books, taking them out of one class and putting them into another, although hours of such hard work, are in reality so many hours of wasted time. And he is right; for every minute spent in unnecessary work is so much lost time. Not only that, but it is unnecessary expense, and one of the most important things which a small library has to consider is economy.
Is it not of value to the library that its librarian should know how best to expend the money given him to use? that he should not have to regret hours of time lost over useless experiments? Surely if training teaches a librarian a wise expenditure of money and an economy of time, then training must be valuable.
CHAPTER VIII
Rooms, building, fixtures, furniture
The trustees will be wise if they appoint their librarian before they erect a building, or even select rooms, and leave these matters largely to him. They should not be in haste to build. As a rule it is better to start in temporary quarters, and let the building fund accumulate while trustees and librarian gain experience, and the needs of the library become more definite. Plans should be made with the future enlargement of the building in view; libraries increase more rapidly than is generally supposed.
Rooms of peculiar architecture are not required for the original occupation and organization of a library. The essential requirements are a central location, easy access, ample space, and sufficient light. The library and the reading room should be, if possible, on the same floor. Make the exterior attractive, and the entrance inviting. In arranging the rooms, or building, plan from the first, as already suggested, to permit visitors to go to the books themselves.
A collection of the printed matter on library architecture should be carefully studied by both trustees and librarian before any plans are made. While no specific plan can be recommended that would suit all cases, there are a few general rules that meet with the approval of the library profession as a whole. They maybe thus summed up, following in the main a paper on the subject by C. C. Soule:
"A library building should be planned for library work.
Every library building should be planned especially for the kind of work to be done, and the community to be served.
The interior arrangement ought to be planned before the exterior is considered.
No convenience of arrangement should be sacrificed for mere architectural effect.
The plan should be adapted to probabilities and possibilities of growth and development.
Simplicity of decoration is essential in the working rooms and reading rooms.
The building should be planned with a view to economical administration.
The rooms for public use should be so arranged as to allow complete supervision with the fewest possible attendants.
There should be throughout as much natural light as possible.
Windows should extend up to the ceiling, to light thoroughly the upper part of every room.
Windows in a book room should be placed opposite the intervals between bookcases.
In a circulating library the books most in use should be shelved in floor cases close to the delivery desk.
A space of at least five feet should be left between floor cases. (If the public is excluded, three feet is ample.)
No shelf, in any form of bookcase, should be higher than a person of moderate height can reach without a stepladder.
Shelving for folios and quartos should be provided in every book room.
Straight flights are preferable to circular stairs.
The form of shelving which is growing in favor is the arrangement of floor cases in large rooms with space between the tops of the bookcases and the ceiling for circulation of air and the diffusion of light.
Modern library plans provide accommodations for readers near the books they want to use whatever system of shelving is adopted.
Single shelves should not be more than three feet long, on account of the tendency to sag. Ten inches between shelves, and a depth of eight inches, are good dimensions for ordinary cases. Shelves should be made movable and easily adjustable. Many devices are now in the market for this purpose, several of which are good."
Don't cut up your library with partitions unless you are sure they are absolutely necessary. Leave everything as open as possible. A light rail will keep intruders out of a private corner, and yet will not shut out light, or prevent circulation of air, or take away from the feeling of openness and breadth the library room ought to have.
For interior finish use few horizontal moldings; they make traps for dust. Use such shades at the windows as will permit adjustment for letting in light at top or bottom, or both. The less ornamentation in the furniture the better. A simple pine or white-wood table is more dignified and easier kept clean than a cheaply carved one of oak. But get solid, honestly-made, simple furniture of oak or similar wood, if funds permit. Arm-chairs are not often desirable. They take up much room, are heavy to move, and are not easy to get in and out of at a table. In many cases simple stools on a single iron standard, without a revolving top, fastened to the floor, are more desirable than chairs. The loafer doesn't like them; very few serious students object to them.
A stack room for small libraries is not advisable. Don't crowd your cases close together unless it is absolutely necessary.
An excellent form of wooden case is one seven feet high, with shelves three feet long and seven and a half inches wide, supported on iron pegs. The pegs fit into a series of holes bored one inch apart in the sides of the case, thus making the shelves adjustable. These pegs can be bought in the market in several shapes. The shelves have slots cut in the under side at the ends to hold the projecting ends of the pegs, thus giving no obstructions to the free movement of the books. With some forms of pegs the slots are not needed. The uprights are made of inch and a half stuff, or even inch and an eighth. The shelves are inch stuff, finished to seven-eighths of an inch. The backs are half inch stuff, tongued and grooved and put in horizontally. This case-unit (3' x 7' x 8") may be doubled or trebled, making cases six and nine feet long; or it may be made double-faced. If double-faced, and nine feet long, it will hold about a thousand books of ordinary size when full. It is often well to build several of your cases short and with a single front—wall cases—as they are when in this form more easily adjusted to the growing needs of the library.
A library can never do its best work until its management recognizes the duty and true economy of providing skilled assistants, comfortable quarters, and the best library equipment of fittings and supplies.
For cases, furniture, catalog cases, cards, trays, and labor-saving devices of all kinds, consult the catalog of the Library Bureau.
Very many libraries, even the smallest, find it advantageous to use for book cases what are known as "steel stacks." The demand for these cases has been so great from libraries, large and small, that shelving made from a combination of wood and steel has been very successfully adapted to this use, and at a price within the reach of all libraries. One of the principal advantages in buying such "steel stack" shelving, with parts all interchangeable, is that in the rearrangement of a room, or in moving into a new room or a new building, it can be utilized to advantage, whereas the common wooden book cases very generally cannot.
CHAPTER IX
Things needed in beginning work—Books, periodicals, and tools
The books and other things included in the following list—except those starred or excepted in a special note, the purchase of which can perhaps be deferred until the library contains a few thousand volumes—are essential to good work, and should be purchased, some of them as soon as a library is definitely decided upon, the others as soon as books are purchased and work is actually begun.
I. BOOKS
*American catalog of books in print from 1876–1896, 5v. with annual supplement. The Publishers' weekly, N. Y. Several of the volumes are out of print. All are expensive. They are not needed by the very small library. The recent years of the annual volumes are essential.
Card catalog rules; accessions-book rules; shelf-list rules; Library Bureau, 1899, $1.25. These are called the Library school rules.
Catalog of A. L. A. library; 5000v. for a popular library, selected by the American Library Association, and shown at the World's Columbian exhibition, Washington, 1893. Sent free from the United States Bureau of education.
*English catalog, 1835–1896, 5v., with annual supplement. The annual supplements for recent years are needed by the small library; the others are not.
Five thousand books, an easy guide to books in every department. Compiled for the Ladies' home journal, 1895. Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pa. Paper, 10 cents. Out of print, but can probably be found second-hand.
Fletcher, W. I. Public Libraries in America, 1894. Roberts Bros., Boston, $1.
Library Bureau catalog, containing list of library tools, fittings, and appliances of all kinds, 1898. To be obtained of the Library Bureau, Chicago, 215 Madison St.; Boston, 530 Atlantic Ave.; New York, 250 Broadway; Philadelphia, 112 N. Broad St.; Washington, 1416 F St., N.W.
Plummer, M. W. Hints to small libraries, 1898. Truslove & Comba, N. Y., 50 cents.
Public library handbook, by the Public library, Denver, 1894. Out of print.
Publishers' trade list annual, 1900, v. 28. Office of the Publishers' weekly, N. Y., $2. Catalogs of all important American publishers bound together in one volume.
Reference catalog of current literature, 1898. Catalogs of English publishers, bound in one volume and indexed. J. Whitaker & Sons, London, $5.
Rules for an author and title catalog, condensed. See Cutter, Rules for a dictionary catalog, 1891, p. 99–103. Sent from the United States Bureau of education, Washington, free. These are the rules adopted by the American Library Association.
*Sonnenschein, W. S. Best books, readers' guide, 1891. Sonnenschein, London, $8. Gives author, title, publisher and price of about 50,000 carefully selected and carefully classified books.
Sonnenschein, W. S. Reader's guide to contemporary literature (50,000v.), supplement to Best books, 1895. Sonnenschein, London, $6.50.
*Subject headings for use in dictionary catalogs, Library Bureau, 1898, $2. In a small library this is not needed, but it will save trouble to get it.
Lawrence, I. Classified reading. A list with publishers and prices of books for the school, the library, and the home, 1898. Normal school, St. Cloud, Minn., $1.25.
Iles, George. List of books for girls and women and their clubs, 1895. Library Bureau, $1.
World's library congress, papers prepared for, held at World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, 1893. United States Bureau of education, Washington, D. C., free. Covers very fully the entire field of library economy.
II. PERIODICALS
Book news, monthly. Wanamaker, Philadelphia, 50 cents. (Book reviews.)
Dial, semi-monthly, 24 Adams St., Chicago, $2. (Book reviews, notes and essays.)
Literature, weekly. Harper & Bros., N. Y., $4. (Current English and American literature.)
Nation, weekly. New York, $3. (Book reviews, art, politics.)
Publishers' weekly, the American book trade journal, 59 Duane St., N. Y., $5. (Lists nearly all American and best English books as published.)
Library journal, monthly, $5 a year, 58 Duane St., New York. This is the official organ of the American Library Association.
Public libraries, monthly, $1 a year, 215 Madison St., Chicago. Presents library methods in a manner especially helpful to small libraries.
New York Times Saturday review of books and art. The Times, N. Y., $1.
Monthly cumulative book index. An author, title, and subject index to the books published during the current year, brought up to date in one alphabet each month. Morris & Wilson, Minneapolis, Minn., $1.50
III. OTHER THINGS
Accession book. See catalog of the Library Bureau. For a very small library a common blank-book will do.
Agreement blanks, which the borrower signs before getting his borrower's card giving him the right to use the library. See chapter on charging systems.
Book cards. See chapter on charging systems, and Library Bureau catalog.
Book pockets. See Library Bureau catalog, and also chapter on charging systems.
Borrowers' cards. Given to borrowers as evidence of their right to draw books. See chapter on charging systems.
Borrowers' register, best kept on cards. See chapter on charging systems.
Catalog cards. These are of two sizes and many thicknesses. Select what suits you. See Library Bureau catalog.
Catalog case. See Library Bureau catalog. For a very small library a few japanned tin trays will serve. But your catalog will grow faster than you suppose.
Cole size card; a sheet marked in such a way as to give one at a glance the proper letter to use in indicating the size of any book placed on it. See Library Bureau catalog. In a very small library not needed.
Classification scheme. See chapters on classification.
Cutter author table for book numbers. See chapter on book numbers. For a very small library one can use numbers only.
Daters and ink pads for dating borrowers' cards, etc. The pencil daters are best. See chapter on charging systems.
Ink. For all outside labels use Higgins' American drawing ink, waterproof. For book cards, borrowers' cards, etc., use any good black, non-copying ink. Carter's fluid is very good.
Labels. Round ones are best and those ready gummed do well if carefully put on. Dennison's "88A" are good.
Paste. Binder's paste is good; for library use it needs thinning. Higgins' photo mounter and other like bottled pastes are better.
Rubber stamps and ink pad for marking books with name of library. See chapter on preparing books for the shelves.
Shelf list cards. See Library Bureau catalog.
Shelf list sheets (or cards). See Library Bureau catalog. In a very small library sheets of ordinary ruled writing paper will serve. It is better, however, to get the right thing at the start.
CHAPTER X
The relation of the Library Bureau to libraries
Geo. B. Meleney, Ch. Mgr., in Public Libraries, May, 1896
The consideration of the relations of the Library Bureau to libraries brings us back to the organization of the American Library Association in 1876. At this gathering of the prominent librarians of the country, the discussion of methods brought out the lack of unanimity in, and the need of coöperation for, a uniform system in the various branches of library work. To carry out uniform methods requires uniform material, and this was hard to obtain. The American Library Association as such, of course, could not take up a business venture of this kind, but it was decided to advise an organization for keeping on sale such supplies and library aids as the association might decide were needed.
The Library Bureau was then organized for this purpose, and has continued to keep the same relation toward the library association as was originally intended. Referring to the numbers of the Library Bureau catalogs, one may trace the history of the development not only of the appliances furnished by the Library Bureau, but also of ideas of library economy as they are gathered there from every source. It confined its attention at first to libraries only, the business being divided into four departments: employment, to bring together libraries and librarians; consultation, to give expert advice on any phase of any library question; publication, to publish the various needed helps (from point of usefulness to libraries rather than profit to publishers); supply, to furnish at lower prices all articles recommended by the A. L. A., and to equip any library with best known devices in everything needful. Among the things noticed in these departments are catalog cards, cases, trays, and outfits, book supports, blanks, book pockets, boxes, desks, inks, etc. Some specialties are noted in library devices, and helpful advice as to their economical use is given. The successive catalogs follow the same line, attention being directed toward all improvements in old material, and to all advanced work in library administration wherever found. Not all the material recommended was manufactured by the Library Bureau, but a generous spirit is shown in recommending any device, plan, or publication known to be helpful to the library profession. It has brought to notice many notable contributions to library literature, such as the Author table, by C. A. Cutter, of the Boston athenæum; Decimal classification and relative index and Library notes, by Melvil Dewey; Library journal; Library school rules; Perkins' manual; Linderfelt's rules; Sargent's Reading for the young; Lists of books for different clubs; Subject headings of A. L. A., etc. The Library Bureau catalog itself is one of the best library aids ever published. These catalogs have always been sent free to library workers.
Libraries grew in numbers and size largely because of the enthusiasm of earnest workers, but very frequently with hardly enough financial assistance to warrant more than the purchase of a few books, and frequently with limited knowledge of how to make the small store of use to the waiting public. The management of the Library Bureau at this time was certainly doing a missionary work; but its chief problem was the financial one, or how to make both ends meet, and it was not until library methods were introduced into business houses that this question was solved. The constant and untiring efforts of the management of the Library Bureau toward the assistance and upbuilding of the smaller and younger libraries have had much to do with the growth of library sentiment, which is now so apparent on every hand, and indirectly this knowledge of library work and library methods has done much to enlarge the facilities of the Library Bureau.
From a very unpretentious concern, publishing a few library aids, manufacturing such library devices as could not be obtained elsewhere, and keeping for sale a few articles of library furnishing, the Library Bureau has grown to be a corporation of no small proportions, having numerous branches both in this country and Europe, maintaining a card factory, cabinet works in Boston and Chicago, and facilities for the manufacture of steel stacks unexcelled in this country.
The Library Bureau, however, has never forgotten the cause of its birth or the teachings of its youth, as is clearly evidenced from year to year by the various undertakings and publications which a careful observer can clearly see are not put forward with any presage of success when viewed entirely from a business standpoint. This lesson is constantly taught to the employés of the Library Bureau, and they are positively instructed that, regardless of the promise of success in other directions, the attention to library requirements is the first demand.
The Library Bureau maintains at its various offices persons thoroughly versed in library economy, for the express purpose of furnishing detailed information and aid to those younger members of the profession whom they have the pleasure and opportunity of assisting over the stumbling-blocks in their daily work. With this same idea in view it publishes from the Chicago office a monthly magazine called PUBLIC LIBRARIES, of an elementary character, which is entertaining, instructive, and inspiring, and helps to encourage a sentiment favorable to public libraries and to make librarianship a profession of high standing.
CHAPTER XI
Selecting books—Fitting the library to its owners
The selection of books should be left to the librarian, under the general direction of trustees or book committee.
There should be made at the start a collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, gazetteers, and scientific compendiums, which should not be lent. The extent of this collection will depend on the scope and purposes of the library. No library, however small, can dispense with some books of reference. But for a small library don't buy expensive works. The Encyclopædia Britannica is an example of what not to get.
There must be taken into consideration, in determining the character of the books to be purchased, these factors among others:
a) Presence or absence of other libraries in the vicinity, and their character, if present.
b) The avowed purposes of the free, tax-supported public library, to-wit: 1) To help people to be happy; 2) to help them to become wise; 3) to encourage them to be good.
c) The amount of money to be expended and the sum that will probably be available for each succeeding year.
d) The manner in which the books are to be used; whether they are to be lent, or are to be used only for reference, or are to form both a reference and a lending library.
e) The class of people by whom they are to be used, and if children, whether for school work only, or for general reading, or for both.
f) The occupations and leading local interests of the community.
g) The character and average degree of intelligence of the community.
h) The habits, as to reading and study, of those who will use the library.
The village library, in its early days, can well afford to begin at the level of the community's average reading. At the same time it must always try to go a little ahead of the demands of the people, and develop a taste and desire for the very best books it can get. The masses of the people have very little of literary culture. It is the purpose of the public library to develop this by creating in them the habit of reading. As a rule people read books which are above their own intellectual and moral standard, and hence are benefited by reading. The reading of books generally leads to the reading of better books.
Then do not aim too high. Avoid trash, but do not buy literature which will not be read simply because it is standard or classic. Remember that the public library is a popular institution in every sense of the word; that it has become possible only by the approval of the majority of the population, and that the majority of the population is confined in its turn to a majority of people of the most commonplace kind.
Do not pander to any sect, creed, or partisan taste. Buy largely books costing from 50 cents to $2, found in so many of the series now published. These are fresh, up-to-date, written for the most part by competent men, and are reliable. They are not dull, because no one can afford to be dull in a 12mo volume. As a general thing they are well made, supplied with maps and illustrations when needed, and have indexes. Put much of your money into the history, travel, and literature of your own country first, and then see what you have left for Greece and Rome. The common people nowadays should be encouraged in their interest in their own country, its description, history, politics, biography, mineral resources, literature. The people will inquire for these books, and they should be provided for them. Wait until the library is larger before investing much money in the history of worn out empires, simply because such and such a person wants them, or because some library anywhere from two to twenty times as large has them. Use common sense and much of it.
Put into the people's hands books worthy of their respect, then insist that they be handled carefully and treated always with consideration. Expensive books; that is, books which are first-class in paper, ink, and binding, are generally better worth their cost than cheap ones.
In the first purchases buy largely for children. They are the library's best pupils. They are more easily trained to enjoy good books than their elders. Through them the homes are best reached. They will, by their free use of the library, and by their approval of it, do much to add to its popularity. The best books for children will be enjoyed by all.
In selecting fiction, get from the older librarians a statement of what are the most popular of the wholesome novels found on their shelves. A better guide than this it will be difficult to find. Fiction is of the greatest value in developing a taste for reading. Everyone should be familiar with the great works of imagination. Nearly all the greatest literature of the world is fiction. The educational value of the novel is not often questioned.
But don't buy a novel simply because it is popular. If you follow that line you will end with the cheapest kind of stuff. Some librarians pretend that they must buy to please the public taste; that they can't use their own judgment in selecting books for a library which the public purse supports. Why these librarians don't supply the Police gazette it is difficult to understand. "The public" would like it—some of them. We select school committees and superintendents and teachers to run our schools. We ask them to inform themselves on the subject and give us the best education they can. They don't try to suit everybody. They try to furnish the best. Library trustees and librarian are in a like case. The silly, the weak, the sloppy, the wishy-washy novel, the sickly love story, the belated tract, the crude hodge-podge of stilted conversation, impossible incident, and moral platitude or moral bosh for children—these are not needed. It is as bad to buy them and circulate them, knowingly, as it would be for our school authorities to install in our schoolrooms as teachers romantic, giggling girls and smarty boys. Buy good novels, those the wise approve of, in good type, paper, and binding; keep plenty of copies of each on hand; put them where your readers can handle them; add a few each year of the best only of the latest novels, and those chiefly on trial (not to be bought again if found not to have real merit) and your public will be satisfied, and your library will be all the time raising the taste of the community.
Some books should not be put, at least not without comment, into the hands of young people. Other books, some people think, should not be read by young people. Other books, some people think, should not be in a public library at all. A good course to follow in regard to such books is to consider the temper of your community and put into the library as many of them as are noteworthy in a literary way as your public and your resources permit.
In other departments follow at first the guidance of some one of the good book lists now available.
Other things being equal, American scientific books are preferable to those by foreign authors. In all departments select the latest editions, and, at first, the recent book rather than the older book.
The proportion of books in the different departments of knowledge must vary greatly in different libraries. The following is a good general guide:
| Per cent. | |
| General works | .04 |
| Philosophy | .01 |
| Religion | .02 |
| Sociology | .09 |
| Philology | .01 |
| Science | .08 |
| Useful arts | .06 |
| Fine arts | .04 |
| Literature | .12 |
| Biography | .10 |
| History | .13 |
| Travels | .10 |
| Fiction | .20 |
| — | |
| Total | 100 |
Local interest should be fostered by buying freely books on local history and science and books by local authors.
The librarian should keep informed of coming events, and see that the library is provided with the books for which there is sure to be a future demand. He should avoid personal hobbies and be impartial on all controversial questions. He should not be overconfident in his knowledge of what will elevate and refine the community.
It is better to buy 10 extra copies of a wholesome book wanted by the public than one copy each of 10 other books which will not be read.
Do not waste time, energy, and money—certainly not in the early days of the library—in securing or arranging public documents, save a few of purely local value. Take them if offered and store them.
Do not be too much impressed by the local history plea, and spend precious money on rare volumes or old journals in this line.
Certain work can judiciously be done toward collecting and preserving materials for local history that will involve neither expense nor much labor, and this the librarian should do. Do not turn the public library, which is chiefly to be considered as a branch of a live, everyday system of popular education, into a local antiquarian society; but simply let it serve incidentally as a picker-up of unconsidered trifles. A wide-awake, scholarly librarian will like his town, and delight in at least some study of its antecedents. And such a librarian need not be a crank, but must needs be an enterprising, wide-awake, appreciative student, who can scent the tastes and needs of posterity.
Put no money into rare books. A book which was out of print 10 years or 200 years ago, and has not insisted upon republication since, has, ordinarily, no place in the active, free public library. If you get it, sell it and buy a live book.
The free public library should encourage its readers to suggest books not in the library, by providing blanks for that purpose, and paying courteous attention to all requests.
Ask by letter, by circulars, and by notes in the local papers, for gifts of books, money, and periodicals. Acknowledge every gift. Remember that one who has helped the library, be it ever so little, has thereby become interested in it, and is its friend.
CHAPTER XII
Reference books for a small library, compiled by C. A. Baker, of the Public library, Denver
This list includes about 75 books, costing about $550. It is arranged alphabetically. It is subdivided into four lists, arranged according to relative importance. This subdivision is shown by the numbers prefixed to each entry.
2. Adams, C. K. Manual of historical literature. 1889. O. Harper, cl. $2.50.
1. Adams, O. F. Dictionary of American authors. 1897. O. Houghton, Mifflin, cl. $3.
1. Adler, G. J. Dictionary of the German and English languages. 1893. Q. Appleton, mor. $5.
4. Allibone, S. A. Critical dictionary of English literature. 1891, 3 v. Q. Lippincott, sh. $22.50.
4. Allibone, S. A. Supplement to the critical dictionary of English literature, by J.F. Kirk. 1892, 2 v. Q. Lippincott, sh. $15.
1. Appleton's annual cyclopædia and register of important events. Q. Appleton, cl. $5.
3. Appleton's cyclopædia of American biography. 1888–92, 6 v.Q. Appleton, cl. $30, half mor. $42.
1. Appleton's cyclopædia of applied mechanics, ed. by P. Benjamin. 1893, 2 v. Q. Appleton, sh. $15, half mor. $17.
2. Appleton's modern mechanism, supplement to Cyclopædia of applied mechanics. 1892, 1 v. Q. Appleton, sh. $7.50, half mor. $8.50.
2. Bartlett, J., ed. Familiar quotations. 1892. O. Little, cl. $3.
3. Bliss, E. M., ed. Cyclopædia of missions, 2 v. 1891. Q. Funk & Wagnalls, cl. $12.
1. Bliss, W. D. P. Cyclopædia of social reform, including political economy, science, sociology, statistics, anarchism, charities, civil service, currency, land, etc. 1897. Q. Funk & Wagnalls, cl. $7.50, sh. $9.50.
3. Brannt, W. T. and Wahl, W. H. Technico-chemical receipt book. 1895. D. Baird, cl. $2.
1. Brewer, E. C. Reference library, 1885–98. 4 v. O. Lippincott. $13. Dictionary of miracles, Historic notebook, Dictionary of phrase and fable, Reader's handbook.
2. Brown, E. and Strauss, A. Dictionary of American politics. 1895. D. Burt, cl., $1.
1. Bryant, W. C, ed. Library of poetry and song. 1876. Q. Fords, Howard, cl., $5.
3. Century dictionary and cyclopædia. (Century dictionary and the Century cyclopædia of names combined with the atlas of the world.) 10 v. Prices from $60 to $150. Often can be picked up second-hand.
1. Century atlas of the world. 1897. F. Century Co., cl. $12.50, half mor. $15.
1. Century cyclopædia of names, n.d. F. Century Co., cl. $10.50, buf. $12.50.
(Note.—The two last are included in the Century dictionary and cyclopædia, but can be bought separately.)
2. Chambers, R., ed. Book of days, 2 v. O. Lippincott. 1893. $7.
2. Champlin, J. D. jr. Young folks' cyclopædia of common things. 1893. O. Holt, cl. $2.50.
2. Champlin, J. D. jr. Young folks' cyclopædia of persons and places. 1892. O. Holt, cl. $2.50.
2. Champlin, J. D. jr. and Bostwick, A. E. Young folks' cyclopædia of games and sports. 1890. O. Holt, cl. $2.50.
2. Channing, E. and Hart, A.B. Guide to the study of American history. O. Ginn. 1896. $2.
1. Clement, C. E. Painters, architects, engravers, and their work. 1881. D. Houghton, Mifflin, cl. $3. (Artists not living.)
1. Clement, C. E. and Hutton, L. Artists of the 19th century and their work. 1885 D. Houghton & Mifflin, cl. $3.
4. Cram's Bankers and brokers' railroad atlas; complete alphabetical index. 1898. F. Cram. $17.50.
1. Cumulative index of periodicals, monthly and annual. 1898. Helman-Taylor Co., Cleveland, pa. $5.
4. Cyclopædia of American biographies. J. H. Brown, ed. 1897. v. 1, A-C. Q. Cyclo. Pub. Co., Boston, half mor. $7.
2. Fields, J. T. and Whipple, E. P., ed. Family library of British poetry. 1882. Q. Houghton, cl. $5, mor. $10.
3. Fletcher, W. I., ed. A. L. A. index to general literature. 1893. Q. Houghton, cl. $5.
1. Fletcher, W. I., ed., and Bowker, R. R. Annual literary index, including periodicals and essays. 1899. O. Publishers' weekly, cl. $3.50.
