A library primer

Front matter

NY PUBLIC LIBRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIES

3 3333 05823 5298

020 Dana Library primer

Preface to First Edition

A LIBRARY PRIMER" was published in the first six numbers of Public Libraries in 1896. It was quite largely made up of extracts from an article by Dr. W. F. Poole on "The organization and management of public libraries," which formed part of the Report on Public libraries in the U. S., published by the U. S. Bureau of education in 1876; from W. I. Fletcher's "Public Libraries in America"; from Mary W. Plummer's "Hints to Small Libraries"; and from papers in the Library journal and A. L. A. Proceedings.

At the request of a number of people interested I have revised, rewritten, and extended the original draft for publication in book form. Additional material has been taken from many sources. I have tried to give credit in good measure. The prevailing tendency among librarians is to share ideas, to give to one another the benefit of all their suggestions and experiences. The result is a large fund of library knowledge which is common property. From this fund most of this book is taken.

The Library Primer is what its name implies. It does not try to be exhaustive in any part of the field. It tries to open up the subject of library management for the small library, and to show how large it is and how much librarians have yet to learn and to do.

J. C. D.

The City Library, Springfield, Mass., 1899.

Preface to Second Edition

I HAVE brought lists of books, magazines, etc., down to date and have modified the text as changes in facts and methods since 1897 have

made necessary.

J. G. D.

Free Public Library, Newark, N, J,, 1909.

Preface to the Edition of 1920

OF the Primer as first published in 1896, and slightly revised in 1909, very little remains in this edition. I have omitted all contributions from others, have rewritten or dropped nearly all my own work, have added much, and thus have made an entirely new volume.

The name is retained, for the book has still in view the same kinds of readers as did the first edition of twenty-five years ago — beginners, ambitious assistants and managers of small libraries.

I retain the dedication noted in the first edition, for though the men to whom I was permitted to dedicate that volume have left us, I feel now more proud than I ever did that it was once my privilege to call them friends.

The shortcomings of the book must all be laid at my door; for such merits as the reader finds in it he must include, in his thanks, my fellow-worker of many years, Beatrice Winser.

Mr. H. R. Datz of Library Bureau was kind enough to read the book in manuscript and to offer for it many helpful suggestions. And that statement leads me to say that I am much gratified that Library Bureau has willingly undertaken the publication of this revision, as it did of the previous editions.

J. C. D.

Public Library, Newark, N. J.

September, 1920.

Preface to the Edition of 1920

Illustrations .....

CHAPTER

I. Sketch of Library Development in the

United States 1

II. Library Beginnings — Library Law - Printed Aids to Library Promotion

III. Preliminary Work ..... 7

IV. What Does a Public Library Do for a Com-

V. Trustees: What They Should and Should

Not Do 12

VI. Rules, or By-Laws, for a Board of Trustees 14 VII. The Librarian: Note for Trustees and

Friends of Your Library ... 19

VIII. Rooms, Buildings, Fixtures, Furniture . 28 IX. Selecting Books — Fitting the Library to

Its Owners ...... 52

X. Reference Work ..... 60

XI. Periodicals ...... 67

XII. Buying Books 71

XIII. Ink and Handwriting: Typewriters . . 79

XIV. The Care of Books

XV. Accessioning Books ..... 86

XVI. Classifying and Cataloging Books . . 97

XVII. Author-Numbers 123

XVIII. The Shelf-List 127

XIX. Preparing Books for the Shelves . . 132

XX. Pamphlets: Information File . . .137

XXI. Charging Books to Borrowers . . . 149

XXII. Lists, Bulletins, Printed Catalog . . 159

XXIII. Checking the Library . . . .168

XXIV. Schoolroom Libraries .... 169 XXV. Books as Useful Tools . . . .171

XXVI. Of Library Patrons . . . .172 XXVII. Young People and the Schools . . .173

XXVIII. Children's Rooms 176

XXIX. Library Schools and Training Classes . 177

XXX. Rules or Suggestions for the Public . . 178

XXXI. Reports 183

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XXXII. Small Branches of Small Libraries . . 188

XXXIII. Museums and Libraries .... 189

XXXIV. Public Documents 192

XXXV. Binding and Mending . . . .198

XXXVI. Repairing Books 204

XXXVII. Making Your Library Known . . .209

XXXVIII. The Beginner's First Readings . . 212 XXXIX. Books in Foreign Languages, Collections

of Pictures, Music .... 214

XL. Library Accounts and Statistics . . 215

XLI. The American Library Association . . 225

XLII. The Library Workers' Association . . 227

XLIII. Special Libraries 228

XLIV. County Libraries 229

XLV. National Education Association: Library

Department ..... 231

Dealers in Library Supplies and Equipment . . 233

Books and Articles on Library Laws .... 235

Library Schools and Training Classes .

State and Provincial Library Commissions . . . 237

Reference Books for a Small Library .

Periodicals for a Small Library . . .

Things Needed in Library Work .... 244

A Selected List of Some of the Publications of the

American Library Association .... 246

The Librarian's Own Book-List 249

Current Library Information ..... 251

Articles on Civil Service in Libraries . . . 251

Books and Articles on Printing ..... 252

Books on Bookbinding .... . 253

Books and Articles on Museums and Libraries . . 254 The Business Library . . . • • .255

Business Books and Periodicals ..... 256

Index

Illustrations

Fig. 1. Floor plan of branch library, and key to plan, 32, 33.

Fig. 2. Floor plan of Business Branch library and key to plan, 34, 35.

Fig. 3. Floor plan of small library, 16' x 16', 37.

Fig. 4. Floor plan of small library, 24' x 24', 38.

Fig. 5. Library building, 40' x 40', 39.

Fig. 6. Floor plan of library, 24' x 34', 43.

Fig. 7. Floor plan of library, 38' x 70', 41, 42.

Fig. 8. Library chair, 45.

Fig. 9. Library desk, 46.

Fig. 10. Library table, 47.

Fig. 11. Bookcase, 48.

Fig. 12. A Newark Library book-plate, 60.

Fig. 13. Vertical file case, 65.

Fig. 14. Periodical record card, 70.

Fig. 15. Periodical record card, Reverse, 71.

Fig. 16. Order slip or card, 74.

Fig. 17. Order slip, another form, 75.

Fig. 18. "Continuations" envelope record, 76.

Fig. 19. "Continuations" card record, 77.

Fig. 20. Vertical handwriting, 80.

Fig. 21. Book support, 83.

Fig. 22. Book truck, 84.

Figs. 23-26. Book-plates used in the Newark Library, 87.

Fig. 27. Page from accession book, 89.

Fig. 28. Short form of accession book, 90.

Fig. 29. Shelf-list card as written in Newark Library, 94.

Fig. 30. Page of record of books added to each department of library, 95.

Fig. 31. Second page after title-page of a book, showing accession records, 96.

Fig. 32. Record sheet of books added to, withdrawn, etc., 104, 105.

Fig. 33. Page from Dewey System of Classification, 101.

Fig. 34. Three copies of same card purchased from Library of Congress, and made to appear under three different headings, 107, 108.

Fig. 35. Nine books as they appear on the shelves, 112.

Fig. 36. Author-card as written in Newark Library, 114.

Fig. 37. Title-card, 115.

Fig. 38. Subject card, 116.

Fig. 39. A four-drawer catalog case, 119.

xii ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 40. Section from "List of Subject Headings for use

in Dictionary Catalogs," 121.

Fig. 41. Parts of Cutter Table, 124. Fig. 42. Book labels, 126.

Fig. 43. Vertical file drawer, 139. Fig. 44. A folder as used in a vertical file, 140. Fig. 45. Color-band filing guide, 147. Fig. 46. Double and single borrower's cards, 149. Fig. 47. Pencil dater, 150.

Fig. 48. Last page of book with book-pocket and book-card,

161.

Fig. 49. Daily record of books lent, one sheet for the year,

155. ^ Fig. 50. Daily circulation statistics, adapted to A. L. A.

Fig. 51. Application card, 156.

Fig. 52. Fine postal, 157.

Fig. 53. Lost card agreement, 158. Fig. 54. A single-sheet list of books, 160. Fig. 55. Another single-sheet book-list, 161. Fig. 56. One of a series of 12 blotters, 162. Fig. 57. Another of the series of 12 blotters, 164. Fig. 58. A single-sheet book-list, 165. Fig. 59. A four-page list, 167.

Fig. 60. Second page of one of the price lists issued by

the Federal Government, 196.

Fig. 61. Sheet for keeping library accounts, 216, 217. Fig. 62. Sheet for petty cash account, 216, 217. Fig. 63. Bill certification sheet, 223. Fig. 64. Page from pay roll book, 224. Fig. 65. Form of voucher check, 224.

Chapter I Sketch of Library Development in the United States

THIS book will be used chiefly by persons who are beginning work in a library or beginning to read and study in preparation for such work, and so, though it is in some parts addressed to trustees of libraries and to persons who are trying to establish libraries or to improve existing ones, it has been written with two definite purposes in mind: one, that of helping those who wish to learn how to be useful in a large library, and the other, that of helping those who wish to learn how to manage a small library. It is not a manual; that is, it does not tell in detail how to do things, except here and there. It is a primer, a first, brief, suggestive outline. One reason why it can be brief is that it deals almost wholly with work in free, tax-supported, public libraries.

Libraries came to their present position in our country in this way: The first comers wished their children to be educated. They set up schools, and paid for upkeep of them by subscription. After a time they thought it wise to have all children taught; so they made the schools free and supported them by a school tax. Collections of good books seemed to them to help in general education, so they began to set up libraries, at first by subscription or by large gifts from individuals. Later they thought libraries, like schools, would be helpful if free to every one. So they supported them by library tax. In 1876 we did not have many libraries, other than those in schools and colleges and those supported by private subscription, and the latter were open only to those who paid something to maintain them.

In 1876 the modern library movement began. A few able and active men pushed on this movement. Look at the early numbers of Library Journal and the report on libraries issued in 1876 by the Bureau of Education, and you will learn who these men were, and how great was the task they undertook and carried through under the library conditions of that day.

The growth of libraries since 1876 has been very rapid. Look at recent numbers of the Library Journal, of Public Libraries, of the Bulletin of the American Library Association and of reports on libraries issued by the Bureau of Education and you wrill see how far we have come.

Those who led the movement for more and better libraries gave much thought and study to methods of handling books. In about twenty years the leaders, and their followers also, did much to make the value of libraries more widely appreciated.

The gifts from rich men of library buildings, and these gifts have been many in the past twenty-five years, helped to make quite rapid the growth in the number of libraries. This brought on a

DEVELOPMENT IN U. S. 3

large demand for library workers; and this, in turn, led to an increase in library schools. Unfortunately, most citizens who took up the library idea thought of libraries as mere book-collections, housed in buildings designed to ornament a town. They half-unconsciously desired to put up memorials to local culture, and not to establish live institutions that would help promote much-needed general intelligence.

But in spite of the harm done by too eager acceptance of library gifts, this same acceptance, together with a general growth in the reading habit and an increased popular interest in education, caused libraries to grow in number and size, and in importance as aids to education. They widened gradually the field they covered. Organizations of librarians multiplied and helped to give the more important part of library work quite a professional tone.

Look at the report of the proceedings of the national library organization, published in 1893, and at a few copies of library journals from that date to about 1900 and you will see how libraries stood and what librarians were interested in after twenty years of growth from 1876.

Then look in copies of the same journals and in reports of library association proceedings and in the statistical publications of the Bureau of Education for the years, say, 1914-16, and you will get quite a clear idea of the manner of library development and of the expansion of the ambitions and aims of librarians during forty years.

You will note that in the latter part of this period there arose a strong movement in libraries to take over some of the functions of the schools, with efforts to practice teaching, and even to teach the teachers. You will note, also, an attempt to induce the industrial and business world to use the resources of libraries. Follow these two movements through an occasional journal or volume of proceedings and you will see the former slowly resolving itself into a close co-operation with teaching, with libraries managed by trained persons in school buildings; and the latter developing into libraries in manufacturing plants and business houses and there serving both the worker and the expert.

I hope that a reading of the above sketch of library development, and of the more general chapters in this book, will give certain fairly clear impressions, among them these : The growth of print has increased the reading habit. This increase has helped to make collections of print seem more useful. Thus the work of skilled librarians has become more important. From these facts we conclude that librarians have not made libraries; but that many and varied circumstances have brought us libraries, and these have made the librarians.

As librarians — products of our environment and not creators of any of the features of that environment— we are in good position to help make libraries more useful. We can slowly persuade our fellows to make library buildings central, ample, and convenient for those who use them. We can help to make the book-collections in schools, col-

LIBRARY BEGINNINGS 5

leges, and business and industrial plants more complete, more comfortably housed, and better managed. We can learn to be sympathetic toward scholars, students, and investigators, of whom we have too few. We can explore new fields of library work as they are suggested by our more inventive friends, yet be, at the same time, not over-sure that any one of these new fields is proper for us to cultivate continuously. We can try to get so broad a view of all kinds of work with print — I mean the collecting and mastering of all kinds of it for all possible purposes - - that we can sympathize with each and every kind and be hostile to none.

Chapter II Library Beginnings — Library Law — Printed Aids to Library Promotion

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 the Supplement will be found a list of state library commissions and a list of books and articles on library laws.

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.

Your state library commission no doubt has an "organizer," meaning a person who helps to improve library conditions in the state. This organizer will probably on request come to your town, look over the situation, give advice and aid, and, if need be, address a small group of friends of the new library idea, or a public meeting called to consider it.

This same organizer, or the secretary of the American Library Association, or the librarian of any city, will send you, on request, printed information in the form of books, pamphlets and journals, on how to start a library campaign, how to establish a library, what a library will cost, how to get a librarian, why a town needs a library, and on other like topics,

PRELIMINARY WORK

Chapter HI

Preliminary Work

IT is not always well to make large plans and ask for state aid at the outset. Make a beginning, even though it be small, is a good general rule. This beginning, however petty it seems, will furnish a center for further effort, and practical illustrations for arguments one may wish to use in trying to interest others.

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 men and boys from the street corners. Decide this question early, that all efforts 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 need of a 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, and whether well educated or not. Enlist the support of teachers and through them interest children and parents. Literary, art, social and scientific societies and local clubs of all kinds should be champions of the movement.

In getting notices of the library's work in newspapers, mention of it from lecture platforms, 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.

Professional advertisers have a national organization, with branches or allied institutions in many cities and small towns. Members of these advertising and business-promoting groups are strong advocates of reading and therefore of the use of books and of libraries. They will help in publicity work of all kinds.

In the lists in the Supplement you will find named organizations which are eager to help establish and promote libraries.

Chapter IV What Does a Public Library Do for a Community?

IT supplies recreative reading. Most of us lead rather humdrum lives. Novels open doors to an ideal life in the enjoyment of which one forgets the hardships or the tedium of the daily grind. The library can make this reading of more value and can help to extend it.

WHAT A LIBRARY DOES

The library supplies books on every profession, art, or handicraft. With the help of these all who care to study may perfect themselves in their respective callings.

The library helps in social and political education, in training citizens. It has books and periodicals which give the thoughts of the best writers on economic and social questions.

The highest and best influence of the library may be summed up in that much-abused word, "culture." Perhaps no other word so well suggests the possible results of the influence on a community of a group of good books and journals wisely administered.

The library is a free reading-room. If conducted as it should be it will attract many boys and girls, and will give them a fair chance to discover if they are, by nature, students; and, through the wide range of subjects which its books and journals cover, it will almost compel some of the young people of the town to discover their several special tastes and aptitudes. Much has been said, perhaps at times too much, of the value to the young of an opportunity to browse through a large collection of books. If too much praise was ever given to this, often aimless, book-gazing, it was because the one who praised it had in mind "literature" only. Now few are born to care for "literature" and those few will find it in any good library. The library to-day contains many things besides literature; it covers a far wider range of subjects than did the library of forty years ago. The daily press, the inexpensive journals, the outdoor advertising, daily talk and life on the streets all help even in the smallest village to suggest to active-minded children a vast number of interests and many possible future occupations.

Add to these sources of suggestion the broader and richer one which lies in the well-chosen books and journals on the open shelves of a public library, and you supply every one with an inviting opportunity to find himself, to awaken that impulse to learn and do some definite thing which seems to be, in most of us, ready to rise to action if it is but called. The open library, then, can pick up and hold as readers — serious readers, even though such only for a few minutes — the boys and girls — yes, and men and women also — who are, quite unconsciously, looking for the one thing in our complex life which each can most enjoy and best do.

The library should be particularly helpful in this matter to those who lack books and opportunities to read at home.

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 books on the subjects to be treated in them.

The library, then, helps to elevate and refine the taste, to give greater efficiency to workers, to diffuse sound principles of social and political action, to increase general culture, and to find for

WHAT A LIBRARY DOES 11

each boy or girl a special interest and a native talent.

The library of greatest value at present is unquestionably the free public library, brought under municipal ownership, and, to some extent, municipal control, and forming part of the educational system. The sense of ownership in it makes the average man willing to accept and use the opportunities of the free public library, while he turns aside from book privileges in any other guise.

That the library is a part of our educational system should never be lost sight of either in establishing it or in managing it. To many 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 tools.

The library furnishes also some of the essential tools of business, and of this more is said in a later chapter.

On all the industries of the village or town, and on many of those in a great city, it has the best and latest books, — those on the trades and sciences.

It stimulates local interest in painting, sculpture, engraving, music, oratory, household arts and all the applied arts by its books and pictures.

It gathers and displays good reading on village and town improvement. And it is itself, however modest or however ornate its quarters, by reason of its own attractiveness and order, and its own ever-changing manner of presentation of books, journals, pictures, and adornments, a constant source of suggestions for house, office, store, factory or town adornment and improvement.

Chapter V Trustees: What They Should and Should

Not Do

THE methods of village, town, and city government are so varied and are changing so rapidly that it is impossible to have a definite opinion on the question whether trustees should be appointed or elected. The former method seems on the whole to give the better results. The trustees as a body should not be self-perpetuating.

The library board should be small, with not over three members in small towns. In cities, a larger board can represent more thoroughly different sections of the town and different elements in the population. But a board of more than seven members is almost never as helpful as is one of seven or less.

The board should be divided into several groups, one group going out of office each year. A library can, under this plan, keep in close touch with popular needs and new ideas.

Some of the qualifications for a trustee of a public library, a fair education and love of books being taken for granted, are sound character,

THETRUSTEES 13

good judgment, common sense, public spirit, representative fitness. Do not assume that because a man has been prominent in political, business, or social circles he will make a good trustee.

General culture and wide reading in a trustee are generally more serviceable to the library than is the knowledge of specialist or scholar. Good sense is more useful than a taste for literature.

Let different sections of the town's interests be represented on the board, if possible. Let neither politics nor religion enter into the choice.

A trustee is elected to preserve and extend the benefits of the library. He should not hold his position unless he takes a lively interest in the library, attends trustees' meetings, visits other libraries, understands the possibilities and aims of his own, and keeps close watch of the tastes and requirements of his constituency. His duties include care of funds, supervision of expenditures, determination of library's policy, selection of librarian, close watch of work done, and comparison of the same with results reached in other libraries.

A board should do most of its business through its chairman, secretary, treasurer, and special committees of one. The librarian should act as secretary. The treasurer, if he holds the funds in his hands, should be put under bonds.

The trustees are the responsible managers of the library; the librarian is their expert executive. If they have a good librarian, the trustees ought to leave the management of the library to him, supplementing his ability without impeding it. They should leave to him selection, management, and dismissal of all assistants; methods and details of library work, and choice of books.

Efficiency of employees can best be obtained through application of the cardinal principles of an enlightened civil service of the library's own, that is, absolute exclusion of all political and personal influence, appointment for definitely ascertained fitness, promotion for merit, and retention during good behavior.

The subject of civil service is beginning to present itself to librarians and trustees of small libraries. The best form of civil service as already said is that which is maintained by the library itself. All wise trustees and all good librarians wish to have all their wrorkers engaged and promoted on merit only. If they live up to this wish, then they have a civil service of their own; and librarians are almost unanimous in thinking it is the best kind. The librarian should manage it and trustees should see to it that he manage it well. Civil service as administered for a library by an independent municipal or state commission is not a helpful thing.

Chapter VI Rules, or By-Laws, for a Board of Trustees

THE by-laws which follow are based upon and agree very closely with a set which has long been followed by the library trustees of a large city. They assume that the trustees are seven in number, two being members ex officio,

BY-LAWS FOR TRUSTEES 15

— the mayor and the superintendent of schools. They assume, also, that the other five are appointed by the mayor, one each year; though if chosen by popular vote the by-laws would apply equally well. And they assume, moreover, that the trustees receive from the city treasurer the funds which they are entitled to receive each year and deposit the same to their credit in such bank as they may select and draw upon the same for their expenditures.

This board has no standing committees. The best authorities seem now agreed that a small board, having charge of public affairs, should deliberate and act as a whole, in most cases. Not infrequently special committees, usually of one member only, are appointed for special \vork.

The by-laws are based on the assumption that the board engages a competent manager, gives him authority, and holds him responsible for results. This line of action is, like the custom of coming to conclusions as a board direct instead of through standing committees, in accordance with the views of the best authorities.