James Duff Brown

“ No doubt a leisured stroll through the many avenues of literature is a pleasing pastime, especially when, with dawdlings on the way, it occupies a lifetime; but, when ordinary mortals are clamouring for books of every conceivable kind, your modern library-builder cannot pause to choose with infinite deliberation and care. Personal tastes must be rigidly kept in subordination, and every effort made to select the best to satisfy the sober requirements or hobbies of other people ”

“ To the practical librarian a good counter is a source of perennial joy. It is not only the theatre of war, and the centre to which every piece of work undertaken by the library converges, but it is a barrier over which are passed most [11] of the suggestions and criticisms which lead to good work, and from which can be gleaned the best idea of the business accomplished. For these reasons alone a first-class counter is very desirable. As in every other branch of library management, local circumstances must govern the size and shape of the counter to be provided. ”

“ There is no more important factor in the success or failure of a library than the classification of the books and other material which form its stock. Some of its uses are obvious to all readers; it brings the material on any subject together on the shelves and in the catalogues, and thus enables both librarian and reader to find books readily. It has perhaps more important uses, because it enables the librarian, and, in open access libraries, the public, to see the strength and weakness of the collection in various subjects ”

“ It is not only important that the most artistic and amusing picture-books should be chosen, but that some means should be taken to preserve the books from wanton destruction. It is bad enough to see a common, garish, and inartistic book being used to wipe the floor or thrash the fender, but it is positively criminal to allow the works of Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, and Kate Greenaway—to name no others—to be used in this cruel manner by youngsters who have not been taught to discriminate. ”

“ The value of an art gallery depends, therefore, on its size and representative nature so far as art students are concerned, and on the appeal which fine paintings make to the higher feelings and perceptions of mankind for its influence as a creator of taste and stimulator of a love of the beautiful. When an art collection takes the form of a special exhibition illustrative of a subject, rather than a particular school of painting, its value and interest are enormously increased. ”

“ A library being but a collection of books, it becomes business men to assemble as many as possible in the shortest time, in order, perhaps, to outshine an adjoining township, or to satisfy the ratepayers that they are hard at work in the interests of education! To many library committeemen a book is just a book, and like bricks, or paving stones, or potatoes, or other realizable stock, the bigger the accumulation the better. ”

“ Much difference of opinion exists among librarians as regards the necessity for a double entry charging system, many experienced men holding that a simple record of the issues of a book is all that is required. Others are equally positive that a separate record of a borrower’s reading is only a logical outcome of the spirit of public library work, which aims at preserving, as well as compiling, full information touching public use and requirements. ”

“ CHILDREN'S HOME LIBRARIES The most elementary form of small library is that which belongs to the Baby who, as yet, has not acquired the art of reading. He or she—it matters little how they are named, as both are clad alike in petticoats and bibs—prefers the pictorial tale of love or glory, or treatise on natural history, or handbook to the labyrinth of the alphabet. ”

“ It has become the fashion for a certain section of librarians, a few public men and a considerable number of newspapers, to lament in doleful accents the popularity and preponderance of fiction reading in all kinds of lending libraries. But surely Fiction, as the most hardy and flourishing form of literary endeavour, which has been built up by the contributions of some of the greatest minds of all nations, cannot be denied its rightful place because certain narrow-minded persons think it fashionable to denounce the whole policy of public libraries? ”

“ As a rule, educated and well-read people should never be assisted in any way in their reading or choice of books, because they are almost sure to resent even well-meant efforts, as an officious intrusion into the sanctity of their own superior knowledge. And, no doubt, it is somewhat of an insult to a thorough-going specialist to have some less-learned bibliographer thrusting forth with his selection of books and annotations, as a kind of last word on the subject. ”

“ There is infinitely more wisdom in spending £50 in a selection of modern works on technical subjects, which would be of immense service to living persons, than in spending the same amount in the purchase of a single rare Bible which will only appeal to a few students of typography. Books must not be regarded as an investment on which a profit can be made by a sale at some future date, because books of bibliographical rarity and much monetary value bought from public funds must remain public property, inalienable for all time. ”

“ By literature they seem to recognize only novels and poetry; never, as a rule, the books in which are recorded the world's history; the facts of life as seen by successive observers; the technique, history and special advantages of every trade, process or profession; the wisdom of the world's best men; in short, the only permanent records of what has already been accomplished by human beings in every department of life. ”

“ Fortunately this attitude is becoming more common, if it is not universal, and the whole tendency of modern public library work is to break down all barriers between the readers and the freest use of books. Indeed, it is better to lose a few books yearly than to protect them from the very few dishonest people who may live in the community by means which militate against the liberty of readers. ”

“ If all the books are in the 'Library' one has to endure the nuisance of demands for particular works, coming from the kitchen, drawing-room, or bedroom, and the difficulty of securing their prompt and accurate return. It also imposes upon the butler, the maid-of-all-work, or whoever admits and attends upon callers, the awful responsibility of procuring from the library a pass-time book to amuse the waiting visitor in the drawing-room. ”

“ It is obviously beyond the power of a boy or girl assistant to draw out of these readers the exact nature of their difficulties; that is a task requiring address, sympathy and tact, which experience alone gives. In small libraries the librarian himself may consider it a privilege to work at busy times in this department; it will be well worth his while. The qualifications a reference librarian should aim to possess are a complete library technique, an intimate knowledge of the sources of information and of his stock, and a certain missionary spirit which loves knowledge for its own sake. ”

“ As to those who profess to be universal mentors, at hand to help you with the best tools for your work, in whichever department of intellectual labour it may happen to be, they break down at once. Whoever has set himself to any special line of investigation, cannot open one of those books without discovering its utter worthlessness and incapacity to aid him in his own speciality. As to the other class of bibliographers, who profess to act the guide, philosopher and friend to the collector and the reader, I cannot imagine anything more offensively audacious than the function they assume. ”

“ A well-arranged and classified museum, whether of a general character, or which is confined to local botany, zoology, geology and archæology, has great bearing on the educational work of public libraries. It enables a reader to realize the material side of his studies, and by showing him related objects in a definite order, broadens his outlook on the subject, and brings home to him the reality of the matter. As object-lessons are to school-children, so are museums to library readers. ”

“ If it is not a wise and proper policy to commence with the authors generally recognized and acclaimed as the best in the realms of pure literature, what principle can be adopted as a guide to such an immense labyrinth as the field of general literature? ”

“ The chief reason for this is no doubt the cherished tradition that libraries are to be made as large as possible, because they are the repositories of the literature of the ages and the storehouse for every kind of printed matter. The museum idea of a public library, however, is now giving place to the workshop idea, and few librarians nowadays of average-sized municipal libraries hold the view that it is their function to provide and retain every book, irrespective of its value or appeal, and to attempt to rival the British Museum or Bibliothèque Nationale on a reduced scale. ”

“ Best Books.—A live library, in addition to the literary classics in all departments, should only select the best and most popular books. The question of selecting only the very best, or only what is in great demand, should be compromised by always getting the best, with a selection of the most popular, [172] subject to the understanding that the latter are to be discarded when their day is past. Every movement which stirs the public mind and imagination produces a great crop of books, but only a very small proportion of these survive or are worthy of preservation. ”

“ In buying books for young children, therefore, care should be taken to select only those which have high artistic value, or which give accurate delineations of natural and familiar objects, rather than those cheap and nasty productions which in colour and design are second cousins to the mock valentines of our youth. It may be noted that, when a baby's interest in pictorial literature begins to abate, or to assume a destructive form, an old newspaper makes a most effective substitute for a picture-book. ”

“ There is no special Act for the establishment of art galleries similar to the Museums Act already described, and apart from special Acts, the Public Libraries Acts are the only ones which empower the establishment of art galleries. Needless to say, such powers are rarely exercised unless other sources of endowment or income are forthcoming. So many single pictures cost more than the produce of a penny rate in most towns, that it is, on the face of it, absurd to think of art galleries only as departments of public libraries. ”

“ In the Lending Department it is desirable to make the choice of books as easy and satisfactory as possible, and for this reason, elaborate mechanical devices for registering the issues of books and indicating them 'in' and 'out' are absolutely unnecessary. It is absurd to find municipal libraries in small towns fitted up with a huge rampart of indicator for the purpose of recording a daily issue of about 50 to 100 volumes. It is like employing a steam engine to sharpen one pencil! ”

“ In large libraries it is usual to stipulate that the librarian must devote the whole of his or her TIME to the duties of the office. This simply means that no other office can be held concurrently, but particularly a paid office. A librarian’s private time can be devoted to any hobby he chooses, be it gardening, cycling, photography, literature, music or sport. Provided, always, such recreations do not render a librarian less fit for his public duty. Official time occupied in any work which has for its object improvement in professional knowledge should be allowed within reasonable limits. ”

“ The most desirable books for a small Children's Home Library are those which can be used by generation after generation of youngsters without becoming tiresome, and which the same child can read over and over again without much loss of interest. In other words, books which have proved their power to interest and even instruct children, by awakening their perceptive faculties, through many years of existence. Imaginative literature, particularly in a prose form, seems to be the class which proves most permanently attractive to all kinds of children. ”

“ The staff of every public library should learn as a first lesson that they are the servants and not the masters of the people, and that mutual self-respect can be maintained without undue familiarity on the one side or aloofness on the other. ”

“ But, instead of equipping himself with the tools of knowledge for the benefit of himself or his family, he prefers to grope blindly along in his own pigheaded way, like his fathers before him, a prey to every intelligent American or German who cares to take advantage of his blunt indifference to the power and value of book-learning. ”

“ The first point which occurs is the connexion between a library’s income and its book-purchasing power. As, by law established, most British library incomes are strictly limited, it follows that a similar limitation must govern the supply of books, and that only a selection of new books can be procured, old and out-of-print books taking their chance. The very largest rate-supported libraries are bound by this limitation to buy only a selection from the immense mass of books annually published, and, even if such purchases amount to several thousands of volumes, they represent only a selection. ”

“ The whole policy of directing the reading of children in grooves, according to some standard, fixed maybe by an unsympathetic adult, is an insult to the intelligence and humanity which reside in boys and girls, however much they may be concealed under the inanities their parents teach them. No doubt some of the mistaken notions as to the possibility of suiting books to ages have arisen from the frequent inquiries which present-giving relatives address to booksellers when they want books suitable for children of a certain age. ”

“ Mr L. Stanley Jast has gone so far as to affirm that the children should not be more than can easily be “contacted by the librarian,” on the ground that more efficient work can thus be done. It is a matter upon which a decision can only be made from a knowledge of the conditions and the character of the child population. Clearly, however, a qualification in a successful children’s librarian is the power to keep order, to prevent practical joking, loud conversation and laughter in the reading room. ”

“ One of the most effectual hindrances to the selection of suitable books for school libraries is the want of sufficient funds. It is the same disability which hampers the work of municipal libraries, and indeed everybody, save a few American and Hebrew millionaires. Unless an adequate grant is made for the purchase of new, and the renewal of worn-out books, no school library can possibly be equipped with good books, or maintained in a fair condition of efficiency. Most of the school libraries are divisible into two categories—the Used and the Unused. ”

“ That the aim of the library as an educational institution is best expressed in the formula ‘Self-development in an atmosphere of freedom,’ as contrasted with the aim of the school, which is ‘Training in an atmosphere of restraint or discipline’; in the school the teacher is dominant, because it is possible to pass on a form, to teach an art; but in the library the pupil strikes out his own line, and becomes his own teacher; the library supplies the material upon which the powers awakened and trained in the school can be exercised ”