Advocates' Library

“ What, moreover, would be the object of these precious collections, gathered at so great expense by fortune or by science, if they were not consecrated, according to the intention of their generous founders, to the advancement, the glory, and the perfection of science and literature?
But that a library may fully attain the end of its foundation,—that it may be in reality useful, and useful with equal certainty and facility,—it should be administered by a librarian distinguished for soundness of judgement no less than for the readiness and accuracy of his memory. ”

“ It is not enough to have books on view at Public Libraries. In a critical time like the present, when intelligence and knowledge are at a premium, it is just as important that every householder should possess certain books for himself, and learn how to use them. ”

“ Usually the work of book-selection is performed by the School Libraries Committee. It has a drawback in the fact that teachers do not always receive the exact books that they wish to have for their schools, and a better method, at least in theory, is for the librarian to submit a list of the books available for purchase to the teachers, and to invite them to requisition those which they think suitable. ”

“ Libraries for schoolrooms, to be composed of reference books, books for supplementary reading, class duplicates, and professional books for teachers, should be provided for in the public school law. School funds should be used and school authorities should manage these libraries. ”

“ If we are to make the library a vital influence in the community we must so conduct it that its loss would be felt as a calamity—that it could be spared no more than the postoffice could be spared, or the doctor, or the school. And we must do our best so to carry on every part of its work, every element that goes to make up its service to the public, that this part or element is contributing toward that service and not injuring it or delaying it. ”

“ As far as the welfare of the library is concerned, the money spent in publishing an elaborate annual report can often be better invested in a few popular books, or, better still, in a few attractively printed statements of progress and of needs, distributed through the community on special occasions. ”

“ The librarian who delights in religion, philosophy or folklore says of lists on biology, botany, steam-engineering or sanitation—"I leave all that to Professor So and So—of course he knows all about it." Why should he, more than the librarian? What is the librarian for, if not to know things? Is it not time to turn from the material things and concern ourselves more with a higher standard of scholarship and more outside work in our profession? And for the small libraries of 5000 v. or under there are the library commissions who are supposed to, and do, advise them. ”

“ In the Library of Congress, there is a very salutary safe-guard thrown around the most valuable books in the form of a library regulation which provides that no manuscript whatever, and no printed book of special rarity and value shall be taken out of the library by any person. ”

“ The men who know are the very ones that are interested in the library’s welfare and are likely to help it without compensation. And in the smaller places where the variety and extent of special knowledge is less comprehensive the ground covered by the library’s collection is also less, and the advice that it needs is simpler. ”

“ We must premise that no two departments use their books in exactly the same way, and that, consequently, methods of administration must differ. It is generally for the advantage of all, for example, in a university where there is a law school, that the books on private law should be separated from the main collection and treated as a branch library. ”

“ Another thing that would help out in trying to give some idea of special library methods to new people, would be for those of us who have gotten our libraries well in hand, our systems, etc., to get up a series of little handbooks on how to organize a financial library, a public utilities library, a legislative reference library and so on, those who are perhaps library school students could use these pamphlets as text-books. This would necessitate our starting in the publishing business and having a publishing board, like the American Library Association. ”

“ A public library committee about to commence operations, but unable to pay for a skilled librarian, should communicate with the Library Association, stating their case, and asking that body to nominate a trained librarian who, for an agreed fee, would act as adviser to the library authority, and enable the work of organization to be accomplished on modern scientific lines. ”

“ The desire for an organization to give opportunity for the public exploitation of this sort of work produced in 1896 the Library Section of the National Educational Association. Not the schools alone, but women's clubs and social settlements, and, in general, all organizations whose members use books in their work, have been brought into friendly relations with the progressive libraries. ”

“ A library, of the kind with which we are now concerned, is first of all—and after all—a collection of books, selected and assembled by the librarian. It may be so administered as to become a great civic force, a social instrument, an educational agency, but first of all it is a collection of units, brought together upon certain principles as they operate in the mind of the library's administrator. ”

“ Every person actively engaged in library work owes it to herself, as well as to her profession, to join the American Library Association. If the association is large, if its meetings are well attended, if its proceedings as published show that the problems of library work are carefully studied, if the published proceedings are widely circulated, it is easier to persuade the intelligent part of the public that the librarian's profession is serious, dignified, and calls to its membership men and women of ability and zeal. ”

“ These are questions that can be settled not so much by the examination of statistics as by ascertaining the general feeling of the community. It is much easier for a trustee to find this out than it is for a librarian; and trustees, both individually and as a body, should continually bear in mind the value to them of information along this line. Librarians are apt to talk a good deal about the educational function of the library as an adjunct and supplement to the school. ”

“ Every library ought to be supplied with at least one librarian in each department, stuck all over with books, like burrs, so that nobody can touch him or be near him without carrying away a book on him that he's got to read and that he will long to read and will read until somebody drives him to bed! ”

“ The Association aims to effect needed legislation and reforms which could not be brought about by individual effort; to improve library administration and lessen the labor and expense of it; to utilize the combined experience of the profession, to promote esprit de corps among library workers and to advance the common interests of trustees, librarians and assistants. Various sections have been organized: the college and reference section, catalog section, trustees’ section, library work with children and state library commissions. ”

“ Trustees, although usually, (at least the majority of them) persons of culture and intelligence, cannot be expected to be bibliographers, nor to be familiar with the great range of new books that continually pour from the press. They have their own business or profession to engage them, and are commonly far too busy to study catalogues, or to follow the journals of the publishing world. So these busy men, charged with the oversight of the library interests, call to their aid an expert, and that expert is the librarian. ”

“ Only actual borrowers who are enrolled on the register of the library shall have the right of direct access to the book-shelves, but their representatives may be admitted at the discretion of the librarian or his assistants. ”

“ Our clientele is already provided by the patrons of our institutions. Because the bulletin gives a list of new books, and because many of the reading public are interested in new books, they read our bulletins. Why do we not give them something more than a bare list of accessions? If we wish to make our influence felt in the character of the reading in our communities, this is our opportunity. ”

“ Does the local librarian or do active directors, attempt seriously to tap the knowledge of the local specialist, professional man, or public spirited speaker? Do the library people emphasize the necessity of close, personal contact, as far as possible, with the individuals and with the people? Libraries must be more human. No machinery, or salaried personnel, however costly or efficient, within chosen lines of activity, can do without that same human sympathy, which in other professions, is known to outweigh in value, all edifices, or the paid professional corps ”

“ With a new sense of what is implied in the trusteeship of literature, if we endeavor in the future to ally ourselves with the worthiest critics of books, we must bid good-bye to the temporary expedients which have cramped and burdened our initial labors. The work of the appraisal of literature requires a home, a Central Bureau, with a permanent and adequately paid staff of editors and assistants. ”

“ To pursue one subject though many authorities is the true way to arrive at comprehensive knowledge. And in this kind of research, the librarian ought to be better equipped than any who frequent his library. Why? Simply because his business is bibliography; which is not the business of learned professors, or other scholars who visit the library. ”

“ In the great libraries the librarian-in-charge of the reference department is easily the head of the grade we are discussing, as he must obviously be a person of considerable bibliographical acquirements in addition to being the possessor of a complete library training, and his work lies with inquirers, research workers, and similar readers who require skilled and sympathetic assistance. In the majority of libraries all librarians-in-charge are regarded as official equals. ”

“ No books can be taken out of the Library except on the responsibility of a member of Congress. Till within a very few years, books were allowed to be taken by strangers who presented a written permit to do so from a Congressional official. ”

“ Libraries should secure more assistants with academic training, whose minds have come in contact with the many subjects that reveal the past and interpret the present. We must rely on the colleges for the production of such assistants, that they shall come to us already knowing the sweep of literature on the library shelves, already loving books and knowledge, and filled with their power. ”

“ Is it a rational procedure for one, upon the completion of his course of training, to discontinue all further investigation and to lay aside what little love for learning and literature and philosophy and science that may have been aroused in his bosom by school or college inspirations? And how is this advancing and widening of one's horizon by means of the accumulated stores of knowledge gathered by the previous generations of the world's strong thinkers and beautiful writers to be secured, other than by a collection of good books, by a library? ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is no profession which throws one into the society of more varied types than that of librarianship. The high and the low, the rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant, the cultured and unrefined all come to the library for aid. The reference librarian must “be all things to all people.” She must meet her public in such a way that if they come once they will come again, feeling themselves cordially welcome. She must have all the qualities which will make the library a place to which the public will want to come, and herself the person they will seek for assistance. ”

“ In order that the library shall perform all that is expected of it, not only in being to some extent an ever-running machine but equally in respect to its recognized higher functions, there must be the application of watchful care, constant attention, foresight, and unremitting work. The direction of all of which, and perhaps much of its actual execution, must depend upon the person placed in charge of the institution as its librarian. ”

“ The other surprise is that a profession so old and active as that of medicine should be so poorly represented in books. The lawyers have an average of about 2,400 books in their libraries, and the largest collections in the list are that of the Law Institute in New York, 20,000 volumes; Harvard School, 15,000; Social Law Library, Boston, 13,000; and Law Association of San Francisco, 12,500. No other reaches 10,000 volumes, and in fact the above deductions leave the others with about 2,000 volumes each. ”