The Public Library in American Life 9780231896740

Table of contents :
FOREWORD
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CONTENTS
PART I: THE PUBLIC LIBRARY'S HONORABLE PAST
1. WHAT IS THE PUBLIC LIBRARY?
2. BACKGROUND AND TRADITION
3. THE LIBRARY MOVES OUTSIDE ITS WALLS
4. THE LIBRARY IN THE COMMUNITY
5. FUNDAMENTALS OF PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE
PART II: THE PUBLIC LIBRARY TODAY
6. A CIVIC INSTITUTION
7. THE LIBRARY'S BUSINESS
8. PROFESSIONAL LIBRARIANSHIP
9. A SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE CENTER
10. YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE LIBRARY
11. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND CONTINUING EDUCATION
12. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IN ACTION
13. ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES
PART III THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF TOMORROW
14. FUTURE DIRECTIONS
15. EXPANSION
16. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND SCHOLARSHIP
17. A PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY
18. PROFESSORS OF BOOKS
19. NEW TOOLS AND MODES
20. BOOKS AND PEOPLE
21. LEADERSHIP
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
APPENDIX C
INDEX

Citation preview

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IN AMERICAN LIFE

ERNESTINE ROSE

THE PURLIC LIRRARY IN AMERICAN LIFE NEW

YORK

COLUMRIA UNIVERSITY PRESS • 1954

LIBRARY

OK CONGRESS CATALOG CARD N U M B E R :

53-II454

COPYRIGHT J 9 5 4 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, N E W

YORK

PUBLISHED IN GREAT BRITAIN, CANADA, INDIA, AND PAKISTAN BY GEOFFREY

CUMBERI.ECE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY

PRESS

LONDON, TORONTO, B O M B A Y , AND KARACHI MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TO THE

Library Schools OF AMERICA

FOREWORD

T

HE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY IS NOT UNIQUELY

an American institution, but it is so widely established in our country that we take it for granted. W e complain, of course, much as we complain about the weather or the city government, and we tend also to take librarians for granted, much as we do our school teachers, and for the same reasons. T h e y never have much to say for themselves, although they play an heroic role in the preservation of our civilization. In some ways, the librarians, less well organized and less militantly led than the teachers, play the larger role. T h e y stand by us throughout our lives and are essential to those continuing opportunities we call adult education. T h e wonder is that they have done so much, with meager means. All this is commonplace to the librarians; if it could only be made known to the general public it might cease to be true. It was in the hope of accomplishing part of this task of public education that Miss Rose, whose own record as librarian and teacher is distinguished, wrote her book. It is serious. It is not full of good stories about little girls who found that books about penguins told them more than they wanted to know about penguins, nor of eminent men whose careers began with a word from a readers' adviser. It demands sober attention to matters of the greatest importance because Miss Rose is well aware of the fact that the public library might well be more decisive in the progress of our culture than anyone now realizes and that the chance may be missed.

Vili

FOREWORD

T h e problem of libraries for everybody, of which the hist o r y and the possible solutions are the theme of Miss Rose's book, is primarily a problem of public appreciation and support. B u t there are also difficult professional problems. Does having libraries f o r every possible reader mean providing only books? O r are other media of entertainment and learning also to be provided at public expense? Since the librarian has n o w ceased to be merely a custodian of b o o k s and manuscripts and is a keen hunter after the v a r y i n g interests and needs of the public, is it his business to be a champion of books, as books, against all other tools of learning? Is that a necessary battle? O r can the librarian add all other devices to his equipment and think of himself rather as a merchant of ideas, however conveyed? N o doubt a g o o d many members of the profession have learned a deep devotion to books as special tools of civilization. T h e y reflect the not long distant past when getting rid of illiteracy was the major problem on the lower level, and encouraging serious reading instead of frivolity was the job on the higher level. Neither of these is as pressing n o w as it w a s a generation ago, since illiteracy is u n c o m m o n and there is a market f o r hundreds of thousands of copies of all kinds of serious books in cheap editions. Books are evidently here to stay, in spite of constant cries of distress a m o n g the bookish. W h a t , then, about radio and television and cinema and the other supposed enemies of books? Can, or should, the natural prejudice of librarians against anything not in print, not b u c k r a m e d and numbered with a D e w e y decimal, be overc o m e ? If the schools train new generations to get their ideas and their entertainment out of something other than print, can the library worker be satisfied only to mourn the degradation of standards? Miss R o s e evidently does not think so

FOREWORD

IX

(page 170). She admits that it is "perhaps inevitable that a phase of democracy on its way up is mediocrity." But it is precisely the institutions of democracy, the libraries along with the schools, that must struggle to maintain standards while meeting new demands from an enlarged and unprepared public. On this, the book has a whole chapter, New Tools and Modes. The new kind of librarian serves people, with whatever tools can be found. These are professional matters whose solution will benefit all of us; we, the public, cannot help much. The larger problem, is, however, our own, the problem of support. In reading Miss Rose's story, one is struck with wonder at the initiative and inventiveness and courage of librarians, even more than at their unrewarded devotion. But librarians get to know people pretty well and I suppose they accept the truth of John Morley's grim saying, "You can do a good deal of good in the world if you do not care who gets the credit for it." The faith they work by is a faith in knowledge. However, collections of books to which any citizen has free access are founded not so much on the principle that knowledge is power as on that greater truth, that knowledge is freedom. In most ancient times, and in some anachronistic countries now, knowledge is the special property of those in authority and is piped out in narrow channels. As a matter of historical development, we can note that great private collections and even the first public collections became truly public very slowly. There was a time when librarians were guards against intruding readers, and in folklore that idea of the gorgon librarian still persists, although the truth is that most librarians are even more anxious to have the books read than many of their patrons are to read them. It is a mark of professional

X

FOREWORD

competence to know how to tempt the consumer into his own preserves. This professional skill in enticing the customers into the stacks, the peculiar mark of the public library worker of today, is very different from the skill and the concern of the propagandist who, in the anachronistic countries mentioned, tries to get the citizen to read official statements of authoritarian truths. The librarian's purpose is to stir the public mind with the thoughts of many, to offer alternatives, to expand perspectives and widen the choices. If he does anything less, the high principle of the institution is violated. This leads clearly to the primary aspects of the public support by which a public library is enabled to do its work. There must be money, of course. There ought to be much more money than is now available in any city or state in America. Some states spend no more than a few cents per person per year, and after the workers have got their pittance there is nothing left for books. This point Miss Rose documents fully. When she finished the writing of this book, the United States Congress had not yet passed the bill introduced during the current session which was designed to provide for 1954, and for each of four succeeding years, seven and one half million dollars to be used as public library subsidies for those states whose plans are approved by the United States Commissioner of Education. As remarked by the N e w York Times, "Its appropriation would not greatly complicate the problem of balancing the budget. The social gain would be substantial." A mild statement, indeed, when one takes fully into account that the median state expenditure for these purposes is now about eighty cents per person and that twenty-four million American citizens have no public library services of any kind.

FOREWORD

XI

Miss Rose also makes ir clear that public support of another kind is equally needed. This is the kind of help that can come only from those who know what public libraries are for. T h e y have to be kept free if they are to serve men's freedom. T h e y cannot enlarge the knowledge and the self-governing powers of citizens who deny themselves, or who are denied b y official authority, the right of access to books which challenge and disturb them. It is possible, no doubt, for one who is the slave of his own ignorance and hence of his prejudices to walk into any general library, load up with books, and walk out again, and even to read the books he has chosen, without learning anything he docs not already know. Good librarians wish they knew some way of preventing this kind of sclf-confirming enslavement. T h e y are very likely to invent them and unless the library and the librarians are free in reality and in spirit, no one who reads what is available can ever do anything but deepen his ignorant acceptance of what someone else wants him to think. Librarians, like all good teachers, are bound by their own honesty; they can only open doors and point the way. But unless they can do that there will be only a few accidental triumphs of the free mind in our society. LYMAN

Columbia University in the City of Neiv York June, is>}3

BRYSON

PREFACE

I

LIKE T O T H I N K O F T H E PUBLIC LIBRARY AS an institution which is making an honest effort to build upon the solid foundation of past tradition a modern structure adaptable to the changing needs of today, and susceptible to change in the future. This great task is largely in the hands of those young people who are entering the public library profession today or who are preparing themselves to do so. This book was written primarily for these students and beginners, that they might find within its compass a quantity of information and opinion gathered from many and varied sources and given a certain synthesis. But as it progressed the material developed and seemed increasingly to adapt itself to the uses of those for whom public libraries exist and who make them possible—"Our Public," as we librarians say, our readers and our supporters. I earnestly hope that this record may open up to a larger audience the problems as well as the values of the public library, and that in turn this audience will respond with some of the answers which public librarians are seeking. E. R. Bridgehampton, Nev: March 31, 1953

York

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS P E C I A L A P P R E C I A T I O N IS D U E T H E N E W York Public Library, where as branch librarian for many years I wrought out a philosophy and a technique; and hardly less to the School of Library Service of Columbia University, in whose teaching halls this philosophy and this technique were given academic expression. I owe thanks also to the libraries mentioned in the chapter on " T h e Public Library in Action," whose librarians gave of their time and interest to make this record a vital one. I take great pleasure in thanking Miss Emma F. Cragin, formerly of the N e w York Public Library; also Mr. Carleton B. Joeckel, Miss Harriet E. Howe, Miss Helen E. Haines, and Miss Margaret Scoggin, all of whom read parts of the manuscript and offered valuable comment and criticism. Finally I gratefully acknowledge the help, both direct and indirect, of the many librarians, public libraries and library schools from whom precept and example have been drawn.

CONTENTS FOREWORD, BY L Y M A N BRYSON

vii

PREFACE

Xiii

Part I THE

PUBLIC LIBRARY'S HONORABLE

PAST

1.

W H A T IS THE PUBLIC LIBRARY?

3

2.

BACKGROUND AND TRADITION

9

3.

THE LIBRARY MOVES OUTSIDE ITS W A L L S

23

4.

THE LIBRARY IN THE C O M M U N I T Y

38

5.

FUNDAMENTALS OF PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE

48

Part II T H E PUBLIC LIBRARY

TODAY

6.

A CIVIC INSTITUTION"

57

7.

THE LIBRARY'S BUSINESS

74

8.

PROFESSIONAL LIBRARIANSHIP

86

9.

A SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE CENTER

102

10.

YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE LIBRARY

112

11.

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND CONTINUING EDUCATION

I 18

XVUl

CONTENTS

12.

T H E P U B L I C LIBRARY

IN ACTION

13.

A C H I E V E M E N T S AND F A I L U R E S

127 137

PART 111 T H E P U B L I C L I B R A R Y OF

TOMORROW

14.

F U T U R E DIRECTIONS

151

15.

EXPANSION

159

16.

THE PUBLIC

17.

A PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY

17 7

18.

PROFESSORS O F BOOKS

187

19.

N E W TOOLS AND M O D E S

196

20.

BOOKS AND P E O P L E

202

2 1.

LEADERSHIP

2O8

LIBRARY

AND SCHOLARSHIP

169

APPENDICES A. CHRONOLOGICAL

DEVELOPMENT

OF T H E AMERICAN

PUBLIC

LIBRARY

B. PROFESSIONAL D E V E L O P M E N T C. CLASSES OF

PUBLIC

219

LIBRARIES

IN RELATION TO THF.IR G O V E R N M E N T BASIS INDEX

2 I 5

22 1 223

PARTI

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY'S HONORABLE PAST

1 WHAT IS T H E PUBLIC LIBRARY?

L

IKE MOST WELL-KNOWN OBJECTS THE PUB-

jlic library eludes specific definition. It is curiously difficult to describe both accurately and graphically things with which we have the most familiar contact. As a homely illustration take the word "tree." T h e crossword puzzle authorities define it as a "woody plant." But if you heard the words "woody plant" in the middle of a conversation would you have an instantaneous picture of a graceful elm or massive oak? T o turn to a category more closely related to the library, when we pronounce the word "church" do we mean the stone edifice on the square, or a particular denomination, or the Church LTniversal? Ask the man on the street, " D o you have a public library in this town?" and more often than not he will make one of three answers: "I don't know about a public library, but there's a good rental down in Gray's Drug Store"; or "I don't use the public library much. I think you would prefer the Society (or Athenaeum or what you will) up on High Street"; or "Oh yes, you'll find that downtown. It's where the wife gets all the latest sob stuff." But ask any small boy you see the same question, and ten to one he will answer, "Yes'm, it's right around the corner, and I'm on my way there now for a story hour." For him the physical and spiritual

4

PUBLIC

LIBRARY'S

PAST

entities of the library have merged and are one. Also he has had a personal experience of the library in action, which satisfies him and sends him back to it. .Most people think they k n o w all about the library, of course. But the variety of replies to the question, " W h a t is the Public Library and its w o r k ? " is arresting, to say the least. Here are four replies of the many which the writer has received: first, " O h , I could not get on without it. T h e r e ' s a wonderful librarian there, who helps me with all m y club papers;" second, " I went there once but never again! T h e y got plenty of books, but they didn't have what I wanted, and they didn't seem to think what I wanted was important, anyway. .Made mc sore;" third, " T h e public library is a great help to the school in which I teach, but it would be a lot more help if they had more of the books we need in the school. T h e librarians t r y to help, but they never seem to have much m o n e y ; " fourth, " Y e s , I k n o w the public library and use it constantly. It is doing a grand adult education job, but most people don't k n o w it. T r o u b l e with the library is, they don't advertise enough." So many people judge their library only b y hearsay, b y what happened to a friend when she asked for the latest Faulkner or ¿Marquand, or perhaps Erie Stanley Gardner, or by the amusingly malicious little skits gotten out b y smart metropolitan columnists, or even b y memories of the venerable institution in the old home town twenty-five years ago. References to " S i l e n c e " signs and old maid librarians still get a laugh in certain quarters, although if any silence signs still exist in modern public libraries, they must be hobnobbing in a corner of the basement with the " N o S m o k i n g " signs! As for the old maid librarians, they still exist, to be sure, but you reallv have to look around f o r them, f o r their places are

WHAT

IS T H E

PUBLIC

LIBRARY?

5

rapidly being taken b y pretty career girls and smart young matrons. Sometimes the library is defined according to one's social status. Madame does not wish to take books from a public library because she knows that only the poor and unwashed go there. A m o n g the latter, indeed, are some of the library's most devoted patrons, yet too many of these undoubtedly say to themselves as one actually said to me, " I don't guess, ma'am, you got a book there as I could read." T h e differences in definition indicated above, the variety of interpretation which is evident, stem of course, as in all such instances, f r o m lack of real knowledge. Most people judge the church, the school, the library, the bank, the shop— every agency with which they come in contact—in terms of personal experience rather than in terms of all-round knowledge, a knowledge which includes historical background, organizational details, objectives, and problems. T h e school, perhaps, is better k n o w n in its background, its purposes and its w o r k i n g plans than any other public institution. T h e museum is beginning to realize the value of more accurate public information about its administration, and many modern museums are arranging "behind the scenes" tours which are exciting and informative. T h e library is a public institution, like these, supported by people's taxes; and f o r their o w n sakes the people should know more about its objectives, problems, and inner workings. M a n y believe that a girl will necessarily make a good librarian because she likes to read, and even v e r y intelligent persons think of the w o r k of the library as only the passing out of books across the loan desk and the routines of fines and reserves and perhaps in terms of the help they sometimes receive in the choice of books. Occasionally some more knowledgeable persons

6

PUBLIC

LIBRARY'S

PAST

hear of such popularly known activities of the library as story hours, clubs, and lectures. But the requirements of book and book-trade knowledge; the whole enormous technical routine of book ordering, checking, cataloguing, and preparation for public use, and of reader registration; the knowledge and utilization of reference books, magazines, pamphlets, pictures, records, and films—these techniques are closed pages to most library users. Perhaps a visit behind the scenes in a library might not be too exciting, but it could not fail to be informative and enlightening. In my own public library experience one of my reader friends could not be convinced that the library had more than t w o or three copies of a popular book which he wanted; he showed me plainly that he thought I was exercising my prerogative of selecting what I thought it best for him and others to read. He was invited into the office and shown the official shelf-list which indicated on the card record that the library had 30 copies of that book, all in circulation. I was interested to note that my friend seized the opportunity to look up several other books in which he was interested. When he came out of the office he said, "Well, I'm glad to see that you have such and such books. I thought the library didn't want to buy them, or else kept them f o r just a f e w readers." T h e public patrons of the library need indeed to know more of the current inner workings and problems of this civic institution of theirs. It would also be of great advantage to the library if they knew something of its background, its historical growth, and its developing purposes. Only so will they reach not only an understanding of its work and purposes, but also a feeling of responsibility for its successes and failures.

WHAT IS THE

PUBLIC LIBRARY?

7

T h e analogy of the public library to the church made earlier is apropos in many ways. Both institutions are products o f a long traditional history, during which meanings have changed; functions, appearances, manners, and customs have changed. Our English word "library" as well as the French libraire

derive from the Latin word for book, Liber,

the French bibliothèque biblios

just as

(library) comes from the Greek

(book), denoting the august ancestry back of our

homely and democratic public library. T h e tradition of these words and the institution which they define go back to antiquity. Some of the limitations of library service as well as many of its finest attributes stem from those years of tradition. Yet, just as the spiritual essence of the church remains the same, so does the inner core of the library. It is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, and it is one of the most precious things in the world. T h i s inner core is knowledge; the knowledge of the world, preserved, cherished, and made available, more and more, in useful and pleasurable forms for the people, all the people who need it and have the capacity to use it. T h a t is what library tradition should mean, a liberating, never a hampering force, one which invests the modern library with confidence, authority, and a stable base from which to advance toward the creation of new uses for its ancient treasure house. T h u s the library is the building, the institution, the agency, which preserves and makes useful the knowledge of the world in book form. A public library is unique only as it strives to make this knowledge public, as it opens its doors to all persons. Mr. Webster's laconic definition packs the truth in its dry-as-dust phrases: " A n apartment or building, devoted to a collection of books . . . for use but not for

8

PUBLIC

LIBRARY'S

PAST

sale; also an institution f o r the custody, circulation, o r administration o f such a c o l l e c t i o n . " Categorically and n a r r o w l y , then, the public library is a collection of books f o r public use, subject to public control and support. In tracing its history, it will be seen that its support and control vary radically. F o r purposes o f this b o o k , however, we shall consider any library a public library if it is open to full public use. It is b y the criteria of use and service then that w e shall determine what sort of an institution it is and what sort of business is carried on within its walls. A t this point wc may ask if there arc any outstanding characteristics which distinguish this institution, which mark its services as unique and indispensable, or only as incidental and pleasant—the frills on our civic costume. M y firm c o n viction is that there are four such distinguishing attributes inherent in public libraries, and in combination inherent in no other institution. T h e first follows from the historic fact that libraries are the repositories of books, at o n c e the vehicles o f our culture and the tools of education. S e c o n d , libraries give the use of their books free of charge; their use is paid f o r b y the people, indeed, but through their taxes, b y grace of which the libraries are theirs to use. T h i r d , public libraries are not only free, thev are free to all, y o u n g and old, male and female, to all crecds, nationalities, and races. Fourth, although public libraries are free to all, they f o r c e none; their use is voluntary and individual. T h i s combination o f free and of voluntary use makes of the public library one of the most significant svmbols of a democratic society. Librarians themselves have hardly dared to realize the opportunities which lie before them and which are o n l y matched b y those responsibilities which ever follow in the wake of opportunity-.

2 BACKGROUND AND TRADITION H E M O D E R N PUBLIC L I B R A R Y DESCENDS from an institution solidly bulwarked in tradition. It has been noted that the core of the library—the biblios—and the institution devoted to the preservation of that precious core go back to the mists of antiquity. Nevertheless, the library of today is new in conception and achievement. It has not yet come of age, nor has it even begun to realize its infinite possibilities for a far-reaching contribution to the complex and challenging life of this changing world. T h e public libraries in this country are not the concern merely of professional librarians, but of the general public whose property they are. Mere is a vital educational agency, no less significant in training for citizenship than the schools and the universities—rather one with them in this objective. T h e general public needs to know whether the condition of this agency is healthy, whether it is growing and improving. So this agency should be judged, not only by what it is accomplishing, but also according to the measure of its capabilities. Such judgment must be based in part on a knowledge of background facts. T h e steps of the progress of the American public library have been experimental, tentative, and responsive to local need. Inevitably, then, their development has been uneven

IO

PUBLIC

LIBRARY'S

PAST

and presents t o d a y a lack of u n i f o r m i t y w h i c h bewilders librarians themselves and is highly misleading to people in general. T h u s , it is Massachusetts's proud boast that e v e r y village in the state supports a public library ( w h e t h e r adequately or not is r a r e l y e x p l a i n e d ) , w h i l e in the state of N o r t h D a k o t a 7 1 per cent of the people are without access to any library service. A g a i n , libraries u p and d o w n our c o u n t r y obtain their support f r o m such varied sources as the city treasury, the g i f t s of p u b l i c - m i n d e d citizens, the board of education, the proceeds f r o m e n d o w m e n t f u n d s — t o mention a f e w of those most g e n e r a l l y prevailing. O n e of the most puzzling features of the library as a public institution is the w a y in w h i c h it is organized and g o v e r n e d . A l t h o u g h state and municipality constitute through taxation the most c o m m o n sources of support, the methods and units of control s h o w great variation. S u c h control is sometimes exerted d i r e c t l y b y a public official or civic b o d y , or it m a y be vested in a self-perpetuating board of trustees or in a committee of the b o a r d of education, while occasionally libraries f u n c t i o n under civil service regulations. A l l these variations in legal status, in support and control, as w e l l as in distribution of o p p o r t u n i t y , are the result of the library's local rise and development in response to local interest and initiative. It is at once an inspiring and an exasperating s t o r y , but it needs to be told against a b a c k g r o u n d of the larger and older l i b r a r y tradition. L o o k briefly d o w n the vista of the l o n g h i g h w a y w h i c h these storehouses of man's k n o w l e d g e have traveled. T h e earliest libraries, in E g y p t , A s s y r i a , G r e e c e , and R o m e , w e r e the custodians of the k n o w l e d g e of their day. T h r o u g h the .Middle A g e s this k n o w l e d g e , or w h a t was l e f t

BACKGROUND AND

TRADITION

of it after the destruction w r o u g h t b y the barbarians, was preserved by the monasteries, which served as a refuge alike for books and scholars. T h e Benedictines and the

Au-

gustinian and Dominican Orders revered learning, and the copyists whom they employed preserved many an ancient treasure from extinction. But the destructive fervor of the religious wars transformed the monasteries f r o m sanctuaries to tombs, in which the precious books w e r e buried, not to be resurrected until the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with the revival of interest in classic literature. T h i s period saw the miracle of a reborn intellectual interest in men's minds: it saw that interest rise to a white-hot f e r v o r which culminated in a resurrection o f the old classic learning and in that great humanistic movement w e call the Renaissance. It was a transition period between the old tightly controlled medieval world and the modern age, and scholars today stress the e c o n o m i c and political elements in this change. During the same hundred years occurred t w o events leading directly to the modern age, namely, the discovery o f the n e w world and the invention of printing. In the intellectual realm the revival of interest in classic learning evidenced the freeing of men's minds. Scholarship became a passionate avocation. L a t i n and G r e e k were studied avidly and the old manuscripts w e r e sought and translated. I n the fifteenth century the church itself developed an ardent interest in the patronage of the n e w learning, while the great medieval universities became centers o f feverish intellectual activity. A t first under the patronage o f the c h u r c h , those institutions of learning later developed immense lay interests and activities and assumed naturally the guardianship of books and manuscripts. T h e mid-fifteenth c e n t u r y saw the beginnings of type

PUBLIC

LIBRARY'S

PAST

printing in Europe, and with it the spread of that strongest of socializing influences, the printed word. T h e modern world had arrived. In the earlier years of our modern times libraries were the property of royalty, of the privileged classes, and of the learned professions. W e hear of libraries held by royal societies, by national academies, and by such learned groups as the Royal College of Physicians in England. With the development of modern states great book collections became centralized in the national capitals. T o d a y many of our largest and most valuable libraries belong to national governments, for example, the British Museum in London, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and the Library of Congress in Washington. Hardly less venerable or valuable are the great university libraries. One of the world's most revered treasure houses of transcribed learning is the Bodleian Library of Oxford University. In America the desire for education followed closely the physical need of shelter and food. T h e church and the school developed side b y side, and as early as 1636 Harvard University was founded, and with the college its library. T h e Harvard University Library was the first of that series of great college libraries which have helped to develop higher education in this country. Yale University, indeed, was formed around a collection of books. "Eleven ministers, including a rector . . . agreed to found a college in the colony of Connecticut ( 1 7 0 0 ) . . . each member brought a number of books . . . and laying them on the table, said these words . . . 'I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony.' " * • U.S. Office of Education, Public Libraries m the United States of America (Washington, D.C., 1876), pp. 28-29.

BACKGROUND

AND TRADITION

i 3

T o d a y these colleges and many others in the United States have become universities with book collections rivaling in value and in use to student development and scholarly research many of the most famous ones of the old world. It seems a far cry from these centers of scholarship with their rare printed books and manuscripts to the average public library of today. Y e t spiritually they are akin. Some of the early college libraries felt a certain social responsibility and permitted a limited public use of their facilities. T h e y in their turn had become the "keepers of the books," and it was becoming apparent, even then, to the expanding vision of the new world that the duty of "keeping the books" led to a further duty, of using the books. So these college libraries, in many cases, gave the use and study of their treasures to the book-starved educated men of their communities. More important still, all of these libraries, as popular education advanced, served to stimulate a need and knowledge of books, served to kindle and spread that public interest which led finally to the movement for free public libraries, supported and maintained by and for the people. It is no accident that free public libraries have made their greatest strides in the United States of America. T h e public library movement here is the direct outcome of the industrial expansion and the growth of popular education, with its accompanying spread of literacy, which characterized the development of American life and which made especially rapid advances in the nineteenth century. But in the early days of our history libraries for more than the privileged f e w were sporadic and usually led a brief existence in small social clubs, in church parishes, in semiprivate collections, in the subscription or association libraries

14

PUBLIC LIBRARY'S PAST

formed b y the members of a business or social group for their o w n use and that of their friends. It is possible to trace public library progress directly from the early college, semi-private, and subscription libraries to the popular institution of the present day. A look at some of the predecessors of the public library throws not a little light on the early life of which they were a part. It explains partially, also, the uneven, struggling growth of this great, sprawling institution, with its roots in the past and its new branches reaching out in all directions. In a report to the Secretary of the Interior made by the United States Bureau of Education in 1876, there is a chapter on "Public Libraries a Hundred Years A g o , " which contains a quantity of interesting historical matter about libraries in America. A m o n g other facts, the author says "[the following] libraries . . . represent the chief means of general literary culture open to Americans 100 years ago [ 1 7 7 6 ] ; one in Philadelphia, t w o or three small ones in N e w Y o r k , one in N e w p o r t [Rhode Island], one in Providence, one in Portland [Maine], [three in Massachusetts towns], and the revolving library of Kittery and Y o r k [Maine]." * N e a r l y all of those mentioned are examples of the most important forerunners of the public library, that is, the social, the subscription or association, and the semi-private and endowed institutions. T h e social libraries of the Massachusetts towns were really small subscription libraries belonging to the members of a literary club. Each member's subscription was payment of a share or life membership in the club. These little book collections were sometimes made available to the readers out* U.S. Office of Education, op. cit., as summarized in A. E. Bostwick, The American Public Library, 4th ed. (New York, 1929), p. 6.

BACKGROUND

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I5

side the club circle, and so led by more or less perceptible degrees to the town libraries of N e w England which immediately preceded true public libraries as we know them, taxsupported and open to all citizens. Other association libraries, of an entirely different type and designed to serve quite different groups, were the mercantile and society libraries, several of which have made very successful and lively progress to the present day, in somewhat their old form and often with their original purpose. A well-known example is the N e w Y o r k Society Library, whose original subscription list read like a social register and whose services are useful to many students and writers. G e n erally speaking, the so-called "mercantile" libraries were established by firms of merchants or business houses to f u r nish reading to their employees. T h e oldest and most famous of all subscription libraries, that formed by Benjamin Franklin in 1 7 3 1 and later named the Philadelphia Library Company, was called by him in his Autobiography "the mother of all North American subscription libraries." If so, we may with some reason consider it the grandparent of American public libraries. It is a pleasant fancy at least and as a symbol has some truth, for this library of Franklin's was formed by a poor young working man for the use of himself and his associates, it grew to prodigious proportions, added to itself other collections, and later was opened to public use. In the United States Office of Education report referred to above there is a quotation which is full of democratic public library flavor. A resident of Philadelphia in 1774 says in a letter to a friend, " Y o u would be astonished at the general taste f o r books which prevails among all orders in this city. T h e librarian [of the city library] assured me that for one

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person of distinction and fortune there were twenty tradesmen that frequented this library." Another effort to distribute books to the people which merits comment is the "revolving library" noted above, because it carried within itself the idea which was later developed in traveling libraries, an important feature of many types of library service. T h i s collection of books "revolved" between the towns of Kittery and Y o r k , in Maine, and was originally donated by friends to those two parishes. A s one writer, describing it, says, " I t may be guessed that its meandering life was not calculated to increase the number of volumes," which was originally but 300. Some notice should also be given to the church or parish libraries which were instituted early in the eighteenth century in the South, particularly in North Carolina and M a r y land, b y Dr. T h o m a s Bray, secretary of the British Society f o r the Propagation of the Gospel. Many of these book collections were itinerant or traveling libraries and they antedated the social and town libraries of N e w England by a century or more. H o w e v e r , they proved to be a sporadic effort and gradually disappeared to be replaced b y more popular or better organized forms of library service. A m o n g the most important forerunners of the modern public library, both in themselves and for their influence on the movement toward popular use, were the semi-private, endowed libraries. Some of these had led a separate existence and are today monuments of scholarship and intrinsic value. Others have been transformed or incorporated into public institutions. Illustrative of the latter trend is the Loganian Library in Philadelphia, a private collection of classical literature which was taken over by the Philadelphia Library Company.

BACKGROUND AND TRADITION

17

T h e incorporation of the Astor and Lenox libraries with the N e w Y o r k Free Circulating L i b r a r y as the N e w Y o r k Public Library exemplifies still another type, in which the endowed institution retains its sovereignty, while under the same management the public distribution of books and other allied activities are carried on as a separate department, financed f r o m public funds. It has been said that the town libraries of N e w England were the direct forerunners of the true, tax-supported public libraries of today. Several of them were developed from the little book collections of social clubs or business groups. Peterborough, N e w Hampshire, has the distinction of being the oldest t o w n library still running to be tax-supported f r o m its establishment in 1833. T h i s was sixteen years before a general law was passed in N e w Hampshire authorizing towns to tax themselves f o r library support. T h e year before that, in 1848, Massachusetts passed special legislation authorizing the establishment and public support of the Boston Public L i b r a r y , and in 1851 this law was made general f o r the state. T h e example of Boston was an important one and served as a milestone in public library progress toward recognition as a civic institution meriting public support. Before this, however, another experiment in giving book service to the public was developed in N e w Y o r k State. Instead of the town, the school district was chosen as a distributing unit, and school district libraries flourished f o r a number of years not only in N e w Y o r k but in several states of the East and the Middle West. T h e y have disappeared as operating library units long since, but the laws under which they were established are important in their relation to a developing social responsibility f o r library support. In fact, many libraries still operate under school district law, an ex-

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ample of the complexity which exists in the whole legislative structure on which libraries depend. This chapter would not be complete without some comment on the librarians who were responsible for the early development of this institution of privileged use and cloistered manners into paths of greater social usefulness, in opening its closed doors and widening its scope. Among the most distinguished of early librarians was Justin Winsor, who became superintendent of the Boston Public Library in 1868, leaving this position in 1879 to assume the librarianship of the I Iarvard University Library. It is evident that no great distinction existed in the minds of our library pioneers between the college and public library. It was the extension of book service to those who needed it with which they were chiefly concerned. Only in later years has the path of the public library diverged so widely from that of the older institution. T h i s gap may be viewed with very proper suspicion, f o r the public library is open not only to children, adolescents, and the whole body of less educated and less privileged citizens, but also to the literate, to scholars and scientists, and it should be as useful to the latter as to the former. Justin Winsor might well be amused to realize how the circle has turned since the day when he pled f o r popular reading. His essay "Reading in Popular Libraries" is a shrewd, sound, and divertingly written analysis of the reading habits and abilities of people. Said he: " [ S o m e ] censorious flatterers refer to the character of the reading that is put into [public] libraries and is drawn from them by the mass of readers, and they estimate the value of that reading wholly from their own wants and predilections, and without any regard to the immense variety of

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19

minds and character which fortunately makes up communities. . . . "It is a very easy matter to form a library to suit the wants of specific conditions of people; but it is not so easy to gather such books as will afford the greatest and most varied interest to all sorts of readers. . . . "Books can neither instruct nor amuse if they are not within the comprehension, or it is perhaps better to say, within the literary sense of their readers. One may understand a book, but it does not allure him from other things, unless it responds to his intellectual wants, or runs upon the plane of his mental training. "It is not very considerate to establish anything like a fixed standard of good for all people, whether in dietetics or literature. There is doubtless a universal goodness in literature, as bread is in diet; but no one wants to live on bread solely, and it is the variety, and to a considerable extent, condiments and relishes in food and in books, that give health to the appetite and vigor to the digestion." An early librarian who used his influence to further the democratic use of libraries was William I. Fletcher, assistant librarian of the Watkinson Library of Reference, Hartford, Connecticut. He was particularly interested in mill libraries both in America and in England. Also, his was one of the earliest voices raised to encourage reading for the young in public reading rooms and libraries. He was truly a prophet, for long after his day one of the most successfully developed fields of professional library service is that of work with children. Another man whose name is known to all librarians, and whose greatest achievement is invaluable to every user of a

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library, was William F. Poole. H e realized the tremendous value of articles locked away in magazines, most of them never available a few weeks after publication. So as a young man in college, where his work had taught him the need for this type of reference tool, he started the monumental work known as Poole's Index to Periodical

Literature,

which served

to unlock a wealth of material in many magazines. This reference aid, today carried on in a revised form by later bibliographers, is of the greatest practical value to all types of readers. It is interesting to note that W . I. Fletcher was a co-cditor of Poole's Index. Again, in the person of Fletcher as in that of Justin Winsor, scholarship and technical proficiency went hand in hand with a progressive social attitude. Another key to the treasures in books, and one which is established in all libraries, is the catalogue—that aid which tells the reader what books are in a library and where they may be found on the shelves. One of the early library pioneers in devising ways of making books in libraries available to readers was Charles A. Cutter. Mr. Cutter was librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, not a public library. But because he knew both books and people, he had a very shrewd notion of the types of catalogue needed by different libraries, and the people of varying education who used them. C. A. Cutter and Melvil Dewey, the famous originator of the "decimal" scheme of book classification which is more generally used by libraries throughout the world than all others combined, are two of the earliest librarians to bring order out of the chaos which existed in library book collections. H o w were books arranged in the old days? Perhaps by large class groups; perhaps alphabetically by author, all classes together, sometimes by size! T o d a y almost all public libraries use the Dewev decimal scheme of classification, and it is familiar to most

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readers, young and old alike. Yet f e w library users realize that the orderly procession of books by which they are led to the titles they want is the result of painstaking labor and of the study of public use which started in the middle of the nineteenth century and is still continuing to meet new needs and new ways of seeking knowledge. These early librarians and many of their fellows deserve an honored place in the annals of public librarianship, for they helped to make books available to myriads of readers to whom their names are unknown. Yet modern public libraries are founded on their work and their vision. These men were also members of the small group who formed the American Library Association, and so brought the benefits of conference and cooperation to the growing numbers of workers in allied library activities. T w o most significant dates in the calendar of American librarianship are 1854, when the Boston Public Library opened, and 1876, with the formation of the American Library Association. From that time to the present, public libraries in the United States have increased steadily in number, in fields of activity, and in variety of function. W e librarians of today think of 1876 as a small though significant milestone on the road leading to modern public library service, available as it now is through great municipal institutions; in the small libraries of thousands of towns and villages; in rural areas through state library agencies, or in great county or regional set-ups; offering books in hundreds of languages; reaching its myriads of users by bookmobile, b y mail, on the air, and on the screen. In comparison with this picture, the public library of less than a century ago seems indeed a horse-and-buggy affair. T h e number of libraries giving service had greatly increased, but the modern

PUBLIC

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idea of p o p u l a r libraries, supported b y public funds, was only just beginning to emerge. Professional training was nonexistent. M o r e than ten years after the A m e r i c a n L i b r a r y Association w a s f o r m e d the conferences w e r e still f u l l of heated debates about the pros and cons of open-shelf book collections and special services to children. D e w e y was just c o m p i l i n g his decimal system of classification which w a s to increase vastly the availability of books f o r public use. T h e d e v e l o p m e n t of c o u n t y w o r k or a n y library service except on the local level had been o n l y v a g u e l y and loosely conc c i v c d . T h e first general library law was not passed until 1890, w h e n Massachusetts authorized the f o u n d i n g of the Boston Public L i b r a r y out of public funds. Such w a s the general library situation. T h e stretch of one hundred years just f o l l o w i n g the A m e r i c a n Revolution did see the e m e r g e n c e of the public library as a distinct institution, the beginnings of professional librarianship in terms of a w i d e - a w a k e association of librarians, a start in the development of m o r e efficient techniques, and an e f f o r t to establish the library on a f i r m e r administrative basis. F r o m that time progress has been startlingly rapid in the process of transf o r m i n g a reservoir of k n o w l e d g e into a fountain of activity, and turning a cloistered, clerical occupation, " k e e p i n g " the books, into a socially conscious profession, making books w o r k f o r the public w e l f a r e .

3 THE LIBRARY MOVES OUTSIDE ITS WALLS

T

HE FIRST STEP TAKEN BY THE LIBRARY OF

yesterday to meet the world of today was to open wide its doors to that larger world; the second was to move outside its walls and to take an active part in public affairs. This process is still going on, but the early struggles of the library to make the transition from a passive to an active institution form a vital part of its interesting past. T h e gains made are now taken for granted, but they were not attained without a struggle. If it is true that the public library followed the pattern of current social life, one must understand what was happening in the United States throughout the years of the nineteenth century, that astounding era of struggles, hopes and passions, that era which was to serve as a proving ground for a new civilization. T h e Revolution was over, the young life of the Republic was expanding, trade flourished, the population on the Atlantic seaboard multiplied almost three times in slightly over three decades, and the great pioneer movement westward began. For half a century the agricultural power of this country grew, and on the heels of the pioneers went the printers, the teachers, the lawyers, the preachers. Nearly every village

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possessed a church and a school, and in many there were newspapers with their busy printing presses. Meantime, industrial development began. T h e inventive spirit burst into manifold activity, resulting in the machines so soon to replace hand labor and to revolutionize industry. T h e invention of the cotton gin b y Eli Whitney in 1793, and James Watts' patent on his steam engine in 1769, illustrate what was happening to production and manufacturing. .Machines increased in all areas, in transportation—the steamboat and the railroad; in communications—the telephone and cable; even in agriculture, and in all the fields of daily living. A dramatic line from Huberman's We, the People illustrates the revolution in lighting. "Pine knot, candle— lamp—gas—electricity." * Over all, new social and economic ideologies burst into triumphant life; opposing political theories fought, were defeated, and rose again. A n y o n e studying the social institutions of this period cannot fail to take into account the effects of the French Revolution. T h o u g h the impact of this great conflict was felt around the world, in no quarter could it have been more strongly felt, more effective in its influence, than in our own infant republic just emerging from its struggle with the mother country, and rebelliously open to all new and revolutionary ideas. T h e social and economic revolution which had started to sweep the world made rapid strides here, though developing along lines peculiar to a new, free, struggling society. Greater cultural opportunities were needed by all; so the idea of free education blossomed and grew to fruition. Schools increased in number, lyceums and debating clubs flourished. Magazines and newspapers burst into vocif* Leo Huberman, We, the People (New York, Harper & Brothers, 1932), p. 210.

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erous existence. The early and mid-Victorian era in this country, far from being the quiet, stodgy age imagined by some, was a seething cauldron of new ideas, new opportunities, and new institutions, all full of the most exuberant life and kept in a feverish turmoil by conflicting theories and purposes. It was a time when revolutionary thought struggled with old established convictions and institutions. The slavery system, for instance, was integrally bound up with our economic life. T w o ways of living, two opposing economic interests met head on, and the country found itself in civil war. In spite of the bitter animosity and the sore resentments engendered by this conflict, at its close the nation found itself a political unit as it had never been before. The industrial age which had started on its upward way before the war now rose to its zenith. A business economy pressed relentlessly upon the old agricultural order, pushing it back slowly but surely. A new trek westward began, this time for wealth and industrial opportunity. Migration from country to city swept the nation; immigration brought tens of thousands from central and southern Europe to take the place of slave labor and to compete with native workers to fill the mines and factories. This era witnessed a tremendous upswing in the might and influence of capital, for the machine age, with its universal factory system and its employment of workers to run the machines required constantly expanding capital. Huge industrial monopolies were formed, concentrating profits and power in a few hands. Railroad, mine and basic construction combines rose to fantastic heights, resulting in equally fantastic fortunes. This was the era of the "robber barons," of Upton Sin-

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clair's The ]imgle, of Bromfield's The Green Bay Tree. An era of unrestrained individualism and unbridled power in high places, it was to lead to the emergence of a closely knit, articulate and rebellious working class. For one of the results of the new industrial order was the division of interest between workers and employers, and an ever widening chasm between them as groups. So the great labor movement started on its inevitable way, in protest and opposition to the huge and merciless combinations of industry. Meantime, the union of capital, natural resources and human inventiveness was bringing about still tighter and more powerful industrial combines, and the social struggle was intensifying. America at the beginning of the twentieth century was a country immensely powerful, arrogant, selfish, and at the same time profoundly naive. The public library has been keenly sensitive to the social changes about it, and in the early years of the twentieth century it became one of the centers where a new social consciousness struggled to be born. But it was in the atmosphere of the early Republic, with its fervid struggling conditions and its bright, new revolutionary thought, that the public library idea had its birth. Slowly, under the impact of this idea—and a profoundly upsetting one it was—this most cloistered institution of the ages began gradually, reluctantly, to open its doors to the new, stirring world about. Through the tense, exciting years of the growing industrial age, with the change from a rural to an urban civilization, with the influx of Europe's underprivileged myriads, eager for a chance in this new world, with the doors of opportunity opening, and all America alive with confidence and swagger, the public library made a quiet, steady advance. One hardly needs to stress that the America of today is a very different

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place, shaken by two world wars and the worst economic depression in history, faced by a devastated and destitute world, and deeply penetrated by disillusion and loss of faith in nearly all the areas where reigned strong conviction and high hope. Such a social condition calls on all public institutions f o r far-reaching and courageous adjustments. But librarians would do well to remember that whatever change of thought and method the new age calls for, it can hardly be greater than was made by the public library in one of the most epoch-making centuries in history. For its rise and growth marched side by side with the development of that terrifying and iconoclastic idea, full education for all the world's people, irrespective of race, color, religion, wealth or social status. Picture to yourselves, if you will, a typical city library in, say, the year 1885. T h e building is dingy, if dignified, dimly lighted, its walls painted the ubiquitous muddy buff considered suitable for a public institution. Within is a desk shutting off the sacred book collection, which extends back into a dark crypt called the "stacks." Behind the desk sits a selfcontained librarian, perhaps a bespectacled little gentleman, perhaps one of the old maids of popular fancy, perhaps a scared youngster with her hair in pigtails, pinchhitting for one of the former; and in the outskirts a boy or girl "runner," whose duty it is to procure the wanted book from the stacks for the would-be reader, who fills out the necessary information from the card catalogue, and hands his slip to the librarian, but never penetrates the closed gates to the books beyond. Perhaps at one side there is a reading and reference room with—yes—a "Silence" sign prominently displayed. One of the most forward-looking steps taken by the public library was to remove the gate, push back the desk, and

PUBLIC L I B R A R Y ' S PAST open the book section to the public. T o d a y e v e r y small library and many moderately large ones display the majority of their books on open shelves. E v e n the largest libraries have open-shelf rooms where their collections of current literature are available to all readers. Y e t this obviously democratic move was made tentatively, against the severest opposition b y many conservative librarians and library boards. Some of the reasons f o r this opposition were logical and remain today serious factors in the care and protection of books. T h e loss and mutilation of expensive books and the wear and tear on rare books due to over-handling are important considerations which account f o r much of the present-day protection of these two classes behind closed book shelves. Other reasons for the reluctance to place books on open shelves, such as noise and disorder, or the likelihood of misplacement in returning books to shelves, even the danger of infection, which was a cause of serious dispute, seem to us today trivial and a bit old-fashioned. T w o pioneers in this movement were William F . Brett, of the Cleveland Public Library, and John Cotton Dana, then of the Denver, Colorado, Public Library. W h e n the fine newbuilding of the Boston Public Library opened in 1890 with a large room displaying books on open shelves the tide turned against the conservatives. Opposition waned and the early twentieth century saw the open-shelf policy in public libraries firmly established. Developments which indicated a trend of thought startlingly new at that time were those which occurred in the library's attitude to children and the increasing attention given to their needs. A n important phase of this development was the specialized book service offered b y a number of librarians to their city schools, a policy which met with

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hearty favor, and which spread quite widely from about 1885 to 1914. That this service was appreciated as a valuable adjunct to teaching is evidenced by its influence in promoting the establishment of libraries within the schools. T o d a y school libraries constitute one of the most important library groups. Moreover, coordinated reading and reference service by public libraries and schools working together toward the enrichment of class room programs offers a promising new avenue of library progress. This is particularly true of small cities and towns and of rural sections. In some cases, especially in the larger city schools, the growing tendency in school libraries is to furnish books not merely for the curriculum itself but f o r its enrichment as well, and even for leisure time reading. This would seem to minimize the importance of the public library's contribution. However, no school would be justified in establishing a library which covers the wide field of literature, which is the public library's province. Thus a fruitful cooperation between the two institutions is a vital means toward the students' intellectual growth.* At this time it is enough to point out that the specialized services given by them so generously to schools are particularly significant as furnishing the first example, carried out successfully and on a fairly large scale, of the extension of book service outside the library walls Procedures in school work, as it is called, have changed greatly since the first experiments and today differ considerably according to local needs and conditions. Again the Cleveland Public Library was a pioneer. William F . Brett, * For further discussion of the points involved see Robert D. Leigh, The Public Library in the United States (Report of the Public Library Inquiry, 1950), pp. 100-103, 233-35.

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the librarian, was particularly generous in sending book collections to the schools to be used as class room libraries. Samuel S. Green, of Worcester, Massachusetts, was another pioneer in this field, furnishing books to the schools of his city as early as 1879. The example of these two libraries was followed within a few years by Providence, Buffalo, Detroit, Milwaukee, and N e w York. In 1897 a special department of book service to schools was established by the New York Free Circulating Library, which later was to become the Circulation Department of the N e w York Public Library. A dcsccndant of this specialized service exists today in the present institution, on a reorganized and much larger scale. In the following year, 1898, the Buffalo Public Library worked out a cooperative plan with the schools of that city which has been copied widely and has served as the foundation of much of the work carried on today. During the same period a corresponding advance was made in the service given to children within the library itself. This development has been far-reaching in its effects, and has led to a highly important specialized service. In the old days the adage about children being seen and not heard was subscribed to heartily by the average public library. T o tell the truth they were seldom even seen there, for rarely was any place assigned to them as a group. Occasionally a corner or other small space was set aside for them, with perhaps one table exhibiting St. Nicholas and the Youth's Companion, and a few book shelves near bv. Nor was the quality of literature of great concern to the librarian so long as the moral sensibilities of the time were not offended. It is difficult for the reader or the librarian of today to recall the time when Horatio Alger's series and the Elsie books graced library shelves, while Tow Sawyer and

LIBRARY

M O V E S OUTSIDE ITS W A L L S

3I

Huckleberry Finn were banned. Those who know the Central Children's Room in the New York Public Library, the Robert Louis Stevenson Room in the Cleveland Public Library, or any of the other beautiful children's rooms in the public libraries of our towns and cities today, should have the experience of witnessing a documentary film showing the development of children's libraries. Dinginess, meager space, scant attention have given way to beauty and spaciousness, to trained and loving care; the paucity and low caliber of the available materials have given place to a wealth of delightful literature, one moreover of solid value and genuine artistry. The growing demand for beautiful picture books, with the eager response to this demand by artists of proven ability, has been one of the most urgent and important influences on book illustration as a whole. For this the world owes a debt to many present-day librarians, as well as some early pioneers who saw the need of children and fought conservatism in order to meet that need. Back in 1890 Miss Lutie Stearns of the Milwaukee Public Library sent out a questionnaire to libraries throughout the country, asking about the admission of children to libraries and the type of book service given to them. The results of this questionnaire were presented in a paper read before the American Library Association conference of that year, and provoked a storm of discussion. Thereafter, there was no meeting of the A.L. A. at which children's libraries and reading were not discussed. Miss Mary Wright Plummer, at that time librarian of Pratt Institute, was particularly interested not only in separate library rooms for children but in the quality of the reading given to them. Miss Caroline M. Hewins, public librarian in Hartford, Connecticut, was never unmindful of children's reading. Without a special children's room she began to en-

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courage young people to use her library and helped them in the selection of their reading. Miss Plummer tells us that the first children's room to be established was that of the Brookline, Massachusetts, Public Library in 1890. It has been stated, however, that two years before that a children's library was opened on the third floor of the G e o r g e Bruce Branch of the N e w Y o r k Free Circulating L i b r a r y , though it was closed after less than a year, because of complaints from the adult public that they were disturbed b y the passing of the children through the first two floors. T h i s fact should interest the present N e w Y o r k Public L i b r a r y branches, where almost all the children's rooms are on the upper floors. It is interesting to note that this room in a branch library, which was soon followed b y others, to be united later into a department of w o r k with children throughout the branch system of the N e w Y o r k Public Library, grew from an idea in the mind of a N e w Y o r k grade school teacher, Miss Emily Hanaway. During a meeting of the National Association of Teachers in 1885, the thought came to her, she said,* "as if some one had leaned over m y shoulder and suggested it, ' W h y not give the children reading rooms?' " It is pleasant to realize that without conscious cooperation school thought and library thought met to swell this rising stream of interest in children's reading and literature. Many librarians have cultivated the children's library idea, and worked to bring it to fruition. Miss A n n e Carroll Moore, for many years supervisor of library w o r k with children in the N e w Y o r k Public Library, Miss Eflie L . Power, formerly supervisor of children's work in the Cleveland Public Library, and Miss Alice * A. E. Bostwick, The American Public Library, 4th ed. (New York, 1929), p. 11.

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33

Hazeltine, with years of experience both as a practical executive and as a teacher in the field of library w o r k with children, are a f e w of that number w h o put their ideals into practice, or crystallized them in writing or in the classrooms of library schools. Library service to children is today one of the truly important specialized branches of professional librarianship, one which has attained a recognition accorded f e w others in the public library field. With these steps of progress as precedents, with the g r o w ing book requirements resulting f r o m educational and economic changes in the social life, it is not strange that librarians began to think of their service in its larger aspects and in terms of more general use and availability. It proved possible to convince larger political units of their responsibility for maintaining and extending library service, as they had already done in the area of academic education. A m o n g the first states to give financial aid to their libraries were N e w Y o r k , Maine, and R h o d e Island, the first giving $ 1 0 0 , the last t w o granting $500 y e a r l y to every library meeting state standards. T h i s condition presupposed, of course, some f o r m of supervision. T h u s arose the idea of state library commissions or other state agencies. Massachusetts broke ground in this area when she established a library commission in 1890. B y 1934 there w e r e 44 states with some f o r m of state library agency. T h e state commissions not only handled financial aid and gave help through their field supervisors to existing libraries, but they also promoted the establishment of new libraries, supported library legislation, and offered book service to schools and to organized community groups. T h e y also made out reading lists f o r these groups and sent book collections to them on request. T h e i r aid to existing libraries often led to institutes f o r the training of local

34

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librarians who had little or no library education. Most of these agencies, too, conducted some form of traveling libraries, a pure example of taking the library outside its walls. The traveling library idea deserves special notice. It is not a new idea. T h e "revolving library" in Maine, mentioned earlier, was really a traveling library. Nor was the idea originally an American one. In England Oxford University had sent out traveling libraries early in the nineteenth century. Thus it is evident that the impulse to take books to people who need them, wherever they may be, is a promoting impulse, which has permeated and fired all library advance. Every library with an interest in those who could not reach its reading reservoir has tried to get book collections to these people in their local communities. Some of these collections were large, others were quite small, and they were sent wherever available space was offered: to stores, to police or fire stations, or to private homes. Occasionally they were sent through the mail, and very frequently in the old days by "book wagon," or latterly by the "bookmobile." The traveling library then is an old activity, but it has survived as a modern one, for the idea is utilized not only by library commissions, but by state, college, and public libraries. It is a sort of vanguard in the forward movement of library activity. T w o vitally important steps in public library progress were taken at about the same time that library commissions developed. They form indeed, with state agencies, one gigantic forward stride. This movement included the creation in cities of branch libraries; in rural areas, of county libraries. City branch libraries often resulted from the work of traveling libraries, and their development serves as an excellent example of the growth of library policy and procedure

LIBRARY

MOVES OUTSIDE

ITS W A L L S

35

in response to local need. One may visualize such a city as Yonkers, N e w York, or Evansville, Indiana, one which has grown rapidly within a few years. T h e public library established early in the town history, may be situated in the old residential section, now out of touch alike with the bustling business center and the newer residential area. T h e library establishes a few centers where deposit collections of books are sent, to be changed from time to time. But it is soon evident that these collections are inadequate, and a traveling library system may be developed by which the collections may be changed more frequently, or supplemented according to demand. However, certain sections grow more rapidly than others. In one there is a real estate development, in another a factory employing many workers is established. T h e people need more books, the schools near by clamor for book aid, children mob the book wagon when it comes once a week. T h e answer is a branch library, with a permanent book collection and a resident staff. T h e growth of county libraries is one of the later phases of public library development, though there were early experiments, some of them fairly successful, in widely separated sections. It is not strange that this work developed first and with greatest effectiveness in the Far West and Middle West, where the areas to be served were larger and more sparsely settled. On a far larger scale this trend has paralleled that of the branch library movement in urban centers. It is in part an answer to the problem of book accessibility, which in large, thinly settled, rural areas is still one of the greatest problems facing libraries today. T h e county library trend has moved in several directions, again according to local conditions and initiative. Ohio presents examples of two types of county library service. One

36

PUBLIC LIBRARY'S PAST

of these is centered in the city of Cincinnati, where the public library extends its service to residents of the county of which Cincinnati is the county seat, according to the terms of a contract providing for partial county support. This service was established in 1898 and has been copied in many other places where conditions were similar. In that same year, 1898, V a n W e r t County in Ohio was given an independent library, with its own building, by a public-minded citizen, with the stipulation that it should receive county support. V a n W e r t was a rural county with no available city library within its borders, and the action taken here has served as an example which may be followed by a county of any state which desires such service and can obtain legislation to support it. T h e most widespread and successful example of county library service is furnished by California, which has a statewide system of county libraries giving satisfactory book service to every part of that great state. This system came about partly as a result of the efforts of an early state librarian, James Gillis, who started, about 1909, to make books available throughout his state by a type of traveling library extension service. All these important advances were undertaken by the public library during its formative years, which were also years of great national development. It is increasingly evident that in a democratic society the need for such an institution will be judged by the universality of its appeal and the accessibility of its resources. Universal usage has two sides; one is a general coverage of the country at large with the purpose of making books available in all areas. T h e other is more limited in scope but more intensive in character and

LIBRARY MOVES OUTSIDE ITS W A L L S

37

certainly no less important, implying a universal appeal to all tastes, educational needs, and cultural levels. T h e movements just described are all parts of a trend toward greater accessibility and wider opportunities f o r usefulness. A t the same time increasing attention has been given b y libraries to the intensive values of their service, manifested through a g r o w i n g awareness of their immediate communities and b y a disposition to integrate the library with community life. T h i s phase of library development began to assume significance during the first decade of this century, or about the time of our heaviest immigration, when America's social conscience was stirring most actively. It was strictly a home product, touched b y f e w thoughts of the needy and oppressed save within our own borders. Yet it may have laid the foundation f o r that larger world consciousness toward which w e are groping today, and it e f fected profoundly the attitudes and activities of the social institutions of the time. Its influence on the public library and the library's response, which in turn effected its own future growth, constitute a part of the library's development which merits more than a casual mention, and will now be considered more at length.

4 THE LIBRARY IN THE COMMUNITY

T

HE INTEGRATION OF LOCAL LIBRARIES

with their communities and their intensive use as community centers developed gradually and naturally as librarians became more conscious of social needs, and of their own responsibilities in relation to them. This change in library outlook is in part the natural outgrowth of those expanding activities which have been noted, but it is more than that. The community consciousness of the library became most evident between 1912 and 1920, a period of heavy immigration which saw an enormous expansion among philanthropic and charitable movements and institutions. It is the era pictured graphically by Jacob Riis in his book The Making of an American, and in Lillian Wald's The House on Henry Street. At the height of industrial expansion came social awareness, or it may justly be said, perhaps, that the era of the "robber barons," by its very virulence, led to the birth of a social consciousness. Earnest young people sought work in the slum areas as nurses, teachers, pastors, and social workers. Some of them drifted to libraries, feeling that in these also lay an opportunity to reach the submerged masses. For, sensitive as always to current trends, the library was trying to meet in its own way and with its own resources the needs of the poor, the semi-literate, the underprivileged, and the

LIBRARY IN T H E COMMUNITY

39

groping masses o f people living and working at their doors. T h i s trend then was not only in line with the natural development of library activities, but it was one with the universally increasing social consciousness of that time. It can be seen most clearly in the closely knit civic units which we call communities, as social service is seen most distinctly, for instance, in the H e n r y Street Settlement or Greenwich House in N e w Y o r k or Hull House in Chicago. So libraries in many places and particularly in the crowded, racially separated sections of our great cities became closely interwoven with the life about them, and in the process achieved significance as community institutions. Although a few libraries have received special public attention as unique instances of such social cooperation, it should be understood that many more developed similar services and processes or others particularly suited to their own situations. T h i s community trend can best be understood by observing the groups to which the library was most sensitive in its response and whose needs it met most successfully. T h e s e groups fall into certain well-defined categories. First to be considered, because one of the first to obtain the attention of libraries, are the racial and national groups. Through our immigration channels, in the earlv years of the century, hundreds of thousands of men and women poured into the country, crowding the urban centcrs, living in most cases a c o m pletely separated existence, untouched b y the gracious elements of American life, knowing too often only the factory, mill, or sweatshop, the saloon and the police court. Sorely in need of education and social adjustment, these racial groups represented a challenge which all neighborhood agencies tried to meet with their several methods and services. H e r e the public library took an important part, offering

40

PUBLIC LIBRARY'S PAST

books, meeting rooms, and the services of staff members in the cooperative effort. Library branches in foreign sections formed book collections in Russian, Yiddish, Italian, Hungarian, and other languages as circumstances dictated. Often one or more "foreign library assistants" were appointed on the staff, who could speak the language of the various neighborhood groups, or w h o could meet people with the understanding bred of the same racial background. Some libraries, such as the Cleveland Public Library, formed departments of work with the foreign-born. M a n y also cooperated with schools in developing "Americanization" classes, helping people obtain their naturalization papers as well as the rudiments of American citizenship. Libraries have taken a leading part in trying to find books in "easy English" f o r these students, readable books for learners adult in mentality but unversed in the language. With the passage of time, the tightening of immigration restrictions, and the special conditions which have brought entirely new levels of foreign life to America, the methods of libraries with such groups have changed, but the pattern and precedent have had a permanent effect on public library policy. Here for the first time, on a large scale, the library developed its service along social channels. Allied to this type of service is the valuable and outstanding work among Negroes carried on by various public libraries in both North and South. Though there are Negroes of foreign blood in our cities and elsewhere, the majority are native Americans. T h e y are not to be classed, therefore, as a foreign group, but, as in the case of the foreign-born, they have tended to settle in more or less separated and tightly knit areas, owing to the prevalent social conditions of segregation and discrimination. In certain cities where there are

LIBRARY

IN T H E

COMMUNITY

41

great concentrations of Negro citizens, therefore, public libraries have developed their service with special reference to their Negro patrons, and these specialized services form an important element in the development of libraries as community centers. It should be understood that, as in the case of the foreign groups, the term "specialized services" does not imply a limitation of the regular privileges accorded the general library-using public, but rather additional services in terms of books, activities, and advisory help. For instance, a public library in a Negro community specializes in books by and about Negroes, and in some cases employs Negroes as staff members, as "foreign librarians" have been used in foreign centers. T h e activities carried on by a community library must vary somewhat according to the special interests of the different groups, and this entails, in the Negro community as in others, intensive study and efforts toward acquaintance. In time we shall see the gradual distribution throughout residential areas of our Negro citizens, such as we are witnessing in the case of our foreign-born. But the patterns of community service which public libraries have worked out, toward the ends of greater knowledge and closer adaptability to special needs, will be followed and developed, we believe, so long as the community as a social unit exists. Another realm in which many groups are represented may be called the occupational field. It has been years, of course, since the first community-minded librarian, looking beyond his desk, began to realize that many of the books in his excellent basic collection seldom left the shelves, while would-be readers were asking for titles not mentioned in the catalogue and frequently quite unknown to him. Pre-

42

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sumably he asked himself, " W h o are these people?" His files may have told him that they were plumbers or engineers or hairdressers or advertising men. So it has come about that every public library worth the name has on its shelves besides its basic collection of general literature and important works in the main subject fields, books and periodicals which deal with local occupations and specialized local interests. T h e larger basic industries, such as mining, steel construction, and agriculture, obviously call f o r technical literature found usually only in large book collections. But on a smaller scale the community library has attempted with some success to find f o r its readers authentic and suitable books and other material on carpentry, plumbing, masonry, gardening, insurance, advertising, to mention only a f e w important fields. T h e area of personal interest to which many community libraries have tried to cater offers still greater variety. Indoor and outdoor sports, all types of hobbies and crafts, from stamp collecting to boatmaking and hand-made jewelry—such interests have been found reflected long since in the book collections of many libraries. It is curious that the occupational groups to receive the least public library service up to the present time should be among those most prominent in American life. Practical politicians and political officials as contrasted with the philosophical theorists in the field; business men, referring to both large and small business; and organized labor—as groups and in their official capacities—have known very little of public libraries and have received from them scant and meager service. It is serious for library maintenance that there is a lack of information about libraries and a number of curious misconceptions on the part of the majority of those who hold or control the public purse strings. T h i s condition reacts on

LIBRARY IN T H E C O M M U N I T Y

43

the public in limited and often inferior service. T h e r e have been notable exceptions to these conditions. T h e Business Branch of the N e w a r k Public Library, organized in 1 9 1 7 , soon became well known not only in that city but f a r outside its limits and served as a stimulus to similar experiments. In the Milwaukee Public Library efficient and understanding book help was offered to labor groups b y Miss Miriam D . Tompkins as early as 1924, before the days of regular readers' advisory service or adult education activities in libraries. It is gratifying to note that these pioneers have had their f o l lowers, and that today there is evidence of increasing interest and activity in these important areas, as well as more reliable information about them among librarians. A third broad area to receive increased library attention is that of the physically or mentally handicapped and those penally restricted or circumscribed b y age or other conditions. Specifically, these groups include the sick in hospitals or at home, the blind, those in prison, and also the aged, the young, and the disabled in institutions of varying types. It will be seen at once that these people fall into t w o general groups, those at home and those in institutions. Handicapped people who are living at home do so under such varied conditions that public library service may be rendered to them in many different w a y s — b y mail, by traveling libraries, b y personal visits. T h i s is a field wholly local in character and one which richly repays experimentation, both f o r the reader in new inspiration, in intellectual diversion, or in pure recreation, and f o r the librarian in the personal satisfaction a f forded b y the immediate individual response. T h e only large group in this category which already receives book service from libraries on a large scale is the blind. Attempts to help them b y the use and distribution of books

44

PUBLIC LIBRARY'S PAST

in raised type occurred early in modern library history. One of the first libraries to inaugurate work of this sort was the National Library f o r the Blind, established in 1882 in E n g land. In the United States the first library to form extensive collections of books in raised type for the blind was the Library of Congress, which still functions most widely in this field. However, nearly all large libraries have developed some f o r m of book service for their blind readers. F o r instance, the N e w Y o r k Public Library, since 1895, when the w o r k was started in the N e w Y o r k Free Circulating Library, has conducted a department of w o r k with the blind, wide spread in extent and nationally known. T h e Boston Public Library was also early in this field. T h e largest need among the handicapped groups is that of the sick, the mentally and physically disabled. T h o u g h library service in this field is comparatively recent, it had its real beginnings at the time of the First W o r l d W a r . A t the instigation of the Department of W a r , the American Library Association established libraries in the base hospitals of this country for use in the treatment of disabled veterans. In some cases where hospitals were near adequate public libraries, the aid of these libraries was enlisted in supplying books and professional help in book distribution and advice to the patient-readers. A t the same time the American L i brary Association was conducting libraries and carrying books to the soldiers on the battle fronts of Europe and to the A r m y of Occupation in Germany. Many men came back from the front or from hospital expecting similar service in their home towns. One practical result of this expectation was to open the eyes of librarians to a need and an opportunity. F o r instance, a first act of the librarian in Sioux City, Iowa, on returning from military

LIBRARY IN T H E C O M M U N I T Y

45

service was to establish branch libraries in the hospitals of his town. T h u s a new incentive and interest began to stir in a field where the availability of books and reading had been meager and infrequent. A n early example of a more generous attitude was offered b y Miss Alice T y l e r , state library supervisor of Iowa, w h o as early as 1 9 1 0 realized the acute needs resulting from lack of occupation or recreation f o r the inmates of the state institutions which she visited, and organized a public library extension service to help meet that need. Since the First W o r l d W a r progress in this field has continued on a v e r y limited scale. T h e Second W o r l d W a r , with the extensive plans f o r rehabilitation set up b y the Services and by the Veterans' Administration Hospital Division, has given a new, strong impetus to this movement. T h e groups just described are those with which public libraries have become most familiar and to which their service has been most freely given. T h e processes b y which these contacts were first made and the channels through which the library's book help and advice were made available are not without interest because they have helped to set the pattern of the public library as a community institution of the type which is accepted and taken f o r granted as such b y most of its users. T h e community-minded librarian had to ask himself h o w he was to reach the many and varied people all about him, often not library conscious at all and completely isolated in the anonymity of apartment house Ik ing. W o u l d advertising help? H e tried it. H e established contacts with the local papers. H e sent out notices to churches, theaters, and various neighborhood agencies. T h u s he found one of the best answers to his problem in the institutional life of the community. H e began then to use these institutions as focal points

46

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PAST

at which he might reach the different elements in the community. Often these agencies—welfare, economic, social, political, religious—led him directly to the national, racial and occupational groupings already mentioned. So a groundwork of friendly cooperation was laid for further w o r k with these groups. Often however an entirely different type of grouping emerged, cutting across these basic divisions, each held together b y interests centering about the church, the school, the health center, the political club, or the welfare organization. T h u s the librarian's contacts were widened, permitting him to touch people at more than one point of interest, and often leading him through an obscure sect or political club or fraternal society to those who had been totally unknown to him and to whom he was equally unknown. T h e contacts which public libraries have been quick to establish with these groups have led in two directions, first to an established status in the community's institutional life, second to a wider acquaintance with the clientele of each institution. T h r o u g h them also often comes a personal knowledge of individual readers with the increased opportunity for personal service which librarians desire. W e have seen how important have been the results of the library's cooperation with schools. Similar contacts, often followed b y cooperative activities, have been made by many libraries with churches, with Y . M . C . A . and other similar groups, as well as with social agencies with such specific aims as child welfare, health, or housing. A t the same time the librarian, learning his community more intimately, began to see its needs and how they were met, as well as to notice the areas in which they were not

LIBRARY

IN T H E

COMMUNITY

47

satisfied. H e saw ways in which his library could meet those needs. So began the establishment o f a social program as a part of the library's community service. Lecture courses, classes, forums, art and music groups, book review or reading clubs, little theater groups, all have been component parts of this social program, according ro local needs and the p r o grams of other neighboring agencies. T h e best librarians, o f course, have attempted to make their service cooperative rather than competitive, fitting it into the existing complex of institutional service. T h e y have attempted also to add t o the knowledge or interest or the enrichment of each group b y making available f o r them the best of the library's resources in reading matter. It must not be thought that the place o f the public library in the community has been established wholly on the basis o f group relationship. Rather, school, church, political society, or racial organizations have been used constantly as leaders to the individualized service which is perhaps the library's most unique and valuable contribution to an expanding and intelligent society. T h e s e individual contacts o f the library, together with the group relationships so intimately bound up with them, are now merging to form n e w patterns of thought and action, ones which may possibly lead t o a type of library activity and a kind of library institution which would be as alien to the thought of the nineteenthcentury librarian as the idea of open shelves would have been ro a medieval "keeper of manuscripts."

5 FUNDAMENTALS OF PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE * H E DIFFICULTIES OF DEFINITION, P A R T I C ularly the definition of abstract principles, come home to us now with peculiar force. T o define the principles underlying a profession concerned with human beings and with living issues is a curiously elusive business. H o w to escapc the morass of generalized statement and not fall into the hopeless abyss of the pontifical! Yet not to have fundamental principles is to be without objectives and means aimless diffusion of effort—the kind of walking in circles than which nothing is more calculated to lead to disillusionment and slackening of effort in the performance of life's tasks. I have heard it said that this is just what ails library work and librarians. Others protest that in dealing with the imponderables of culture, of thought and mental bias, standards too must be fluid, not static; still others assert that to define principles tends to standardize and freeze them, whereas the chief asset of the library, they say, is its individual approach, readily adaptable to different people and conditions. At this point, an important distinction begins to manifest itself. T h e library docs indeed deal with the imponderables * For statements of objectives, see Robert D. Leigh, The Public Library in the United States (Report of the Public Library Inquiry, 1950); pp. 16-19; Alice I. Bryan, The Public Librarian (Report of the Public Library Inquiry, 1952), p. 5.

F U N D A M E N T A L S OF SERVICE

49

of human life, and its individual, non-dogmatic approach to them is probably, when made on a high level, one of the supreme gifts of public library service. But is not this in itself a "fundamental"? T h i s illustrates the distinction I wish to make. T h e basic principles of library service are not to be constructed out of the heads of a committee of librarians or of library educators. If so, they would indeed be artificial, limited, and deadening. But certain fundamentals of action and of policy have become accepted as inherent in and almost inseparable f r o m public library practice on its highest levels. These fundamental principles point the w a y inevitably to definite goals. But they are sufficiently broad in concept to permit variety of method in attaining the desired ends. T h e y further serve as standards b y which future procedure may be measured and judged. These principles should be recognized b y all librarians. T h e y should embody an essence, an ethics of behavior, and a sense of objectives which would lend meaning and value to the profession. W h a t are these principles then and the objectives to which they lead? In the old days when the idea of public library service f o r everyone was just beginning to dawn on librarians, and the sense of mission was abroad among them, Melvil D e w e y expressed the idea thus: " T h e best reading f o r the greatest number at the least cost." Almost as dry as a Webster definition, it must nevertheless have packed a wallop in those days! In the early library school classes students were taught that the library's fundamental functions were: "information, recreation, culture." Objectives outlined in more modern library teaching are at once more explicit and more ambitious. Some of them may be expressed thus: Provision of educational tools, provision of facilities f o r research, provi-

50

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sion for intellectual entertainment, conservation of the social heritage. These are mighty generalizations, fraught with heavy responsibility. But the practicing librarian soon learns to translate them in terms of action, of specific instances, of individual and group contacts. W h e n she gives the life of Abraham Lincoln or of Frederick Douglass to a growing boy, or Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality" to an adolescent girl, she cannot tell to what heights of fulfillment the reading of that book may lead the way. But one cannot live a daily existence in the incandcsccnt light of that thought. N o librarian can endure an ever-present consciousness that he is tossing about sticks of intcllcctual dynamite, or handling the fragile stuff of which dreams are made. So we dehydrate these perishable, precious things and make of them symbols which we can use with less self-consciousness and awe. "Reader guidance"; an analysis of this library function might well make any librarian dither with hesitation and fear. "Club work," "school reference w o r k " — h o w dry they sound, and how full they are of human sap, and how easily that sap may turn sour or dry up! N o , symbols are very necessary. But they are often misleading because they are definite, limited, and oversimplified. A preoccupation with symbols may lead to confusion of thought about the realities of library service, or to a forgetfulness of the substance which lies behind them. T h e substance, one must remember, came first. Someone said once, "Human life is sacred, my highest duty and privilege must be to preserve it." Someone said once, " T h e future of civilization rests with the children of today, my highest duty is to teach these children." Someone said once, "Great books are the greatest teachers, the great-

FUNDAMENTALS

OF SERVICE

5I

est healers. M y highest duty is to see that e v e r y b o d y has the right and the opportunity to use these b o o k s . " A f t e r the vision comes the principle, the o b j e c t i v e made clear by that vision. T h e n comes the symbol which embodies that principle. N o great profession was ever developed without vision and the principles and objectives w h i c h that vision made clear. T h i s is w h y librarians must have a sure knowledge of their objectives. T h i s is w h y a philosophy o f librarianship is vitally important and w h y librarians must constantly examine and study performance o f their practical j o b s — f r o m the most highly specialized to the most r o u t i n e — in the light of that philosophy and its principles. T h i s is w h y it is desirable—more, imperative—that students o f librarianship should learn not only the symbols o f their craft, but its substance in terms of knowledge and the principles a c c o r d ing to which this knowledge may be applied. K n o w l e d g e is the first item on the agenda of the library's business; its second item and all the following ones are transmission of that knowledge. Perhaps the old objectives can hardly be improved upon: information, recreation, culture; state them in modern terms as education, the acquisition o f knowledge, the enrichment of life. T o the extent o f its resources, to the limit o f its abilities, these are the ends f o r which the public library exists. T h e principles of its service are simple b u t imperative, freedom, availability, voluntary and self-directed use. Its affirmations are universal: freedom for all, knowledge f o r all. Stated negatively, they seem to gain in strength: no c e n sorship; no limitation according to race, color, religion, or national origin; no special privilege for class, o r group, or level. T h e national association of librarians has expressed and approved these principles in the c o n c r e t e f o r m called the

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L i b r a r y Bill of Rights. I can do no better than to c o n c l u d c this chaptcr with its phrases. T h e y deserve the c a r e f u l c o n sideration of e v e r y librarian, f o r they f o r m a code w h i c h to have value must be expressed in action; t h e y represent an ideal w h i c h no mere lip service will be adequate to achieve. A t the same time they f o r m one of the strongest leases on which public library service is established, and an end w h i c h it is striving to attain. L I B R A R Y B I L L OF RIGHTS *

T h e Council of the A . L . A . reaffirms its belief in the following basic policies which should govern the services of all libraries: 1. As a responsibility of library service books and other reading matter selected should be chosen f o r values of interest, information and enlightenment of all the people of the community. In no case should any book be excluded because of the race or nationality, or the political or religious views of the writer. 2. There should be the fullest practicable provision of material presenting all points of view concerning the problems and issues of our times, international, national and local; and books and other reading matter of sound factual authority should not be proscribed or removed from library shelves because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval. 3. Censorship of books, urged or practiced by volunteer arbiters of morals or political opinion or by organizations that would establish a coercive concept of Americanism, must be challenged by libraries in maintenance of their responsibility to provide public information and enlightenment through the printed word. 4. Libraries should enlist the cooperation of allied groups in the fields of sciencc, of education, and of book publishing in * A.L.A.

Bulletin, J u l y - A u g u s t , 1948.

FUNDAMENTALS

OF S E R V I C E

53

resisting all abridgment of the free access to ideas and full freedom of expression that are the tradition and heritage of Americans. 5. As an institution of education f o r democratic living, the library should welcome the use of its meeting rooms f o r socially useful and cultural activities and discussion of current public questions. Such meeting places should be available on equal terms to all groups in the community regardless of the beliefs and affiliations of their members.

P A R T

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY TODAY

II

6 A CIVIC INSTITUTION

T

HE

PUBLIC

LIBRARY

OF

TODAY

IS OF

course the immediate descendant of the institution whose

development has been traced in Chapter 2. In what is probably the most important aspect of its service, the preservation and use of printed and other transcribed matter, it is obviously of the same breed and heritage as its honorable progenitor. But modern social conditions have changed so vitally, modern science has so developed our means and methods of

transportation

and

communication,

the

prodigious

achievements of technology, with the resulting anomaly of a contracted cosmos, have so far outrun man's grasp o f his new world's demands and his controls of its altered conditions that a radical adjustment of the public library institution, as of schools and of all social service agencies, is not only called for but is actually under way, at an increasing tempo. T h e public library today is not a simple institution. It is a highly complex one, in objective, in operation, in control, and in means of support. T o be understood it must be studied from these several standpoints. Particularly varied and complex is the civic status of the library, its position as a public institution, its fiscal problems,

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its relationship to g o v e r n m e n t and to other c i v i c agencies. T h e public library, m o r e o v e r , has g r o w n into a h i g h l y complex business organization. A large city library has m a n y departments, deals with large f u n d s , and demands in its direction executive capacity of no mean o r d e r ; w h i l e the smaller library, w i t h the same objectives and procedures on a reduced scale, and with an inadequate staff, presents special problems of administration. Y e t the "business" of the public library is not an end in itself. It is a means of developing an institution w h i c h serves primarily social and intellectual ends. M o r e o v e r , with t o d a y ' s social problems c r o w d i n g a b e w i l d e r e d and g r o p i n g b o d y of citizens, the need of developing the library's f u n c t i o n s as an educational a g e n c y of a high order is increasingly a p p a r ent. T h u s the public library must be studied as a social and educational institution, if one w o u l d really k n o w the substance of its w o r k and measure its c a p a c i t y to meet its o b jectives. T h e w o r k of such an institution requires a h i g h l y trained and socially conscious b o d y of practitioners. K n o w l e d g e of books and book production, as w e l l as critical appreciation of literature, grasp of complex techniques, an understanding of social and psychological relationships and problems, all are required and all point to the necessity of a high p r o fessional status. O n l y as one is able to v i e w the public library institution of t o d a y f r o m these varied outlooks, can its possibilities, its limitations, and its p e r f o r m a n c e be j u d g e d f a i r l y . T h e conception of the public library as an institution w i t h civic responsibilities and subject to public control is a m o d e r n one, and o n l y within c o m p a r a t i v e l y recent y e a r s has it been generally accepted and understood. T h e idea has

A

CIVIC

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evolved slowly because of the dependence of library development on local initiative and private benefactions. In fact, there are cases w h e r e the idea is still accepted g r u d g ingly and with reluctance b y many city officials and b y some librarians or library boards, w h o , wishing to both eat their cake and have it, ask f o r public support while they sigh f o r the old independence of private control. T h e r e exists, therefore, no pattern of civic relationship common to all libraries. T h i s has led to favorable results f o r some libraries in progressive civic units, to unfavorable or disastrous results f o r many more, and to highly confused thinking about the library among most people. T h e government of the American public library, in its historic backgrounds and its present status, has been treated ably by experts, and is f a r too complex a subject to be covered in a brief chaptcr.* H o w e v e r , there are some phases of the situation, with the corresponding problems attendant on them, which are easily understandable and should be better k n o w n to all citizens. N o t only is the unevenness of library development inherent in the various patterns set up through local initiative, but these patterns are largely controlled b y local civic conditions invok ing status and support. T h i s turns our eyes immediately from the libraries themselves to the civic situations of which they are a part. Variations in legal status arise inevitably f r o m the different legal systems under which the states of the union and their local units operate, as well as f r o m the varying interpretations of the library's relationship to them. Carleton B. Joeckel compares this situation with the relatively simple one existing in England, where • For a rccent treatment, see Oliver Garceau, The Public Library in the Political Process (Report of the Public Library Inquiry, 1949).

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the national government is in the same relationship to all local libraries that an American state maintains with the public libraries of that state.* One has only to examine the library laws of all our forty-eight states to realize the infinite possibility of variation. Although public libraries have been created by local effort and are matters of immediate local concern, it must be remembered that the American city is, in turn, normally chartered by the state and thus officially a state creation, ultimately dependent on stare law for all its powers. Moreover, because of the variety in state laws and constitutions, our cities are widely different in their systems of government. Small wonder then that organizations like the public library which have evolved locally rather than from a central source, according to a specific plan, have found themselves functioning under many various laws and statutes. A study of public libraries throughout the country reveals the fact that they may be divided roughly into groups according to their government status, which includes the legal basis of their control and support. T h e principal groups may be described thus: ( 1 ) Corporation and association libraries (2) School district libraries, or, more accurately, those which are agencies of school districts (3) Libraries as agencies of municipalities (4) County libraries (5) Libraries as agencies of regions larger than counties Each of the three groups—school district libraries, municipal libraries, and county libraries—may again be divided into those that are administered by their own library boards * Carleton B. Joeckel, Government of the American Public Library (Chicago, 1935).

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and those without boards, an important distinction. It is desirable that the term library board should be understood, as it is a significant one in the structure and administration of libraries, quite similar to school board in relation to schools. Board members or trustees, as they are often called, are lay, non-professional persons who act in a supervisory capacity with responsibility for policies and custodianship of funds. T o them the chief library executive is responsible, and they always have a connection, more or less direct, with the local government. T h e importance to library administration of such a body, primarily interested in the library and responsible for its development, can hardly be overestimated. Considering more in detail the groups listed above, the first class is distinguished by the fact that control is vested in a corporation or association which is not a part of government, in spite of which free library service is given to all citizens in the municipal unit concerned. Sometimes these libraries are endowed; often they operate with funds provided both by the city and through endowment; sometimes practically all their funds come from the public treasury in accordance with a contract arranged between city and corporation or with a clause in the city charter. T h e Dallas, Texas, library and the N e w York Public Library furnish a practical illustration of the differences involved. Dallas possesses an association library, where the library board is not identical with the association, but is elected by it, the corporate powers of the association being vested in this smaller body. In the Dallas library, unlike most institutions of this type, the association has power only to nominate board members, who then must be confirmed by the city council. T h e library draws its support from citv funds according to a tax rate fixed by the city charter. T h e New York Public Li-

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b r a r y , which serves three of the five boroughs of N e w Y o r k City, is a corporation library, controlled throughout its t w o great divisions, the R e f e r e n c e Department and the Circulation (or branch) Department, b y the Corporate Board, which is self-perpetuating and which, legally, has complete authority over the whole library system. H o w e v e r , the facts of the case are apparent from the terms of support. While the Reference Department, situated in the great central building, is supported b y endowment, the Circulation D e partment, with its more than fifty branches and sub-branches, is dependent on funds appropriated by the city, according to the terms of a contract made originally by the corporation, the city officials, and A n d r e w Carnegie, whose wealth underw r o t e the cost of m a n y of the branch buildings. A s extreme differences will be f o u n d to exist in most of the other classes to be described. T h e second g r o u p mentioned, namely, the libraries which are agencies of school districts, are not, of course, school libraries. T h e y are public libraries legally connected with the system of education. Historically these libraries g o back to a time when in a number of states the school district rather than the town or municipality was used as the civic unit in the statutory development of libraries. S o m e of the institutions now operating under this system are controlled directly b y the Board of Education, while others have their own separate boards. T h e importance to the library of having its o w n board, primarily interested in its development and support, has been stressed. O n the other hand, in the case of school district libraries there are definite advantages which may follow from the concentration in one b o d y of responsibility f o r both school and library. In such an arrangement there are possi-

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bilities of a highly desirable unity and coordination between school and public library services and resources. Against this must be weighed the equal possibility of division or opposition of interest. Cleveland, Ohio, offers an admirable example of a public library administered under school district law by a strong library board, the members of which are appointed by the Board of Education. In Kansas City, Missouri, on the other hand, the library is controlled directly by the Board of E d u cation instead of by a body created by them, and its support is derived from school district funds. Again, in G r a n d Rapids, Michigan, the legal basis of the library places it in the school-district group. Yet it is not only supported by city funds but is administered by a board elected by the people rather than appointed by the Board of Education. Both the Grand Rapids and the Kansas City public libraries give service to schools and general public alike. These three libraries illustrate effectively the varying conditions underlying the government of the public library even within one general group. T h e whole structure of the school-district system is based on state law and in Ohio has resulted in a fairly uniform pattern of organization and support which is highly favorable to library progress. For instance, those libraries which are organized under school-district units are amenable to state law rather than municipal rule, and even when the school district is geographically barely distinguishable from the municipality, the library need be troubled little by changes in city government. In fact, in Ohio so favorable was the school-district organization in terms of support that many libraries organized as municipal units changed over to the school-district system. Of course state laws too may be

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changed so that this favored situation may be altered, as has happened actually in Ohio owing to subsequent changes in state legislation. H o w e v e r , the standard pattern of organization, and the comparative independence of these libraries acting under a general state law, have tended to make possible for them more effective efforts to better their conditions. T h e third class, that of public libraries as agencies of municipalities, is by far the largest of all, and of these the majority are managed b y their own boards.* There are many of these libraries in all parts of the country, and it is from these, undoubtedly, that the reading public has gained its conception of what a public library is. Even in this group, however, there is considerable variation, depending on the type of municipal government, on the manner in which board members are chosen, and on their relationship to the governing body. F o r instance, in Rochester, N e w York, which has a city-manager type of government, the library board is appointed by that official. In the majority of cases, library boards form a unit of government or are appointed by it. Sometimes, particularly in the case of older libraries, the boards are self-perpetuating. T h e municipal libraries which function directly under the government unit, without benefit of a special board, are comparatively f e w in number at present and are more likely to be found in the newer commission or city-manager type of local government than in the older mayor-council form. Some of the N e w Jersey libraries are under city commissions, while examples of those under city managers are Sacramento, California, and St. Petersburg, Florida. It is entirely * Of libraries in this class there were in 1935 about 200 in cities over }o,ooo in population. Joeckcl, op. cit., pp. 175--1').

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possible, that the future will see more public libraries under direct municipal control in view of increasing government participation in all public institutional life, and the trend will be away from the great endowments and private benefactions of the past. It is interesting and reassuring, however, that while in many cities the form of government has changed during rccent years, in very f e w cases have library boards been abolished. It would seem to indicate that up-to-date library administration has not been too much affected by changes in local government. County libraries, our fourth group, show considerable variation in government status as well as in scope of service. Some of these libraries form a part of the county government, while others are connected with city as well as county, as in the case of the Cincinnati, Ohio, library, which is legally under the county government and serves the whole county as well as the city of Cincinnati. Moreover, some municipal libraries give service to their county through contract, an outstanding example being the Library Association of Portland, Oregon. In a majority of the states where county library service is provided, the county laws stipulate that these libraries shall be administered by their own boards. In California, however, where this type of library service Is organized on a large, state-wide scale, each county library operates directly under the board of supervisors of that county. Most of the larger city libraries in California have retained their status as independent units. Fresno, however, has chosen to join its county library organization, and the result is uniform public library service throughout the county and for the city public library, direct control by the county government.

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W h e n \vc turn t o those library service units called regional libraries and classed in our outline as group five, w e c o m e to a situation which not only bristles with difficulties, but w h i c h from the standpoint of practical procedure is unexplored, for regional library organization lies mostly in the field of hope and c o n j e c t u r e . Briefly it m a y be explained that regional library service is being thought of b y librarians as a means of bringing reading facilities t o the percentage (nearly t w o

fifths)

o f the

American people w h o live in areas without library servicc of any type, and often in governmental units which do not lend themselves easily t o library development. C o u n t y libraries have extended this service, but counties are arbitrary divisions, convenient as taxing units but geographically often inconvenient o r impossible as service areas.

Townships,

again, are not living social units but mere political abstractions. Libraries face then the creation o f n e w units o r districts, with all the difficulties of consolidation and taxing distribution. W e must look f o r w a r d to a c o n c e r t e d effort b y librarians, w o r k i n g with government officials, to organize library service effectively in terms of geographical coverage, of satisfactory government relationship, and o f adequate support. Planning for regional library service is one o f the next steps b e f o r e librarians and it c a n n o t be done without reference to g o v e r n m e n t interest and participation. T h e outline just given is in the highest degree general and over-simplified. It has been made in an attempt to indicate the very complex relationship o f the public library to the state, and to explain some of the conditions and f o r c c s which create that c o m p l e x i t y . Most of the libraries considered thus far have been those in municipalities and large regional centers. But the m a n y

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small libraries of the country, those which serve communities of 1,000 to 5,000, what of them? It is when w e look at the libraries in small towns and villages that w e find uncertainty of status and variations in support most apparent. Some of these small libraries are well endowed, and in many cases have attained a high degree of local respect and local support. In a large majority of cases, however, unless they are part of a county or regional set-up with consequent broader basis of support, these libraries lead a precarious existence indeed. T h e tax unit is so small, and the demands on tax funds comparatively so many and so exacting that the library's needs are frequently lost sight of. T h i s docs not necessarily refer to support in terms of amount per capita. F o r instance, in California library appropriations are greater per capita than those in larger cities. H o w e v e r great the per capita appropriation m a y be, the total amount may be still too small to support the library adequately. Moreover, in areas where libraries operate under a state law permitting the use of tax funds f o r their support but without specific provision f o r a basis or channel of support, moneys are allocated to them according to local option, often, as in N e w Y o r k State, f r o m the funds of the Board of Education. T h e amounts appropriated are often inadequate, and nearly all village libraries depend f o r part of their support on private donations and on such devices as benefits, fairs, and card parties sponsored b y local groups. T h i s seems a precarious foundation f o r the building of an institution which should be coordinate with the schools in the cultural life of the community. T h e varied circumstances just described indicate h o w difficult it is to summarize and evaluate the conditions of control and support under which public libraries operate, or to

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deduce from them principles and standards which will ensure an effective degree o f public service. Y e t this is a task which librarians must assume, and it is a task which the supporting public must understand and act upon if there is to be success in the f u r t h e r task of coordinating this institution with the civic life o f the c o m m u n i t y and strengthening its position as an essential public agency. T h e attempt t o summarize the situation in even the roughest w a y leads to certain general conclusions. First, the public library's connection with the government structure is infinitely

varied, because of the lack of uniform library laws

and also bccause of the variations existent in state and city government itself; second, the connection is permissive, not mandatory in character. All our states n o w have laws r e c o g nizing the desirability o f public libraries and permitting local civic units to establish and support them through some form o f taxation. M a n y of these laws, as we have seen, stipulate definite conditions, such as unit of control and source of support; others are general and indefinite, leaving the matter t o local initiative. N a t u r a l l y , this varying relationship of the library to its governing unit and its permissive basis are reflected in a corresponding variety and lack of responsibility in the matter of financial support. Local initiative has served many libraries well in the past, but at present it has left the c o u n t r y with one fourth of its population entirely devoid o f library service and the other three quarters inadequately and unevenly covered. It is instructive t o note as one of the conclusions which w e are justified in drawing that the best library coverage exists in sections w h e r e there is some uniformity in legal status and government relationship. T h e school-district system in O h i o has been outstanding in its efforts toward effec-

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tive progress, and the county system in California is well known for the comprehensiveness and high level of its service. T h i s is true, however, only if in the uniform pattern provision is made for all areas, as has happened in the c o u n t y library system in California. U n i f o r m i t y o f government relationship and basis of support should make for more equitable distribution of services and give a basis of comparison and measurement now sadly needed. However, it cannot be said that there is an easy solution in a situation involving state and municipal law and an institution as old and complex as the library. O n e runs against old tradition and prejudices both in library and in community development which do not yield easily to a formula. F o r instance, one of the most difficult and subtle conflicts in the library situation is that between the "private ownership" ideal, and the "public ownership" concept. T h e "private ownership" idea is inherent in the make-up of many library boards which are independent and self-perpetuating. It has been bound up with their past sources of support, that is, endowment and benefaction. Since most support for public institutions must now come, in our democratic society, from the public purse, there is here an immediate and serious conflict of purpose and sympathy. Are there then no good aspects of this general governmental situation of public libraries? Professional opinions on this question differ. It is certainly true, as has been indicated, that where public opinion is intelligent and informed and where other existing conditions are favorable public libraries, some of them under private or semi-private control, have reached a high level o f performance, of publicrecognition and of financial support, perhaps higher than would have been possible with closer public control.

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Moreover, many librarians, as well as many library boards and local communities interested in library service, treasure the possibilities o f local initiative and of independent action. T h e y fear equally the cramping effects of civil service, the limitations of uniform regulations, and the narrowness of centralized control. H o w e v e r , in spite of these considerations, there is widespread recognition o f the fact that for the majority o f public libraries, either f o r the reasons outlined or others, there exists at present a lack o f serious consideration on the part of supporting government units, a lack of general public recognition, and a consistently low level o f public support. Both librarian and public official should seek to discover a solution which will save the values already won b y the best library practices and standards while raising library service as a whole to greater dignity and usefulness. It is encouraging that our national association is making such an effort, f o r it will require concerted thought and united action. T h e problems involved are particularly difficult because they not o n l y arise from the facts o f practice and precedent, but are inextricably bound up with such characteristics inherent in the library ideal and objective as the purely voluntary attendance and use o f the library's resources, its use b y all types, races, and ages f o r their individual ends of culture, education, amusement, or information; and also the comparative freedom of action on the part of libraries in meeting these needs. It is precisely in this area of general information and cultural influence that public libraries have been most successful, and it is here that their objectives have been accepted most generally. B u t it is here also that public opinion is most groping and inchoate. T h e r e f o r e , public opinion regards

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libraries with indulgent and vague approval, rather than with a solid conviction of their necessity. Schools, on the other hand, meet a need which is recognized as essential, and this fact has led to consolidation, more or less regularized control, and mandatory measures in school attendance and teacher training which in turn have brought an increasing measure of financial support. Public libraries have much to learn f r o m the progress o f schools in the U n i t e d States. T h e general public is learning slowly but surely that continued education through life is essential and is viewing educational objectives and processes from a higher level. It is for librarians to turn this changing point of view toward their own institution, t o relate these new objectives and processes to the facilities and opportunities in what Alvin Johnson, retired dean of the N e w S c h o o l for Social Research, called " t h e People's U n i v e r s i t y . " Can this be done? D o librarians wish to do it? Inevitably such a recognition of the public library as an essential institution in our civic and political life will mean more regulation and more control, a closer affiliation with government agencies and greater dependence on them; it will also result, most probably, in mandatory measures which will enforce standards and in a higher level of financial support. T h e time is n o w here when librarians must take a decisive stand on this issue, a stand backed b y solid conviction. W i t h the demands upon the public purse b y all institutions at an all-time high, the issue seems clear and uncompromising. W h y then the hesitation? T w o questions which I believe are pertinent to this point and which require an answer before the issue itself can be resolved are: First, should and can public libraries take their place on a par with public schools as essential public agencies with established and recognized

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functions in our educational and civic life and an equally recognized relation to our government structure? T h e "should" in this question is to be answered by librarians, the " c a n " will be answered by them in cooperation with public opinion and some form of government affiliation. Second, can libraries if operated on the basis outlined retain their present peculiarly characteristic objectives of liberal and independent action, of free, voluntary use, and of individualized, personalized service? Unless they are convinced that " y e s " is a possible answer to this last question, librarians are almost sure to answer " n o " to the first. This, I firmly believe, is the most important reason for the hesitation in facing the issue of regularized control and support. For librarians have the weaknesses of their really great virtues. T h e y are, by and large, as a professional class liberal, unegotistic, interested in individuals more than in groups, suspicious of mass action and mass thought, devoted to the idea that no man should be forced to do or think anything. T h e y are at once sophisticated and over-simplified in their thinking, for they are convinced that books and education will save the world, believing with Abraham Lincoln that the cure for democracy is more democracy. T h e y are passionate believers in the rights of the individual and in the slow processes of democratic education. T h e y distrust nostrums, pressures, lobbies, subsidies, and most of the other machinations of men. As a result they appear to be conservative and over-cautious, as in fact they often are. T h e y have to be "shown." However, the logic of events, the inexorable facts of meager, imperfect service, of dwindling support, are profoundly illuminating agencies. But there is another side to this picture. Fearful or cautious librarians and library trustees may be advised to look at two brighter phases of our changing society which

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in the general social gloom seem to have attracted too little attention. T h e schools, in spite of a certain rigidity of control and regimentation, have developed in many instances a rich variety of pattern and a striking independence of thought and expression among educators, which it is easy to lose sight of since public and school men alike have stressed so loudly the evil and restricting aspects of our school system. In the governmental field, too, there is a far more liberal attitude than formerly and an increasing consciousness of civic duty. Civil service has indeed a cramping hold on some of our city libraries, but in California the success of the county library system is attributed by many to the direct control of the county government. It is quite possible that librarians have fixed their eyes too exclusively on the bad and dangerous aspects of our social structure. W e would all find it refreshing and beneficial, I think, to look more closely at the signs of progress in educational and civic life which we as librarians can have our share in promoting. Certain it is that our American society today, restless and fluctuating, swept by conflicting currents of thought and purpose, yet called upon to make the most momentous decisions and take the most critical action ever expected of a great nation, needs the influence of that most stabilizing of institutions, the public library. It is in its essence educational, and it is overwhelmingly American in its concept and its purposes. It must be adapted, to be sure, to new patterns of approach and technique, but one can believe that it need not lose its essential qualities and values, which may indeed meet with more appreciation and response than ever before.

7 T H E LIBRARY'S BUSINESS

T

O M O S T R E A D I N G PEOPLE T H E PUBLIC Library is a familiar sight. Visitors on their sight-seeing tours view the great central library buildings of cities such as N e w York, or Boston, or Los Angeles. Students spend hours in the special subject departments of these libraries. Y e t the machine which gives this institution its life is as unknown to most people as the engine which drives a ship is to the passengers on deck. Many readers have probably used or "belonged t o " a city library, such as that of Rochester, or N e w Rochelle, Cedar Rapids, Evanston, or Sioux City. Many more, perhaps, use regularly local branches of the large public libraries or town libraries such as that of Peterborough, New Hampshire, or of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. W h o l e families use libraries near their vacation homes, in Southampton or Ogunquit or W i n t e r Park. H o w many of these readers have asked themselves: W h a t makes the library tick? W h a t goes on behind the desk where I get my books? W h o is responsible for getting the books back on the shelves, or for the carefully typed cards in the catalogue, and when is it all done? W h e n is there time for sending notices about overdue books, or pasting in book pockets?

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T h i s is a hit-or-miss sampling o f the library's chores as a casual observer might think o f them. M o r e complex and exacting are the selection and ordering of books, their classification and cataloguing, and the numerous records involved — r e c o r d s o f books purchased and donated, o f the volumes lost, bound, and replaced; records o f readers registered, of circulation and reference use o f material; records of funds received and expended f o r books, salaries, building repair, light, heat, and equipment. T h e tables at the end of this chapter attempt to give a fairly comprehensive view of this library "business." W h a t most laymen, including some members of library boards, fail to realize is the fact that this business is c o m m o n to all libraries and essential to their efficient administration. T h e smallest library, with one librarian and perhaps a parttime assistant, has very much the same variety o f duties as the larger libraries, though they differ vastly in bulk. T h i s is w o r t h remembering as one visits a small t o w n or summer resort library. In a small library as in a large one books must be selected and purchased, catalogued and prepared f o r the shelves; they must be mended, bound when they threaten to fall apart, finally discarded and replaced; readers must be registered and book use of readers recorded; books must be returned to shelves and arranged so that they can be found again; cards about books overdue or reserved must be sent; records of most of these transactions must be kept; reports must be made out and typed. Most of this w o r k in the small library must be done behind the scenes, either when the library is closed to the public or when use is slight and the part-time assistant, if any, is on duty. A n d all this is in addition to the real use and operation o f the library, when librarian and patron meet and the library is justified b y its use.

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I sometimes think that the chief difference between a small library and a large one is that in the latter there is a job for each worker, while in the former there is one worker for all the jobs. A f t e r this informal introduction to the library as a business organization, we shall attempt to group into an orderly outline the various techniques and procedures which are necessary in any efficient library organization. There may be said to exist five main divisions: ( 1 ) T h e acquisition of books and other printed and graphic materials. This includes their selection and purchase, as well as the necessary records. (2) T h e preparation of these materials for use, including the highly specialized processes of classification and cataloguing and also their mechanical preparation for the shelves or for circulation. (3) T h e techniques of circulation or public issue of materials. These form a fairly complex body of procedures, including not only the issue and return of materials but the processes attendant on reserving books and recovering those that are lost or overdue. A n important section of circulation work is devoted to registration of readers. For the efficient operation of these various processes, accurate records are important. (4) T h e techniques of reference and of book information service, including the selection and purchase as well as the listing and care of specialized materials, books, periodicals, pamphlets, pictures, etc. Usually these materials are checked as readers use them, and records of the questions asked are kept. (5) T h e administrative processes, which vary greatly in libraries of different size. In all libraries, however, technical

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and financial records must be kept, and in larger institutions there is centralized bookkeeping covering all departments. Here also are developed and recorded the techniques of personnel administration, such as schedules, attendance records, and service or staff ratings. This outline is oversimplified in order to cover libraries of various sizes. In large libraries these divisions may be considerably subdivided. F o r instance, such a library may have under Administration a department of personnel, a department of building maintenance, an office of finance, a publicity officer. Some of the largest libraries also have departments of binding and printing, where their own forms and stationery are prepared and their books are rebound. T h e use here of the terms "large" or "small" libraries is purely arbitrary and f o r the sake of convenience. In size, libraries grade themselves on a sliding scale, and an accurate statistical survey would call f o r a classification based on number of population served, size of book collection, or other specific units of measurement. This fact must be taken into consideration in interpreting statements about libraries of a certain size. Y e t generalizations may be made which within variable limits can be accepted as true. T h e complexity of library organization, the number of departments, the sub-division of departments into smaller and more specific sections occur at an increasing ratio as libraries develop in size and areas served. T h e branch units maintained by all large public libraries and by many others illustrate this phase of library administration. Quite a number of libraries which cannot be called large maintain a branch in an outlying section of town. A t the other end of the scale, a majority of the N e w Y o r k Public Library's branches conduct as large a business in circula-

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tion, personnel, and activities as many independent libraries. This case, however, is not typical, since the N e w York Public's branch system comprises its entire Circulation Department while the Central Library is wholly for reference use.* T h e average public library carries on both its circulation and reference activities in the main building, while the branches serve to complement and extend the service. What we have been describing is the administrative set-up of a library in terms of technical procedures and professional techniques. This is important from the business standpoint, for a library administration cannot be effective unless it provides a solid structure and accurately functioning parts for the performance of its public duties. Public libraries also build an administrative pattern in terms of their public services, often quite simple, sometimes highly complex. For instance, in addition to their circulation and reference departments of work, there may be other important divisions, sometimes functioning as subordinate to the larger departments, sometimes coordinate with them. Service divisions of which several are usually to be found operating in large or medium-sized libraries are: children's work, work with schools, readers' advisory service, adult education service, work with the foreign born, visual-aid service, hospital service. An extension department often is in operation, covering deposit or delivery stations, traveling libraries, and bookmobile service. In the case of smaller libraries the extension department may include work with schools, the foreign born, the sick in hospitals, and other activities which in large libraries are developed as separate divisions of work. In many * However, the offices of the Circulation Department and the Central Circulation Branch are located in the Central Building.

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cases service to adults and service to children form the major departments of work. Each department may conduct its own individual technical procedures either in whole or in part, or as often occurs, these processes may be combined and centralized. T h e work of a typical library may be analyzed and divided either on levels (horizontally), according to types of service or people served, or vertically, according to procedures, or what we have called "business," much of which is repeated in the various service departments. A good illustration is afforded by the adult and children's departments of a large library, each of which conducts its own reference work and its own circulation activities. A very good point at which to begin a study of library administration in the interests of economy is where there is duplication of techniques in the various service departments. This is a task for librarians, however, rather than economy experts without library experience, for only professional librarians can judge where coordination of procedures is possible without detriment to the service. An important administrative trend in public libraries is toward departmentalization. Broadly speaking, this means that books and services are brought together in subject areas, so that a student may use the card catalogue, have his books issued to him, and pursue the study of them all within one department. There are variations in this policy, looking toward greater or less autonomy in the departments, and toward more or less correlation of techniques. Rochester, N e w York, presents an admirable example of how a fairly large or medium-sized library may make a practical adaptation of this policy. In the Rochester Public Library the subject departments radiate from a central room, where the

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processes of circulation are concentrated. One of the great advantages of this arrangement for the reader is the juxtaposition and prominence given to books and advisory service. As libraries decrease in size, there is considerable telescoping of functions and procedures, and in the small library the important administrative work is kept in the hands of the head librarian, who then assigns the techniques and routines of the library's business to those of her staff best fitted, in her judgment, to perform each. It should be realized that for every large library with its staff of several hundred and its numerous departments and sub-divisions there are hundreds of small libraries employing from one to a dozen librarians or library workers of different types and different grades of capacity and equipment. Thus there is far closer similarity between the administrative and business set-up of a large public library and a large college library or even between that of the large public library and such an institution as a museum or hospital than there is between that of a large and that of a small public library. Although the large and small public libraries are devoted to the same ends and must perform the same types of service, the methods by which those ends are reached and those services rendered may be completely different, in fact, they must be so to a large extent. T h e result is that large-library administration, like the administration of any great institution, is a specialized business, governed by recognized principles of business management. One of the most vital tasks of large-library administration is the setting up of a system by which all the details of all the branches of work will be properly grouped and supervised and which will ensure the successful delegation of responsibility and authority. A major share of the administrator's attention must also

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be given to the support of the library, as is the case in any large institution. T h e making of a budget involves a knowledge of past expenditures; an intimate acquaintance with the activities, the needs, and the conditions in every area of the library; the evaluation of these conditions and the drawing up of a financial plan which will meet them as nearly as may be and still have a chance of passing the coldly critical fiscal eye. T h e r e are two phases of library administration which bristle with difficulties for the large-library executive, and in lesser measure for others. These are first, building maintenance and the replacement or duplication of technical furnishings and, second, supplies. T h e professional outfitting of a library is as highly technical and specialized a business as is that of a hospital, a museum, or a department store. T h e library shares with any business house the need for typewriters, mimeographing outfits, and adding machines. It uses each year thousands of letterheads and tens of thousands of cards of various types—readers' cards, catalogue cards, reserve and over-due postal cards—while its use of pens, pencils, and erasers is hardly to be reckoned. Y e t the supply department of any large library is usually one of those which is most hard pressed and which receives the least sympathetic fiscal response. This brings up a point which is vital to all head librarians— the type of budget stipulated by law. If its revenue comes to the library in a lump sum, subject to distribution at the discretion of the librarian, the matter is comparatively simple. If, however, a segregated or "line-by-line" budget must be presented, the various moneys are allocated for specific purposes and no changes may be made without permission of the appropriating authorities. T h e maintenance of constant

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and cordial relationship with the governing unit responsible for the library's support is thus a vitally important matter. In a small library the librarian is far closer to the function and purpose for which the library exists, that is, service to the public, and the "business" of the library is incidental, carried on at odd moments and often with indifferent help. V e r y often, also, the librarian, and particularly the library trustees in a small place, have a closer and more natural relationship with those civic officials who control the library's finances. G o o d public relations may be maintained as a natural way of life in such a town, while in a large city the library must make it "big business"—the maintenance of a publicity expert or the conducting of a financial campaign. An important problem in public library administration involves the promotion in smaller libraries of better business methods without impairing the helpful personal service which such libraries often render. It is said by many that more adequate financial support is the only effective solution, but as this is asserted in explanation of most library shortcomings, and as this solution, obviously true though it be, is like the will-o'-the-wisp, ever flickering ahead but out of reach, librarians had better seek also some other way out. It is suggested that training in elementary business and administrative principles and methods would be helpful. Perhaps equally so would be a réévaluation of processes in relation to services rendered, with a view to eliminating the nonessential. T h i s has been done b y several libraries with striking success. Needless to say, it first requires a personal réévaluation on the part of the librarian, with some mental elimination! An administrative problem o f the large library faces in just the opposite direction. Such a library, with its elab-

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orate organization, must protect its essential services from the crushing burden of daily routine. A réévaluation may or may not lead to curtailing routines, the essential minimum of which must present the cumulative pressure attendant on w o r k in mass production. T h e administrator of such a library m a y turn to new methods of coordination and to labor-saving dcvices and machines, to "syphon o f f " the "business" of the library f r o m its service. Labor-saving machines include not only those which are employed by every efficient business house, such as adding machines, multigraphs, etc., but also the devices invented primarily f o r library use, such as the charging machine, which records books issued and returned. A well-known example of the cooperative techniques which may be employed is the use b y most libraries of catalogue cards printed b y the Library of Congress in bulk and available at cost. T h e r e are certain problems involved in the use of most so-called labor-saving machines. One is the original cost, which is prohibitive f o r many libraries. T h e n the librarian must ask if the machine really saves time in the terms of manpower. Machines must be run, and unless they contribute to mass production the net result in actual time saved m a y be trivial. In this connection, however, there are two other valid considerations, namely the increase in accuracy, exceedingly important in making records, and the saving of " f a t i g u e hours," so that workers may not be w o r n out by the bulk of routine w o r k but will be fresher instead f o r their human duties. T h i s brings up what is perhaps the most important question of all: w h o is to perform these routine duties, either by hand or b y machine? One characteristic of library work which plagues all librarians is the number of routine processes

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which, even after all possible trimming is done, still remain as inseparable from efficient management. These routines, however, are not all on the same level. T h e y fall naturally into two categories, those involving professional skill and those of a purely routine nature. Examples of the former are the cataloguing of books and the indexing of subject matter in magazines. T y p i c a l of the mechanical or routine clerical duties are the charging of books for issue, much of the card filing, the shelving and arrangement of books, and their physical preparation. Realization of this situation has resulted in an attempt to separate these techniques into professional on the one hand and clerical or mechanical on the other. It may be noted here that failure to follow this policy more strictly in the past has led to the conception existent in some quarters of the librarian as simply a clerk. T h e catch in all this is that in most small libraries such separation of duties is difficult or impossible because of the small staffs employed. This situation in itself requires study and evaluation, with a possible new outlook on organizational methods, on policies of cooperation and coordination among libraries, and on new and radical personnel adjustments.* T h e trend toward grouping into larger units of service, such as county or regional libraries, illustrates changing policies in library administration. This trend was motivated largely b y the need of reducing overhead expense and providing better service per tax dollar for each local library. It is relevant to our present discussion in that a larger organizational unit will be able to centralize many routines and thus relieve the local staffs for better book and reader service. * See Robert D. Leigh, The Public Library in the United States (Report of the Public Library Inquiry, 1950), Chapter 9.

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T h e branches of a large city system furnish an example of this procedure as it is possible in a centralized but relatively small area. A s branches were established in the first place to distribute personal service, with administrative and technical procedures handled in the central library, so in a city like N e w Y o r k it might be feasible to use one branch in a given area, remote y e t thickly populated, as an administration center f o r that area. T h e important consideration which librarians must never forget is that all the business techniques which seem and indeed are necessary are still only means to an end; further that they should be examined constantly in relation to current, practical use and in the light of modern inventions in the field of technical procedure. If administrative coordination can be made to serve this purpose and raise the level of personal service, it will be accepted gladly. Moreover, any advance in policy or method which will help to lift the burden of daily and hourly routine from those w h o entered the library field because they liked books and people and wanted to bring them together will be welcomed with huzzahs of approval b y the whole body of library workers.

8 PROFESSIONAL LIBRARIANSHIP

J

A M E S A. G A R F I E L D D E F I N E D A S U C C E S S F U L school as " a log hut with a simple bench, Mark Hopkins on one end and I on the other." If there is an analogy here between the school and the library there is also a point of contrast. As a rule the knowledge relayed by a librarian is not in his head, but in some piece of written matter. W h a t the librarian's head holds is a knowledge of books which enables him to place in the reader's hands the book or magazine or other material which contains the answer to his question. So the picture of a library, sketched in its simplest outlines, is that of a reader receiving in his hands a book—the right book—from the hands of the librarian. T h e r e are varied methods of relaying this information, of supplying these books. T h e y include elaborate charging systems, electrified boards with numbers blinking miraculously on and off, record cards, filing systems, telephone calls, gadgets, routines, devices galore. But all these are tools, lifeless, ineffective, unless directed by knowledge, intelligence, and good will. T h e most important element in library service is the librarian. W h e n he or she is indifferent—in personality, education, or training—the library and library service are more than indifferent. W h e n the librarian is able, informed, and

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responsive—in other words, a good librarian—the library is a good one, regardless of how many gadgets it may have or lack. W h a t then of the librarians in our public libraries, their caliber and their training? It is high time that the public w h o uses and pays for its libraries know the answers to some of these questions: W h a t are the personal requirements for public library positions? W h a t are the essentials of education and training? W r hat is the nature of the training required and what types of institution conduct this training? What are the important problems of personnel management? W h a t is the connection between the tax dollar and the status of staff members in the libraries concerned? As is usual throughout the whole public library field, the personnel situation is varying and inconstant. T h e American Library Association has set up standards for positions in libraries of different size which include minima of training and experience. But since these standards are not mandatory they are met with varying degrees of success and, in a considerable number of cases, not at all. Alany small libraries in the country are financed so poorly that they cannot employ trained librarians; and some of the larger libraries, with their correspondingly greater expenses and comparatively meager funds, are not much better off, particularly in filling the so-called lower positions. Formerly many libraries met this situation through local training or apprentice classes. But this procedure is now, professionally speaking, out of favor. Training in librarianship is undergoing the same changes which have taken place in such professions as law, architecture, and nursing. A public librarian, to be qualified to advance in his or her profession, must have a college degree and at least one year in an accredited library school. This is in-

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deed the minimum which should be required f o r w o r k on a professional level. But owing to lack o f e n f o r c e d standards and certification and to almost universally l o w salary levels, the situation presents t w o general aspects detrimental both t o good w o r k accomplishment and t o staff morale. In some o f the smaller or poorer libraries, w h e r e but an indifferent attempt is made to meet standards, the untrained w o r k e r is practically immovable, since she is unqualified to take a better job in the field and since the library is unable to pay f o r a properly qualified person. In m a n y larger libraries, on the other hand, there is constant turnover of qualified personnel, as the ambitious, trained librarians seek constantly for better positions. It is easy to see that this situation creates a vicious circle, since low salaries and continually changing staff mean poorer service, and inefficient service in turn does not invite increase in support. T h o s e w h o face the facts realize that this circle must be broken b y professional librarians themselves. N o civic authorities, n o " F r i e n d s o f the L i b r a r y " are going t o do it for them. O n l y their o w n ability, resource, and determination can accomplish this feat. T h e r e is a characteristic peculiar t o library w o r k of almost every kind which complicates the situation. T h i s is the very wide range o f the w o r k in terms o f professional knowledge and intellectual attainment. A large n u m b e r of the tasks which must be carried on in a library are mechanical, clerical, and manual in character. M o r e o v e r , m a n y o f these tasks are so closely integrated with the professional aspects of the w o r k that it is exceedingly difficult t o separate the two. A minor concrete example is offered b y the procedure of reserving books. Readers may sign cards indicating the titles t h e y wish t o have reserved f o r them. It might seem a simple

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matter to keep these cards filed and to follow a routine of checking the books which are out b y the requests. A s a matter of fact, considerable judgment and book knowledge are frequently required, since readers are often indefinite in their requests. A " g o o d b o o k " about atomic energy or on vegetable g r o w i n g or aircraft mechanics or television m a y be requested, or possibly the reader has forgotten the author of the title he wants, or the exact wording of the title. L a c k of knowledge or perception in filling these requests is unfair to the reader and reacts unfavorably on the reputation and service of the library. Perhaps a still better example, because it occurs universally, is supplied b y the staffing of the desk where books are issued and returned. T h i s procedure seems wholly mechanical, and some libraries use clerks or sub-professional workers f o r the job. Y e t this position is the one most in the public eye; everyone w h o draws out a book has dealings with the person at this desk, and it is safe to say that a majority of readers using any public library f o r m their impressions of it primarily from this staff member. A n inefficient, indifferent, or ill-educated person in this position may do harm to a library's service and prestige which a year's work b y a highly paid public relations officer cannot undo. T h e r e are answers to these problems, of course. T h e reserve difficulty m a y be obviated b y conferencc with a professional superior. Relations at the loan desk may be improved b y supervision of untrained workers b y an experienced staff member or b y training non-professional w o r k ers in manners and approach. But these solutions involve executive capacity, human perception, and time to a degree which sometimes seems to the busy librarian to be out of proportion to the results obtained. T h e familiar saying, " I t

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is easier to do it myself," is heard quite as often in the library as in the busy household. N o r is there necessarily a saving in manpower in the use of clerical workers, particularly if combined with a professional supervisor, as was suggested in the case of the loan desk. T h e policy is not in the interests of economy but in those of professional recognition and greater efficiency.* There is now a keen realization among librarians of this professional difficulty and an increasing effort to meet it by a division of clerical from professional positions, with a corresponding difference in professional training, duties, and salary. T h e problem is rccognized by the professional library schools, most of which no longer stress techniques and routines, but the principles and knowledge underlying them. There are now thirty-six accredited library schools in the United States and Canada, but they differ in requirements and curricula. There are in fact three types.t T h e T y p e I schools require at least a bachelor's degree for admission to the first academic year of library science, with advanced training beyond the first year. There arc five schools of this type which give advanced training only. T y p e II includes those, eighteen in number, which give only the first academic year of library science, requiring four years of appropriate college work for admission. In T y p e III are those schools which give only the first academic year of library science, * In other words, each worker, the clerical and the professional, is used for the purposes and in the work for which she has been especially trained, t According to A.L.A. Handbook 1941. The curricula of the library schools are undergoing a continuous scrutiny and revision which rr.ay invalidate statements made at a given time. For example, Denver, listed in the Handbook as a T v p e III school, now gives a fifth year with an M.A. degree.

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and this is included within the f o u r undergraduate college years. T h e excellent training given b y the schools and the conviction of library administrators and boards that expert training is essential f o r expert work have raised the professional level of library service greatly in a comparatively short period of years. T h e development of the schools into the three types described in turn represents increased needs and demands; it also represents a radical change of thought a m o n g library educators. T h i s shows itself in t w o tendencies, one toward the requirements of scholarship, the other t o w a r d training on different intellectual levels. It is important to consider how these trends of thought, as well as the general pattern of library education, are affecting and will affect public library service and practice. A t the present time a great deal of the actual professional w o r k in public libraries is being done by persons not only unqualified b y training but ineligible f o r entrance to many of the schools f r o m lack of educational background. T h i s situation m a y be improved somewhat b y such special training devices as extension and summer school courses and institutes held b y library schools or b y local library bodies. Moreover, it will undoubtedly improve with the passage of time as standards persist and are consolidated and as vacant positions are filled b y trained librarians. It is a condition not unlike that through which m a n y of the professions have passed. H o w e v e r , one problem is involved which is unlikely to be corrected b y time alone, f o r it is inherent in public library practice. Aside f r o m the purely clerical jobs which are being separated more and more f r o m the professional, there is a large segment of w o r k , not of the highest grade in-

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tellectually but still professional in character, which can be performed satisfactorily, as is the case at present, b y librarians of varying qualifications and much less than the highest professional equipment. Beyond this somewhat indefinite point progress is marked b y increasing responsibility, variety of duty, and an accompanying need f o r larger professional resources. T h e question then arises as to whether professional library work is to be performed on lower and higher levels, with librarians trained on planes correspondingly lower or higher. A s is usual in public library practice, this question has been answered in varying ways, whether consciously or not, by different librarians, and not always on the basis of funds available. In other words, there is a distinct tendency, philosophically, to look askance at anything which may savor of a caste system in public library practice, and practically, to realize the difficulty of deciding what constitutes a lower and what a higher type of service. T h e line is often so nebulous as to disappear entirely. T o the average librarian, it is safe to say, public library w o r k presents itself as performed not so much on levels as on a series of steps, with an almost imperceptible grade upward. Again, speaking practically, f o r a considerable number of years to come it is from this large group of workers called colloquially the "rank and file" that higher, more essential and more demanding positions will be filled, if they are to be filled at all. If such positions are given to those without the training required b y

accepted criteria, professional

standards are lowered, and in actual practice this sometimes happens. On the other hand, many librarians whose budgets will not permit the necessary salaries f o r qualified w o r k in various fields, abandon such w o r k entirely, or assign it on a temporary basis—often turning out not to be temporary—

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without corresponding compensation, to unqualified or subprofessional workers. In many cases a deadlock and a lowering of staff morale ensue. It would seem evident that to break this deadlock and still to protect standards, a place in the pattern of professional education should be found f o r many library workers n o w at a standstill. Indeed, flexibility and fluidity

in requirements and in professional training seem

not only desirable but particularly practicable in a calling covering so m a n y types of w o r k and necessitating such varied types of professional equipment. Many y o u n g librarians on the w a y up need training of an order calculated not so much to perfect them in their present duties, or even to develop their capacity f o r similar if more complex jobs, but rather to stir their ambitions, enlarge their vision, and mature their taste. T h e Denver College of Librarianship, which in September, 1948, became a school in the University of Denver Graduate College, retains an undergraduate quarter which can be taken without reference to the graduate program. This illustrates h o w a f u l l y qualified school may find a place in its plan of education f o r workers not qualified f o r higher training. Such training would seem to be the great opportunity of the schools outside the graduate group. F o r although their requirements must be different and their curricula will differ in subject matter and presentation, their training is toward the same high goal rather than a lower professional level. T h e y have a special obligation and responsibility in presenting a solid core of knowledge vital to all efficient library practice, in studying applied human relationships little noted now in most of our professional curricula, and in addition, in requiring a high grade of teaching.

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It would then be the function o f the graduate schools to build around or upon this solid c o r e additional or extended knowledge or techniques, to supplement their standards of admission with more careful screening, to present the varied specialized aspects of library service in terms of scholarship and of human values, and to p r o m o t e research and evaluation as a basis f o r extending and enriching the b o d y of intellectual material which must be the bulwark of any w o r t h y profession. T h i s statement of the training situation, however, is oversimplified and incomplete, for though it sounds well, in public library practice it is o f t e n singularly ineffective. W h a t happens, f o r instance, to the y o u n g w o m a n w h o has taken a year's training in a T y p e III school as part of her college course? If she wishes to advance far she must leave her job and take another year of college w o r k and at least one year of advanced library w o r k . T h i s difficulty possibly can be obviated through the a w a r d of scholarships, or b y the incentive of a salary increase on the part of the employing library, a current policy in the teaching profession. H o w e v e r , this circumstance seems to be merely a s y m p t o m in a general condition. In practice, the public librarian's k n o w l e d g e of the subject matter of books is adapted to the criterion of use: efficient public library service requires a n o d d i n g acquaintance with m a n y subjects and a thorough familiarity with reference aids, sources of bibliographic backgrounds, and methods of research. T h e s e techniques make it possible f o r the librarian with little or no specialized subject k n o w l e d g e to give the specialist just the help he needs. H e k n o w s the subject, the librarian knows the source literature of the subject. W h i l e public libraries emphasize this use or adaptation of

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knowledge and materials, and the practice is thus still organized as an interrelated series of processes, professional education is being more and more developed on or toward different intellectual levels. Emphasis is laid heavily on the needs and methods of scholarship, and the tendency is to separate the "art" of librarianship, as it is practiced in the library, from its intellectual subject matter. Unfortunately this tends to impress the library school student with the idea that the public library offers no opportunity for the use of scholarly training or attainments. Worse, it leaves the student with no conviction that the use of book materials and sources and their adaptation to the needs of people is for the practicing librarian the very essence of professional scholarship. At this point we may reasonably offer some tentative conclusions about the relationship between public library practice and professional library education, and about the probable effect upon public library service of these trends in training. First, then, it seems fair to state that public libraries face a situation in the field of professional education which will tend to make available to them more highly trained and intellectually equipped persons for their upper level positions, but at the same time may tend to force a division or segregation of professional services into levels or categories, with little possibility of adaptation or fluidity. It is quite possible that future development may confirm this trend, but it will involve serious administrative changes in public libraries, and for some time to come will prove quite unrealistic in relation to the personnel situation in the majority of libraries, where often one person must wait on readers at the desk, help Johnny with his homework, and find material for a club

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woman's paper on world government. Q u e r y : Docs not this library w o r k e r need a distillation of the essence of library service? Should she not have been introduced to the philosophy, the ethics, and the comradeship of professional librarianship? N e x t , though scholarly training is highly desirable f o r many public library positions, it is not essential f o r a very large sector of work, professional in application though not scholarly in content, and it is questionable, I believe, whether such w o r k will be adequately promoted through training on the graduate level, unless the subjects and methods used are those particularly suited to public library requirements. Again, there is in public library service an acute need of training in the application of both knowledge and method to the people w h o compose the inquiring public and the situations which they present—what I have called the " a r t " of librarianship—and it seems v e r y doubtful if facility in this art can be promoted through a separation in the training period of the content of learning from its use and practice; pursuing this thought still further, the whole area of public relations, of psychological knowledge and its application to library service, requires f r o m the standpoint of public library need f a r more consideration from the schools, both on the graduate and undergraduate levels, than has hitherto been the case. T h i s is the core of public library service and is one of the chief reasons f o r the correlation of personal service and book knowledge in a common body of theory and practice and f o r a fluidity of relationship between types of service and types of people. Cultivation of library service as an art, the intellectual and scientific knowledge and methods necessary f o r its successful cultivation, has received little expert attention either in the practical field or in the training

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area. It is increasingly evident that training in this art is needed f o r the successful conduct of public library w o r k . T h e lack of this training, its meager quantity and its amateurish quality, have caused library education to become out of touch with public library needs, have brought dissatisfaction and restlessness to library school students, and tend to draw the best students to other types of library w o r k better served by the curricula subjects of our schools. T h e promotion of suitable and adequate preparation f o r service in the whole public library field is a matter of supreme importance to all those interested in public libraries. T h e course which such preparation will take and the construction of curricula to give it substance lie within the function and responsibility of library educators, and this field of w o r k merits their most earnest attention. T o o often in the past library school graduates have drifted into the public library field because of no particular aptitude or training f o r a specialized department of library work, so that one is constrained to ask: are there then no aspects of public library w o r k , no special characteristics needed f o r its successful practice? Much of the most interesting and vital educational material about public library service has been produced b y discussion and exploration in seminars, institutes, and workshops. But I trust I shall not seem too pontifical if I sound a note of caution here. Unless institute and workshop techniques are incorporated into academic curriculum procedures they will retain their amateur and pragmatic associations. T h e i r values need to be isolated and transformed into a code and a philosophy and their content built into a form worthy of inclusion in a system of professional education. But if professional training should be adapted to public

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library needs, there is an obligation on public administrators; for in the practical field also there is a situation which tends to check the entrance into public library service of highly qualified persons. This is the lack of opportunity for extensive advancement through any except the executive channels. This is in part a matter of administrative set-up, but it is due, in a larger sense, to a one-sided view of the public library as a service unit. In spite of the varied and important activities carried on by many libraries, requiring workers of a high order, with certain exceptions described heretofore there has been little tendency to group these activities together into departments of work assigned to librarians especially qualified and trained to take charge of them, and paid accordingly. In other words, there is often a very wide gap between executive positions and all others no matter how valuable. Also, irrespective of salary, there are amazingly f e w well-defined positions which offer opportunity in the way of personal service or book knowledge in the average public library. Club work, group service, publicity, work with young people, community contacts, in all too many cases are performed sporadically by the head librarian or are assigned to any worker who is free or seems qualified to do the job. Such work often must be done in addition to the regular technical tasks and receives no extra pay and scant recognition. For instance, in most organizations where community relations are in operation a field worker or secretary is an important officer. Such a position is almost unknown in the public library. Community relations work as a special project is in many cases maintained, even if sporadically, but it is not pointed up into an essential position and is often buried in a group of other functions. These statements constitute a generalization to which

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there are conspicuous exceptions. In some libraries, particularly in a f e w large and well-supported ones, there is a trend toward departments of adult service and even toward the subdivision o f that service into specific areas, a policy which cannot fail to give more dignity to the library's status and lead eventually to a pattern o f diversified service, with c o r responding recognition, which may be followed or adapted according t o local ability and resources. In the s u b j e c t field there is little specialization except in the large libraries which have been departmentalized. A f e w smaller libraries have collected local history or perhaps have specialized in a subject of local interest or concern, as, for instance, in Corning, N e w Y o r k , where the librarian has made an excellent collection of books on glass and the glass industry. O n l y occasionally, however, is a librarian appointed t o take charge o f such a collection and to interpret its value and use. H o w often a good music library or specialized resources in one o f the natural sciences, or in business, or in the field of art or of sport, fails to give its full measure of information or pleasure because it is not promoted and interpreted b y a librarian with the necessary knowledge! W e are not talking n o w of specialists in the scholarly sense, who are indeed used to wonderful effcct in the great reference departments of our large public libraries. It should be possible in many smaller libraries to increase the use and e n j o y m e n t of such special collections as t h e y might develop b y the encouragement and recognition of positions to be filled b y those with special interests and more adequate information in the field than their fellows. M a n y librarians would welc o m e the c h a n c e of such specialized w o r k and the opportun i t y of service on a higher level than the general library position which is all that many libraries offer to those with-

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out the ability or desire for executive promotion. T h e situation thus described is so well recosrnized that it is taken for granted. In our library schools those students w h o have special abilities or are eager and ambitious turn to other branches o f the profession, for instance to school, college, or special libraries, rather than t o public library w o r k . Y e t the human interest, the variety in patron use and in b o o k resources have an appeal t o many y o u n g people, who would almost c e r tainly respond w e r e positions of interest and responsibility available to them. S u c h an opening up o f more responsible and wcll-recognized positions in the special fields also might well bring more men to a profession which is n o w over-feminized. T h e point o f view o f men is needed in much more of the w o r k done b y a public library, particularly in public relations, in work with y o u n g men and boys, and with labor and business groups. A t present the interest of men in library w o r k and the main course o f their training follow the executive line, not primarily, I believe, because they all prefer administrative positions, but because t h e y want the higher salaries and the recognition which are n o w withheld in large part from all e x c e p t chief librarians. T h e result is that a less efficient man is often holding an executive position in which a qualified w o m a n could render greater service. In other words, more qualified w o m e n in administrative positions and more men in the many positions of service and public relations and in the s u b j e c t fields for which their contacts and their special qualifications may fit them would not only benefit the profession immeasurably, but offer more invitation to men and w o m e n of the desired caliber and ability. T h u s the development of librarianship as a profession is a t w o f o l d process. Important as the schools are and essential

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as their training is to efficient library work, one can never forget that they form only one aspect of professional librarianship. The other, the really important aspect, for which the schools exist, is the practice of the profession. Library administrators are chiefly responsible for professional achievement or failure. The work must be on a high level before it deserves the descriptive adjective "professional"; and it must be work which library school graduates are prepared to perform and which will afford them pride. As the schools are responsible to leaders in the field for producing librarians capable of rising to its great opportunities, so these leaders are responsible to the schools for the proper use of their graduates so that these opportunities may be met in full measure. Professional librarianship may be compared to a medal on the reverse of which is impressed the pattern of professional education, on the face a picture of expert library service. Each is inseparable from the other.

9 A SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE CENTER Less a reservoir

than a

fountain.

IN THESE WORDS MELVIL DEWEY ALMOST A l h a l f century ago defined the functions of the public library as an institution not so much for the storage and preservation of knowledge as for its dissemination. If this was true at that time, it is infinitely more so now, as the library meets more kinds of people and promotes new methods of imparting its largess of knowledge. It is true, of course, that there will be no treasures to shower upon the library's patrons should its attributes as a reservoir be neglected, a fact which Dewey very well knew. But he was pointing out in his own trenchant fashion that this old institution formerly devoted to collection and preservation was discovering a new opportunity and discerning a more vital function. T h e title of this chapter is another attempt to define the public library by a descriptive phrase instead of in terms of its ends and practice. N o t exclusively an educational institution, because it has other ends, not primarily a social agency, though it has important social aspects, the library is essentially concerned

with intelligence,

its nourishment and

growth. N o w it is becoming more and more evident that the intelligence of society is at stake, for in the survival of the fittest, nature has decreed that the stupid will perish. She does

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not suffer fools gladly. If, therefore, the public library is not an agency primarily f o r the development of a social intelligence, what is it for? This position is a natural outgrowth of the library's emergence as an active participant in modern life. But the position has been consolidated b y the efforts of many individual librarians in various locations to strengthen the service of their libraries through study of their communities and increased knowledge of community needs and problems. M a n y of the early, non-traditional activities tried out in attempting to reach community life were experimental and tentative, mostly local in character and often the result of a personal bent on the part of librarians w h o were often regarded with more indulgence than admiration b y their colleagues. T h e library social program has n o w come a long w a y toward maturity, stimulated as it was b y the great adult education movement of the 1920's and given a good, hard push b y the exigencies of the present time. It is expanding in many directions and presents a variety of aspects, some new and all challenging. A searching look at this program of the library should disclose its significance as one of the greatest potentials in our social and intellectual life. Although the traditional, most treasured, and perhaps most uniquely valuable service of the public library is that given to the individual, the library nevertheless has learned to think and w o r k in terms of groups and group relationships. It is largely on this basis that it has attained its increased recognition as a social institution. These relationships and the social program which has g r o w n from them have been established partly on the basis of subject interests and resources and partly as the result of contact with the institutional life of the community. T h e librarian's efforts to find focal points at which to reach

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neighborhood life bring him an acquaintance, and frequently a more or less close relationship with existing agencies, leading more often than not to an extension of the library's service to other institutions in the community at the point where books and library aid are needed. T h e s e contacts also tend to spread knowledge about the library and lead often to its use by new groups and individuals. It is natural that more attention should be given to those groups whose intellectual needs are most evident or whose demands are most insistent. Students, both academic and voluntary, have always received intensive service from libraries, and as the limits of the educational program have expanded, so have the resources and services of the library in books and advisory help. T h e professional and the skilled trade and technical groups, with their highly intelligent and articulate demands, have been responsible for a radical change in public library book collections. T h e same thing has happened in the area of economic and political thought, where forum leaders, speakers and writers, with their followings, seek the library as their natural source of information and research. It has been a natural step to extend this service to those autonomous and self-directing groups which have been forming in increasing numbers, and which turn to the library for the books and help they require. Such groups have subject interests as varied as their aims, and libraries have been quick to respond to such interests. Again, contacts with schools and other institutions have enabled libraries to come more intimately in contact with people on varied levels of education and background, many of whom had never used a library or had approached it with reluctance or suspicion. T h e adult education and continua-

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tion classes held in schools and in many social institutions are fertile fields for planting the seed of library use, since teachers are eager to utilize for their students the educational tools on library shelves. In many cases, also, they have added to their class instruction the direct information and advice offered by informed librarians, through book lists, supply of printed material, or by lecture participation. Thus a direct connection with individual students is often made, ensuring an easier follow-up and a natural relationship. Still another result of these contacts is that many of those who learn of the library through other agencies come to it for the satisfaction of interests quite different from those connecting them with the other institution. Thus the library acts often as a center for interest lines which cut across groups and serve to reassemble their individual members in new groupings. T h e library activities which have resulted from these various contacts have had a natural and quiet evolution, stimulated often not so much by the libraries as by the logic of events and their necessities. Yet these contacts themselves have served to stir the imagination and to change the mental outlook of many a librarian, who will no longer be satisfied with supplying merely the books which readers ask for. Such librarians are increasingly conscious of the inarticulate book needs about them and of the many individuals and groups of all kinds that never use library facilities. They are bestirring themselves, first to gain more accurate knowledge through study and survey of the various levels and aspects of human life, then to provide informal and challenging methods of service or channels of approach. The result has been the inauguration of many activities new in the library field. T h e earlier experimental and tentative attitude has be-

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gun to settle into a definite policy, surer in objective and with a more solid foundation. Forums; discussion groups; lecturc courses; classes in all sorts of subjects; art, music, and theatre groups in many cases have settled into a regular schedule of activities. In some cases, the library simply permits its rooms to be used b y various autonomous groups devoted to varied interests. Such groups, it may be added, usually like to use the library, since they may do so free or f o r a nominal sum, and since its use is hedged about b y comparatively f e w rules. In many other cases the library itself is active in stimulating, promoting, and participating in these social programs and projects. Librarians still differ considerably in their attitude toward taking so lively a part in the so-called social field. .Many say that the library should remain a library pure and simple and not try to become a social settlement. Others insist that libraries must learn new ways of implementing their service to fill modern social needs and are ready to defend any type of activity from this point of view. T h e validity of this attitude depends somewhat on local situations and their needs. F o r instance, at the time the writer was librarian in the Harlem section of N e w Y o r k City, y o u n g N e g r o writers and artists had little opportunity to show their talents to the world. T h e r e f o r e the library sought and encouraged art exhibits, dramatic presentation, music recitals, lectures, forums, and discussion groups. Later, when the world invited and w e l comed N e g r o art in its various forms, the library no longer needed to sponsor w o r k in these fields, except incidentally and occasionally. This illustrates one possible policy f o r the library to follow in the social field, that of experimentation and, if need be, of leadership. Events m a y indicate whether

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activities engaged in should be included in a regular program. Again b y w a y of illustration, Equity Library Theatre, a non-profit little-theatre project, begun in 1943 b y Actors' Equity Association and the Theatre Division of the N e w Y o r k Public L i b r a r y , f o r a number of years gave its productions in basements of branch libraries. T h o u g h in 1949 it found larger quarters than the libraries could provide, it shows its origin in its title, and it continues to be guided by the ideal of community service as well as b y the desire to provide opportunities f o r actors and playwrights. This undertaking was not, in fact, a local activity prompted b y local need, but indicated a wide field of interest in which the library felt a vital concern and was conscious of a real f u n c tion. Irrespective of the type of activity, there is here manifest a fresh point of view and a certainty of the library's right of contribution which is w h o l l y admirable. In this connection one observation may be made f o r the comfort of those still concerned with the tradition of what has been called "pure librarianship." N o social activity is conducted b y a library as it would be in a social settlement. N o such activity is conceived b y the librarian as a social program simply, but as a library program. T h e librarian thinks of it in terms of library use, in terms of book service, and wherever possible the program is established on a foundation of solid reading. T h u s there is not necessarily the duplication of effort and activity which might seem apparent. Moreover, librarians are generally quick to fear such duplication and, when feasible, to tie in their own interest and contribution to an activity already established. A n example of this policy is furnished again b y the N e w Y o r k Public Library in its relationship with the College of the City of N e w Y o r k , whereby provision is made f o r classes to be held in a number

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of the branch libraries under the auspices of the two institutions. In the main, libraries are now showing an increasing tendency to integrate their own service with current programs in many fields, those on the air, in the realm of motion pictures, in university extension work, and the like. T h e Great Books program, for instance, and the T o w n Meeting of the Air, so extensively listened to, lead obviously to printed matter, and the progressive library is alert to make available not only the books referred to, but related material of all sorts. In general the departments of a public library which deal with people rather than methods have not only social values but procedures for implementing and translating those values. For instance, a representative school department will be manned by specially trained librarians, sometimes with teaching experience. This department is responsible for the library's contacts with schools, maintains book collections to meet the needs of teachers and parents, forms reading lists and arranges for class visits from the schools. Sometimes, particularly in smaller libraries, this program expands or is coordinated with the service of the Children's Department, and may include talks about books or instruction in the use of the library. O n the adult level, there may be, in addition to the work of the reference division, a readers' advisory or guidance service, often expanded in a large library to an office or department, with several librarians, interested and fitted b y training and experience to advise readers personally and through book lists or other printed matter. In some large libraries this service may be expanded through the branches by a local adviser, or through instruction and visits from the central office.

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W o r k with foreign groups is carried on in many libraries as a part of the regular adult service, or as one function of an adult education department, which also may cover the cooperative service with outside groups, organizations, or programs. Some libraries encourage close contacts with these groups in the w a y of visits and conferences, and as a result many librarians receive more requests than they can possibly accept to address meetings, to conduct courses, or to take part in programs of all types. T h e possibilities in field work f o r the library are almost limitless, and thus f a r have been too little explored. T h e average librarian still finds it a burning question whether she— it is usually she—shall stick at her desk, ordering or cataloguing books, taking inventory, or performing other necessary duties, or whether she should go to the school to sit in on a parent-teachers meeting, tell stories at a children's playground, address a meeting of the Women's Political League, attend a luncheon discussion at the University Club, give a talk at the local broadcasting studio, or what have y o u . Of course, this is true of most people in public institutional life. I am merely pointing out that the librarian is really in public life and not in an i v o r y tower. In the extensive branch systems of a number of large libraries, each branch approaches in many service w a y s the status of an independent library. Some of these branches approximate closely our conception of an "intelligence center." In other situations small branches may be conducted as part of the extension service, which also maintains book collections as deposits in all sorts of places, from private homes to fire stations, or in summer in public park shelters, or may send to outlying sections a bookmobile as an advance scout. T h e significance of these services lies in the social programs

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they carry out. In all of them, techniques are minimized, human needs and interests are stressed, and the library sends out feelers to all parts of the social scene which serve to bring needs and resources together. These varied activities form an integral part of the program conducted by a large number of public libraries at the present time, varying of course in detail and extent according to size and financial resource. T h e library's outside activities rend to be fitted into its own pattern of service, that is, the development of activities which require for their fulfillment the resources and aid the library is competent to give. T h e r e must follow, then, a constant critical evaluation by the librarian of the library's traditional services which in turn serve as a foundation for the newer, less-tried activities which the march of progress may demand. In the development of these new services it is possible, I believe, to discern certain trends. One of these is the altogether healthy and vital one of re-interpreting, or interpreting more generously and more variously, the library's functions and facilities. Another tendency, well-established in library custom, is toward acting as a clearing house and coordinating agency in relation to other institutions. This is natural and desirable, since nearly all social and educational programs need books and the specialized book knowledge which are a part of the library's equipment. A n alert and observing attitude and constant awareness of current social needs, practices, and problems are essential for this type of service. Just as sensitive a perception too is needed in expanding or setting up the library's own social program. For it should be evident to the thoughtful that many types of social activity can be carried on most successfully by religious,

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welfare, or other institutions, whereas programs which include political, economic, or social discussion and reference, as well as those in the literary or educational area, find their natural home in the library, which has the essential tools f o r implementing and interpreting such programs. But if the librarian needs perceptiveness and a sense of values, he needs also a bold and roving imagination, to perceive and explore new social areas, and to build a socially significant program. That librarians more and more are thinking and acting along these lines, with freshness, vigor, and originality, constitutes one of the most encouraging of the present trends in public library work. Nothing can be more important f o r librarians and the users of libraries than a knowledge and understanding of the potential dynamic force inherent in an institution which is free, which is open to all, irrespective of race, religion, or political bias, and which offers, without reluctance as without coercion, the treasures of knowledge and the tools of education to its users, our country's citizens. It is not only an opportunity which the library possesses, it is a solemn obligation on a democratic institution in a society which needs so sorely the beneficent influences of sound education, accurate knowledge in many fields, and an understanding free of prejudice. T o quote John Cotton Dana, " N o other institution which society has brought forth is so wide in its scope; so universal in its appeal; so near to every one of us; so inviting to both young and old; so fit to teach, without arrogance, the ignorant, and without faltering, the wisest. . . . " * • "The Place of the Public Library in a City's Life," in The Public Library . . . Addresses and Essays (New York, 1916), pp. 69-70.

10 YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE LIBRARY

T

HE FUTURE LIVES IN THE YOUNG FOLKS of today. So it is not strange that any library without

boys and girls trooping through its doors seems to have an odor of the past, the mustiness of age, to be not wholly alive. In fact, the library's work with children and young adults forms one of its most vital social phases. Perhaps this is because any agency serving young people must be alert, quick to catch the current humor, flexible in method and approach. It was no mere accident that one of the steps taken b y the public library which most affected its future development was its specialized service to children. B y the same token, this service has reacted upon professional librarianship, developing new fields such as the important one of school libraries, and the extension of specialized activities, as, for instance, story-telling or club work as practiced by trained children's librarians. W o r k with children today forms one important division of any public library's program. All recognize its significance b y supplying picture books and stories, as well as books written for children in the various subject fields. Nearly all libraries, also, furnish low tables and chairs, or equip a corner for their child users. Most of the larger libraries, as well as many small ones, now have special rooms for children or

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f u l l y developed departments, with staff members trained f o r the w o r k and book collections which include not only those f o r circulation but also f o r reading and reference use. A full children's room program includes story hours, club w o r k , and a specialized service coordinated with that of the schools w h e r e b y children receive book and advisory help in their school classes, sometimes through library visits arranged in school time and as a part of the school schedule. Quite often a children's department may include a book collection and selected book lists on various phases of child life and development f o r the use of teachers, parents, social workers, and others with interests in this field. Children's rooms plan exhibits, and celebrate special days with story and reading. With increasing f r e q u e n c y , children's librarians are called upon f o r w o r k with groups outside the library, in public playgrounds, social centers, and hospitals. Peculiarly welcome is the opportunity f o r this type of public service in the great housing projects being developed in many cities, where multiple buildings may cover several blocks, quite often with facilities f o r a playground and park. Some children's departments, in libraries with resources and staff capable of sustaining such a program, not only provide books f o r such a community center but in addition give reading guidance and a story hour program. Mention has already been made of the effect upon children's literature and upon book illustration as a whole achieved b y the development of children's libraries and through the influence of prominent children's librarians. T h e vast improvement in these fields has reacted in turn on w o r k with children in public libraries. In hardly any other area lias there been warmer and more effective cooperation between the arts, the trade experts, and the public library as

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the dispenser than in the field of writing, illustrating, printing, and publishing children's literature. So far as the public library is concerned, this cooperation has had the admirable result of raising library work with children to a professional level. For instance, the high standards in children's literature, insisted on by public libraries, are generally recognized as essential, a condition devoutly to be desired throughout the entire field of public library book selection. These standards, fortunately, have been carried over to the field of literature suitable for adolescence and youth. This later development, still rather nebulous in form, is turning in the direction of specialized servicc to young adults. Formerly, the practice in libraries was to "graduate" boys and girls from the children's room directlv to the adult department. At the same time recognition of the needs of young people was and still is evidenced in many cases by the formation of special book collections in one of the main adult rooms or in the children's section of the library. T h e policy of having books of this type shelved together in the adult department stems from the fact that boys and girls, having achieved their heart's desire in being transferred to adult privileges, find themselves bewildered and at a loss in dealing with a collection of books so much larger and with busy staff members whose main concern is not with their youngest patrons. Therefore, many of these young people return to the children's department with its familiar books and faces. An understanding between the t w o departments and a careful selection of books made easily available and attractive make the transfer easier for the young folks, preserving their sense of growing up while meeting their need of personal guidance.

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A close connection, administratively, between the work with young people and the adult department is also important, because the whole purpose of this work is to prepare these young people to become absorbed into the adult group as quickly and painlessly as possible. T h e librarian, to be successful towards this end, must be able, by her attitude and by her selection of books, to make the transition between the younger and older adults as smooth and imperceptible as may be. Often this may be accomplished with the aid and cooperation of the young people themselves. Growing recognition of the problems and special needs of those just entering adult life, public concern over adolescent crime, and the rise of the youth movement have all had an important part in leading many agencies to develop programs specially suited to the requirements of youth. T h e library, as usual varied in its practice, following local initiative, has met this program in many different ways: by arranging programs especially designed to interest young people, by appointing staff members qualified by taste and training to work with them, by larger and more carefully sclccted book collections for their requirements, and, in some cases, by creating special rooms or departments for young adults. A common pattern has not been set up. But it is safe to predict that the future program of the library, changing to meet new needs and conditions, will include specialized scrvice to young people on an enlarged scale. Modern social problems hasten this action, but it is definitely in line with the social development of the public library. Moreover, there are questions involved in complete library service and in efficient library administration which can be answered most successfully only by recognizing this group as one unit in a coordinated library design. One of the

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problems is posed b y the increasing demands made on the library b y high school programs. All w h o use the public library k n o w to what an extent the reference rooms arc taken over b y students every afternoon at the close of school. M a n y adult readers shun the library at the very hours when it should be available to them. Both their interests and a more efficient service to the y o u n g students would result from a departmental division. T h e administration of the library would be vastly improved b y such a division and b y a c o r responding one in personnel. A t present some libraries are rcduced to " r a t i o n i n g " the time given to school children or the expedient o f assigning a reluctant librarian whose main duties lie elsewhere, to this service. T h e y o u n g person should not be served b y a librarian w h o can give him only half her attention, while the other half is on so-called larger issues. T h e r e are n o "larger issues" today. T h e s e young people will not receive a fair deal from the public library until they are given their o w n reference tools, their own space f o r study and c o n f e r e n c e , and their own librarians, vitally interested in the possibilities and problems o f youth and qualified to deal with them. It seems wise to point out, however, that some librarians w o r k i n g with young adults, feel that there is danger in such departmentalization, unless it is handled tactfully, since there m a y be resentment at being put in a special " t e e n - a g e " or " h i g h - s c h o o l " place, or, as it may seem to them, having their adult privileges curtailed. It should go without saying that these y o u n g people should have the full use of the adult department, as they wish. In addition, a cooperative attitude on the part of the librarian and possibly the adaptation o f the y o u n g people's room especially for reading and study should do m u c h t o make a normal and acceptable relationship.

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In whatever type of specialized service given to young people, the librarian chosen to work with them is of paramount importance. Not only one who likes and understands them is needed, but one who knows and loves the world of great books, and what the understanding and love of one such book may mean to a growing boy or girl. Moreover, this is an important, perhaps an essential, step toward the larger civic education of adults with which we must be concerned today. Already there is adequate proof that in communities where for a number of years boys and girls have become accustomed to the use of books and libraries there now exists an adult group whose members possess a knowledge of the tools of education, and who turn from their academic education to the resources offered by the library with a feeling of familiarity and a sense of fulfilled desire.

11 THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND CONTINUING EDUCATION 71N I N T E L L E C T U A L BOMBSHELL EXPLODED _ Z \ i n the educational world, shaking some of its firmest foundations, when in 1928 Professor E. L. Thorndikc, of Teachers College, Columbia University, published his work Adult Learning, giving the findings of research made by himself and his colleagues into the learning abilities of adults. Older people can learn, they pronounced. A man's mind does not stand still at a given age. Formerly it had been believed that human beings lose the power to learn in inverse ratio to their age, that while the mind of a child is plastic, that of an adult is fixed and incapable of changing. There had been experiments in this field prior to Dr. Thorndike's but his work served to consolidate thought and to establish a belief in the learning power of adults. His experiments indicated that although the learning power does diminish as one grows older, this loss is very gradual indeed; that adults between 25 and 35 learn more readily than children, as easily as those in early adolescence, say from 14 to 18; and that the peak of learning occurs between 20 and 25, this power decreasing from that age at a very low rate of speed, but with no definite terminal point.* * This summation is drawn from Bryson's work on adult education. For a properly qualified statement read Lyman Brvson, Adult Education

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T h e effect of these revelations on educational theory was profound. T h e knowledge, or the changes in educational thought and procedure based on this knowledge, gradually reached the adult public themselves, and a significant change in the educational atmosphere became apparent, reaching a climax in the widespread Federal program of adult education conducted in the 1930's. In 1925 the American Association f o r Adult Education was formed, being actually an arm of the Carnegie Corporation * designed to rouse and consolidate public opinion and to promote, finance, and supervise experiments in the field of adult education. It attracted many of the most brilliant and original minds in the educational field, and f o r ten years this organization was highly successful in affecting intellectual public opinion through its publications and conferences as well as b y the numerous experiments it sponsored. One of its most important functions was and is to serve as a clearing house f o r the ideas and the practices of public and private agencies of adult education.* T h e r e have been in our history important forerunners of this modern trend in education, of which the extensive l y ceum movement of the early nineteenth century and the great Chautauqua Institution, with its many imitators are conspicuous examples. T h e significance of the new movement lay largely in its timing. It arose shortly after the close of the First W o r l d W a r , which had revealed extensive nearilliteracy in our citizenship, and it synchronized with Professor Thorndike's discovery that adults do not cease learn( N e w York, 1936), or, f o r fuller treatment, Edward L . T h o m d i k e , Adult Interests ( N e w York, 1935). * T h e A . A . A . E . continues as an organization devoted to the interest of adult education, but the period of experiments financed by the Carnegie Corporation ended in 1935.

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ing. Moreover, the young movement was backed by the resources of the Carnegie Corporation; and the experiments which it was able to foster, with the studies of their results and other publicity, brought the whole subject before the people in a large way. The effect of this movement on the education of the adult is almost incalculable. It was immensely enhanced and expanded also by the Federal program which followed, or dovetailed with it. The A.A.A.E. itself, though it experimented in many fields, of which the library was one, felt a special concern, particularly in its early days, with the intellectual and the elite, with the philosophy and the objectives of the adult's educational processes. The Federal program, on the other hand, aimed to reach the illiterate and underprivileged masses, those with little opportunity to get an education and sometimes with as little interest in doing so. Both had a profound though confused effect upon public library thought and program. Many librarians felt that by its very nature the library is educational in object and work, and of this group not a few went their satisfied way, untouched by the busy educational enthusiasts. Others so believing, welcomed the opportunity to hitch their institutional wagon to the educational star. Their programs were extended, and many library activities were directed toward educational objectives. It may be added here that Dr. Alvin Johnson, then director of the N e w School for Social Research, New York City, threw another bombshell (one which fell into the library camp) when he said in his book, The Public Library—a People's University,* that a library is not necessarily an educational institution. He maintained, urbanely yet incisively, that what he called "pure librarian• New York, American Association for Adult Education, 1938.

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ship,"—in brief, the collecting, preserving, and dispensing of printed material on demand—is not educational in character. Education, he argued, lies in the object and the use to which printed matter is put. As is the habit of bombshells, this one stirred up library thought into a fine confusion, but perhaps after the waters quieted they were clearer. T h e librarians most affected by the ferment of this movement were probably those modest and single-hearted people who ordinarily go about their daily tasks with industry and even enthusiasm, but without much thought spent on philosophy and objectives. T h e y were the last to think of their work as educational, though much of it, in group help and individual advice, was in the best tradition of the adult education school of thought. T h e r e are two characteristics of this school of thought which tend particularly to coordinate library theory and procedure with the modern adult education pattern. T h e education of the adult, according to its leaders, is voluntary and self-directed. Therefore, though its program may follow the same study trends as a required academic curriculum, its voluntary character distinguishes it as wholly different in spirit and method. Again, most of these thinkers agreed, the best adult education is informal rather than academic in character, though this may turn out to be not so distinguishing a characteristic, since much of the best educational thought is now bent on freeing academic method from traditional shackles. Be this as it may, it is true that libraries are wholly devoted to the ideals of voluntary use and of informal method, and the latter is employed in most of their educational activities. T h e forum and the discussion group are two of the most readily accepted media in the library's educational program.

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Regularly organized classes and special courses are frequently arranged and sponsored, but more often than not in cooperation with an organization of specialists, as f o r instance, a child welfare or a health association, or with a school or university. Library rooms are used and the library's resources of books, reading lists, and advisory service are offered. There is an increasing tendency, also, on the part of progressive librarians to take these resources outside their own walls and offer them to other institutional or school programs on an established cooperative basis. There may be some who arc asking what responsibility libraries have for public education and what are the characteristics which justify librarians in assuming that responsibility. Bryson says that "librarians have always been teachers," * and he adds in explanation that all w h o were more than mere custodians of books have helped to educate those who use the stores of learning in libraries. In this statement is embodied one characteristic of libraries which explains both their responsibility and their fitness for the educational function. Their business is books—and printed matter. T h e y hold the tools of education and are responsible for them to the people. Can anyone forget what the destruction of libraries meant to civilization in the past, and how today we shudder at a "burning of the books" as a sure sign of intellectual degeneracy? A second characteristic of public libraries which makes them suitable channels of education is their freedom and catholicity of use. Anyone who wishes to do so—and many have so wished—may educate himself by the use of the public library. But he will be infinitely helped in that proc* Op. cit., p. 176.

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ess b y wise and timely aid. T h u s w e come to certain f u n c tions which the librarian is justified in assuming on the basis and b a c k g r o u n d of the library's resources: first, to make the proper materials available to those w h o need them; second, to counsel and advise the reader as he indicates his need; third, to stir and arouse intellectual curiosity and a desire to learn. A n y p r o g r a m of adult education conducted b y a lib r a r y should be measured and evaluated according as it promotes the fulfillment of these functions. A t present the w o r k in adult education usually carried on b y public libraries m a y be summarized under t w o headings: first, service offered in cooperation with community or other programs, either those of organized institutions or those conducted b y autonomous g r o u p s ; second, services in the field of adult education conducted by the library itself. Services given b y the library to the educational programs of other institutions, such as those conducted by schools, colleges, welfare or social agencies, and the like, usually include m a k i n g book lists or reserving books required, help with prog r a m or curriculum building, and sometimes leadership in discussion or class w o r k . S o m e of the library's cooperative services are undertaken in connection with radio p r o g r a m s conducted b y educational agencies, such as the G r e a t B o o k s p r o g r a m instituted b y the University of Chicago—-one instance only of the alertness of the wide-awake library t o foll o w up, in terms of books or other information, an intellectual or educational program of significance to its comm u n i t y . * Allied to this alertness of mind is that shown in the collection and exhibit of material pertinent to events of great current social interest, such as the research in atomic energy. T h o u g h this service is wholly traditional, the library which * T h e Great Books program is discussed in Chapter 12, below.

I 24

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is alert and ready to keep its material and its approach close to current thought and action indicates its awareness as an educational agency. T h e library's own specialized program in the field of adult education varies greatly according to community need and the activities of sister institutions. It m a y include a department of adult education with counseling and reader guidance and a regularly established program of activities, including lecture courses, discussion groups, exhibits, and concerts. T h e average public library is more apt to conduct as a part of its work with adults one or two regular activities of the kind and a more or less scattered and varying p r o g r a m of lectures and exhibits. Institutes are sometimes held, and occasionally a workshop project is conducted, perhaps in the arts, or in the field of race or family relationships. T h e methods employed are generally informal, and in most cases the program is integrated with reading matter. It hardly needs saying that services of this sort, whether cooperative or conducted directly b y the library, call f o r special aptitude and training on the part of those participating or leading. T h e i r development, therefore, has led to changes in personnel requirements and sometimes to corresponding changes in administrative set-up. O n e of the first steps taken b y libraries to meet these requirements was the creation of so-called readers' advisory services. A readers' adviser's job is to w o r k with individuals and groups needing and asking aid in their reading or study, in building educational or reading programs, and in compiling and annotating lists of reading material. It is obvious that a wide acquaintance with literature on a variety of subjects, as well as an exhaustive knowledge of bibliographic sources, are essential qualifications

for such a position. Just as important is a friendly

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interest in people and a knowledge of human psychology. Some libraries have gone much further than to provide one such position; they have established departments of adult reading, or of adult education, conducted by carefully selected and trained staff members. The present trend is toward the extension of this type of work on a broader basis, integrating it with library service as a whole, and in its various phases, the significance of the advisory function in all effective library work both with adults and with children being recognized as essential. The philosophy responsible for such thought has certainly been shaped by adult education pressures. It may well tend to raise the intellectual level of library personnel as a whole and to promote a more widespread understanding of the standards needed to achieve this end. It is probable, too, that this integration of the advisory function with the various types of library service touching the public will prove to have a revivifying effect upon those services which tend to become perfunctory or mechanical. .Moreover, this emphasis on the advisory function simply serves to enhance and clarify what every librarian has always felt to be his most important job. Long before the term "Readers' Adviser" was thought of, advisory help to readers went on. However, the emphasis and distinction bestowed on this function by giving it a recognized status should not be disregarded by librarians. Are we not all of us too apt to think that the term librarian quite well embodies all our functions and activities, regardless of the fact that our reading public cannot be expected to recognize them unless they are pointed out? Though the educational area is not the only one where the library has responsibilities, it does present varied opportuni-

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ties for widespread service and is a field where the library has a particularly valid right of leadership by virtue of its resources and the expert k n o w l e d g e it can make available. O n e of our oldest civic institutions, supported b y the people and belonging to them, with stores of learning and open doors for their use, the public library should hold and be expected to maintain a position coordinate with school and college as a public agency to which the people should be able to look with confident expectation f o r information, for inspiration and f o r leadership in their continuing efforts to educate themselves for and through life.

12 THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IN ACTION

W

R I T I N G A B O U T P E O P L E , E V E N T S , O R INstitutions is seldom wholly satisfactory, for the living essence of the thing escapes the limitation of words. H o w make the public library come to life on the printed page? Many general statements have been made about the branches of service and the varied activities carried on by public libraries. In the present chapter some of these generalizations will be illustrated by examples from the experience of specific libraries, presented in terms of actual practice. In some cases the examples cited might be multiplied many times, for numbers of progressive libraries are performing these or similar services. In other cases the activities described are peculiarly suited to the location of the library concerned or are frankly experimental. The examples have been chosen, however, from the standpoint of their ready adaptability to the common public library pattern of organization as well as on the basis of timely interest. At present one of the most imperative demands on public library resources is that made by the need to know more about the extraordinary technical advances of the day. In this field the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, developed early in 1947 a comprehensive plan for disseminating knowledge about the atomic bomb and nuclear fission in general.

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T h e key feature of this plan was an Atomic Energy Institute, in which social and technical experts spoke on five successive Sunday afternoons at the library. T h e purpose and program of the Institute were described in a folder, 50,000 copies of which were distributed throughout the city. T h e same number of copies were made of a simple eight-page folder, " Y o u and the A t o m , " containing brief descriptions of a f e w "readable, accurate, forceful works." * T h e books were purchased in unusually large quantities for the main library and its branches. Educational and documentary films on the bomb and its results were also purchased and featured in special programs. A t the same time, an exceedingly comprehensive exhibition on the subject was planned and carried out by the library in cooperation with Johns Hopkins University and an expert commercial agency. T h e exhibit items were shown on large lighted panels, and included charts, cut-outs, photostats and photographs, and other audio-visual materials. This project was then followed up by an outline of suggestions for study, reading, and discussion in which the library offered its aid and cooperation. T h e whole program was carried out on a very large scale, with admirable insight regarding methods and channels of public approach, and it attracted widespread attention. T h e points of interest for our present study are: leadership assumed by the library, the provision of literature calculated to hold and deepen interest and to give accurate information, and the pooling of resources and expert help by cooperation with an eminent scientific institute and public relations specialists. In 1950 a second * '"Baltimore's Atomic Energy Institute," by Kate Copian, Director of Exhibitions and Publicity, Enoch Pratt Free Librar)-, Library Journal, May 1, 1947.

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atomic energy exhibit was held, this time stressing peacetime application.* Although the majority of libraries would find it difficult to arrange a project on so large a scale, the points noted indicate an approach involving initiative, ability to coordinate reading matter with practical need, and a sense of the values in coordinated effort, which any librarian might emulate successfully. In constructive cooperation between institutions of more or less similar aims, the facilities offered by the New York Public Library to the College of the City of N e w York serve to illustrate a type of coordinated public service which is becoming increasingly manifest. Beginning in 1947, rooms in a number of the New York Public Library branches have been used as classrooms by City College, while the librarians have taken an activc part in publicizing the service among their clientele and in giving bibliographic help. T o quote from a statement issued by City College: " T h e branch library buildings . . . became individual centers of instruction in a decentralized system. The branch librarian makes soundings on course interests among her readers, discusses the bibliography, and supplies the books students require for class work." t The significant point about this project is not so much the book service given by the library, which is hardly unique; it lies rather in the angle from which the two institutions view the students and conduct the program. City College has learned through the answers to questionnaires distributed by the sixty-five neighborhood branches of the N e w York • "Enoch Pratt Holds Sccond Atomic Energy Exhibit by Kate Coplan," Library Journal, June 1, 1950. t City College Alumnus, Vol. 43, No. 3.

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Public Library that an effective adult education program must be conducted not only on different levels, but at different speeds. The public library has long been conscious of this fact and has acted accordingly. That its highly individualized services regulated at "different speeds" are recognized by an academic institution and incorporated in a planned program toward a common end should do much to influence the popular conception of the library's role in education. This cooperative activity may have been started as an experiment, but it is now long past that stage, being acceptcd by both institutions as a useful project. An effective example of cooperation in a comparatively new field is the inauguration in 1946-47 by the Detroit Public Library of a Projected Books service for bedridden people confined to their homes. "Projected Books" may be described popularly as a new type of motion picture. The printed characters are thrown on the ceiling by projectors in such a way that the bedridden person may read without moving. The device has been used for some time by librarians in hospitals. The program in Detroit was conceived by a newspaper, the Detroit News, which after consulting the librarian conducted through its pages a fund-raising campaign that resulted in the purchase of fifty-five reading machines and their presentation to the library, which then took charge of the book and service end of the project. The library announces that many organizations and individuals contributed their aid through publicity, through liaison service between homes and the library, and by delivery and upkeep of the machines. Among the organizations were the Visiting Nurse Association, the various Lions Clubs of the Detroit area and

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the Wayne County Medical Society. Quoting the library report: "Such broad community cooperation indicates a way in which the library may function as an instrument for the development of services in the community that cannot or might not otherwise be realized." * This enormously important human service is also being inaugurated in other sections. The A.L.A. Bulletin of April, 1948, lists fifty-two public libraries in the United States as giving such service. That twenty-three of these are in Michigan is explained by the fact that Argus, Inc., which makes the machines, and Universal Microfilms, producing the books, are located in Ann Arbor, where the public library makes full use of these resources. The "Projected Books" activity may be said to represent an extension of the service made available by a fairly large number of public libraries to the hospitals of their cities. An example is offered by the Minneapolis Public Library, which serves fifteen hospitals. Starting in 1923, this work has grown until in 1951 over 175,000 volumes were lent through the Hospital Library Service, which is a recognized department of the Public Library. Other types of public library book servicc to hospitals are exemplified by Cleveland, where the Hospital Department is a division of the Branch Department, and Bridgeport, where service is given to the hospitals through a contract between them and the Public Library. An important field of social activity today is vocational counseling. A number of libraries are giving constructive service of this type. In Detroit the public library has opened an Occupations Room for students, veterans, and vocational counselors, with books and bibliographies available and ready • Noiv and Tomorrow? Commission, 1946-47.

82 nd Annual Report of the Detroit Library

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to use. In Minneapolis the public library organized in 1944 a Vocational Information Service for veterans and war workers. In the summer of that year this service set up a desk in the Veteran's Referral Office. T h e public library's advisory function, including all types of reading service, must be readily adaptable to new needs and new channels of communication. A current adaptation of this service has had its motivating impulse in the Great Books reading program promoted by the University of Chicago through its Great Books Foundation. T h e central idea of this program is the formation of groups to read and discuss the great classics. Many libraries have helped to promote reading on this level by featuring the books chosen, by helping to form classes, and by themselves joining such classes and participating in discussion. In many cases librarians have become group leaders. All leaders must take a course in leadership techniques and in furthering their acquaintance with the work of authors such as Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine, Shakespeare and Machiavelli, and with such writings as the Federalist Papers and the Communist Manifesto. T h e leaders are not teachers; their function is to facilitate and guide discussion. T h e Washington (D.C.) Public Library has instituted its own program to promote group reading. T o quote from a circular issued by the library: The Washington program . . . is concerned not only with promoting group reading, but also with testing the proposition that a community can be enlisted and supported in group reading through the medium of the public libraries. . . . In 1947-48 for the first time, the entire program is built on leaders developed out of the program itself. . . . In the end, the goal is that group reading should be not only a service of the library,

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but that it should be an activity of the whole community, jointly considered by all its educational leaders, under the central guidance of the public library.* This program at the present time represents a combination of methods, including a number of independent groups, several conducted in cooperation with other institutions, as well as a f e w which f o l l o w the reading lists of the G r e a t Books Foundation. Another adaptation of the advisory function, in which it touches group discussion and reaches group interest and needs through a new channel, is illustrated b y the activity called "film forums," sponsored b y many libraries. In the film forum an educational or documentary film is shown, followed by group discussion under a leader. Such a project, to be successful, needs a particularly skillful leader, and its usefulness can be v e r y much promoted b y expert reading help. M a n y a discussion group or forum "peters out" because no follow-up of pertinent reading matter is offered. This, I think, is particularly true of the film forum, where the speaker is but a disembodied voice. Perhaps television will soon bring him closer. Of discussion groups in general there are all types, with a wide variety of subjects, meeting in public libraries. T y p i c a l l y interesting and varied are the following samples: "Invitation to Ideas," a free discussion group sponsored b y the Cleveland Public Library. "Roads to W o r l d Understanding," a series of free programs f o r youth, sponsored b y the Cleveland Public Library Youth Department; Cleveland Press W o r l d Friends' Club; * The Group Reading Program of the Public Library of the District of Colujubia.

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Council on W o r l d Affairs; and Cleveland Museum of A r t , held in the Public Library auditorium. " H u m a n Relations," film forums, including open discussions, with speakers from six city organizations, sponsored b y the Detroit Public Library and the Adult Education Division of the Detroit Board of Education, held in the Public Library auditorium. A n interesting point about a number of these programs is their cosponsorship b y several institutions. T h e number of public libraries which conduct or sponsor lecture courses, concert series, art exhibitions, and audiovisual projects is legion, and in many libraries these constitute an important and varied program of activities. In the Boston Public Library, f o r instance, during the month of January, 1952, twenty lectures and concerts were given. This service is not incidental but an integral part of the library's program, and is publicized b y a printed circular published by the library. T h e increasing importance of audio-visual materials in public libraries is evidenced everywhere. A n instance is offered by the Hartford, Connecticut, Public Library which circulates music records f o r home use. Its collection of records in 1947 was 8,000,* a sizable record library. In 1951 the Minneapolis Public Library issued f o r home use 25,403 phonograph records, 1 1 , 0 1 5 films, and 49,165 lantern slides, while 1,875 people played 8 , 5 1 1 records in the soundproof room of the library's music department.! A m o n g the libraries, now gradually increasing, which sponsor record concerts is the Detroit Public Library, which holds one at the noon hour in its children's room. • Hartford Public Library, Report, 1947: "Hartford Reads." + Minneapolis Public Library, 50 Years of Service, 1889-1919.

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T h e film also, with its varied uses, is finding a place in public library service. T h e Cleveland Public Library in 1947 issued a printed catalogue, announcing that films might be borrowed free through the Film Bureau of the Adult Education Department on a t w e n t y - f o u r hour basis. Stanford, Connecticut, is one of many smaller libraries which has such a film service. Librarians w h o start out to learn what the public wants, and to satisfy that want in terms of library service, often find themselves experimenting in new and rewarding activities. T h e Cleveland Public Library, f o r instance, is sponsoring a " L i v e - L o n g - a n d - L i k e - I t " club, all members of which must be at least sixtv-five. T h e y meet in the library, which through the Adult Education Department helps them arrange programs including speakers, concerts, and films. For each program, too, there is a short selected reading list f o r distribution. In one of the branches of the Detroit Public L i b r a r y the chief librarian has arranged a story-hour program f o r preschool children. W e quote from her paper describing the projcct. " T h e library could hardly afford to ignore this period of childhood which has had the attention . . .

of

leaders in . . . medicine, education and religion. A s children's librarians our object is to introduce books and the library as soon as possible and in the most attractive manner." * T h e program described covered poetry, stories, music, finger plays, and even a little handicraft. N o t the least important result of the public library's active interest in what is going on outside its walls is the reciprocal • " T h e Pre-School Story Hour," by Ethel C. Karrick, A.L.A. Bulletin, November, 1947. Reprint of paper presented at the meeting of the Children's Librarians' Association, San Francisco, June 30, 1947.

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feeling of responsibility, showing itself in isolated areas o r in small but significant ways. For instance, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, a youth library project has been highly successful. T h e aim was the erection of a young people's library building. T h e money-raising program was unique in that the children themselves earned an initial f u n d of $10,000, this money-earning program extending from J a n u a r y through June, 1947. Later the citizens at large contributed $ 1 3 3 , 0 0 0 , and the C i t y Council appropriated the necessary funds to complete the building. In the N e w Y o r k Public Library the remodeled building of the 135th Street Branch, now the Countee Cullen Branch, with its large modern addition would not have been possible without the cooperation of the citizens of Harlem, w h o formed a committee which worked with the librarians toward this goal over a period of ten years. Later the y o u n g patrons of this branch raised funds to renew and add to the furnishings of the Y o u n g People's Department. Library reports contain many instances of appreciation and generous reciprocation on the part of public library patrons. T h e y record the many types of service actively carried on b y libraries, and the help given to groups and individuals manifesting itself in various ways, some in great currents which may change the direction of library policy, but more often in those small and inconspicuous acts which b y their very cumulative effects have just as mighty an influence. W h a t I have noted is just a sampling, f o r which I must be forgiven both by the great libraries noted, f r o m whose programs I have picked so scantily, and b y those other libraries, just as great, f o r whose activities space has not been sufficient.

13 ACHIEVEMENTS AND FAILURES

B

EFORE ONE CAN PERMIT ONESELF THE L u x -

ury of prophecy as to the future of the public library one must have come to some conclusions as to its achievements and failures, that is, its present status. Accurate and dependable appraisal of course can be made only on the basis of a scientific survey, with established criteria and the study of enough examples to make conclusions valid.* However, one realizes that an evaluation of public library services goes on continuously, both within and without professional boundaries, and it is fortunate that this is true. One who is writing of public library work must in all fairness present both favorable and unfavorable conditions as impersonally as possible. But it should be understood that in this case the conclusions drawn are not arrived at from data scientifically collected, but from personal experience and personal sources of knowledge, and that therefore they are tentative, not conclusive. If they are considered in this light, they may have a certain value of their own. For the defect of the scientific survey from the standpoint of the layman is that it gives him a picture of an average library which is * Such a survey has recently been made and its findings have been published in the seven Reports of the Public Library Inquiry. For the general report see Robert D. Leigh, The Public Library in the United States

(1950).

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wholly mythical. T h e scientific study does not t r y to establish an average but a norm, and a norm is a mathematical point quite unrelated to practical reality. T h i s study, on the other hand, aims to give the reader pictures of libraries, average libraries, with their strong points and their weak ones, and in the present chapter, to summarize these accomplishments and failures. Such a process, though without scientific value, may give a reasonably faithful representation of facts. A weakness which it has in c o m m o n with most of the critical estimates already made of the library is that it cannot measure quality of work or accomplishment. Large figures of circulation or reference use, well-trained personnel, specialized services f o r various groups, experiments in the field of social education and of the creative arts, all are increasingly valuable, without a doubt. Y e t w h o can measure their importance in comparison with the individual devoted, person-to-person influence which is operating day b y day in many little libraries throughout our land? H o w e v e r , it is possible for us to form some estimate of the public library in its larger aspects, its place in American society, its capacities, its main accomplishments, and its chief failures and needs. T h e most stirring fact in public library development is its gradual emergence from the old position of privilege, of isolation and limited use, into one of active participation in the life of our modern world. T h i s development has been a multiple and complex thing, manifesting itself in diverse paths, and in many fields of activity. T h r o u g h the extension, at an accelerating rate, of public library privileges, and the gradual awakening of the library to a sense of responsibility for the book needs of farflung, isolated areas and varied, widely separated intellectual

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levels, the public library has finally w o n a position distinguished b y a unique relationship, close yet free, to the people it serves. Moreover, the vast expansion of popular education, the prestige attached to book knowledge by the majority of unlearned people, and the great advances made in the education of adults have served to enhance the library's reputation as, theoretically at least, an indispensable institution. T h e usefulness of the public library to other institutions and to the manifold groups and levels of modern American life have given incentive to the service development in the various directions w e have noted, to a reinterpretation of its functions in an expanded program, and to an enormously expanded area of subject interest and materials. For the interests and services of the public library are no longer limited to the field of books and printed matter. It is trying to keep pace with the enormously expanded channels of communication and methods of transmitting knowledge. In so doing it is tacitly acknowledging itself as an institution not only f o r the preservation and use of printed matter but f o r the preservation and transmission of knowledge in any form. Within the library's own institutional life, the development f r o m clumsy methods to scientific techniques, from the standpoint of the amateur and volunteer to that of the professional, has kept pace with, indeed has made possible, the library's social progress. T h e development of a professional life and professional standards has been no mean achievement. T h e American L i b r a r y Association, formed seventy-five years ago, has n o w a membership of 17,000, including groups and individuals, and its sections and committees cover all fields of library endeavor. Public library work is but one of these, but public librarians have been prominent in its councils from the be-

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ginning, and the changes in library thought and policy which have been discussed and promoted through its conferences have permeated and found expression in public libraries everywhere. These libraries have drawn trained librarians from the various library schools throughout the country. Certification of professional librarians on the basis of training and experience is encouraged and promoted in some states, though not mandatory in public libraries. A body of theory is slowly being developed, and the desirability of research as a basis for the formation of directives is increasingly recognized. Moreover, the achievements of public libraries in terms of public service over a period of less than two hundred years is one of which all Americans may well be proud. In our country the public library has developed to incomparably greater proportions and a higher degree of efficiency than in any other nation on earth. Students from every continent flock to our library schools. Educators, librarians, scholars and public officials from every corner of the world come to visit this institution which seems to them, with its great number of books and its freedom of use, little short of miraculous. The truth is, it is a sort of minor miracle, just as our American way of life, ideologically, is a great miracle. But just as this democratic system falls far short of its ideal, as it is confronted constantly by foes without and both foes and flaws within, so is the case with that inherently democratic institution, the public library. Its weaknesses, uncertainties, and faults are, first and foremost, those of the democratic society it aims to serve. Its lack of a uniform pattern and of regularized control, its varied and uncertain development, the unevenness of its service, are all characteristic of our civic life and our way of thought.

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O u r librarians are not statesmen. T h e y are very ordinary men and women, doing the best they k n o w how, just as is undoubtedly the case with the majority of our legislators. H o w e v e r , this is not an excuse, it is a challenge. It is a salutary thing to set d o w n in concrete f o r m those areas in which w e are doing little or nothing, those services which w e are failing to give, those needed characteristics in which w e are lacking. First and concretely, w e are failing to make book service available in all geographical areas. One fourth of the country, particularly those areas in the South, the Southeast and the southern Middle West, which are the poorest, the least literate and least privileged, are living almost wholly without benefit of books or libraries of any type. T h e r e are t w o main reasons f o r this situation, first: lack of adequate funds, on the basis of a tax possible in poor and scattered areas; second: lack of administrative organization f o r coordinating delivery service over areas large enough to spread the tax load necessary f o r support. L y m a n Bryson * wrote that the first step to be taken b y libraries in the field of adult education was to make their book service universally accessible, and that is just as true n o w as when he wrote it. Again, the book service which is available is in many cases, perhaps in most cases, inadequate. It is a truism among librarians that it is impossible with the funds available to purchase enough copies of wanted books and other materials to sati s f y the demand. L e t it be said at once that this is true not only in the realm of popular fiction, but also, and particularly so, in the various fields of pure and applied science, of history, of political and social thought, of economics, and of standard literature. Probably the greatest demands on public library • Adult Education (New York, 1936), p. 177.

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resources are made by students, both those in school and college and those working independently. Since this demand can be satisfied only in small part, there is an increasing tendency toward the development of school libraries and of general reading collections in colleges. T h e same thing has occurred in other areas, particularly in the great recently explored fields of science, and in the complex developments made in the world of business. T h e rise of the so-called "special libraries" is due largely to the fact that literature in these new fields was not made available by public libraries. Banks, insurance companies, industrial concerns, newspapers, museums, arc but a f e w of those institutions which are establishing their o w n libraries. S o strong a movement has developed in this great area that it is charting new patterns of service and procedures, is developing fresh objectives and an idiom of its own, and is offering a peculiar appeal to m a n y librarians with special tastes. T h e Special Libraries Association is now one of our largest professional organizations, second only to the American Library Association in membership. A t this point we arc not concerned with the g o o d or bad aspects of this development, but only with the facts so far as they relate to public libraries. T h e results of this situation have varied somewhat according to the personal opinion or policy of individual librarian or library board. In some cases, librarians carefully limit their purchase of popular books, of fiction and recreational literature, in order to have more funds for technical works and other non-fiction desired bv students. O n the other hand, many feel that their duty is primarily to the general reader and that the schools and other institutions should service their own students or employees. In some instances there is a definite policy on the part of the public librarian

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not to supply textbooks, one trouble being that it is exceedingly difficult to define what are and what are not "textbooks." It is probable that the most common conclusion is that as the public library cannot buy everything, even every good thing, published, it m a y therefore turn from the highly specialized fields and use its resources f o r the greater satisfaction of the general public and of students on the less specialized levels. T h i s is an understandable and perhaps desirable policy, but there is no doubt that it has resulted in an almost complete separation of the plane on which the public library functions f r o m that on which large sections of our most literate American public are thinking and acting. It is interesting to note that some librarians seem to form their policies according to a somewhat different category, the standard being the intellectual level of their users. T h e y may decide to serve first and most completely their literate and demanding clientele, or, on the other hand, those who are illeducated and less vocal; this choice showing in part at least, the personal attitude or predilection of librarian or trustees. T h e inability of public libraries to serve all their potential readers with all they want all the time is perhaps the most serious situation facing librarians today. Its chief, though not its only, cause is lack of adequate financial support, creating a vicious circle, since only proven results can serve to ensure adequate support. T h i s financial situation, bad as it is, has its valuable aspects. It causes librarians to scrutinize and evaluate with a keener perceptiveness their own standards of book selection. Moreover, it has been one of the most potent f a c tors in the réévaluation of library administration which is manifesting itself through new methods of coordination and the development of larger units of service. H o w e v e r , the situation remains and invites searching

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thought and constructive action, both of which must be taken in relation to what is happening today in our fiscal and municipal life. W h e n demands for public services are increasing, when funds from private sources are steadily decreasing, when the tax load necessary f o r even present services is reaching a critical level, the situation is one which no one group of public officials, the representatives of no one civic institution, dares to face alone. W e turn now to another inadequacy of the public library of which librarians are highly conscious. In spite of the demands which the library cannot satisfy, it still fails to reach or even to attract many of those within available distance of its resources and services. Numbers of people hardly go into the public library from one year's end to another. Some use it only sporadically, in the pursuit of a specific piece of information. Many refrain from its use because of preconceived ideas of the type of literature available, or from a fear of "red tape," or with a suspicion of all institutions connectcd in whatever way with government. Still others do not even know of its existence. This failure of public libraries to reach completely their own immediate, potential readers is a matter of concern to most librarians. T h e y are trying to correct the situation in many different ways, by publicity, by cooperation with other community institutions, by popularized activities. It is, I believe, an important but not a critically serious problem, f o r it is steadily and continuously being solved. T h e various levels of the community, in terms of intelligence, of education, of occupation, and of position, are being penetrated by public libraries to an increasing degree as their knowledge of people and communities develops and as they are willing to expand or adapt their approach and procedure. A more in-

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timate acquaintance with the needs and capacities of those having little in the w a y of education or privilege would guide librarians to a much wiser choice of books and a more realistic approach than are now common in their service to these people. I know of no realm except that of racial status in which preconceived opinions about capacity or desire is more dangerous and inept. Again, the lack of accurate information about the library is seriously crippling to library administrators, f o r among those w h o k n o w the least about the library, w h o hold the most contradictory and incorrect views about it, and are misled or prejudiced in relation to its possibilities and its requirements are many w h o are most influential and effective in the control of finance, taxation, and government appropriation. Librarians are increasingly conscious of the need of better public relations, and also of developing services which will be useful to such groups. F o r the benefit of those w h o may ask if it is wise f o r the public library to publicize its resources too much, to try to add to its clientele, when it cannot sati s f y those already using it, the answer is that many of the library's resources are not being used to capacity, while others are over-strained. A larger reading and using public might not so much increase the strain as spread it over a larger area, particularly if the new users represent a larger variety of groups or levels of interest, occupation, and education. Another field in which the public library is falling short of its ideals is that of an over-all, f u l l y equipped, and qualified personnel. It was said in Chapter 8 that the librarian is one of three essentials in public library service, the other t w o being the reader and the book. T h e quality of personnel as a whole; the standards f o r their training and equipment; their qualifications f o r widely varying types of w o r k ; schemes f o r

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the selection, promotion, and remuneration of the staff, are matters of deep concern to all those interested in efficient public library work. T h e r e is no doubt that, in spite of training, of gradual elimination of untrained and ill-qualified workers, and of increased compensation over the years, the quality of work done by the employees of public libraries is extremely uneven in character, some being of a high order, but much mediocre and inadequate. T h e reasons for this situation, as we have seen, are varied and complex. T h e level of service now called for is immeasurably higher than in the past, from which the traditional set-up of the public library is only now emerging. T h e complex organization of the modern library, its specialized services, and its wide range of literature call for practitioners who are not only trained in the techniques of librarianship but who are products of a first-rate education. It also demands men and women of a high personal caliber and capacity " T h e problems of training must be solved by our professional educators, yet we should be able from the standpoint of public library interest to formulate certain principles and aims which seem important. Vital among these principles, I believe, is a conception of the wholeness of the library profession, and the attainment by its practitioners of a common core of knowledge and a common ethical code, which would of necessity include an interpretation of the common intellectual content of our calling to all professional library students, regardless of scholastic level or type of school. Equally important is the need of greater opportunities for training suited to the best interests of the whole professional public library group, with perhaps a closer correlation between pro-

ACHIEVEMENTS

AND F A I L U R E S

147

fessional education and the requirements of this field of work. On the other hand, no amount of training will provide qualified personnel for the public library field unless in that field adequate opportunities f o r a high level of service present themselves. A great step f o r w a r d could be taken b y continuous contact between library administrators and library school directors and faculties, since professional training is, after all, designed to fit students to practice their profession. In this connection an encouraging m o v e has been made b y the American L i b r a r y Association in the formation of the Library E d u c a t i o n Division. T h e Board of E d u c a t i o n f o r Librarianship, one of whose functions is the accrediting of the schools, and the Association of American L i b r a r y Schools, both organizations of long standing,

represent

significant w o r k and policy in this field. But a division of the American L i b r a r y Association devoted to library education is, of necessity, broader in its basis. T o it are admitted not only library school representatives but all librarians wishing to join out of interest in professional standards, and in the status and training of personnel. Productive conclusion and action w o u l d result from an interchange of experience and opinion on a plane where philosophy meets reality and theo r y rubs against practice. T h e prodigious strides made b y the public library over a period of less than t w o centuries, the program of services which it is rendering and which expand in many directions and on v a r y i n g levels, indicate steady progress and w o r t h y accomplishment. Its freedom f r o m bias, its position as an institution free to all, and its generally accepted lack of subservience to special influences of any t y p e are matters f o r just

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pride and jealous observance. T h e open mind, the gradual adaptation to new needs, and the growing tendency to evaluate and reinterpret, are heartening sign-posts on the public library scene. At the same time, it is clear that there are large areas where public library service has yet to establish itself, where research and experimentation are needed, and where new patterns of service must be plotted. With our eyes on the extraordinary progress already made by this institution, we confidently expect that it will not fail to meet the challenge of the future.

PART

ni

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF TOMORROW

14 FUTURE DIRECTIONS

T

HE FUTURE, TO ALL WHO WORK FOR MORE

than the day's accomplishment, presents a continuous challenge. Librarians must constantly ask themselves how to direct their efforts toward more constructive ends; how to put theory into practice; how to transfer the ideal into reality. All thinking people must plan f o r tomorrow; the realistic mind cannot fail to conclude that these plans are all the better if transplanted from a misty dream to the hard substance of our workaday modern existence. T h e librarian w h o thinks seriously of an expansion of the public library's usefulness need not abandon the ideals of perfect service which lie before his eager mind. He will not fail to envision new ways of reaching this ideal, but he will also consider those roads on which progress has already been made. Librarians are feeling their way in many directions, experimenting, giving new and enriched types of service, and approaching new groups. Frequently these are not so much new directions as projections of service along ways long tried and accepted, as when music records are loaned to readers, when the librarian holds a story hour in the children's ward of a hospital, or when the public are invited to the library auditorium not to hear a speaker but to

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listen to a radio program and follow it by a discussion. N o t entirely new ways these, but new adaptations of service. T h u s , the librarian who looks forward to future library uses, has a need, also, to look backward. H e cannot forget that the library's possessions which it holds in trust, constitute one of the most vital factors in maintaining the integrity, the wholeness, of society. It is his job to promote the continuity of this intellectual contribution so that it leads naturally to many lines of expansion, as a tree trunk spreads out into many-branched fertility. It might also aid the library student in the proper evaluation of his profession if he looked back at the work of the early pioneers with a new sense that those activities which we accept today were once themselves new projections of library service, original, iconoclastic, and controversial. So the modern librarian may learn to unite progress with tradition, to temper eagerness with patience, and to combat discouragement and hostility with cheerful and undaunted effort. T h e s e qualities are needed nowhere more than in the constant struggle to better the financial position of the public library. So vital is this that to many librarians it seems to call for priority action. Do we not need here a new direction of thought? T o consider the matter unimportant would be unrealistic to a degree, but to believe it first in importance is putting the cart before the horse. It would be inaccurate to say that every civic institution gets the support it requires, but it is certainly true that no such agency will be supported adequately or with enthusiasm unless it first deserves more than it receives. Gratitude is not an attribute of the public purse, nor of those officials who hold the purse strings. T h e y have to be shown, and the showing must be plain and unmistakable. Librarians must show results in service, in proper

F U T U R E DIRECTIONS

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public relations, in constant effort to manage their business with economy as well as efficiency, and in measures calculated to justify and enforce their requests. T h e r e is no new direction here f o r the many librarians who are proving their awareness of the library's place in the modern world b y their constantly renewed sense of values, b y their excellent public service, and b y the ingenuity and resource shown in their public relations. Their example, as well as a little keener and more impartial eye on the various angles of the home situation, m a y well lead others to new w a y s of attacking their financial problems. Alertness to new needs and shifting values may result in the elimination or adjustment of expensive or time-consuming techniques, or in the regrouping of services into more efficient patterns. Moreover, in the presentation of program and budget courage, conviction, and resourcefulness of appeal might well replace the apologetic or defeatist or even resentful attitude and the perfunctory or hesitant action which are too common in the library's approach to appropriating authorities. In the line of constructive action an immediate and demanding course f o r the public library to pursue is that of geographical expansion. T h e lack of library facilities in large areas of our country has long been a matter of grave concern to our national organization, which n o w has made the solution of this problem one of its major directives in the formation and presentation of its "National Plan f o r Public L i b r a r y Service." A n y program effective in meeting this situation must include, as this plan does, the building of large library units, in line with the regional library trend, where overhead expense w o u l d be cut and the tax basis would be large enough to support adequate service over huge, meagerly

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settled sections. H o w e v e r , the trend t o w a r d larger library units is not confined to large, thinly settled areas, though its original impetus m a y have arisen f r o m their need.

The

coordination of library units on a c o u n t y or regional scale is n o w conceived as a means of promoting and enriching present library services. In nearly all sections of the c o u n t r y there are m a n y small, w e a k libraries too p o o r l y supported to do their w o r k efficiently. M o r e o v e r , there are " t h i n " spots within the most densely populated areas which have scanty library resources or none at all. In these areas there is no doubt that f a r more efficient library service could be attained through some f o r m of

coordinated e f f o r t , the

development of regional administrative units or the building of centers containing union catalogues and a b o d y of reserve material in books and other resources. N o r need this cooperation exist o n l y between libraries. A n o t h e r channel to i n f o r m e d and intensive service lies through unity of e f f o r t b e t w e e n libraries and other organizations in a c o m m u n i t y - w i d e p r o g r a m of contacts and activities. A l l such institutions, sharing their resources,

their

specialized abilities, and their users, can w o r k out a richness of c o m m u n i t y pattern impossible w h e r e each w o r k s alone. In m a n y f r i e n d l y neighborhoods such cooperation already exists in large measure, but the possibilities of extending this practice and m a k i n g it the basis of a public p o l i c y to be f o l l o w e d in c o m m u n i t y life has been explored but little and w o u l d , I am sure, repay study and experimentation. T h e idea of c o m m u n i t y planning w i t h a v i e w not only to m o r e economical but also to more efficient service is one w h i c h the modern mind understands and accepts. In any such c o m m u n i t y plan or pattern the librarian must k n o w his o w n f u n c t i o n , his tools, and his opportunities. In using

FUTURE

DIRECTIONS

I 55

them he must be as firm and certain in assuming his proper place in the cooperative scheme as he is modest in deferring to the proper functions and activities of other institutions. A direction which is not new to public libraries but in which they have progressed with unevenness and considerable uncertainty is that of popular, voluntary adult education. T h e leaders of the modern adult education movement have been keenly conscious of the important role to be played by librarians in that movement, often more so, it would seem, than many librarians themselves. T h e reasons for this attitude of mind are varied. One has been noted already, being the assumption by some that library service is in itself educational and requires little or no implementation toward this end. It may also be due, in part, to the fact that the public library has other functions than the educational one. Perhaps the most important reason for the somewhat quiescent attitude of many librarians toward this function lies in the fact that they still think of education, as do many laymen, as a process for the young, and in terms of compulsion. T h e path of educational activity for the library calls for a real reorientation and for a determination of goals. On the other hand, some public libraries have developed a tendency to turn their attention from scholars and specialists, and even from readers of more than average intellectual background and habit, in order to serve more fully their less literate users. In other words, their educational functions have been interpreted seriously, but often at the cost of neglecting their more intellectual potential patrons. One result has been that these latter individuals and groups, who are natural library users, know least about the modern public library. Their recognition would be invaluable to the public library, which indeed has as much responsibility for

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their needs as f o r those of the less literate. One of the most interesting parts of the national plan now before the A . L . A . is the establishment of reference and bibliographic centers designed to serve the whole body of citizens. T o extend these t w o services—to adult education and to scholarship—implies an intensive and knowledgeable adaptation of library service to the whole community. For this purpose w e need far more accurate and specific information than w e n o w possess of reading habits and interests. W h a t makes people read? W h a t do they read most eagerly? W h y don't they read? W h y don't they use the library? W h a t can the library offer to that mythical person, the non-reader? It is fantastically outdated to assume that a certain type of person, of a particular racial or occupational group, does not care about books or reading. W h a t w e need is more knowledge of these individuals and these groups, with a fresh imagination and insight in dealing with them. S u r v e y and study can form the basis of this knowledge, while its use can best be put into effect b y librarians trained in the social and human sciences. T h e Public Library Inquiry completed in 1950 with funds supplied b y the Carnegie Corporation gives a better foundation f o r conclusions than librarians have had before, but it does not relieve them f r o m the necessity of constant study of their own communities, or f r o m the desirability of acquiring for themselves more knowledge of human psychology and human relationships. A new course on which the public library has already made some progress is in the use of new tools and methods of communication. Books and other printed matter have been the traditional objects of use and pleasure which the library has preserved and made available. But though

printed

materials are and probably will remain basic to all educational and civilized thought, new and until recently unimagined

F U T U R E DIRECTIONS

I57

methods of communication have been discovered and promoted. T h e library has begun to think of the cinema as less a rival than an additional channel f o r transmitting knowledge, and of the library's relationship to this new agent as one of cooperation. It even seeks w a y s to use motion pictures f o r the extension of its own services. Radio and television are being used b y more and more libraries to explain and expand their service to more and more people. Graphic materials and methods, too, are increasingly used in the creation or stimulation of ideas. Moreover, processes such as microfilm have been discovered which

demonstrate

already their superiority to paper and print in the preservation of materials f o r which the library has a guardian's responsibility. H o w f a r is the public library to g o in the use of these new means of communication? It is a direction which deserves investigation. One of the most essential directions f o r public libraries to follow is toward a better qualified personnel. T h i s is no new idea, certainly, but one which obsesses the thought of all library administrators. Nevertheless, the problem must be attacked with fresh imagination, resource, and determination, by library school educators and library administrators alike before a clear course can be charted toward this desired end. F o r library personnel and library education must be thought of together, and both must be considered in relation to the library's program of public service. So long as library educators conduct their training in an ivory tower, with only an incidental thought of the field's needs and possibilities, so long as public library administrators offer limited possibilities in their pattern of service f o r trained workers of varied capacities, just so long will the service itself suffer, and so long will qualified librarians leave this field f o r more inviting prospects.

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O n e line of interest runs t h r o u g h o u t most public library w o r k w h i c h I hope will never be lost. C o m p a r e d w i t h the b r o a d roads of progress and e n d e a v o r w h i c h have been noted, it is like a h o m e l y little c o u n t r y path, meandering about here and there. O n e m a y call it human interest, love of people, s y m p a t h y , w h a t y o u will, but it reaches its goal inevitably, in the hearts and minds of the reading public. S y m p a t h y and human interest w i t h o u t k n o w l e d g e m a y be m e r e sentimentality,

doing m o r e

harm than good.

But

k n o w l e d g e w i t h o u t these q u i c k e n i n g qualities is a cold and cheerless attribute. W e

should never f o r g e t that

manv

people stand in a w e of it. T h e y do not easily approach those k n o w l e d g e a b l e persons w h o are really best fitted to help them. B u t they respond to liking and s y m p a t h y and followw h e r e it leads them. S o this line of interest, pursued w i t h diligence and delight, will lead to that end most desired b y all librarians, a public waiting at their doors with an assurance as great as their impatience. Last, I mention w i t h some hesitation that little matter of leadership of w h i c h librarians talk so m u c h , but about w h i c h , as in the s a v i n g about the weather, t h e v do so little. Is there a n y t h i n g w h i c h can be done about it? " W h a t man, bytaking t h o u g h t , can add one cubit to his stature?" Is this indeed the case? M u s t w e leave to chance and the theory of probabilities the development of this rare and most vital quality? Perhaps w e need in the library teaching profession m o r e catalysts, those w h o , though not leaders in o u t w a r d seeming, y e t b y some subtle a l c h e m y of the spirit, can kindle into life that spark of greatness w h i c h must animate all true leadership. T h e f u t u r e directions in which the public library w i l l advance depend in greatest measure on the existence and the quality of library leadership.

15 EXPANSION

E

XPANSION, IN MR. WEBSTER'S BIG BOOK, IS

defined variously as: dilatation; extended surface, increasing in volume; pure space. W h e n an object or activity expands, we say that it spreads out. For the public library one of the most urgent needs, as we have seen, is geographical expansion. But spreading out sometimes means getting thin. So library expansion may be interpreted intensively as well as extensively. Every housewife knows what happens when yeast is put into bread mixture and it is left to rise. This is expansion also, a process which penetrates every part. Today it is being recognized as never before that the need of sections of the United States wholly without library facilities and with few other means of obtaining reading matter must receive priority consideration. T h e "Public Library Plan" embodies the realization that this is a problem which must be tackled on the national as well as the state level. Local communities in such areas are almost helpless. For the greatest obstacle to full extension of library service throughout the nation is the poverty of some of the states, resulting largely from low industrial productivity, meager educational opportunities, and a countryside too sparsely settled to sustain an adequate tax load. T h e library is not alone in its awareness of the intellectual and educational

i6o

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requirements of the nation's poor rural areas. These are over-all needs, o f education, of industrial and agricultural development, and of full employment, with the resultant rising of the tax level. In order t o extend library resources in the sections now without such services, two measures are essential. O n e is adequate machinery of operation. T h e other is availability of funds sufficient for at least a minimum of good service. California offers an example of a successfully

operated

system of book distribution. But California is a wealthy state. T h e poor and economically undeveloped areas of the country require help both with funds and with administration. T h e conviction has been growing among librarians that Federal and state aid and a regrouping of library service into fairly large units under some form of centralized supervision afford the best if not the only solution to this problem. W h a t is essential is a plan of public library service which provides means b y which suitable machinery of operation may be set up, and determines methods for using available funds most economically.* T h i s type of extension almost presupposes a Federal library agency, which does now exist in Washington as the Library Service Division of the Office of Education. More power for this body is essential and it is the natural channel through which funds, if made available, would pass to the state or regional organizations concerned. T h i s then is a front where the action of the national association of librarians * For a discussion of the Library Demonstration Bill and the role ol the Federal Government, see Oliver Garceau, The Public Library in the Political Process (Report of the Public Library Inquiry, 1949), pp. 25238. The bill, under which Federal funds would have been allocated to the states to demonstrate the value of public libraries in rural areas, was defeated in the House of Representatives in 1950.

EXPANSION

I6 I

can be most effective. Here also the state library agencies and the various state library associations can exert influence to bring about the desired results in a form acceptable to the states and local communities involved. F o r there is no doubt whatever that some type of coordination, of grouping services under large organizational units, of supervision, and of financial aid will be forthcoming sooner or later. W h a t type, what pattern of service, will be set up, whether varied as in the past, whether

preceded b y

experimentation,

whether uniform and strictly controlled in organization, will depend on the alertness, the determination, and the united purpose of the whole library body. B e f o r e the g r o w ing realization of a critical situation the old reluctance to accept the idea of Federal assistance, based on a fear of centralized control, is passing. But a passive attitude must be replaced b y one of conviction and by bold and critical thinking directed toward a definite program,

including

both legislative action and a pattern of administration suited to individual state and local units. This is the great job confronting not only the A . L . A . as an organization but all American librarians. Such states as Massachusetts and N e w Y o r k , Ohio and California cannot afford a neutral attitude, f o r a failure of library service anywhere saps its efficiency and value everywhere. B y the same token, history has shown that when the entire library body, or a large part of it, is back of a specific movement, sooner or later success in that direction is assured. .Moreover, this problem of complete coverage is not w h o l l y one of the industrially poor and lightly settled states. E v e n in such states as Massachusetts or N e w Y o r k , where there is theoretically 100 per cent library service, the facts show this service to be wholly inadequate in many sections.

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Again it is a m a t t e r o f the tax load which in small civic units is not adequate t o meet the public demand or need. It is in these sections that serious thought should be given t o the possibilities o f some t y p e o f coordinated library service, one which w o u l d bring to each library clientele many m o r e privileges o f scholarship and research as well as a richer variety o f reading matter than any one small library could hope t o offer. F o r b a c k of the paucity of service c o m m o n t o many o f these libraries is their isolation, not necessarily geographical but in terms o f personnel equipment, in types o f c o m m u n i t y approach, in variety of materials. Richness, prodigality, and variety of scrvice can seldom be gained outside the larger libraries except through some form o f coordinated or cooperative effort. In old communities,

with settled social and

political

patterns, there m a y be more than one difficulty to overcome in achieving this result. It can never be forgotten, moreover, that the pride and the local values often found in the small library lie in its prestige as a local institution and the service its local k n o w l e d g e makes possible. T h e r e f o r e , these values and their importance in community attitudes must be borne in mind in the construction of a plan f o r larger service. H e n c e the need f o r knowledge, intelligent thinking and action on the part o f librarians and library trustees everywhere. F o r it seems certain that whether a number o f large o library units replace the many small ones now existing, or w h e t h e r the small libraries are formed into groups under some t y p e o f supervision, the fact of coordination in one f o r m or another is to be the keynote of the future, not only in poor, thinly settled, rural states, but throughout the country. T h e advantages in such a policy are clear. T h e y lead in

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three directions: first, toward a greater clarity and unity in adminstrative policy and toward more definite and specific objectives; second, toward a centralization of techniques, making it possible for one process to replace the tedious duplication of motion in a dozen or a hundred places, and thus also releasing more time for work with people and books which ultimately may be realized as the essence of library work; third, toward the enrichment of service through greater and more varied resources in terms of materials and of professional service. Any practicable library plan, we assume, will be sufficiently flexible to permit a variety of pattern. So important is community opinion to the adaptation of any social agency and so powerful is the power of the individual state in American civic life that such amenity to public opinion and social usage would pay dividends in the form of popular support. Leaders in the development of public libraries have to consider also a trend toward a decentralization of civic or community activities. This is illustrated admirably by the development of modern housing units, with localized social and recreational facilities, sometimes even including a welfare agency and a school. It will be seen at once that though this trend is toward small, localized activities, it is not opposed to coordinated control or organization. Quite the contrary, in fact. In such a project, coordination of effort and individual service go happily hand in hand. N o public service could fit into such a pattern more easily than that of the public library. At this point our discussion begins to center about another type of expansion, different in spirit and method from the lateral spread of library facilities. It is extension through rather than out, an intensive reaching out of the library's

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interests to penetrate every level of a given community, to know and touch all interests, and meet all those needs within its power to satisfy. T h a t this ideal now is far from being the case every librarian knows. A n d every good librarian wants above most things to be equal to this task. T h e urge to do so was the moving impulse in all the efforts to establish local libraries as integral parts of their communities, and that urge is finding its current expression in the trend to take reading service outside the library to people where they are. Central libraries never have a strong appeal to average people except as objects of interest to their visiting friends, but a little library is a friendly spot, almost like a club. A collection of books in a f a c t o r y recreation hall, or department store staffroom, or local church parlors, or the lounge of a political club, or a police or fire station will be read and more will be asked for. Circulation figures? Probably not large. But reading service? Y e s , and particularly if there is a touring librarian to give them an occasional boost. A n d w h y not? Librarians have to remember that though the average person wants to keep informed, wants a bit of "culture," he usually does not want it as much as he wants something else—a lift of the spirit in the make-believe world of the cinema; leisure to read the paper and listen to the radio, in his shirt-sleeves with a pipe in his mouth; a visit with his pals over a friendly glass; a work-out at his athletic club. As f o r her, well, there is always sewing and visiting and cooking, her bridge, her club program, the meetings of the church society or the P . T . A . or the D . A . R . , all interesting, all important. She says, " I like to read but I have so little time." H e says, a bit more honestly, " I read the papers mostly. H a v e to keep up with things. All this modern trash in print—life is too short." People, in general, I think, rather like to read, they even like

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to learn. But they will read more if the reading is made easily accessible, and learn more if the process is made enjoyable. W h y are book clubs so popular? W h y do documentary films and the persuasive radio voice impress people as the printed word does not? N o r would I have the reader think of these sentiments as cynical. T h e remarks apply to "us," not to " t h e m . " A n d the situation implies not merely intellectual inertia, which does indeed exist, but modern pressures, in terms of haste, noise, bad news, w o r r y , and weariness of body and mind. A n adequate argument f o r the bringing of books to individuals and groups where they are is implicit in their sheer recreational value, in the enjoyment and release and "escape" which come to those w h o , as w e say in our d r y academic fashion, have w o n the reading habit. So, I hope that, while w e centralize, in administrative methods and techniques, while w e coordinate opportunities and types of service, w e shall decentralize book service itself, making it available to individuals and groups, where they w o r k , where they play, where they live, and where they congregate. J o h n Chancellor has visualized a book service w h o l l y outside library walls, with centralized units merely f o r administrative and technical purposes, a set-up which no longer seems a visionary figment of the imagination. It would seem possible, too, to take a leaf f r o m the book of school practice which, in some states, includes large unit schools f o r children above a certain grade, at the same time leaving small local schools f o r younger children. In a thoughtful, coordinated library system there might well be a place f o r adequate reference libraries and f o r a number of large library units qualified to supply expensive and specialized reading matter, source materials, and general books in sufficient

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quantity to aid the small libraries of a given area, while the local libraries retain their position as community centers. O n e of the first steps taken in the process of integrating the library in the c o m m u n i t y was the acquirement of

first-hand

knowledge about it. S u c h information, vastly extended, will be important in any large-scale extension of public library service. T o the local librarian w h o wishes to enrich his service and make it more effective on all levels this k n o w l edge and the continuing contacts feeding it arc absolutely essential. H e knows it, but he realizes too, if he is honest, that this is more a pious wish than an objective fulfilled or even carefully plotted. Sporadic neighborhood visits, luncheon o r dinner meetings, speeches and organizational c o n ferences, are all excellent, but often they are planned with a view to publicity rather than to the acquirement of information, and too often they do not go beyond one or t w o cultural levels. Real knowledge o f any community, with its various racial cultures, social organizations, and educational planes, is not only a matter of good will and assiduous work, it is one also o f sociological procedure. T h e knowledge may be obtained most thoroughly through a scientifically conducted survey, but contacts may be maintained and valuable information gained in less formal ways. Surveys of the type called service studies have frequently been made for or b y libraries, usually toward a definite end, sometimes a redirecting of program, or an extension of service in a new direction. Y e t the survey or carefully planned c o m m u n i t y study, renewed constantly as a part of the library's organizational w o r k and used as the basis of a continuing program of activities, has been singularly little used. A n excellent method, perhaps the only really effective one, of conducting such a liaison service would be

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its incorporation in the library's regular program, in a large institution through a department of survey or community service, in a smaller library by a field librarian, not necessarily functioning under that title, but occupying a recognized position, with the requisite training and personal capacity. T h e need of continuous activity along this line is surely obvious. A n y community survey is out of date almost before it is finished. For the purposes of collecting and evaluating data toward some given end, such surveys are invaluable, and they can serve as indexes or guide posts of action, but they cannot be relied on for setting the pattern of a longrange program of action, which must continually be checked nnd adapted to the changing organizational life, the population, and the demands of a living, active neighborhood. T h e steps to be taken by any library subsequent to such intimate contacts, and adapted to the needs continually discovered through them, will vary infinitely. T h e y may involve changes in book selection, adaptations in publicity and approach, alterations in the library's physical set-up, the employment of a librarian with special subject knowledge or racial background, even the creation of a completely new department of service, or an adaptation of service in new centers of employment or residence. Examples of such action are story-telling or book distribution in hospitals, a book collection with professional library service on a regular schedule in a new housing unit or in a playground, the delivery of books to shut-ins at home—in other words, a service both coordinated and individual. A librarian whose job is to be on the field will gather on the spot all sorts of pertinent information which normally would filter in to the librarian's busy desk a f e w days or weeks later, or not at all. Labor disputes, unfair employment or rental practices,

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racial clashes, a n e w medical clinic, a new subject added to a night school or vocational program, any and all events, c o m i n g to the librarian's knowledge, add to his information and his perceptiveness and often call for his participation. T h e readers' advisers, or consultants working either with children or adults have an invaluable opportunity, through personal, individual contacts, o f discovering the deep-seated, often inarticulate and sometimes hardly realized intellectual needs o f the readers they t r y to help. T h i s information, in turn, m a y strongly influence the types or directions o f service o f the library as a whole. T h e enrichment of library service, then, what we have called its intensive expansion, will depend on personal k n o w l edge of individuals and groups and on continuing contacts with them on all levels and in their varying relationships. S u c h knowledge and the contacts from which it derives should lead to services adapted to meet the infinitely varied needs, capacities, tastes, and interests which exist in any lib r a r y c o m m u n i t y . S u c h a realistic application of library service, if it accompanies the spread of libraries into unserved areas, will enhance the values of the library's cultural c o n tribution so that expansion will mean not only geographical coverage but also a universality o f appeal and of fulfillment.

16 THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND SCHOLARSHIP

S

CHOLARSHIP IS IN THE GREAT TRADITION

of the public library. That is, it is one of the traditions with which this institution started, which formed its bulwarks, and gave it the prestige it early enjoyed. In its march from the mists of tradition into the fierce light of our present day the public library has lost somewhat in prestige, in scholarly attributes, and in a sense of intellectual mission. Our library pioneers took for granted, as many librarians today fail to do, the scholarly content and purpose of their libraries. Those who led in the fight to open the library's doors to the masses did so with the purpose of raising public intellectual standards. They would have been appalled at the possibility that the library's standards might be lowered to meet the public taste. It was in the early years of this century that libraries began to turn definitely toward more popular materials and methods. Our earlier librarians, ready as they were to help the poor and less literate, lived in a world where the library clientele was drawn largely from the educated and privileged classes. But as the rise of demanding labor and the flood of immigration rolled on to sweep the public library from its aloofness and isolation, these forces served, too, to turn the thought of librarians strongly toward the needs of the

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ignorant and submerged groups. Perhaps it was inevitable that this need, overwhelming as it was, should make other requirements seem secondary. W h e n schools and libraries opened their doors to all the people, the level o f their services had to be adjusted t o that degree which made attainment possible b y their users. It is perhaps inevitable that a phase o f d e m o c r a c y on the w a y up is mediocrity. Y e t unless political d e m o c r a c y sets higher standards for its citizens, it might better be replaced at once b y some other system. W h o o r what, then, is to set the standards and take some responsibility in the struggle to meet and maintain them unless it be the institutions of democracy, in particular the schools and the libraries? T h i s means that the ideal of intellectual attainment, the goal of trained and scholarly thought, can never be lost sight o f b y the leaders. T h e public library has a double responsibility here. It is responsible for its o w n tradition of scholarship, and for those treasures of the mind which scholarship has produced and intrusted to the library for safekeeping. It is also responsible for the accessibility of these treasures to as m a n y people as possible. A further responsibility was felt b y our early leaders and is still maintained today b y many thoughtful librarians against the h y p n o t i c influence of circulation figures and the tides of facile and superficial reading. It rests on the belief that libraries have an important job to do in the intellectual progress and continuing enlightenment which alone can lead to any widespread or meaningful use of our intellectual heritage. T h e r e is a curious anomaly present here, f o r while the library has lost in prestige, it is not y e t accepted or even thought of generally as a potent a g e n c y of education. It is used as such indeed b y thoughtful individuals and groups.

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But it is almost invariably overlooked in any survey of educational or social agencies. It is quite possible that one of the reasons for this rather general disregard is the deep-seated, unconscious thought about the library as an essentially intellectual institution somewhat esoteric and exclusive. T h i s seeming contradiction can be explained, I think, b y the fact that the library is still in a transition period, and that it is thought of variously by different groups. T h i s situation can be particularly vexatious to the modern librarian who wishes to make of his institution a popular democratic agency, and to convince the civic officials of its fitness for such a job. But after all is this intellectual reputation still clinging to the library lightly to be thrown away? T h e authority with which it invests the library may be used to strengthen every effort made toward widespread use and popular support. Huge figures of circulation do not impress city officials, as was pointed out by Dr. Alvin Johnson, nor do they open the public purse strings; otherwise our great city libraries would receive better support than is the case. T h e activities of the public library which have contributed to scholarship, which have helped to raise the educational level of a community or group, which have served to make the library a partner in some great cooperative project for the public welfare, these are the activities and the services which have brought recognition to the public library and, in specific cases, have added to its measure of support. Somewhere, during the development of popular use of public libraries, a division of interest or direction becamc apparent. Almost unconsciously the public librarian centered his attention either on the enlightenment of the masses or on the delectation of the elite; turned his best efforts toward the

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preservation and interpretation of the products of scholarship, or toward the collection and use of simple materials adaptable as tools of popular education. As a matter of fact, of course, both interests, both directives are obligations. Moreover, the librarian who tries to pursue both, soon finds that the paths tend to merge and the fields of interest to overlap, so that instruction slips into pleasure, or the recreative becomes educational, and it is quite impossible to guess what type of person will find cither in a given piece of literature. Thus, we come to believe in a democratic society that scholarship and popular education are steps in the same process, phases of progress for all groups and levels. Can it be that librarians, like many other Americans, have lost their way among the many connotations of that word "democratic"? This is probably the most misunderstood as well as the most ill-used word in our language! Webster defines democracy as "government by the people" and "government in which the supreme power is retained by the people." Geoffrey Gorer, in The Americans;

a Study in Character,

asserts that

" A s a description of character 'democratic' is generally used to signify that a person of high social or economic status acts in such a way that his or her inferiors are reminded of their inferiority. It has no political connotations." This may seem to some of us almost fantastically unrealistic as an interpretation of the impulses which influence American social and political life. Y e t the thought which is inherent in it may and probably does affect in a subtle way many who are engaged in public services. W h e n we speak of "the people," we refer, ideologically, to all the people, and the "supreme power" to govern applies to the power vested in all the people. It follows that the processes necessary to fit the people for this

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course, infinitely complex though they may be, form parts of a unified whole, and the institutions responsible f o r those processes are responsible also f o r maintaining that unity, without preconceived ideas as to the levels on which certain processes and certain types of knowledge are or are not applicable. T h e library's duty to serve the ill-educated or the economically underprivileged does not release it from a similar obligation to other groups, with a richer background perhaps or with more trained and cultivated tastes. N o r does it dare to separate into categories its services to those of v a r y ing background, education, or social status or to imagine that these services fulfill a democratic function only if offered to those of one level rather than another. T h e y are democratic only if offered to all, in terms of opportunity, of individual recognition, and of richness of appeal. Happily librarians are in a position to recognize the soundness of this attitude of mind. W h e n w e seek to satisfy the intellectual hunger of our people, to give literate, seeking minds the food they crave, w e find that intellectual levels are not synonymous with economic or social level. Incidentally, w e perceive that the w o r d "level," though it is a convenient label and may be a good w o r d sociologically, is a v e r y bad one for those infinitely varying degrees of knowledge, perceptiveness, interest, and capacity which characterize the democratic mix-up which w e call American society. T h e librarian, or anyone else, w h o is looking f o r the intellectual, the alert, or the curious mind, may find those minds everywhere, in every group, on every level. This intellectual need must be served, and the service constitutes as much of a democratic process as the classes f o r the ignorant and illiterate. T h e public library gives continuous proof of its fitness as a common ground f o r mental interests. T h e literary and so-

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cial group meetings held b y many libraries illustrate the best type of democratic fellowship. N o forced social contacts these, or sociological experiments either. Rather they offer meeting places w h e r e similar interests foregather, and where mind challenges mind. T h r o u g h such meetings as these, miniature town meetings, held f o r the high purposes of social or intellectual interchange of v i e w ; through upholding high standards of literary and social expression, the library touches and tends to unite alert, keen, and searching minds everywhere. This is not just catering to the "elite" then, though that is as much the library's job as to cater to the masses. A n important by-product of this library function is the magnet-like action, lifting to one level and to interchange of communication, those who have interests and problems in common and many w h o diff e r mightily but on a level where interchange of thought is possible. T h i s is the democratic process at work on a very high plane. M a n y of these discussions need documentation, source materials of varying kinds, and again the library is in a position to select and suggest. It is at this point, as well as in dealing with individual students, scholars and experts, that the library requires f o r really effective service not only the best bibliographic knowledge but the authority which conies f r o m a high intelligence and assured standards. W e m a y ask if e v e r y public library is prepared to play this role, to set intellectual standards, to contribute to the development of thought, and to act as an intelligent aid in the procedures of research. Some libraries are not only prepared but are already giving such aid, a service often quite unknown to the general public. M a n y more may never need the highest degree of efficiency in this line, but all libraries require intellectual authority in order to perform their best

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work. E v e r y librarian can act according to his highest standards rather than the commonplace ones he himself despises. E v e r y library can make its doors the open doors of opportunity to the highest thought and deepest needs of its community. T h e librarian of the small library need not be dependent on his own knowledge alone. H e may ask cooperation and advice of the best brains in his neighborhood. H e may get counsel and material help from his state library agency, from library schools, from other libraries, and from institutions of various types. These requests need not give a sense of shame or inferiority. Far from it. T h e y show rather a good sense of values and a discriminating knowledge as to where to turn f o r help. In any large and unified system of public library service such as is now under study the attainment of scholarly ends would be greatly facilitated. T h e provision of reference and research centers available to all parts of the country through local channels would tend to raise the intellectual level of all public library service. ¡Meantime, no library, large or small, can afford to neglect the interests of all levels of its community. One of the best ways to obtain not only the reputation but the reality of intellectual authority is to develop some subject specialty, preferably in a field of local interest. A small book collection of this kind will g r o w almost imperceptibly into a large one if given half a chance. W h a t are really essential are certain qualities of mind in the librarian, a plan, a modicum of knowledge, willingness to learn, vision and determination. These qualities may be present in the librarian of a small or a large library alike, in city or country. I am aware that there may be objection to the use of the w o r d "scholarship" in the sense described, as w e smile at the "research" required of grade school pupils. But I submit that

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just as essential as exact knowledge and effective techniques for the development of scholarly attributes or f o r the processes of research are the state of mind which motivates the worker and an atmosphere hospitable to the development of his efforts. T h e s e indeed f o r m the beginning of all scholarly attainment, and these conditions are well within the power of most public libraries to provide. If they cannot do so, let them close their doors and leave the purveying of reading matter to the corner drug store. Happily, most libraries are doing a better job in this line than they realize. But a full awareness of the need and of their obligation, a sense of direction toward a definite goal, almost certainly would invest their p r o g r a m with a dignity, a significance, and an effectiveness of which they now hardly dare to dream.

17 A PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY

T

HESE WORDS, "A PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY," IN which Dr. Alvin Johnson described the potentialities of

the public library, constitute for that institution perhaps the inost urgent challenge presented by our modern age. Every thinking person must realize the imperative need in the world today for a literate, informed, and maturely developed citizenry. Widespread, continuing education provides an important answer to this need. But the processes through which such education may be gained are not simple, but highly complex. One may look at them from two angles, or rather as proceeding toward two ends, one of which is the acquisition of the backgrounds of knowledge, the other, training and exercise in learning to think. "Ideas have c o n sequences," as Richard M. Weaver has put it. # Until " w e , the people," who control the world's destiny, learn to think soberly, clearly, and with a sure sense of values, we shall have a world which is the natural outcome of prejudice, ignorance, and muddy, shallow thinking. Clearly, the backgrounds of knowledge form the essential bases for all education, and for providing this basic knowledge our schools and colleges have the prime responsibilities. In this task, the library has the helper's part, in supplement* Ideas Have Consequences

(Chicago, 1948).

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ing, c o m p l e m e n t i n g , and p r o v i d i n g incidental resources and aid. W h e r e the school's part ends, or g r o w s thinner and m o r e incidental, the library's task becomes heavier and more essential. F o r men and w o m e n need a continuing education, a constant re-acquiring and re-orienting, a process i n v o l v i n g individual desire and circumstance, and a compelling individual impulse. It is in this area that the public library's greatest o p p o r t u n i t y and d u t y lie. F o r it has not o n l y the tools and resources required, but its spirit and objective square w i t h the individual's need, and with self-directed and s e l f organized methods of education. But it is also true that the public library can reach the highest point of success in this field of opportunity only if its policies and methods of procedures are based 011 an educational philosophy and its objectives trained t o w a r d an educational end. Y e t neither philosophy nor objectives can be lifted b o d i l y f r o m the field of academic educational thought. T h e y must be adapted to the uses of the adult mind and personality and bounded b y the capacities of the library. T h e s e capacities have been realized b y m a n y educators of adults and are based partly on theory but more on actual results of library activities, emerging in m a n y cases as b y - p r o d u c t s of regular library service, b y virtue of ordinary book resources and the open invitation to use them. It can be imagined h o w g r e a t l y expanded and enhanced this intellectual contribution w o u l d b e c o m e if, instead of being a b y - p r o d u c t , it were produced as a m a j o r activity in accordance w i t h a specific philosophy and plan. T h e s e w o r d s , I am well aware, m a y be met w i t h skepticism and the casual tolerance w h i c h is at once a c h a r m i n g and a most maddening characteristic of librarians. A l s o , it is a w h o l l y specious quality, f o r most good

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librarians are missionaries at heart. If they would only throw off their frustrations, transform their blunted sense of mission into an informed and realistic conviction of the library's essential responsibility and capacity, what a magnificent job they could do! W e have said that one reason for the lack of general recognition of the library's qualifications as an agency f o r popular education is the lingering impression of it as exclusive and esoteric—in popular phrasing, high-brow. Another, possibly more important, reason lies in the attitudes of librarians themselves, attitudes which are, variously, hesitant, over-modest, or self-conscious. It must be added, too, that some of them quite frankly do not believe much in this "educational business"; others admittedly are not qualified, while some have but the vaguest idea as to how the educational ideal may be translated into library terms. Y e t there are many who see definite objectives f o r the public library in this area of informal and continuing education, and are setting a steady pace toward them. W e should be able, then, to define some of the areas of activity, some of the methods, and some of the actual types of activity which it is feasible f o r the public library to undertake as a matter of general policy and which will serve to consolidate its position as an educational agency of considerable potency. N o common pattern is suggested, for one of the values inherent in the library's educational role is the variety which it permits and which is almost a prerequisite to effective voluntary and informal education. In a specific case, a definitely directed trend of thought plus individual circumstances will lead to actual procedures, which, if set up in an imaginary pattern, constructed on theory alone,

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would be wholly unrealistic. H o w e v e r , some conclusions seem to me possible, and these conclusions lead in certain definite directions. First, it seems evident that before definite policies toward educational ends are established, more knowledge is essential, knowledge of individual people and communities and more general, basic knowledge of the psychology of people, their backgrounds, desires and needs; further, a knowledge of sociological trends, of the forces which make and motivare communities, is needed. M u c h of this knowledge can be gained only through study and training. T h e recognition of this fact by the best library schools is shown by changes in their curricula, by their in-service training, and by a tendency to use other academic courses to supplement their own. T h e future should see a rich development in this direction. Moreover, the knowledge of specific people and communities can come only from direct and continuing contact. In other words, a librarian may perform " p u r e librarianship" without leaving his own walls, but the librarian who wishes to provide any effective type of adult education will find it absolutely essential to k n o w his community and keep in constant touch with it. T h i s conclusion must lead to some definite policy aimed at gaining and retaining these contacts. One of the best methods is probably the use of a field librarian or, in a large library, the creation of a department of field w o r k . In one of the experiments in adult education sponsored by the American Association for Adult E d u c a tion, a field worker cooperated closely with the readers' adviser within the library, one being responsible f o r contacts, the other for compiling and acquiring resources, and both for program and presentation. In the libraries where n o w exist departments of adult education or of specialized

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adult activities, the service must depend largely on community contacts and the knowledge gained f r o m them. In some modernly organized cities there is a department of public information or survey. In such cities the public library can benefit hugely by close cooperation with this department. In many towns and cities there are citizens' groups whose function it is to know community conditions and, if necessary, to act upon them. In many such cases the librarian is a member of such a group. This contact m a y serve as an invaluable source of continuing information f o r the librarian. T h i s road toward basic, scientific knowledge and more accuratc continuing information must be pursued as a matter of public policy by those libraries which wish to emphasize their educational activities. For soundly based, accurate and current information leading to just and balanced opinions is one of the prerequisites for the success of any educational program set up by the library. A specialized t y p e of information, recognized as important by all adult educators, is that of the reading interests, habits, and abilities of individuals and groups of people. T h i s is the old question: what, w h y , and w h y not do people read, which long has been a poser for librarians. S o that when the A . A . A . E . started study in this field, they f o u n d hearty collaborators among the librarians, who contributed their findings from different parts of the country. T h e i r reports covered not only the subject interests of different groups, but also disclosed in what fields little or no readable matter was available, a particularly difficult problem in serving those with serious interests and mature minds but without adequate education or the reading habit. This g r o u p of educators then experimented in the actual writing of readable

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books, readable in this technical sense meaning not only interesting, but simple and clear. The experiment certainly threw light on what makes a book readable! Perhaps only a genius can write a thoroughly "readable" book. Gulliver's Travels and Pilgrim's Progress were not written for children certainly. The former is a bitter, maturely conceived satire, the latter a highly philosophical work; yet they are juvenile classics today. W h y ? Because they are, both popularly and technically, "readable" books. Each tells a simple exciting story, and their language on the whole is of the type called basic English. Perhaps a "readable" book can be so onlv incidentally, as a by-product of the author's genius or driving force. Those who work with readers, however, have discovered that the interest of a reader in a subject or line of thought often serves to offset lack of reading ability. A Negro pupil in night school took eagerly from the librarian who offered it to him the autobiography of Frederick Douglass, at that time available only in the poorly printed, drylooking original edition. H o w hard he would struggle to read a little of that book, and how much more that little would mean to him than the whole text of an "easy" reader or history! So, without benefit of genius, with study and experiment, some headway has been made, not only in learning what and why people read or do not read, but also in discovering reading materials and promoting their use. Schools and colleges are showing their concern in the conduct of literacy tests and reading clinics. T h e public library, through its vast reading public, offers an unparalleled opportunity for such study and experiment. But unless it develops specialists in this field it can be most useful in cooperation with a collegiate institution or a survey institute.

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T h i s brings us to the whole great area of possible cooperation between the library and other institutions of kindred purposes. T h e opportunities for voluntary pooling of effort are innumerable and are often used. But thus far hardly any thought or action apparently have been turned toward the possibility of official coordination. Yet such action in other fields is being taken with little or no loss in individual status. T h e coordination under the same general control of a great hospital unit with an institution of higher learning is a case in point, as, for example, the Presbyterian Hospital-Medical Center-Columbia University unit in N e w Y o r k City. Such official connection between a college or university and the public library, or in fact all the local library resources, could lead to coordination of effort and activities while offering an invaluable training ground for theory and experiment. Whether it would lead to economy of administration is a question. But donors or appropriating bodies would be assured that funds were spent for essential services rather than f o r overlapping administrative and technical processes. A coordinated library unit which approaches these conditions exists in Denver, where there is a union of public and university libraries under one administration, together with research facilities for the whole R o c k y Mountain area. A n example of another variety of cooperative set-up is the Tennessee Valley Authority, where the library f o r the Authority was placed in charge of all the educational and social activities of the project. T h u s it is evident that there may be great variations in organization and in type of activity needed to promote the educational needs of widely varying sections. A trend which could greatly facilitate the educational function of the public library is that toward decentraliza-

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tion of services. T h e processes to be followed in pursuing this policy would fit admirably into the cooperative pattern just noted. In fact, such a pattern would make them almost inevitable. But, most important of all, these processes would meet the needs of a larger reading public. Many who normally would like to use the library in educating themselves, hesitate to do so through timidity or self-consciousness. Others cannot fit their leisure time to institutional hours. Still others live in ignorance of what the library has to offer them. Moving the library outside its walls, it seems, is a process only just beginning. Its possibilities arc wonderfully enhanced by trends in community planning. T h e great housing developments already noted, multiple apartment buildings, community recreation and health centers, large industrial plants—all these places where people congregate f o r living or working not only need opportunities for reading as a pan of their educational and recreational equipment but furnish for the public library an opportunity of reaching many who are now outside its orbit of appeal. T o create an educational pattern in such centers is a real challenge, which must be met according to local conditions. A branch library in N e w York, through the help of educated and experienced volunteers, and a coordinated reading program, once conducted an experiment in homemaking with the women who congregated with their babies in a near-by park. These volunteers met the women as they gathered, talked with them about their problems, and offered them the simple books and pamphlets which the library could supply. Often these informal talks were followed by meetings in the library where further help could be given. This exemplifies in a small way the possibility of using to advantage special local

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conditions, and of course there may be a hundred variants in as many different places. The important point in these observations is that if library service, decentralized and functioning in local centers, will reach more people, widen and diversify their reading interests, and enrich their reading experience, then here lies a field wide open to librarians, challenging their best efforts and offering the widest opportunities for diversity of action. W e have taken for granted the special qualifications of the library for this task—its possession of the tools of learning; its doors wide open to all races, groups, and intellectual levels; and its almost universal policy of free, voluntary, and individual use. But in using the term "People's University" we should emphasize its meaning as an educational agency for all the people. As it was pointed out that high intellectual standards are requisite in public library service, but that these standards do not divide library users into classes but rather cut the reading world into cross sections, so the educational function applies to all groups. One of the discoveries of library readers' advisers is the desire and need of people in professional or highly specialized groups to add to their general education or to learn how to readjust themselves to scientific progress or social change. So the "People's University" which the public library may become must be a truly democratic institution, serving all, as Mr. Dana said, "without arrogance the ignorant, without faltering the learned." In suggesting actual procedures of adult education to be undertaken by libraries, no single person would dare to blueprint them. This blueprint is being made now by many librarians working in their own original ways in their own unique circumstances. N o amount of coordination or union

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o f effort can or should interfere with the variety, the individual resource, or the special adaptation to local need w h i c h characterize the best w o r k o f librarians in this field. B u t again, certain general conclusions may be drawn. It seems evident, f o r instance, that action may be developed most readily where the need is greatest, namely, in the realm o f the socio-economic, and that the most effective methods and those best suited to the library capacities, will be g r o u p methods—discussion, debate, report, demonstration. Alere debate within a group is not necessarily educational, h o w ever. Capable leaders, designated study and research, reading references, the revelation of a historical background to m o d ern events, all are necessary elements in any educational pattern, and all these a well-equipped public library should be able to provide for its groups. Literature and the arts also constitute other areas where the library can provide a background, give sponsorship and offer resources o f a high order. In such fields, as well as in that o f social theory, the workshop or project, that is, action through demonstrations, offer a variety of procedure. In the case of cooperation between institutions, or in a coordinated unit such as has been described, considerable expansion of these activities would be possible, with added facilities for expert advice and counsel and a solid background

for

study,

research, and experimentation. T h i s is not " p u r e librarianship," or traditional library service. Neither is it, indeed, traditional in educational method. It partakes of a social character, but is far removed from the old social settlement pattern. It is quite possible that the future may see a blending of educational procedure, of social content, and of library resources and facilities in institutions as yet unconceived in scope, influence and appeal.

18 PROFESSORS OF BOOKS

L

IBRARIANS WERE TERMED "PROFESSORS OF

.books" by Professor Edward Robinson, of Yale University, who was himself a school man. Like many others active in the adult education movement of the 1920's, Professor Robinson had a high conception of the public library as a potential adult education agency. But to make it really effective, he thought, there must be a change on the part of libraries in the conception of their personnel, looking toward a higher status, and toward richer and more varied attributes. With this opinion the best library thinking is now tending to agree. T h e attributes inherent in the phrase "professors of books" are those of scholarly attainment and possibly of teaching ability. Both are suggested, and both seem a bit chimerical to many practical librarians. It may not be amiss to analyze these meanings in relation to library service. Of course, Professor Robinson's purpose in using this term was to shock library thought about librarians and their jobs out of its traditional rut. Moreover, he realized as a scholar and a teacher that without some such attributes librarians could never expect to function as educators of the public mind. T h e y must always be amateurish in their outlook and action, and must expect to be accepted only as amateurs. He believed also

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that librarians should be realistic in facing this fact and a c t ing upon it. Perhaps if w e librarians could once divorce ourselves f r o m our traditional c o n c e p t of a librarian, which I fear is quite as c o m m o n p l a c e as any pictured b y our critics, we would see the essential truth of this idea. In the teaching world there must be study, research, perhaps the writing of a doctor's thesis; each y e a r there is a full summer's vacation, quite o f t e n a year's sabbatical leave for study, and sometimes time allowed and an office assigned for the processes of research. T h e librarian, not yet fully out of the office w o r k stage, has at the best a month's vacation, and a seven or eight hour day filled largely with clerical w o r k and a grinding two or three hours at the charging desk, taking in and handing out books. A readers' adviser or reference librarian or another o f the f e w specialists in the average public library may have an office and some time for conferences, for looking over books or compiling references. But time for reading, f o r research, f o r writing? A sabbatical leave? N o t only is there no time f o r such w o r k in the librarian's day, and little provision in the administrative set-up for such luxuries, but the possibility or even the desirability of a status offering these opportunities has hardly entered any librarian's head, so far as can be judged. Research, most reading, and all writing, if done at all, must be done at night, after a hard day's work. T h i s picture is not designed to rouse pity. T h e librarian has as good hours, as pleasant companions, as interesting work, as promising an opportunity as a girl in any other job. Just that. H e r w o r k opportunities provide her with little preparation f o r promoting her own intellectual life or that o f others. T h i s c o n c e p t o f Professor Robinson's is in part a symbol. In stressing and expanding it, we arc simply emphasizing the

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need of a different conception of professional librarianship. W h a t conception, then? One on a higher level? But there exist already high levels of librarianship, in capacity, training, and accomplishment. Scholarship exists, and administrative ability, and personal contributions of a high order. It seems to me the point to be made lies at a little different angle, one from which the profession as a whole can be viewed. A t present our professional librarians are of t w o v e r y different types, the scholar and the administrator, with some service specialists such as children's librarians, readers' advisers, story-tellers, and a f e w others n o w angling in gradually, and at the other end of the scale, library assistants, socalled, sometimes in a graded scale of positions, often not. In any case it must be made clear that these library assistants, whether described as grade two, as senior assistants, or whatnot, are professionally trained, and, theoretically, may advance as f a r as their abilities permit. But to what? T h e comparatively f e w good administrative and subject positions limit this advance to an almost shocking degree, so that f o r all intents and purposes your senior assistant is far nearer the clerical rank than she is to a position of professional responsibility; and where there is little responsibility there is little professional pride. T h e reasons f o r this situation are complex. Only a scientific study such as the Public Library Inquiry can give the information necessary f o r an authoritative decision. But I will indicate several existing conditions which seem to me to bear definitely on the question. First, of course, there is the lack of funds sufficient to establish a wide variety of positions, suitably remunerated. Back of this condition, however, and probably largely responsible f o r it, is the archaic administrative pattern which persists in the majority of public libraries,

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top-heavy, ill-adapted to modern channels of service, and singularly untouched in all but a few cases, by imagination, resource, or initiative. T h e r e is an almost infinite variety of work going on in most public libraries, with an infinite variety of people; all sorts of books on amazingly varied subjects; a bewildering range of questions; increasingly varied materials; records, sheet music, pictures, slides, pamphlets, government documents, even objets

d'art;

an increasing

variety of demand also, calling for new w a y s of satisfaction; help in counseling, in setting up programs, in developing vocational courses; speaking on the air or showing a documentary film; taking books to a sick woman in her home; or telling stories in a children's hospital w a r d ; or acting as one of a labor-management mediation group. Again one thinks of the books in the average public library, books informative or scholarly, romantic, realistic, or reflective, elementary or esoteric, fundamentalist or iconoclastic, on all the subjects within the scope of man's mind. Is it not devastating to think how these books are recommended or reflected or interpreted to readers b y this average public library of which we speak? Presumably, scholarly readers k n o w what they want, but even so a library intermediary is necessary; while for the mass of curious, uninformed seekers the advising or interpreting librarian is imperative. T h i s whole varied complex scene requires a pattern of organization which reflects its variety in the educational equipment, the personal qualifications, and the professional functions of the personnel. T h e American L i b r a r y Association has attacked one side of this problem in the pay-plans which it has set up, providing a f r a m e w o r k within which the salary scale corresponds to positions of varying professional levels, with provisions

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covering requirements of training and experience and regulations governing promotions and increment. But this is simply a code of standards for reference and guidance, it does not provide an administrative or service structure, which must vary with different libraries. T h e graded systems set up b y some of the larger libraries represent an attempt to follow the same end, that of ensuring equitable promotion and fair remuneration. But too often the graded system is so rigid as t o permit little adaptation or fluidity;

and at the same time is too general in its pattern to

ensure a variety of positions corresponding to specific f u n c tions. Efficient professional librarianship demands a wide range of positions, varying in responsibility and authority, and calling for different capacities and variations in personal equipment. A thoroughly effective administrative set-up will reflect these demands. It will develop a greater n u m b e r and variety of service and subject positions and will attempt to break down what has been general library service into specialized areas and functions. Already there seems t o be an encouraging trend in this direction, an example being the departmentalization in some libraries of service to adults, with specialized activities and presumably corresponding requirements in personnel. T i t l e s o f new positions are beginning to appear: y o u n g people's librarian, readers' consultant, field librarian, supervisor of visual aids. T h e s e positions and others call f o r wide duplication. In the subject field too there is almost unlimited opportunity in public libraries for minor specialists in many fields—the

librarian w h o has a deep interest in or has made a

study of music, government, the theatre, color-prints, mathematics. I think it is just to conclude that what librarianship needs,

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what it lacks now to a great degree, is professional unity and continuity, with a substantial central core of k n o w l e d g e , and a wide range of opportunity for the expression and interpretation of this knowledge; with a professional pride and sense of responsibility stemming f r o m these opportunities and leading toward an ethic and a definite philosophy. So far, our analysis has confined itself to the first w o r d of the phrase "professors of b o o k s , " and wc have dared to discover in it meanings which may, if translated into library terms, affect the whole status of library personnel. But there is present in this term also a narrower and more precise meaning, one which makes it indeed the most apt description of fine librarianship. T h e implications of scholarship and training we understand, but have we a d e a r realization of the meaning inherent in the whole phrase? Professors! — o f what? N o t history, or mathematics, or even of literature. " P r o f e s sors of b o o k s . " T h i s is a phrase with a specific meaning. T h e whole field of bibliographic knowledge is implied, but not the bare bones of bibliography, any more than intimate subject knowledge. T h e literature of subjects, sources and methods of research, appreciation of literary standards, and a sense of both literary and social values in relation to the thought of today—all these arc implied by this phrase. But encyclopedic as this seems, it does not c o n f o u n d or too much overwhelm a qualified librarian becausc books are indeed his subject. T h i s field already forms a part of the important core of subject matter taught in library schools. Yet only in those schools offering advanced work is there opportunity for more than quite elementary and conventional treatment of this most demanding of subjects. .Moreover, no library school, so far as I am aware, gives more than a smattering of training in the practical application of this knowledge. More

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important still, the vast majority of positions open to those newly graduated from library school offer little opportunity f o r putting this k n o w l e d g e into use. N o w the literature of a subject keeps pace with research and progress in that subject area. Constant study and constant use are essential f o r one w h o w o u l d make that knowledge available or applicable in actual library practice. N o teacher needs refresher courses more than does a librarian who would make profitable use in her daily work of the simplest bibliographic resources and materials. Such k n o w l e d g e is basic to effective reference and information w o r k , and is essential for readers' advisory service. T h e lack of it is responsible for many one-sided and outdated book collections, and the same lack frequently is evident in the librarian w h o answers questions on the floor or at the information desk. It must be apparent that what is referred to here is not the advanced knowledge essential f o r high level positions in this field, but to a broad, basic knowledge, kept currently up to date, with book materials and sources which should be minimum requirement in all professional

librarianship.

For

the term

"professors

of

b o o k s , " if it is to mean anything in the whole area of library service, cannot be used only to describe the comparative f e w with highly specialized bibliographic or subject knowledge w h o m libraries larger in size or more favored in support can afford to employ. "Professors of b o o k s " are needed wherever libraries, large or small, serve intelligent, inquiring people, and that means everywhere. Again, this essential knowledge even if possessed, is often dissipated or badly used, o w i n g to lack of necessary training and practice in use and application. W e say that some librarians have an "instinct" f o r helping people, while others do not k n o w h o w to impart their knowledge. Is any other comparable institu-

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tion so n a i v e and amateurish as t o leave o n e o f its m o s t essential qualifications d e p e n d e n t o n " i n s t i n c t " o r a personality"?

I f librarians are ever t o obtain

"nice

professional

status as i m p a r t e r s and i n t e r p r e t e r s o f b o o k k n o w l e d g e , it is surely o b v i o u s t h a t t h e y must be trained in the art as w e l l as the s c i e n c e o f their p r o f e s s i o n . O n e o f t h e lines to f o l l o w t o w a r d this e n d is the s t u d y o f p s y c h o l o g i c a l relationships and a d j u s t m e n t s , as applied t o librarianship. T h e s e c o m m e n t s are i n t e n d e d t o indicate some of o u r findings w h e n w e a n a l y z e " p r o f e s s i o n a l librarianship" in the light o f t h e t e r m " p r o f e s s o r s o f b o o k s . " T h e y

lead

our

t h o u g h t in certain d i r e c t i o n s , w h i c h have already been suggested, n a m e l y , t o t h e need o f d e v e l o p i n g the s u b j e c t m a t t e r o f librarianship into a b o d y o f k n o w l e d g e presenting unity and c o n t i n u i t y ; and f u r t h e r m o r e to the desirability o f m a k i n g the c e n t r a l c o r e o f this unified know ledge a part of the equipm e n t o f all professionally trained librarians; t o the possibilities o f a p r o m o t i o n t h r o u g h o u r professional schools o f the art as w e l l as t h e s c i e n c e o f librarianship; and, finally, t o w a r d t h e a d j u s t m e n t o f l i b r a r y administrative patterns t o permit the expression o f varied capacitics and m o r e e x p e r t training. F o r a t t a i n i n g this last end p u b l i c librarians and administrators are f u l l y responsible. P u b l i c l i b r a r y service will never r e a c h t h e h e i g h t s o f its possibilities—indeed, it will fall into utter

disrepute—without

trained,

responsible,

personally

qualified librarians. B u t such librarians will n o t go into public l i b r a r y w o r k unless t h e y see in it possibilities f o r r e w a r d i n g w o r k and f o r r e c o g n i t i o n . P u b l i c libraries have a l r e a d y lost i m p o r t a n t sections o f the r e a d i n g p u b l i c . W e h a v e n o t e d as one reason their failure or l a c k o f a b i l i t y t o p u r c h a s e a d e q u a t e l y in m a n y s u b j e c t fields. A n o t h e r q u i t e as valid a cause o f this loss is u n d o u b t e d l y the

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inadequacy of librarians in providing information, guidance, and reading service. As a result we have seen how specialized libraries have developed in the academic field and in the world of business. However desirable this may be in the final result, the primary reason lies in the failure of the public library to provide books and advisory service in some of the most important and challenging subject fields. In the great area of adult learning, however, the public library has still an unparalleled opportunity, as well as facilities of the highest order. T h e opportunities and the facilities await the librarians with vision to meet the first, and capacities to adapt the second. Without such librarians the public library will lose its significance as a great civic institution in the hurly-burly of mechanized conveyancing, or the backwaters of leisure-time reading, as pleasant as the program of a woman's club and as little likely to obtain public support. T o ensure the maintenance of the public library as an institution of the highest usefulness in a struggling, democratic society, it needs, indeed it must have, as librarians men and women who look forward to, are trained for, and are qualified to perform the most demanding type of public service.

19 NEW TOOLS AND MODES

E

VERY PUBLIC INSTITUTION, IF IT WOULD

remain a living organism, must know and employ changing methods and new machinery of action. But in the case of public libraries not only is this true but the very stock-intrade which they use is changing. For books and printed matter are only the symbols of the library's stock-in-trade, or, if you like, the tools which express and interpret that core of knowledge which is the library's true business and concern. This, it seems to me, is a thought worth serious consideration by librarians, for it shifts emphasis from the form in which knowledge is preserved and conveyed and which long identification with its reality tends to invest with an odor of sanctity, to the essence of knowledge itself, in whatever form it may be expressed and transmitted. Knowledge today is being conveyed by many channels other than the printed one. T h e radio, the screen, the television set reach their billions where printed words reach at the most a few million. Furthermore, knowledge itself is transcribed, may be handled and used in forms other than print. A good example is the microfilm, by which the news in today's paper, ephemeral and crumbling almost as tobacco ash, may be preserved on a few inches of film designed to withstand almost anything except fire. T h e sources of to-

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morrow's research lie in the newssheets of today. Yet howmany libraries can shelve and preserve thousands of newspapers which in a f e w months will crumble at a touch? T h e microfilm illustrates not only a new method of preserving information, but also a simple and ingenious w a y of transmitting it. F o r a reader may sit before a recording machine and by a touch of the finger unroll the film until he reaches the item he wishes. It is true, of course, that microfilm machines are expensive. So also have been—and are—printing presses and all the paraphernalia of book production. N e w e r and cheaper machines will undoubtedly become available, but what is more important, this new method of preserving and transmitting information lends itself admirably to the central system of production and distribution which will be part of any large regional plan of library service. T h e new tools referred to in the title of this chapter include both new types of transcribed or revealed knowledge —such as pictures and other graphic materials, phonograph records, and microfilm—and also new gadgets or machines by which information is communicated, the most obvious being the motion picture, the radio, and the phonograph. Such machines are becoming standard equipment for those libraries that can afford them and know how to use them to enhance their educational programs, the radio to stimulate discussion at group meetings, the movie to illustrate lectures or to demonstrate procedures for a workshop project. Some fortunate libraries have music rooms where are made available not only books and sheet music but records, and a radiophonograph or even a piano. Other so-called "listening rooms" are equipped with booths f o r individual listeners as well as with individual earphones. It is safe to predict that

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while such facilities are n o w comparatively rare, they will in the f u t u r e b e c o m e increasingly c o m m o n . F o r the agencies and technical p r o c e d u r e s back of these n e w methods of c o m munication are d e v e l o p i n g b y leaps and bounds. F o r instance, the educational, and particularly the d o c u m e n t a r y , film is being p r o d u c e d w i t h rapidly developing artistry and intellectual and emotional impact. T h e use of these n e w methods of imparting i n f o r m a t i o n and stimulating thought must constitute part of the m o d e r n library's educational program. G r a p h i c materials of various sorts are also increasingly used in library service. M a n y public libraries have picture collections, not as art, but as materials f o r study or to illustrate the details of a subject f o r the benefit of practitioners in the various fields c o n c e r n e d . T h e N e w Y o r k Public L i b r a r y has an e n o r m o u s collection of 2,000,000 items listed and catalogued and about 6,000,000 more unclassified, which are used constantly b y designers, artists, actors, theatrical and cinema c r a f t s m e n , advertising men, teachers, and

many

others. N o r is this service confined to large libraries. .Many a small public l i b r a r y collects pictures and photographs f o r the use of teachers and students in the neighborhood schools, f o r club members and church w o r k e r s . A u d i o - v i s u a l materials and the instruments w h i c h accompany their use cannot fail to have an increasingly important place in the w o r k of the public library, f o r not only is their technical e f f e c t i v e n e s s increasing, but their role in the transmission of k n o w l e d g e is steadily advancing in significance. N e w tools are also available f o r the easier and more accurate p e r f o r m a n c e of technical library duties. One of these is the so-called c h a r g i n g machine f o r stamping cards when books are issued and returned. But already other methods are being experimented w i t h w h i c h m a y outdate this some-

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what ponderous tool. It seems trite to say that the typewriter has made cataloguing and correspondence infinitely easier and quicker. Yet it is amazing how comparatively recent is the widespread use in libraries of the typewriter and such labor-saving devices as the adding machine, and how difficult it still is to obtain approval for their purchase. Again, regionally operated and serviced libraries should lead to a much more common and economical use of such machines. T h e expression "new modes" covers a multitude of new approaches, manners, and procedures. Highly important is the change in library architecture. T h e memorial library of the eighties, all marble halls, high steps, and poor statuary, with not a book in sight as the would-be reader approaches, was fairly typical of the older library buildings. So, too, were the turnstiles, where the inmates—pardon, the patrons—had to pass in and out, one by one. T h e newer library building is called, in the language of the day, functional. But don't let words worry you, reader. This means merely that the library is built to fit your needs, and to avoid giving you an inferiority complcx. No high steps—you go right in. No turnstiles or crowding counters with lynx-eyed attendants—you walk through a wide door, and after you enter you find the return desk at one side, and books around the walls. Near by is an information desk. Is the librarian in attendance busy at something? Never mind. G o right up and interrupt her. Her chief business is to attend to your wishes. This is a casual close-up of the new type of library. Accessibility is one of its keynotes. Plenty of light is another— daylight coming through many windows—which, by the way, you can see through w ithout climbing on a ladder! and, mirabile diem, adequate artificial light. If there is one thing

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more than another which has made libraries difficult to use and given them the reputation of being stuffy and stodgy, it is the artificial lighting, for which, even now in these enlightened, scientific days, it is difficult to get adequate funds. It is possible that if you explore this new building, you may find an elevator, a facility in libraries viewed with even more suspicion b y guardians of the public purse and even by some library trustees than is good artificial lighting. T h e future, I predict, is going to see these suspicions swept away and these civilized facilities in libraries taken for granted. It may even witness air conditioning, not only for the protection of the books in their stacks but for the comfort of those who use them. So much for the newer library buildings. But there are new manners, too, within the buildings, illustrated by the open entrance and the reception table, complete with librarian. Chairs may be drawn up to the registration desk, and the applicant sit at ease while filling out the ubiquitous form. Even forms may change and become simpler—one can only hope! T h e r e may be a reading lounge, or even a smoking lounge, while easy chairs and informally arranged books and magazines offer an invitation to sit or browse. T h e r e will certainly be color on the walls, and on book jackets, there will be flowers, and posters both decorative and informing, and perhaps a drinking fountain in the hall, instead of a poor copy of the Venus de Milo. In other words, the ''silence" sign may not be replaced by a " w e l c o m e " on the mat, but welcome will be implicit in arrangement and reception. All these pleasing new manners and measures will lead the enquirer to expect—what? A new and better service, more personal interest, a keener perceptivcness. wider and richer

NEW

TOOLS AND

MODES

2OI

sources of understanding and knowledge. Unless our "new modes" include the librarian in their expansiveness, they will prove as empty as the "tinkling cymbals" of Scripture. But being a librarian myself I cannot help being hopeful of the breed!

20 BOOKS AND PEOPLE T T H I N K I'D L I K E T O B E A L I B R A R I A N " — H O W 1 often this has been heard by directors of libraries and library schools, and how often it has been met with a smile of tolerant amusement or pity! Experience thinks of the exacting techniques, the painstaking research, the little problems of every day, the big problems of policy and finance, the human complications, and the plain drudgery of the profession this poor little soul thinks she wants to enter. Yet I have a sort of fancy that the wistful note of the beginner strikes closer to the heart of librarianship than the Voice of Experience. Probably physicians or ministers or engineers smile that same pitying smile at the enthusiasm of the tyro. A n d yet, when we are ill, we want the services of a doctor who feels the sacredness of his calling. H e docs not have to mouth the oath of Hippocrates at us to persuade us of his high sense of obligation. After all, if a person does not love books, why on earth should she, or he, wish to become a librarian? There is little enough in the way of financial reward, the hours are long, vacations short, and work is hard, though this the beginner may not realize. But a real love and knowledge of books and all the paraphernalia and attributes of the world of book? does constitute a passport into librarianship, while if to that is

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added a genuine interest in people, the prospective librarian has gone a long w a y toward meeting the requirements of a good public librarian. T h e scope of library service is broad, and its objectives varied and long-range, as we have been at some pains to demonstrate. But professional objectives and a body of professional theory do not spring full-grown from someone's forehead; they are at once the conclusion and the continuation o f past experiment and activity. A n d the very core and essence o f this action is bringing together people and the books t h e y want and need—specifically, getting the right book f o r the right person at the right time. D e w e y ' s phrase describing public library service has yet to be improved on f o r laconic pertinence: " T h e best reading for the greatest n u m b e r at the least c o s t . " I should like to pursue briefly t w o lines of thought which seem to be suggested b y this early library credo. Both are b y w a y o f emphasizing the importance of combining book knowledge with human interest for the purpose of reaching the "greatest n u m b e r " with the "best reading." Interest in people without the necessary knowledge may give a momentary pleasure to both parties to the transaction, but like some drugs it brings a dangerous reaction; whereas book k n o w l edge without human interest is a chilly thing, and it is usually ineffective as well. Some library workers seem afraid to squander a smile and a pleasant w o r d on the customer across the desk, while an expression o f sincere regret b y the librarian when she cannot meet his request might temper his disappointment, and also—does she never think of t h i s ? — might lessen his feeling and his public expression of resentment toward the library. O n e branch library in a large city some time ago c o n ducted a survey o f its registrants w h o were not using their

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library cards, and the result proved to be a devastating illustration of the values in human attitudes. A f t e r all other reasons for not using their cards were given, the greatest number cited the librarians' attitude. "It made me feel silly," or "ignorant," or "mad." Human interest was badly needed here. T h e survey gives a side light on the "helpful instinct" or "nice personality" aspect we talk so much about. These make an excellent foundation for some good, solid training in human psychology. It should surely be obvious that in a service which acts on the hearts and minds of human beings, the person can act most efficiently who can combine human interest with trained intelligence. T h e trouble is that we have not given enough thought to public library work as a human profession. Perhaps only the ministry and the teacher's art are more so. Moreover, the librarian's "parish," or "classroom" may be of a soul-shaking catholicity, from child to grandfather, from ditch-digger to college professor. Whoever wants a book wants help of some kind. He may tell you w h y , he may unburden his soul to you; more often he will not. But you have to see inside his mind and give him what he really wants, whether he tells you or not. Sherlock Holmes is a tyro in comparison with a librarian who can do this all day long, every day in the week. Readers' advisers know this fact. Their service requires close knowledge of people and experience in dealing with them. So does counseling, a service undertaken more and more b y libraries. Increasingly it is realized that training in professional library techniques and in the field of bibliographic knowledge is but a part of the equipment needed by a librarian dealing with human minds. Training and experience in the fields of psychology and sociology, with special adaptation to library requirements, would add immeas-

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urably to the value o f library scrvice. W h e n training such as this is given t o a person with a natural liking for people, w c have a librarian w h o knows how t o bring books and people together in one of the most vital and most delightful of relationships. B u t human interest must extend beyond those w h o use the library and find a w a y to reach those outside its popular orbit. T h e values inherent in human relationships, and the interests

engendered

by

them,

have

been

realized

but

vaguely, and certainly used very little b y librarians to enhance the essential qualities of the library in the minds of people in general. Publicity there has been, but most of it is sporadic and much of it is uninspired or amateurish. Q u i t e often it is conducted only in connection with a campaign f o r more support and is associated immediately with that least pleasant o f thoughts, a tax on the purse. A f e w large libraries e m p l o y publicity experts, and a f e w librarians have a real flair f o r popular presentation o f their w o r k , but I fear that this is rare, indeed. I am not sure that publicity in the ordinary sense, important as it is, will ever interpret library service to the public in terms large enough t o express its significance. T h e old-fashioned measure o f the satisfied customer must still be the best measure of service as personalized as that given b v the library. iYlore contacts with m o r e and more groups and layers o f people are in themselves m i g h t y measures o f publicity. T h e use of volunteer social and library w o r k e r s in hospitals has gone far t o promote public knowledge o f the essential elements in hospital service, and o f its difficulties and problems as well. In libraries the use o f volunteers is f r o w n e d upon as likely t o affect professional standards. I am far f r o m sure that this is necessarily the case, but at the m o m e n t I

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only wish to suggest the desirability of finding ways of closing up the gap of unfamiliarity between library and public, and beyond that, of using the special interests, the curiosities, and even the animosities of people to explain its plans, its workings, and its problems. A working tour o f a public library might not afford as many thrills as one through a museum or hospital, but it would have its own special interest for some people, and it might serve to answer various questions which seem t o trouble many. It is odd that we public librarians have nor realized more poignantly b y what tenuous lines our scrvicc reaches its recipients. O n l y b y their interests does the library hold its public. T o an extent this is true of all public institutions, but in most cases there is also a strong compelling motive, law, social custom or prestige, economic self-protection, racial or class obligation, or sometimes a desperately urgent need o f b o d y or soul. T h e r e are singularly f e w such ties between the library and its public. T h e group that most nearly f u r nishes an exception is that of the students w h o c o m e for assigned work or for books which they cannot obtain in their school libraries. Moreover, there are a f e w individuals w h o feel a deep need of the intellect as acute as soul hunger, and w h o simply cannot stay away f r o m a congregation of books. T h e y are the library's natural users, and too long t h e y were practically its only users. It is only as interests have grown and people have learned that they can be satisfied b y reading and study that the library's clientele has g r o w n and expanded. Is it any wonder that much of the information which libraries send out about themselves makes so little impression? " T h e library has received the last book published b y H e m i n g w a y , or M a r y R o b e r t s Rinehart, or Louis Bromfield or William S a r o y a n . " " T h e library has received an endow-

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inent f o r its collection of early American history." " T h e library will entertain a meeting of the Garden C l u b , " or "the local branch of the Child W e l f a r e Association," or "the Y o u n g People's League." One could g o on indefinitely with announcements which appear constantly as Library Notes, and which, legitimate and desirable as they are, make hardly a ripple on the pool of public consciousness. It is easy to criticize library publicity but not nearly so easy to suggest w a y s in which it may be improved. Fortunately f o r the writer this is not a discussion of publicity as such. It is meant to point out h o w vitally important it is that librarians should study people and their interests; and what an infinitely rich field this is, this realm of people's vital interests, whether of occupation, of sport, of labor or housing or politics, of self-interest and improvement, of religion or race. W h e n the librarian knows these interests, he will recognize that the only w a y to make his library a living, vital force, is to touch those interests at as many points as possible, through his book collection, through the personnel of his staff, through his method of approach, his publicity, and his activities of all kinds. A public library, one must remember, now goes beyond the dictionary definition of a building where books are collected or the administration of the building; and book collection. It justifies its existence only if it furnishes a place where books and people meet in the kind of intercourse which has yet to be surpassed in pure and unsullied satisfaction.

21 LEADERSHIP

W

H A T IS M E A N T BY L E A D E R S H I P ? C A N I T be seen? Can it be analyzed and its parts isolated? It is indeed one of the true imponderables. Yet we talk of it. W e say of someone, " H e has the qualities of a great leader, or " H e hasn't the capacity for leadership." W e speak of the necessity of leadership in the library profession. W e must have some idea of what we mean when we use this word. Otherwise we might better stop and do some good hard thinking about it. Americans, and probably most other human beings, are careless and prodigal in the use of words expressing abstract qualities so that these words become empty symbols, with meanings which vary with those who use them. I am aware of extreme hesitancy in trying to analyze the term "leadership." Yet we use it so constantly in our library conferences and in our library school classrooms that we must really attempt some sort of analysis. I suppose what we mean in popular terms is that quality or combination of qualities which enables a person to see ahead, to press forward beyond his fellows, and by the force of his influence or example or by the driving urge of his spirit, to draw after him some portion of his fellowmen, or to uplift or transform b y even a small degree the spirit and the trend of his time.

LEADERSHIP

209

T h i s description is intolerably ponderous and it does not really define, it merely describes results. That, I think, is our trouble. W e t r y to capture in specific, particular results, as w e have seen them manifested in one or more outstanding personalities, a quality of the spirit and mind which may have many and varied manifestations. W h e n w e tried to survey the adult education activities of public libraries many librarians protested: " N o , w e have no real program of adult education"; " N o , w e are not equipped to do educational w o r k . " Y e t a look at the activities of these same libraries showed discussion groups, exhibits, advisory help, talks before community groups. So a librarian may say, " I ' m 110 leader," thinking in terms of D e w e y , or Bostwick, or Moore, or Williamson. Is leadership, then, so impalpable a thing that w e cannot tell our young librarians what are some of its elements? W e can try, at least. L e t me venture to assert, first, that there are several types of leadership, as w e use the term. Perhaps w e mav paraphrase one of the most common quotations thus: "Some men are born leaders, some achieve leadership, and some have leadership thrust upon them." T h e born leaders are resounding historical names—Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Savonarola, Luther. W e shall find f e w of them in the library w o r l d — fortunately, perhaps, for where one of the "born leaders" is a savior of society, more have been motivated b y a driving, often a destructive, personal ambition. Some may indeed have leadership thrust upon them, as in the case of Abraham Lincoln, w h o might have remained an obscure country l a w y e r all his days. Perhaps w e m a y be more interested in those w h o achieve leadership. N o w the qualities which motivate such a person m a y be dangerous—those of a Hitler, f o r instance. Y e t they

2 IO

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may also be desirable and highly to be commended. A m b i tion plays a part, no doubt, but ambition can be a highly complex thing—not all bad, b y any means. Determination, perseverance, steadfastness—call it what you will—is an essential in such achievement, and courage too of a high quality. Vision, or imagination there must be, and a creative ability to transform vision into reality. S o m e element of selflessness, too, is essential to offset the ego which is present in all ambition and all aggressive action and which is usually all too evident to one's fellows; even more important, probably, is an intense conviction directed toward a definite end. S u c h a conviction m a y become a sense of mission which d w a r f s the ego or sublimates it. It is at this point that a man may become a fanatic. It is a dangerous point, but without an element of this driving urge leadership falls short of true greatness. I am convinced that library thinking about leadership is confused because it has concerned itself too much with the importance of influence or place in the world of affairs, in one's community or one's city, for instance, with too little thought given to the great and complicated task of making the library fit to assume its responsibilities in this world. Such a leading, quasi-public position may be attained b y a public librarian, but only as a by-product of his contribution or achievement in his o w n library world, than which there is none more important, f o r it is the world of knowledge, of ideas, of constructive thought, processes underlying and motivating all rational action. Most of the prominent librarians w h o come to mind attained distinction through an extension of the library function or procedure b e y o n d its common channels. T w o examples are worth examination: William F. Brett, librarian for years of the Cleveland Public Library, illustrates the type

LEADERSHIP

2 II

of librarian, more needed than any other perhaps, who without being an iconoclast or an explorer into new fields yet was always in the forefront of his profession, young in mind, open to new ideas, willing to try new methods, courageous in conviction and in translating conviction into knowledge. H e was a leader in the open-shelf movement, in developing work with children and aid to schools. H e pushed ahead in the once unpopular movement of specialized service to the foreignborn. H e possessed imagination, resource, conviction, and courage. A man more unlike Mr. Brett than John Cotton Dana can hardly be imagined; an iconoclast, an explorer, a smasher of traditions, he was a constant thorn in the flesh of his more conservative colleagues. His scorn of platitudes, his impatience with the futile and the pretentious, often led in library conferences to furious discussion, and to wiser and more farseeing conclusions. But his service to his profession went far beyond his value as a critic. An intellectual aristocrat, his efforts were constantly directed toward high literary standards and toward specialized service to those he conceived to be leaders in the varied fields of knowledge. His "Business Branch" was the first to be established in any public library, and he had more to do perhaps than any other one librarian with the movement to establish special libraries, that form of specialized library service now crystallized in the Special Libraries Association. Mr. Dana's interest in art and his policy of collecting and adding pictures to his library in Newark had an immense influence on this branch of library service. T h a t this was not a traditional library offering mattered not at all to Mr. Dana. N o w most libraries use pictures in greater or less degree as part both of their reference and their circulating services.

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It is not so m u c h the w o r k accomplished b y these men as the qualities t h e y displayed in which w e are n o w interested. B o t h of them leaders in their profession, both became also w e l l - k n o w n public figures, ¡Mr. Dana far b e y o n d the c o n fines of his o w n city, and even his o w n c o u n t r y . W h a t w e need in our leading librarians is a conviction of the supreme importance o f the role to be played b y public libraries in the world o f knowledge and ideas, and a c o n tinuously enriched interpretation of that role. T h e library profession is not primarily a technical profession, though techniques sometimes have well-nigh strangled it. N o r does it consist o f intellectual processes w o r k i n g in a vacuum. T h e biggest task of the public library is to see that intellectual processes w o r k in people. W i t h an intellectual c o n t e n t incredibly rich, varied, and productive, it still awaits librarians, not the occasional librarian, but the m a n y , w o r k i n g in city and c o u n t r y , in large and small centers, w h o have the insight the knowledge and the imagination to transform the rich ore of this substance into active and living forms o f service. Lib r a r y schools, particularly, have an obligation to open to the eves of their students the richness and variety inherent in their profession, and to reveal to them b y theory and practice the many ways b y which it may be w o r k e d , interpreted and transformed into human service. Since most of us librarians are pragmatists, and suggestion and illustration help to illumine the precepts o f ideology', let me indicate t w o fields where library leadership m a y function and where t h e y are sorely needed. O n e of these is the field I have described as an extension of library function and action beyond its customary limits. iVlany librarians are w o r k i n g today on this frontier, which includes the extension of library service to rural areas, its c o -

LEADERSHIP

2I3

ordination into larger units; the opposite, but not contradictory, policy of decentralizing service units; the use of newtools and types of knowledge; the continuing process of coordinating the library with its community and of translating its service into terms of public knowledge. These are fields where the qualities of leadership which include the alert mind, the quick intelligence, the imagination to see and the capacity to plan—all may be used and will serve to carve out patterns which others will follow. I wish also to center attention on that unknown region which requires an exploring mind, an ability to see opportunity and to transform that opportunity into a constructive plan. For this both courage and originality are needed, backed always by the ability, both critical and constructive, to determine how far and in what directions the possibilities of library service may be developed. Are these possibilities, is this ideology and this reaching toward future, perhaps unknown goals, too much for the young librarian to grasp and to use in his own growth? I do not think so. Conviction, certainty of goal, courage, determination, imagination, all these qualities are needed to advance the cause of library service, and they are all qualities inherent in our best manhood and womanhood. Let young men and women perceive how these qualities of mind and spirit may express themselves through library service, let them enter it with the ambition to make these qualities count, and we need not fear for the future of the public library.

APPENDIX A CHRONOLOGICAL

DEVELOPMENT

OF THE A M E R I C A N PUBLIC LIBRARY

i. Predecessors of the public library 1) Parish libraries: sent from England b y Dr. T h o m a s Bray, secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and appointed b y the Bishop of L o n d o n as commissary of ecclesiastical affairs in Maryland.* T h e first library was sent to N e w Y o r k in 1696, and over thirty were sent to Maryland alone. T h e s e libraries gradually disappeared, largely from lack of supervision. 2) Subscription libraries (including association, society, mercantile, social): Established variously b y groups of different types, b y social clubs, as in the case of the early "social libraries" of Massachusetts, and b y commercial houses for their employees. T h e earliest subscription library of note was a true Association Library, established in Philadelphia in 1731 b y the y o u n g Benjamin Franklin and his associates, in the quarters of a reading and debating society called the Junto. T h i s became later the Library C o m p a n y of Philadelphia, open to full public use. 3) School district libraries: organized under school districts rather than t o w n or municipal units. T h e earliest ones were established in N e w Y o r k under a law passed in 1835. T h e practice was f o l l o w e d in the Middle West. States with * A. E. Bostwick, The 1929). P- 5-

Avierican

Public

Library, 4th ed. (New York,

21 6

A:

CHRONOLOGICAL

DEVELOPMENT

public libraries still operating under school district law are: N e w York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. "Most of the school district libraries in the U.S. today are concentrated in a belt of states running across the country from N e w York to Lake Michigan." * 4) T o w n libraries, so called; mostly in N e w England. T h e oldest is reported to be that of Salisbury, Connecticut, established in 1803. T h e oldest existing library of this type is said to be that of Peterborough, N e w Hampshire, founded in 1833 and supported from the beginning by town taxes. Other libraries which played a part in the development of public libraries are: (a) College libraries. In the absence of public library facilities, college libraries often extended their use outside the college walls. Prominent college libraries founded before the nineteenth century are: Harvard, contemporary with the opening of the college in 1638 (burned in 1764, rebuilt in 1766) ; Yale, contemporary with founding of college in 1700; Columbia College, 1757; Williams College, 1793. Other colleges with very small libraries were: Dartmouth, Rutgers, College of N e w Jersey (later Princeton), Union, Dickinson, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Washington and Lee, William and Mary. (b) Privately endowed institutions. Prominent in the early life of the United States, some of these institutions later were coordinated with or changed into true public libraries. Examples are: the Loganian Library, in Philadelphia, incorporated in 1792 with the Philadelphia Library Company; the Astor and Lenox Libraries in N e w York City, incorporated in 1895 with the N e w York Free Circulating Library, to form the N e w York Public Library. * Carleton B. Joeckel, The Government of the American Public Library (Chicago, 19J5), p. 116.

A: CHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

2 17

11. Progressive steps in the social development of the American public library 1 ) Shelves opened for public use; this practice was adopted gradually, accompanied by much controversy, from about 1888 to about 1895, becoming general about that date. T h e earliest large libraries to adopt the policy were: Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio, Boston, and Philadelphia. 2) Cooperation with schools, in book and reading aid, arose about 1879 and developed extensively from that time on. Early libraries to develop in this direction were: Cleveland, Worcester, Providence, Milwaukee, and Detroit public libraries and the N e w York Free Circulating Library. 3) Service to children, in the form of special rooms and other facilities developed from about 1885. Early instances were Brookline, Massachusetts, 1890; the George Bruce Branch of the N e w York Free Circulating Library, 1888; and the Aguilar Free Library in N e w York, 1886.* 4) State aid and state library agencies, comprising in general terms, (a) library legislation, in which important dates are: 1848, special law authorizing the foundation of the Boston Public Library; 1 8 5 1 , general library law in Massachusetts; 1849, general library law in N e w Hampshire. Other early states to pass laws providing for the establishment and support by taxation of city and town libraries were Alaine, 1854; Vermont, 1855; Rhode Island, 1867; N e w York, 1872. (b) Financial aid given to libraries meeting state requirements, of which examples are N e w York, $ 1 0 0 per year; Maine and Rhode Island, $500 per year, (c) Supervision, in the form of commissions or other state agencies. T h e first commission was that of Massachusetts in 1890. There fol• Later continued as the Children's Room of the Avenue C Branch of the New York Free Circulating Library (now the Tompkins Square Branch of the N e w York Public Library).

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lowed N e w Hampshire, 1891; N e w York, 1892 (Stare Library); Vermont, 1894; Wisconsin, 1895. 5) County library development as an active movement started about 1898. States where county libraries were first organized are Ohio, Oregon, Maryland, and California. Libraries were established in Washington County, Maryland, and Van Wert County, Ohio, in the same year, 1898. California's first county library law was passed in 1909 and was revised in 1 9 1 1 . 6) Branch libraries in cities began to develop about 180095. A discussion in the Library Journal of January, 1898 includes the Free Circulating and Aguilar Library systems of N e w York, the Boston, Philadelphia, Enoch Pratt (Baltimore), and Pratt Institute (Brooklyn) libraries as having formed branches. 7) Library service to special groups, (a) National and racial; this movement was especially active in the earlv twentieth century, (b) Occupational: business, labor, the arts, (c) Handicapped; blind; sick (hospital library service became active as a professional library movement about the time of World War I).

APPENDIX B PROFESSIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

i. Highlights in organizational progress, general in character, but affecting public libraries. 1) Formation of the American Library Association, 1876. 2) Publication of the Library Journal (professional organ of the A.L.A., 1876-1907). 3) Official organ of A.L.A. changed to A.L.A. Bulletin; publication began in 1897. The Library Journal continued publication under R. R. Bowker, N e w York. 4) Sections of the A.L.A., now called Divisions. The policy of organizing sections was started by the A . L . A . in 1886. Sections relative to public library interests were the Trustees' Section, formed in 1890; the Children's Section, in 1900; the Professional Training Section, in 1909; the Lending Section, in 1920; the Training Class Section, in 1924; the County Library Section, in 1927; the Business Section, in 1928. 11. Professional Education 1) Earliest professional training was offered through apprentice or training classes for varied but usually limited periods. 2) Library Schools. The first course was organized in the library of Columbia University by the librarian, Dr. Melvil Dcwev. It was transferred in 1889 to Albany under the supervision of the New York State Library. In 1926 it was reinstated in Columbia and there combined with the Library

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PROFESSIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

School of the New York Public Library to form the Columbia University School of Library Serv ice. (See latest Handbook of the A.L.A. for complete list of library schools in the United States and Canada.) 3) Educational organizations in the library field, (a) Association of American Library Schools, formed in 1915, including Library School of the University of Atlanta; Library School of the University of Illinois; Library School of the N e w York Public Library; Training School for Children's Librarians of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; Department of Library Scrvicc of Simmons College, Boston; School of Library Science of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; Library School of Syracuse University; Library School of Western Reserve University, Cleveland; Library School of the University of Wisconsin; New York State Library School, Albany. (b) A.L.A. Board of Education for Librarianship, formed in 1924; a chief function is the recognition and accrediting of professional library schools.

APPENDIX C CLASSES OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN RELATION TO THEIR GOVERNMENT

BASIS

i. Association or Corporation Libraries ii. Public libraries as agencies of school districts i ) With their own boards. 2) Direct control by Board of Education. hi. Public libraries as agencies of municipalities 1 ) W i t h their own boards; in this class fall the large majority of American public libraries today. 2) Direct control by civic unit; comparatively few fall in this group, mostly in cities with city-manager type of government. iv. County or regional libraries 1 ) With their own boards. 2 ) Direct civic control, as in the case of California where county libraries function under the County Supervisors.

a

INDEX Actors' Equity Association, 107 Adding machine, 199 Administration set-up in terms of technical procedures, 75 if.; of public services, 78 ft.; difference in large and in small libraries, 80; budget, 81 f., 153; changing policies illustrated by trend toward grouping into larger units, 84; gap between executive and all other positions, 98; men and/or women in top positions, 100 Adult education, work with the foreign born, 40, 109; coordination of library theory and procedure with modern pattern of, 118-26; research findings on learning ability of adults. 118; Chatauqua, lvceums, 119; programs of Federal government and American Association, 119, 120; informal vs. academic character, 121; library's role in, 123 ft., • 55; must be conducted on different levels and at different speeds, 130; the library as a "People's University," 177-86; knowledge of community essential to providing effective, 180; sponsored by the American Association for Adult Education, 180; no blueprint of actual procedures possible, 185; areas where library can provide background, sponsorship, resources, 186 Adult Education (Bryson), II8W, 141 Adult

Education

Department,

Cleveland Public Library, 135 Adult Interests (Thorndike), 119« Adult Learning (Thorndike), 118 Adults, young, see Young people Advisory function, 168; with adults and children recognized as essential, 125; knowledge of people required, 204 Age, learning ability and, 118 Aguilar Free Library, N.Y-, 217, 218 Alger, Horatio, 30 America, discovery of, see also United States American Library Association, 142; formation in 1876, 21, 139, 219; discussions re children's libraries and reading, 31; books for soldiers in Europe, 44; libraries in the base hospitals, 44; Council's basic policies expressed in Library Bill of Rights, 52 ; standards for positions in libraries of different size, 87; work of: members, 139; Library Education Division, 147; "National Plan for Public Library Service," 153; plan for establishment of reference and bibliographic centers, 156; payplans: code of standards, 190 f.; official organs, 219; Sections (Divisions), 219; Board of Education for Librarianship, 220; list of library schools, 220 Americans, The . . . (Gorer), 172 American Association for Adult Education, 119, 120, 180, 181 Americanization work, 40

22

INDEX

4

A.LA. Bulletin, 131, 219 A.L.A. Handbook, yon, 220 American Public Library, The (Bostwick), 14«, j2W, 21571 Ann Arbor, Mich., public library, 131 Antiquity, core of the library and its preservation go back to the mists of, 9 Architecture, furnishings and change in, 199 Argus, Inc., 131 Artificial light, 199 Association Library, Phila., 215 Association of American L ibrary Schools, 147, 220 Association or subscription libraries, 13, 14 f., 60, 61 f., 215 Assyria, 10 Astor and Lenox libraries, 17, 216 Atlanta, University of, 220 Atomic energy, project for disseminating information about, Atomic Energy Institute, 128 Audio-visual materials and their instruments, 130-34 passim, 156, 157, 196 f., 198; see also under titles, e.q., Motion pictures Augustinian Order, 11 Autobiography (Franklin), 15 Avenue C Branch, N.Y., 21772 Background and tradition of the library, 9-22 "Baltimore's Atomic Energy Institute (Coplan), 128/J, 12977 Bedridden, Projected Books service for the, 130 f. Benedictines, 11 Benefactions, private: dependence on, 59; trend away from, 65 Bibliographic and reference centers, A.L.A. plan for, 156 Bibliographic knowledge, resources and materials basic to effective reference and information work, 192 ff.

Bibliographies, Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, 20 Bibliothèque, 7 Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 12 Bill of Rights, Librarv: text, 52 f. Binding and printing departments, 77

Blind, the: book service for, 43 Board of Education for Librarianship, A.L.A., 147, 220 Bodleian Library, 11 Bookmobile, 34 Book, derivatives of term, 7 Books, library defined as a collection of, for public use, 8; knowledge of bibliographic sources and materials as part of subject matter taught in library schools, 192 ff.; love and knowledge of, as passport into librarianship, 202-7; importance of combining human interest with, 203 ff. "Books, professors of," 187-95; tte entries under Librarians and librarianship Boston Athenaeum, 20 Boston Public Library, 74, 218; law authorizing establishment and support of, 17, 217; superintendent, 18; opened in 1854, 21; founded out of public funds, 22; new building: open shelves, 28, 217; work with the blind, 44; lectures and concerts program, 134 Bostwick. A. E., 147?, 327J, 209, 2157J Bowkcr, R. R., 219 Branch libraries, 77; in cities, evolution of, 34 f.; as administrative centers, 85; services by, 109; early development, 218 Bray, Thomas, 16, 215 Brett, William F., 28, 29; leadership, 210 Bridgeport Public Library, service to hospitals, 131 British Museum, London, 12 British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 16 Bromfield, Louis,

INDEX Brookline, Mass., Public Library, 32. ï ' 7 Brown University, 116 Bryan, Alice I., 4871 Bryson, Lyman, 11871, 121, 141 Budget making, 81 15} Buffalo Public Library, book service to schools, 30 Building maintenance, 77, 81 Buildings, older and newer types, 17. 35. '99 Bulletin of A.L.A., 131, 219 Business Branch, Newark Public Librar)', 43, 211 Business men, service for, 42, 43 Business organization of library, 748j; "big business" of financing and publicity, 82-, methods needed by small and by large libraries, 82 f. California, 161; county library service, 36, 69, 73, 218, 221; organization and control, 65; appropriations per capita, 67; example of a successfully operated system of book distribution, 160 Canada, accredited library schools in, 90 Capital, upswing in the might and influence of, 2j Carnegie, Andrew, 62 Carnegie Corporation, experiments in field of adult education sponsored by, 119, 120; Public Library Inquiry, 156 Carnegie Library, Pittsb., Training School for Children's Librarians, 220 Caste system, 92 Catalogue, defined: Cutter's pioneer work, 20 Central libraries, limited appeal to average people, 164 Chancellor, John, 165 Change, library's sensitivity to social, 26, 27; new methods and machinery of action, 196 ff.;

225 buildings and furnishings, 199; new manners, 200 Charging machine, 198 Charitable and philanthropic movements, period of expansion, 38 Chautauqua Institution, 119 Chicago, University of, Great Books program, 123, 132 Children, early debates about service for, 22, 31; services given, 30 ff., 217; special rooms, 31 f., 112 f., an important branch of librarianship, 33; literature and picture books, 112, 113; programs, 113; story hours, 113, 135; service for parents, teachers, and others interested in, 113; problem of demands made by students, 116, 142; Training School for . . . Librarians, 220; see also tinder Young people; Youth Children's literature, cooperation in the field of writing, illustrating, printing, and publishing, 114 Church, analogy of, to public library, 3, 7 Church or parish libraries, 16 Cincinnati, O., library under county government, 36, 65 Circulation activities, where conducted, 78, 79 Circulation figures, limited influence, 170, 171 Circulation or public issue of materials, techniques of, 76 City library as a business organization, 58 City-manager or commission, control by, 64 Civic status and relationships, 57-73 Civil service, 70, 73 Classification, Dewey's decimal scheme, 20 Classic learning, Renaissance revival and its effects, 11 Clerical, mechanical and professional work, separation of, 84, 9° Cleveland Museum of Art, 134

226 Cleveland Press W o r l d Friends' Club, i 33 Cleveland Public Library, 32, 40; pioneering by, 28, 29; Robert Louis Stevenson Room, 31; administered under school district law, 63; Hospital Department, 131; programs sponsored, 133, 135; rilm Bureau, 135; extension of function, 210; open shelves, 2, 7 College and university libraries, 12 f.; early ideas about, 18; founded before nineteenth century, 216 College of the City of N e w York, relationships with N e w York Public Library, 107, 129 f. Columbia College, 216 Columbia University, 183; library schools, 219, 220 Columbus, O., library, open shelves, 2 '7 Commissions, state, 33; providing supervision, 1 1 7 Communication, use of new tools and methods, 130-34 passim, 156, 157, 196 f., 198; see also under related subjects, e.q., Motion pictures Community, integration of the library with: development of their use as community centers, 38-47, 166 ff.; library's study, and participation in needs and activities, of, 103-11 passim; cooperation in Projected Books service, 130; w h y those in some areas almost helpless, 159; settled attitudes and patterns in old, 162; amenity to opinion and usage in, 163; knowledge of, essential to providing effective adult education, 180 Community relations work as a special project, 98 Concerts, record. 134 Control, forms of, 10, 33, 60-73 passim; see also Support

Coplan, Kate, 12877, 12977

INDEX Coming, N . Y . , 99 Corporation libraries, 60, 61 f. Cotton gin, 24 Council on W o r l d Affairs, 134 Countee Cullen Branch, N . Y . Public Library, 136 County libraries, 34, 35 f.; government status: scope of service, 60, 65, 66; California's system, 69, 73; early development, 218 Cutter, Charles A., ; o Dallas, Tex., a type of association library, 61 Dana, John Cotton, 28; quoted, 1 1 1 , 185; characteristics: leadership, 211 Dartmouth College, 216 Dates, two most significant, 21 Decentralization of service, 165, 167; trend toward, 183 Decimal classification, Dewey's, 20 Definitions of librarv, 7 f. Delaware, 216 Democracy, interpretations of, 172 Democratic function of library, >73 fDemocratic society, public library a significant symbol, 8; its faults those of, 140 Denver, example of a coordinated library unit, 183 Denver College of Librarianship, 9077, 93 Denver Public Library, 28 Departmentalization, trend toward, 79; of service to adults, 191 Detroit Board of Education, Adult Education Division, 134 Detroit Nezvs, Projected Books service conceived bv, 130 Detroit Public Library, book service to schools, 30, 217; Projected Books service for the bedridden, 130 f.; Occupations Room, 1 3 1 ; record conccrts. 134; pre-school story-hour, 135 Development, uncvenness and lack of uniformity, 9 f.

INDEX Dewey, Melvil, 209, 219; originator of decimal classification, 20; quoted, 49, 102, 203 Dickinson College, 216 Discussion group, 132 if.; a media in educational program, 121 Documentary films, 198 Dominican Order, 11 Douglass, Frederick, jo, 182 Economic and social revolution, 24 ff. Education, rise and growth of library coincident with idea of full and for all, 24, 27; effect upon, of revelations re learning ability of adults, 1 1 9 ; extent of library's responsibility and fitness for, 120, 122; lack of recognition of it as an agency for, 170, 179; the library as a "People's University," 177-86; basis f o r its policies, methods, and objectives, 178; see also Adult education; Training f o r librarianship , Bureau of: report on early libraries, 14, 15 , Office of: Library Service Division of the, 160 F.ducational films, 198 E g y p t , 10 1876 a milestone, 21 Elsie books, 30 Endowed libraries, i 6 f . , 216; trend away from, 6 j England, service f o r the blind, 44; relationship of government to libraries, J9 Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, 218; Atomic E n e r g y Institute and exhibits, 127 f. Equity Library Theatre, 107 Evansville, Ind., 35 Executive positions, wide gap between all others and, 98 Expansion, see Geographical expansion Extension courses, 91 Extension departments, 78

227 Extension of library service, need f o r leadership, 212 Federal Government, more liberal attitude, 73, 161; increasing consciousness of civic duty, 73; program of adult education, 119, 120; need f o r assistance by state and, 160; see also State Library Service Div. of Office of Education, 160 Field librarian, 180 Field work, department o f , 180 Films, forums, 133, 134; f o r home use, 135; educational and documentary, 198; see also Microfilms Finance, office of, 77 Finances, early fund-authorizing laws, 17, 22, 33; budget, 81 f., 153; need of: Federal and state aid, 160; funds for sections without services, 160; funds for variety of positions, suitably remunerated, 189, 191; salary scale, 190 f.; modern equipment difficult to finance, 199, 200; types and dates of state grants and laws, 217; see also Support; Taxation First W o r l d War, services f o r soldiers and the disabled, 44 Fitchburg, Mass., youth library project, 136 Fletcher, William I, 19, 20 Foreign-born, departments of work with, 40, 109 Forum, a media in educational program, 121 Franklin, Benjamin, 215; library formed by, I J French Revolution, impact of, 24 Fresno, county control and service, Fundamental principles of service, 48-53 Garceau, Oliver, 59n, 160» Garfield, James A., quoted, 86 Geographical areas where service unavailable, 10, 141

228 Geographical expansion, 60, 197; explanatory outline, 66; need, visions o f , and plans f o r , 84, 153 f., 159-68 G e o r g e B r u c e Branch, N . Y . F r e e Circulating L i b r a r y , 32, 217 Gillis, James, 36 Glass, books on, 99 G o r e r , G e o f f r e y , quoted, 172 G o v e r n m e n t , see also under F e d eral; State Government of the American Public Library ( J o e c k e l ) , 6on, 2 i6n G o v e r n m e n t relationship, value of u n i f o r m i t y in legal status and, 68 G o v e r n m e n t status, g r o u p division of libraries a c c o r d i n g to: legal basis of their control and support, 60 Grand Rapids, Mich., library's c o n trol and support, 63 G r a p h i c materials and methods, >57. »97. Great B o o k s Foundation, 132, 133 G r e a t B o o k s program, 108, 123, 132 G r e e c e , 10 G r e e n , Samuel S., 30 Green Bay Tree, The ( B r o m f i e l d ) , 26 G r e e n w i c h H o u s e , N . Y . , 39 G r o u p meetings, literary and social, '74 G r o u p reading program, W a s h i n g ton, D . C . , 132 G r o u p s and g r o u p relationships, library thinking and w o r k in terms of, 103 ff. Gulliver's Travels ( S w i f t ) , 182 H a n a w a y , E m i l v , 32 Handbook of A . L . A . , 90n, 220 Handicapped, physically or mentally: service for, 43 H a r t f o r d , C o n n . , Public L i b r a r y , 19; service f o r children, 31; music records, 134 Harvard University, 12 H a r v a r d U n i v e r s i t y L i b r a r y , 12, 18, 216

INDEX Hazeltine, A l i c e , 33 H e n r y Street Settlement, 39 Hewins, Caroline M., 31 H i g h school programs, demands made on library bv, 116 Homemaking, experiment in, 184 Hopkins, Mark, 86 Hospitals, library services to, 44, 130, 1 j 1, 218; coordination w i t h institution of higher learning, 183 House on Henry Street, The (YVald), 38 Huberman, Leo, quoted, 24 Huckleberry Finn (Clemens), 31 Hull House, C h i c a g o , 39 Human interest and sympathy, e f fects o f , 158; combined with l o v e and k n o w l e d g e of books as passport into librarianship, 202-7 " H u m a n Relations," film forums, '34 Ideas Have Consequences ( W e a v e r ) , 177 Illinois, University of, 220 Illiteracy, revealed during First W o r l d W a r , 119 Immigrants, need of education and social adjustment, 39 Immigration, 25; period of heavy, 38 Imponderables, library's concern with, and approach to, 48 Indiana, 216 Industrial development: its effects, 13, 24, 25 f. Industry, technical book needs. 42 Intellectual authority, need for, and acquisition o f , 174 f. Intellectual level, standard of: policies formulated according to, 143; library's responsibility, 155, 170 ff.; standards do not divide library users into classes, 185 Intelligence, library essentially concerned with, 102; as a social center of, 102-11 "Intimations of Immortality" ( W o r d s w o r t h ) . 50

INDEX "Invitation to Ideas," discussion group, 133 Iowa, service for the sick, 44; for inmates of institutions, 45 JoeckeL, Carleton B-, $9, n6n Johns Hopkins University, 128 Johnson, Alvin, 71, 171, 177; on whether a library is an educational institution, 120 Jungle, The (Sinclair), 25 Kansas City, Mo., library's control and support, 63 Karrick, Ethel C., 13571 Kitterv, Me., revolving library of York and, 14, 16, 34 Knowledge, inner core of library, 7; its transmission the library's business, 51; channels for conveying, 177, 196 ff. Labor groups, service for, 42, 43 Labor movement, beginning of, 26 Labor-saving machines, 81, 83, 198, 199 Languages, foreign: book collections m, 40 Leadership, development of, 158; analysis of term, 208; types, 209; leading examples of: how they attained distinction, 209, n o f . ; library thinking about, confused, 210; qualities, 210, 213; fields where needed and may function, 212 Learning abilities of adults, research and findings on, 118 Legal status, sources of support, control, and, 10, 33; variations in systems, J9, 60; value of uniformity in government relationship and, 68 Legislation, first law authorizing public funds for library support, 17, 22, 33; types and dates of state laws, 217 f. Leigh, Robert D., 29n, 48n, 8471, 13771

229 Lenox and Astor libraries, 17, 216 Level, use of word, 173 Librarians and librarianship, best known pioneers and their services, 18-21, 28-33 passim, 36; professional, 22, 86-101; service to children, 33, 113, 114; steps toward education of, 34; special: for foreign-language groups, 40; Negroes, 41; why a philosophy of, vitally important, 51; necessity of high professional status, 58; who to perform routine duties, 83; separation of professional, and clerical or mechanical work, 84, 90; most important element in service, 86; A.L.A. standards, 87, 220; library schools and training, 87, 90-101 passim (see also Training); whether professional work is to be performed on lower or higher levels, 92; knowledge of subject matter, reference aids, etc., 94; limitations to opportunity and advancement, 95, 98, 189; few opportunities for personal service or community relations work, 98; men, and ualified women, in professional eld, 100; wider knowledge and activities as result of contacts, 105; "pure" vs. social activity, 107; requested to take part in programs of all types: whether that or desk work? 109; aid to young adults, 116, 117; requirements for adult education services, 124; development of professional life and standards, 139; certification, 140; problem of adequacy in qualifications and training, 145, 157; adequate opportunities for high level of service needed, 147; skepticism and casual tolerance characteristics of, 178; attitude toward, and qualifications for, promotion of the educational ideal, 179; analysis of professional librarianship in

230 Librarians, Librarianship (Cont.) light of term "professors of books," 187-95; changes and attributes needed if to function as educators, 187; perquisites of teacher and, compared, 188; different conception of professional needed: types of, 189; pay-plans set up by A.L.A., 190 f.; graded systems, 191; titles of new positions: opportunities f o r minor specialists, 191; knowledge of books essential f o r all professionally trained, 191 fT., 202 ff.; reasons for adopting the profession, 202; importance of human interest, 203 ff. Library, public: attempts to define: variety of interpretation, 3-8; techniques that are closed pages to users, 6; knowledge its inner core: tradition and what it should mean, 7; derivatives of term, 7; four distinguishing attributes, 8; criteria of full public use and service, 8; control, financial problems and support, 10, 33, 60-73 passbn, 8i f., 143, 152 f.; development of, against background and tradition, 9-22; ancient, 10; medieval, 10 f.; Renaissance, 11 f.; earliest of modern times, 12 ff.; college and university, 12, 18, 216; subscription and other forerunners of the free, 14 ff.; librarians responsible f o r earlv development, 18-21, 28-33 passim, 36; formation of American Library Association in 1876, 21; situation at that time and progress following, 21 f.; transition from a passive institution to an active one, responsive to social change, 23-37; when public library idea born: opening of doors to the new world about, 26: advances made during formative years: those responsible for them, 27 ff.; old and new type build-

INDEX ings, furnishings, manners, 17, 35, 199 f.; branch libraries, 34 f., 77, 85, 109, 218; integration of local, with their communities: development of use as community centers, 38-47; groups to whom special services given, 39 ff., 104, JO), 109 f.; vocational needs served, 41, 131; attention given the handicapped, 43 ff.; social program and its component parts, 47; fundamentals of service, 4853; principles, and objectives to which they lead, 49: symbols. 50 f.; the ends for which libraries exist, 51 : Bill of Rights, text, 52 f. ; civic status: relationship to government and other civic agencies, 57-73; unevenness of development: variations arising from different legal systems, 59; problem of geographical expansion, 60, 66, 84, 141, 153 f „ 159-68, 197; structure and function of the board, 61 ; problem of old tradition and prejudices: private vs. public ownership concepts, 69; compared with public schools: can they take place on a par with, them? 7 1 ; problem of control and support vs. liberal and independent action, 72 f.; as a business organization, 74-85; techniques and procedures, 76; their use in libraries of different size: terms "large" and "small" explained, 77; personnel administration, 77; administrative set-up in terms of technical procedures and of public services, 78 ff.; departmentalization, 79, 191 ; two difficulties: building maintenance and furnishings, 81; supplies, 81, 83, 198 f.; routine duties, 83 ff., 88; librarian the most impoirant element, 86 (sec also Librarians) ; standards and training for service in, 86-101; library schools, 91-101 passim (see also Training f o r li-

INDEX brarianship); whether professional work to be on lower or higher levels: fear of a caste system, 92; conclusions about relationship between practice and professional training: probable effect upon service, 95 ff.; as a social intelligence center and participant in community activities and life, 1 0 2 - 1 1 ; changed outlook leading to new activities, 105; use of rooms by autonomous groups, 106, 107; should activities be included in regular program? avoidance of duplication, 107; possibilities in, and advisability of, field work, 109; trends in development of new services, 110; service to children, 112-14, 135; to young adults, 114-17, 136; coordination of theory and procedure with modern adult education pattern, 118-26, 130, 155; functions it is justified in assuming on basis and background of its resources, 123; services to, and official coordination between other institutions and, 123, i29ff., 183; its own specialized program, 124 ff.; advisory services, 124 f., 168, 204; should hold position coordinate with school and college as a public agency, 126; service and activities illustrated by examples from experience of specific libraries, 127-36; meeting of demand for knowledge about technical advances, 127 f.; use of audio-visual materials, 130-35 passim, 156, 157, 196 f., 198; Great Books and other group programs, 132 ff.; achievements and failures summarized and evaluated, 13748; multiple and complex development and usefulness, 138 ff.; inadequacy of books and materials, 141 f.; failure to reach potential readers, 144; need to better public relations, 145; need

231 f o r better qualified personnel, 145, 157; aims and principles it should formulate, 146; ideals and directions for future service, I J I 58; idea of community plan and pattern, 154; responsibility to the intellectual and to the underprivileged, 1 J 5 , 174 ff.; readers' habits and interests: the nonreader, 156, 181 f.; effect of sympathy and human interest, 158; development of leadership (q.v.), 158; Public Library Plan, 159; toward more adequate service in small civic units: study of, and cooperation with, community attitudes: policy of coordination, 162 ff., 166 ff.; argument f o r bringing books to readers where they are, 164 f.; service outside its walls, 165, 184; scholarship in the great tradition of, 169; relation and obligation to it, 169-76; activities which have brought recognition to, 1 7 1 ; potentialities of, as " A People's University," 177-86; policies and objectives must be based on educational philosophy and aims, 178; conclusions re areas and types of educational activity and methods and directions in which they lead, i 7 9 f f . , 186; new ways to meet infinite variety of work, materials, people, demands, 190; w h y important sections of reading public lost, 194; channels, other than printed matter, for conveying knowledge, 196 ff.; new tools and modes, 196-201; necessity for leadership: its qualities and fields in which it may function, 208-13; chronological development and types, 215 f.; progressive steps in service, 217 f.; professional development, 219-20; classes of, in relation to their government basis, 221; see also entries wider above subjects, e.q.,

232 Librarians, Librarianship (Cont.) Adult education; Leadership; etc. Library Association of Portland, Ore-, 65 Library Company of Philadelphia, Library Demonstration Bill, 160n Library Education Division of A.L.A., 147 Library Journal, 218; dates of publication, 219 Library of Congress, 12; books for the blind, 44; use of catalogue cards printed by, 83 Library School of the New York Public Library, 210 Library Service Division of the Office of Education, 160 Lighting, 199 Lincoln, Abraham, 50, 72 Lion's Clubs of Detroit area, 130 "Listening rooms," 197 "Live-Long-and-Like-It" club, 135 Local initiative, 68, 70; dependence on, 59 Loganian Library, Phila., 16, 216 Los Angeles Public Library, 74 Lyceum movement, 119 Machines, labor-saving, 81, 83, 198 Maine, 217; "revolving library," 14, 16, 34; first financial aid to libraries, 33 Making of an American, The (Riis), 38 Maryland, 16; parish libraries, 215; county libraries, 218 .Massachusetts, library in every village, 10; libraries 100 years ago, 14; legislation authorizing taxsupport, 17, 22; library commission, 33, 218; service inadequate in many sections, 161; "social libraries," 215; general librarylaw, 217 Masses, needs of the ignorant or underprivileged a growing concern of library, 170 ff. Medical Ccnter.'N.Y., 183

INDEX Men in an over-feminized profession, 100 Mercantile libraries, I J Michigan, 216 Microfilm, 131, 157, 196 f. Middle Ages, monasteries, books, scholars, universities, 10 f. Milwaukee Public Library, 31; service to schools, 30, 217; book help to labor groups, 43 Minneapolis Public Library, 131, 132; Vocational Information Service, audio-visual materials for home use, 134 Monasteries, medieval, :i Moore, Anne Carroll, 32, 209 Motion pictures, 196, 197; Projected Books a new type of, 130; use of, for extension or services, 157 Municipalities, libraries as agencies of, 60, 64 f. Museum, public information about, 5 . Music, record libraries and concerts, 134; music rooms, 197 National and racial groups, need of education and social adjustment, 39; services for, 40 (., 109 National libraries, 12 National Library for the Blind, Eng., 44 "National Plan for Public Library Service," A.L.A., 153 Negroes, social conditions: specialized services for, 40 f.; work of writers and artists encouraged and sponsored by N.Y. Public Library, 106 Newark Public Library, Business Branch, 43, 211 New England, town libraries, IJ, 17, 2 1(5 New Hampshire, 218; law authorizing library tax, 17; general library law, 217 New Jersey, libraries under city commissions, 64 New Jersey, College of, 216

INDEX Newport, R.I-, library 100 years ago, 14 New York, library 100 years ago, 14; book service to schools, 30, 217; first financial aid to libraries, 33; service inadequate in many sections, 161; parish libraries, 215; school district libraries, 21J, 216 New York Free Circulating Library, 218; incorporation of Astor and Lenox Libraries with, 17, 216; became Circulating Dept. of N.Y. Public Library, 17, 30; book service to schools, 30, 217; George Bruce Branch, 32; work with the blind, 44 New York Public Library, 74; born of the incorporation of Astor and Lenox libraries with New York Free Circulating Library, 17, 216; children's rooms, 31, 32; work with the blind, 44; control as a corporation library: financial support, 61 f.; Carnegie gift of branch buildings, 62; branch system, 77; Circulation Department, 78; work of Negro writers and artists encouraged and exhibited, 106; Theatre Division, 107; relationships with College of the City of New York, 107, 129 f.; Countee Cullen Branch, 136; experiment in homemaking, 184; pictures and other graphic materials, 198; Library School, 220 New York Society Library, i j New York State, 217, 218; school district law, 17; funds, 67 New York State Library School, Albany, 219, 220 North Carolina, 16 North Dakota, scarcity of service, 10 Occupational field, needs: specialized serv ices rendered, 41-45, 104, 1 3 1 ; groups and their interests:

233 politicians, officials, business men, 42; labor, 43; the handicapped, 43 ff. Ohio, 161, 216; county library service, 35 f., 218; school-district system based on state law, 63, 68 "Old maid librarians," 4 Open-shelf policy, early debates about, 22; libraries that first adopted, 217 Ordering and selection of books, 75i 7