A Library Primer

A, Accession number; B, Author; C, Title; D, Gallery; E, Photographer and place of publication; F, Date of publication; G, Photographer's number; H, Process; I, Size of print; J...

There should be made at the start a collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, gazetteers, and scientific compendiums, which should not be lent. The extent of this collection wi...

A good book for a library, speaking of the book as to its wearing qualities and as to the comfort of its users, is printed on paper which is thin and pliable, but tough and opaq...

Section 1. The officers of the board shall consist of a president, vice-president, and secretary, each of whom shall be elected at the regular meeting in January, to serve for o...

The modern library movement is embodying ideas that are yet to make public libraries about as common as public schools, and correspondingly important in educational value. After...

After the books are accessioned, classified, author-numbered or book-marked, and shelf-listed, they should be cataloged. A catalog is a labor-saving device in library work. From...

Binding a book means not only covering it, but preserving it. Good binding, even at a high price, educates the public taste and promotes a desire to protect the library from inj...

This list includes about 75 books, costing about $550. It is arranged alphabetically. It is subdivided into four lists, arranged according to relative importance. This subdivisi...

Those who have used it call it common-sense and up-to-date. They say that it is clear and easy to apply, and that it gives a suitable place for many classes of books for which o...

The trustees will be wise if they appoint their librarian before they erect a building, or even select rooms, and leave these matters largely to him. They should not be in haste...

The books and other things included in the following list--except those starred or excepted in a special note, the purchase of which can perhaps be deferred until the library co...

Reference work in libraries large and small has for its first rule: Meet the inquirer more than half way. To the stranger a library is often an oppressive place, an awesome plac...

The consideration of the relations of the Library Bureau to libraries brings us back to the organization of the American Library Association in 1876. At this gathering of the pr...

All books should be marked with the name of the library. This is cheaply done with a rubber stamp and violet or red ink pad. An embossing stamp makes a good and indelible mark....

A free reading room is generally opened in connection with the library, and often proves its most attractive feature. It should be comfortably furnished and scrupulously clean....

On the inside of the front cover of every book in the library paste a manilla pocket. (See Library Bureau catalog.) Or paste, by the bottom and the upper corners, thus making a...

The field of knowledge is divided into nine main classes, and these are numbered by the digits 1 to 9. Cyclopedias, periodicals, etc., so general in character as to belong to no...

The librarian of former times was almost invariably a bookworm, and was often a student properly so called. The older librarians of the present day, and the librarians of the gr...

It is the peculiar position of the librarian to be so situated that with the consent of his trustees he may, simply by virtue of his office, be able to draw about him more of th...

Government documents are issued in two sets or editions, viz.: the Congressional or sheep, and the Departmental or cloth. The annual reports of the heads of departments, with ma...

We have to consider the teacher, the school, the pupil, the home. The teacher is likely to be conservative; to have fallen into ruts; to be joined to his idols; to make the text...

The smallest public library should be classified and cataloged. This will make its resources more easily available, and will prevent the confusion and waste of labor which are s...

1) _Size of the board_.--The library board should be small, in small towns not over three members. In cities a larger board has two advantages: it can include men exceptionally...

Printed rules, telling the public how they may use the library, are best put in the form of information and suggestions. Thus published they do not give the impression of red ta...

If possible give the young people a reading room of their own, and a room in which are their own particular books. These special privileges will not bar them from the general us...

If circumstances permit, the librarian should be engaged even before the general character of the library and plan of administration have been determined upon. If properly selec...

The value of training for the man or woman who shall take charge of a large city library is now so firmly established that no one thinks of discussing the question. If it is tru...

For catalog cards and all other records use a non-copying black, permanent ink. Carter's record ink is good. It has been adopted, after careful investigation, by the state of Ma...

Books of moderate size should stand up on the shelves. Large books keep better if they are laid on their sides; when they stand, the weight of the leaves is a pull on the bindin...

1) It supplies the public with recreative reading. To the masses of the people--hard-worked and living humdrum lives--the novel comes as an open door to an ideal life, in the en...

Mentor, Ohio, is a village of but 500 people; therefore we are somewhat limited in our ability to raise funds for carrying on library work. But some six years ago 15 of us got t...

As a matter of fact the position of librarian is more of an executive business affair than a literary one. Let me give you fair warning--it is in no sense your business to dicta...

Library patrons may be roughly divided into classes, thus: First--The adult student who, on rare occasions, calls to supplement the resources of his own collection of books with...

The American Library Association was organized in 1876. It holds annual meetings. It publishes its proceedings in volumes, of which those now in print may be purchased of the A....

Give the public access to the card catalog if possible. If a dictionary catalog is made it will prove to be most helpful to the serious students. For the average reader, the per...

In your community are a number of literary clubs; if there are not, it lies within the power of the librarian to create them: an evening club composed of men and women; a ladies...

"Schoolroom library" is the term commonly applied to a small collection, usually about 50v., of books placed on an open shelf in a schoolroom. In a good many communities these l...

Many books can be very properly put in any one of several different classes. In which one a given book should be placed will often be decided by noting where other like books ha...

A careful record should be made of all books received. Use for this purpose what is called an accession book. This is a blank book, ruled and lettered and numbered especially fo...

Often it is not well to lay great plans and invoke state aid at the very outset. Make a beginning, even though it be small, is a good general rule. This beginning, however petty...

In a few cities the following plan for increasing the amount of good reading among the children of the poorer and less educated has been tried with great success. It is especial...

As libraries have become more thoroughly organized, as they have become more aggressive in their methods, and as they have come to be looked upon by librarians and others as pos...

In general, remember always 1) that the public owns its public library, and 2) that no useless lumber is more useless than unused books. People will use a library, not because,...

Save all pamphlets having to do with local history, and save also those of a general nature which promise ever to be of any importance. In a small library, however, or in any li...

Check the library over occasionally. It need not be done every year. It is an expensive thing to do, in time, and is not of great value when done; but now and then it must be go...

In recent years a number of the larger libraries of the country have given up a portion of the delivery room, or a separate room entire, to the use of children. All of these spe...

The books in a given group or class should stand on the shelves in the alphabetical order of their authors' names, though this is not necessary in a small library. This result i...

If the public is not admitted to the shelves, it will be necessary to supply catalogs for public use as well as slips on which lists of books wanted can be made out; but the ful...

There is nothing out of place in the comparing of the library to the school and the college, but its true mission is not to be so limited. To a large extent it is to be compared...

If the establishment of a free public library in your town is under consideration, the first question is probably this: Is there a statute which authorizes a tax for the support...

There is still too much of superstition and reverence mingled with the thought of books and literature, and study and studentship in the popular mind. Books are tools, of which...

The National educational association is the largest organized body of members of the teaching profession in the world. Its annual meetings bring together from 5000 to 15,000 tea...

A museum in connection with the library, either historical or scientific, or an art gallery, may be made a source of attraction, and of much educational value. The collecting of...

As far as the welfare of the library is concerned, the money spent in publishing an elaborate annual report can often be better invested in a few popular books, or, better still...

use, to tell whether the library owns certain books; but with a good card catalog, newspaper lists, special lists, and the like, it is not a necessity. Few large libraries now p...