Part 31

The earliest efforts at standardization among librarians were directed toward cataloguing; and probably cataloguers are our greatest sticklers for a rigid adherence to rules. Those who read Mr. E. L. Pearson’s column in _The Boston Transcript_ realize that there are some librarians who consider this fact a legitimate target for ridicule. And it is clear, I think, that both the methods and results of cataloguing ought not to be immune from modification to adopt them to local peculiarities. Some public libraries are used so much for scholarly or antiquarian research that their catalogues need to approximate that of a university library; others are of so popular a nature that they hardly need a catalogue at all. The needs of a certain community may require the very full analysis of certain books, whereas elsewhere these could do very well with less analysis, or possibly none at all. The selection of subject headings may have to be made with due regard to the use that a catalogue is likely to receive. Books on open shelves do not need precisely the same kind of cataloguing as those to which access is not allowed. A library’s public, too, sometimes gets into habits, and if these are unobjectionable, it may be better to humor them than to try to change them. Some bodies of readers like as many printed lists as possible; others rarely use them. In some places there is great demand for a monthly bulletin; elsewhere it is little used. Any librarian who does not stand ready to adapt his catalogue in some respects to the character and needs of his readers runs the risk of limiting his field of service.

Methods of distribution may require selection or modification to suit local peculiarities. Take, for instance, the choice of a charging system. “Which is the best charging system?” is a question frequently asked of experienced librarians or library school instructors. This query is on a par with “What is the best material for clothes?”, or “Is paregoric or ipecac the best medicine?” A librarian who finds in her new job a charging-system that she dislikes, which has been used without complaint for years, should investigate before changing. Acceptance of the system may be simply due to habit. Even then, as we have seen, there may be reason for retaining it. And there is a fair chance that it may have held its ground because it is in some way better adapted to the community. Of course the adaptation may be to something else--size, for example. A rapid rise in the circulation may take a library out of the small-library class and necessitate changes not only in charging system but in many other things.

Some day an industrious student of library economy will tabulate these things that are independent of local conditions, or so nearly so that it is better to standardize them, and tell how the others should be varied with local topography, climate and population. There is no time for that in a single lecture; and if I can leave firmly fixed in your minds the idea that some things are better standardized, while others should be functions of variable local conditions, I shall have accomplished all that I set out to do.

I have already noted some of the differences between a branch library and a central library. Possibly these deserve further mention as an instance of the adaptation of methods of distribution to locality. I have frequently had occasion to deal with complaints which on investigation proved to be due to the fact that the complaining reader expected to find at a branch library all the facilities of a central library. He had lived near the central library in one city, and had moved to another where it was more convenient for him to use a branch. The first thing that strikes him is that the reference collection is inadequate. He does not realize that the central reference collection can not possibly be duplicated at branch libraries. Such complaints, however, may often give the librarian a hint. He may have equipped all his branches with the same small, good reference collection, forgetting that reference work varies with locality. Several complaints of this sort from the same branch may indicate the necessity of enlarging the reference collection there or perhaps of adopting some such scheme as we are trying in St Louis of a central reference collection of duplicates for supplying temporary branch needs.

It is not always realized that the character of the book-collection in a branch library is influenced by the mere fact that it is a branch, apart from considerations of size, circulation and character of readers. There are many standard books, in small demand, that no library should be without. One copy will serve the needs of the whole town. If there is but one library there the book must form part of that library’s collection, whereas if there are a central building and branches, it should be in the central library--not in the branches. It is for this reason that the A.L.A. catalogue should not be used for stocking a branch. I know of cases where numbers of books lie idle on the shelves of every branch in a city system, because they are not branch books at all. One or two copies at Central would have been sufficient, and to place them in branches has been waste of money.

When the New York Public Library took in a considerable number of small independent libraries as branches I had the opportunity, a year or so after the event, of ascertaining from the librarians, what difference to them and to their readers the change of status had made. They were unanimous in saying that although they, as librarians, felt less independent, the service to readers was vastly improved, owing to the fact that the library now formed part of a large system. This is always the result of any kind of union of effort, whether by consolidation or co-operation. The individual is somewhat hampered but the community is benefited. This, of course, is something of a departure from our subject.

Sometimes the chief difference between two localities is in the character and temper of the readers. The whole scheme of relations between library and public needs often to be altered in moving from one place to another. This is perhaps most noticeable in a city where there is a system of branch libraries. The assistant who has been transferred from a Jewish to a Scandinavian district and then to one occupied by well-to-do Americans will understand what I mean without further explanation.

But this difference in readers is of course much wider than mere racial difference. It may be a difference in social status. We Americans are too apt to pretend that this sort of thing does not affect a public educational institution, but it decidedly does. Some librarians make the mistake of thinking that these differences are racial also. It is a matter of common knowledge among city librarians that in a “slum” library the problem of discipline is simplicity itself compared with a library where the readers are nearly all well-to-do. This is often asserted to depend merely on the racial difference between the newly arrived immigrant--Russian Jew, Italian or Pole--and the native American. But we find that when the immigrant has learned the customs of the country and has made enough money to raise him in the social scale and enable him to move from his slum surroundings, he quickly takes his place with the well-to-do library patrons. He is more exacting and his children are harder to manage. The difference is really a social one. The immigrant is accustomed to being looked down on in his native country, to living on little and having few principles. He is humble and thankful for small favors. What he gets at the library fills him with amazement and gratitude. Mary Antin has told us all about it. But the well-to-do citizen, whether by birth or recent acquirement, realizes that the library is being supported by his taxes. He realizes it, in fact, so keenly, that he gives it somewhat undue prominence in his mind and sometimes shows this in his treatment of the library staff. Knowing that the library belongs in part to him, he may often forget that it belongs in equal degree to others. He is impatient or even resentful of rules intended to maintain equality of service. His children unconsciously absorb this same attitude. They resent control and are hard to keep in order. Much of the librarians’ time must be given to smoothing down ruffled feathers and maintaining discipline--time which ought to be given to bettering the quality of service.

Evidently these two kinds of communities must be handled differently. They call for different training on the part of the staff--a different stock of books--almost for different buildings. Then there is the indifferent community, which may be anywhere in the social scale and which requires special handling. It is even difficult to tell at times whether or not a community is really indifferent. Their reaction to the library is often a phase of the local feeling that is the subject of this lecture. It is present in some communities and absent in others, but its presence does not always mean real appreciation of library privileges, nor does its absence mean lack of such appreciation.

Not more than a few months apart, about ten years ago, two branch libraries were opened in New York. One was in Greenwich Village, a district of strong local peculiarities, which I fear it is about to lose because writers have taken to describing them in the magazines. The other was on 96th street, which was a part of New York like any other. The “Village” took the greatest interest in the library from the moment when its site was selected. The building was watched from its foundation up. Bad little boys annoyed the workmen. Local politicians and merchants congratulated the neighborhood and told us how fine they thought it was all going to be. Everybody wanted to take part in the opening exercises and nearly everybody did. There were floods of oratory and crowds of visitors. But having obtained the library and done what it considered its whole duty in the premises, Greenwich Village, not being a community of readers, proceeded to leave us to our own devices and it was only after months of up-hill work that the Branch succeeded in getting anything like a respectable circulation.

On the other hand the establishment, construction and opening of the 96th Street Branch were treated by the surrounding residents with supreme indifference. No one had asked to have a branch located at this point, which had been selected solely for reasons of topography and population. As the building went up, no one asked whether it was a school or a bank. Nobody came to the opening exercises. And yet when the library began to circulate books the community responded to such an extent that in a short time the branch was giving them out at the rate of 40,000 a month. Here the interest and pride of a community in the possession of a library building and its disposition to make use of the library are clearly shown to be two different things. In this case the two communities were parts of the same city, but separate towns often show the same phenomenon. Some of the most indifferent library towns, for instance, are the ones where superhuman efforts were put forth to secure a Carnegie building.

A kind of standardization of which we can not have too little is that controlled by the man who takes himself as the standard--his own ideas, prejudices and habits. This kind of standardizer is not always aware of what he is doing. He believes that his methods are the best. They may be best for him and possibly for the particular environment in which he has been working. I am not sure that some of our most cherished library habits did not originate in this way--were not originally simply the personal whims of some able and forceful library administrator who was in a position, in the formative stage of library progress, to impress them on the fabric of our work. Fortunately for us, the men of this kind, in the early history of the library movement, were not only men of force but generally of common-sense as well. Possibly their habits and customs were as good as any others that we might have adopted. I am sure that they were better than some. But individual points of view may in some cases prove disastrous. I remember an English novel in which a local librarian personally interested in the history of the French Revolution, uses all the available funds of his institution for years to buy books on the subject, building up a fine collection, but making his library useless for its ordinary purposes. His successor, a man with other interests, threw out the whole collection. I have often wondered which of these two librarians one ought to condemn most. Both are examples of the injury that may be done by what we may call auto-standardization.

I am preparing this whole lecture with a fear that some one of this kind may think he is adapting his library to his locality when he is only standardizing it by himself. Self-deception may go far in matters of this kind, and there is something to be said in favor of hard and fast standardization without departure of any kind, in that it prevents aberrations such as I have just hinted at. I trust that no self-standardizer is in my present audience.

Our conclusion from all this should be, I think, that a library should not only assimilate its methods to those of other libraries--which is standardization, but should react to the needs and conditions of its own surroundings, which is localization. If you would know the extent of this local reaction and the character of its results, ask the members of the library’s community, especially if that community is small. And we must remember that no library community is large, so far as its direct popular use is concerned. Whether it is in a village or a city, whether it is a central library or a branch, it is effective as a community centre only within a small circle, of perhaps half a mile radius. The residents of this circle are in a position to give testimony regarding the library’s local services. If it has succeeded in adapting itself to local needs its reputation will be that of a valuable, helpful, well-disposed institution; if not, the neighbors will be hostile, or at least indifferent. Libraries that are in constant trouble with their readers--the object of continual complaint and controversy, generally have the feeling that the fault is with the public. Sometimes it is; for a maladjustment is seldom on one side alone. But more often it is chiefly due to the fact that the library has overlooked its purely local functions, while possibly at the same time conforming most admirably to what are considered the best library standards. No library can afford to neglect its special duties to its locality and if these conflict with standardization, it should be the general standards and not the local adjustments, that should go by the board.

INDEX

Administration, Cost of, 217

Advertising. General, 277; In the library, 35, 172

Age limit for children, 210

Allen, James Lane, quoted, 66

A. L. A. catalog, 422; President’s address, 121

American Library Institute, 418

American idea of delegated authority, 57; Of propriety, 133

Americans as money-lovers, 156

Antin, Mary, quoted, 423

Appointments, 95

Appropriation for books, 24

Architecture of libraries, 315

Art, Not intellectual, 331

Assassins, Persian sect, 129

Autograph collections, 398

Auto-standardization, 425

Badness, Three kinds in books, 207

Beginners, Message to, 357

Beresford, J. D., quoted, 372

Best books defined, 141

_Biblia abiblia_, 288

Bibliographies for book selection, 19

Binding, Choice of, 25

Boards of trustees, 39, 49, 93

Book committees, 22, 147

Book-lovers, 99

Book selection, 17, 125; Raising standard of, 141

Book-taught Bilkins, 106

Books, Distribution of, 30; Love of, 97; Waste of, 163; Influence of locality on stock of, 411

Booksellers’ League (N.Y.), 85

Boston Public Library, 186

Boston Transcript, 419

Bowdoin College library, 394

Branch dep’t., Jurisdiction of, 233

Branch libraries, 93, 421; Gifts of sites, 178

Brooklyn Public Library, 12; Scheme of service, 189

Bryan, William J., 270

Buildings, Future, 81; Standardization of, 415

Bulletins, Picture, 31, 402

Business man’s library, 269

Ca’Canny policy, 155

Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 64

Carnegie, Andrew, Gifts of, 90; quoted, 105

Carnegie Committee, Requirements of, criticized, 417

Cash-registers, 11

Cataloguing, Local modifications of, 419

Catholics and the library, 300

Censor, Librarian as a, 121

Center, Definition of, 111; Functions of, 114

Chance, Definition of, 374

Charging systems, 420

Chestnut Hill Branch, Phila., 416

Children, Work with, 85

Children’s department, Jurisdiction of, 233

Christian Scientists and the library, 301

Church and library, 299

Churches, Duplication of, 344

Circulation, Statistics of, 75; At long range, 221

Civic League, St. Louis, 405

Civil Service Commission, N.Y., 190

Civil Service in libraries, 183

Class-percentages, Comparison of, 148

Classification of work, 222

Clippings, 399

Closed-shelf issue, 221

Commercial system in libraries, 160

Conflicts of jurisdiction, 231, 351

Connecticut State Library, 415

Contract system, 94

Cost of libraries, 85

Cyclopedia, Library as a, 146

Dana, John C., quoted, 261, 317

Decameron, criticized, 137

Delivery service, Frequent, 228

Delivery station work, 221

Detroit branches, 416

Distributer, Library as a, 29

Dont’s, for book-selectors, 150

Downtown branch, 228

Drudgery, 102

Duns on postal cards, 13

Duplication, Sin of, 341

Education, 257; Through libraries, 59, 87; University of, 111

Educational center, Library as, 111

Educational results, 52

Efficiency records, 199; quoted, 385

Eliot, Charles W., quoted, 80

Envelopes for filing, 400

Ephemeral books, 34, 89, 104

Examinations, 186

Exclusion of books, Grounds for, 122; Of readers, 242

Exhibits in a library, 397

Expenditures, Division of, 418

Experiments, 370, 389

Expert advisers for book-selection, 125, 145

Experts, Control by, 40, 49

Exploitation of libraries, 321

Extension of library service, 365

Falsity in books, 123

Feed-wires, Compared with books, 168

Fiction, Appraisal of, 23; Selection of, 147

Finance, 51; Statistics of, 73

Fines, 4

Forbes Library, 419

Force, Fields of, 115

Forecasts, 310

Foreign books, 133

Formalism in libraries, 290, 320

French ideas of propriety, 132

Genius, Definitions of, 64

Gerould, Mrs., quoted, 291

Gifts, Undesirable, 173

Gil Bias, criticized, 137

Glennon, John J., 274

Godard, George, 415

Grades in the staff, 186

Grant, Ulysses S., Life of, 380

Greenwich Village, New York

City, Library in, 424

Group-education, 116

Group-psychology, 285

Group-value of collections, 402

Groups, Recognition of, 315

Harrisburg Public Library, 416

Hicks, Frederick C., quoted, 261, 264

Hierarchy, Control by a, 42

High Bridge Branch, New York City, 416

House-to-house delivery, 87

Houses, Index to, 415

Hungarian books, 368

Hysteresis, 269

Imponderables, 260

Income from fines, 7

Indecency and immorality distinguished, 127

Indianapolis Public Library, Address at opening, 283

Initiative, Need of, 361

Insurance, A relief of “ill luck,” 390

Interest and initiative, 384

Inventory, 70, 74

Jackson Square Branch, New York City, 416

James, William, quoted, 117, 260

Japanese, Heritage of, 167

Kent, William, quoted, 206

Kipling, Rudyard, quoted, 168

Language, Best of, 142

Lantern-slides, 404

Lay control in libraries, 39, 49

Lecky, W. H. H., 128

Lectures, Collections taken at, 175

Lenox Library, 393

Librarians, Three kinds of, 241

Librarians’ libraries, 50

Library, The small, 29; And the business man, 269; The subscription, 293

Library schools, 95

Library work, Future of, 309

Local history, 413; Material, 117

Locality, Library and, 409

Luck in the library, 373

Lutherans and the library, 301

Machine-work, 157

Mal-employment in the library, 205

Mallock, W. H., Quoted, 153

Mayer, Dr. Alfred G., quoted, 357

Medical officers, 380

Meetings in libraries, 314

Militarism, Union against, 271

Miller, Elsie, quoted, 224

Missionary work of libraries, 313

Morgan, J. P., 390, 394

Moving pictures, 285

Museum, Library as a, 393

Music, Popularization of, 325

Mutilation of books, 14

Napoleon, Anecdote of, 373

Nationalization of libraries, 310

New Haven Public Library, 416

New York, Consolidation of libraries in, 350

New York Free Circulating Library. Scheme of service, 185

New York Public Library, 312, 422; Science circulation, 18; Scheme of service, 192

Newman, Cardinal, quoted, 66

Newspaper science, 124

Newspapers, 105

Ninety-Sixth St. Branch, New York City, 425

Non-partizanship, 180, 270; In book selection, 126

Omission, Sin of, 341

Open shelf libraries, 82

Organization of idleness, 153

Othello criticized, 137

Overdue books, 8

Pains and penalties, 3

Pay-duplicate system, 6

Pearson, B. L., 419; quoted, 208

Phonograph records, 336, 405

Photographs, Local, 414

Pianola rolls, 336, 405

Plates as museum material, 396, 397

Play defined, 112

Poe, Edgar A., 284

Poetry, Increased taste for, 283

Poets, libraries and realities, 283

Political interference with libraries, 320

Popularization of information, 123; Of libraries, 310

Portland, Ore., branches, 417

Postal-card material, 400

Postal-cards, Illegal, 13

Prairie psychology, 294

Private collections indexed, 415

Problem novel, 130

Professional training, 318

Professionalization of libraries, 310

Profit in a library, 161

Promotions, 186

Property, Waste of, 163

Public Control by, 42, 49; What is it? 91

Public-opinion, Power of, 166

Publicity, 35, 280, 304

Publishers’ Weekly, 20

Racial or social status? 423

Readers, Statistics of, 76

Reading of music, 326

Realism, 285

Recreation through libraries, 60

Recreational results, 53

Reference use, Statistics of, 75

Registration, size and growth, 36

Reich, Emil, quoted, 118

Repetition in fiction, 347

Reputation, Importance of, 165

Reserves, Unlocking of, 117

Reviews, 21

Riley, James Whitcomb, 283

Riverside Public Library, Cal., 416

Rules, 352; Authority for, 12

St. Louis Pageant, 407

St. Louis plan (pay duplicate), 6

St. Louis Public Library, 314, 367, 396; Efficiency records, 200; Scheme of service, 194

Savage, Characteristics of, 357

Scholarship in libraries, 287

School and library, 60, 88

School, Function of, 113

School libraries, 255

Scrapbooks, 399

Screens for display, 397

Service systems, 183

Shaw, George Bernard, 127

Sight-reading, 333

Simplicity, Best of, 142

Smith, Munroe, quoted, 259

Social results, 55

Socialists, Mistake of, 155

Socialization of libraries, 310

Special libraries, 316

Standardization, Limits of, 409

Statistics, 69, 161; Use of in book-purchase, 412

Sumner, William G., quoted, 133

Sunday school libraries, 301

Superficiality defined, 135

System, Magazine, 280

System in the library, 153

Talk, Unnecessary, 214

Taste, Cultivation of, 33, 329; Test of 142

Telephone use, 274

Text-books, Composite, 264; Unsatisfactory, 124

Textiles, 400

Theft of books, 14

Time, Waste of, 163, 353

Trade-lists, 19

Travelling libraries, 86

Triviality, 135

Trustees, 39, 49

Trustees’ Section, A. L. A., 44, 49

Truth in advertising, 278; In books, 123; As a test, 142

Turgenief as a realist, 347

Vacations, 212, 215

Vincent, George B., quoted, 116

Volta Review, quoted, 265

Walmsley, H. R., quoted, 265

Wister, Owen, quoted, 132

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Read at the Magnolia Conference of the American Library Association, June, 1902.

[2] Figures for 1901.

[3] Read before the Trustees’ Section of the American Library Association at the Niagara Conference, 1903.