Part 10

The departmental library renders the books difficult of access. If the library is large enough to warrant the setting apart of a separate room for its use, this room can seldom be open for as large a portion of the day as the central library, and when it is open the books cannot be obtained as readily by the great body of the students as if they were in a central building. Most students are working in several lines at once. They are compelled, by this system, to go from one room to another, and to accommodate themselves to differing hours of opening and to varying rules for the use of the books. Then, too, it frequently happens in the case of small libraries that the books are kept in the office of the head of the department, and can only be consulted when he is in his office and at liberty. The difficulty is here greatly increased. I know of cases where even the instructors in the same department have found difficulty in getting at the books, and the library was, in effect, a private library for the head professor, supported out of university funds. If instructors cannot use the books, how can the student be expected to do so?

There is a sentiment, false, perhaps, but nevertheless existing in the minds of many students, that any attempt to use the books under these circumstances is an endeavor to curry favor with the professor. This feeling does not exist in connection with the use of the books at a central library.

If a book in a departmental library is needed by a student in another department, he must either go to the department and put the custodian to the inconvenience of looking it up for him, or he must wait at the central library while a messenger goes for the book. His need of the book must be very pressing before he will do either.

If the different fields of knowledge were sharply defined, the departmental system might be a practicable one, but such is not the case. The psychologist needs books bearing on philosophy, sociology, zoology and physics, the sociologist gathers his data from almost the whole field of human knowledge, the economist must use books on history and the historian books on economics. The system hampers him exceedingly in the selection and use of his material, or it compels the university to purchase a large body of duplicate material, and restricts, by so much, the growth of the real resources of the library.

The system, it seems to me, induces narrowness of vision and a sort of specialization which is anything but scientific. Trending in the same direction is the separation of the books, in any given field, into two categories. The undergraduate may need some such selection, but any student who has gone beyond the elements of his subject should have at his command the entire resources of the library. The needs of the elementary student can be met by direct reference to certain books, or by setting aside the volumes required as special reference books and allowing free access to them.

A large amount of our most valuable material is found in the publications of scientific and literary societies and in periodicals. In many cases these must be kept at the central library. They will be much more frequently read if the readers are using the central library and availing themselves of the information given in the catalog.

From the administrative point of view, there is nothing impossible in the organization of the departmental system, provided that finances of the library admit of the increased expenditure. As Mr. Bishop has pointed out in a recent number of the _Library Journal_, the element of cost seems to have been utterly left out of consideration in the recent discussions at the University of Chicago. It is possible that, with the immense resources of that institution, they may be able to ignore that factor, but most of us are compelled to reduce administrative expenditures to the lowest point consistent with good work.

Aside from the cost of the duplication of books already noted, necessitated by the division of the books among the different departments, there are the items of space and labor to be considered. It needs no argument to show that there is a great economy of space gained by the consolidation of all libraries, with the exceptions previously referred to, into one central building. An entire room is frequently given up to a departmental library of three or four hundred volumes, when a few extra shelves and possibly a slight increase in the seating capacity of the reading room would accommodate it in the central library. The cost of maintenance, of heating and of lighting is also undoubtedly greater under the departmental arrangement.

The greatest increase in expense is, however, in the item of service. In order properly to control a branch of this sort, an employe of the library must be in constant attendance. The duties and responsibilities of such a position are so small that only the lowest paid grade of service can be employed with economy. The amount necessary to pay the salaries of such persons could, with much greater advantage to the whole institution, be used for the employment of a few specialists, highly trained in different lines, who would act as reference librarians in their respective fields. Our American libraries are, as a class, compared with those of foreign universities, singularly deficient in this quality of assistance. Sooner or later we must supply this lack, and every move which tends in another direction must be examined with care.

The university library exists for the whole university--all of it for the whole university. In an ideal condition, every book in it should be available, at a moment's notice, if it is not actually in use. This should be our aim, and it should be from this viewpoint that we should judge the efficiency of our administration and the value of any proposed change.

SUGGESTIONS FOR AN ANNUAL LIST OF AMERICAN THESES FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY.

BY WILLIAM WARNER BISHOP, _Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y._

Graduate instruction and the degree of doctor of philosophy as its reward are not so novel and recent in America as to call for either explanation or definition. Neither are they so old as to require a history. Most of us can well remember when it became a common thing for American universities to have numerous candidates for the doctorate. At the present time there are several hundred students in our universities who are candidates for the doctor's degree and the number is increasing rapidly.

A degree implies a dissertation, or, as it is more commonly and less correctly termed, a thesis. I need not here express any opinion as to the merits or defects of these documents as a class. What I wish to speak of is their value to university and college libraries, and the difficulty of discovering what dissertations are produced annually, and, for reference libraries, of procuring them when discovered. I presume the librarian who knows the specialist's insatiate greed for dissertations, _programmen_, and small pamphlets generally will need no words of mine to bring home to him the need of procuring as many of these documents as he can. Whatever we may say in derogation of doctors' dissertations--and they have their faults--they at least represent long-continued and careful investigation under supposedly competent direction, and the specialist must have them.

It is a comparatively easy task to get him German and other foreign dissertations. The new ones are listed annually and the old ones load the shelves of the second-hand stores of Europe. But to find what is being produced here in this country is by no means a simple undertaking. And it behooves us, unless we tacitly admit that our American dissertations are not worth having, to take some steps toward bettering the present situation.

In order to ascertain the exact condition of things I have selected fifteen representative institutions which confer the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and have studied their requirements and conducted some correspondence with their librarians. These institutions have been selected purely as representing various geographical and educational conditions, and omissions from the list are not to be taken _in malam partem_. They are: (1) Brown, (2) Bryn Mawr, (3) California, (4) Chicago, (5) Columbia, (6) Cornell, (7) Harvard, (8) Johns Hopkins, (9) Michigan, (10) Nebraska, (11) Pennsylvania, (12) Princeton, (13) Stanford, (14) Wisconsin, and (15) Yale.

The majority of these universities require that before the degree is conferred the thesis shall be printed and a fixed number of copies, ranging from 50 to 250, shall be deposited with some officer of the university or in the library. The statistics are as follows:

California requires 150 copies.

Chicago requires 100 copies. "Accepted theses become the property of the university."

Columbia requires 150 copies.

Cornell requires 50 copies.

Michigan requires 150 copies.

Nebraska requires 150 copies.

Pennsylvania requires 250 copies.

Stanford requires 100 copies.

Wisconsin requires 100 copies.

Two institutions, Bryn Mawr and Princeton, require the printing of the thesis, but make no requirement, so far as can be ascertained from the catalogs, that there shall be any deposit of copies.

Johns Hopkins and Pennsylvania allow the thesis to be either written or printed; if printed, Johns Hopkins requires the deposit of 150 copies, Pennsylvania of 250, except under certain conditions which will appear later.

Brown makes no requirement for deposit or for printing. Harvard provides that one copy either printed or written must be deposited in the library. Yale requires that the "thesis must be deposited at the library for public inspection not later than May 1st" of the year in which the candidate expects to receive the degree.

Of these universities two only, Brown and California, print the titles of theses in the university catalog.

The foregoing statements are taken from the annual catalogs for 1899-1900 of the universities named, except in the case of Pennsylvania, where the statement made in the catalog is supplemented from a letter received from the Dean.

Although I presumed that most of the copies deposited in the libraries of the universities were used for exchange, I wrote to the librarians of those universities which require the deposit of a number of printed copies, making inquiry regarding their systems of exchange and provisions for the sale of copies not exchanged. I received replies from almost all. [These letters were read, the common condition being shown to be that most of the copies received by the libraries were exchanged with foreign institutions and other American universities. Varying conditions ranging from a refusal to sell any copies to a free distribution of copies not exchanged, was found to exist with regard to sale of theses by the libraries.]

It will be seen from these replies that, if a library does not happen to be on the exchange list of the university in which a thesis is written, and if the thesis is not printed in some journal or in the proceedings of some learned society, such a library stands very little chance either of learning of the publication of a thesis or of procuring it from the author or from the university. That this is not much of an affliction in most cases I cheerfully admit. Still the small colleges which deliberately refuse to attempt graduate work--and, be it said to their honor, there are not a few of these--and the large reference libraries which do not publish, have as much need of certain theses as the large universities, and they have no means of getting them easily.

It appears to me, and I trust to you, that, if our American dissertations are worth anything, if they are valuable enough to preserve, if they are real contributions to knowledge--and I believe that they are all of these--then it is worth while to secure the publication of some list which will tell librarians and specialists where to go to get copies, either from the author or from the university. It should not be difficult to secure co-operation in this matter. The number of theses printed and deposited in any one university in any one year is not large, and it certainly would not be a burden of alarming proportions to send titles to some central bureau. The difficulty will be to secure an editor and the funds for publishing the list. It would seem to me that some one of the large institutions whose libraries publish bulletins and other matter, or possibly the Library of Congress might assume the expense as a matter of patriotic service to learning in the United States. And it might not be out of place for this section, should it care to follow up the matter, to enter into communication with them on the subject. It might be also, that some enterprising publisher would be glad to undertake the task of both editing and publishing, if it could be shown him that he would thus do a favor to American libraries.

One final word should be said before closing. The inevitable delays incident to the publication of such a list would be more than offset by the delays in publishing theses. Many a man is called "Doctor" who has never received his diploma for that degree because his thesis remains unpublished. The laxity in this matter in some quarters is very great. It may be that such a publication of titles as I have proposed might perceptibly hasten the publication of theses.

OPPORTUNITIES.

BY GRATIA COUNTRYMAN, _Minneapolis (Minn.) Public Library_.

If I were to sum up in these short moments the opportunities which lie before library workers, it would have to be an epitome of all that has been said at this conference and all previous conferences, and of all that has been written on library extension and influence. Even then the opportunity which lies before you might not even be mentioned.

I will not even try to enumerate the almost endless ways in which library usefulness may express itself, for these various ways are, after all, only different directions in which to use our one great opportunity of service to mankind.

May we not think of a library as a dynamic force in the community, to be used for lifting the common level. There are so many forces at work in the nation pulling down and scattering; but the hundreds of large and small libraries dotted over the country stand for social regeneration, stand for the building up and perfecting of human society, stand for the joy and happiness of individual lives. And no matter how limited seems our own small field, it is a piece of the great domain of helpful activity.

It is not always easy, after a hard and tiresome day of small and perplexing duties, to see beyond our wall of weariness. Yet nothing is more restful than to feel that we are contributing our part to a great work, and that we, in our place, are a part of one of the great building-up movements of the century.

I will not soon forget what Mr. Lane said in his president's address at the Atlanta conference. I would like to quote largely, but this sentence serves. He said: "What a privilege that we are always free to place ourselves at the service of another. Most professions are so engrossed by their own work that they have no time to serve the needs of others, but it is the _business_ of the librarian to serve. He is paid for knowing how."

It is peculiarly true that the librarian's business is to put himself and the library under his custody at the complete disposal of the people. It is his _business_ to watch their interests and to think in advance for their needs.

The librarian must have, in Mrs. Browning's words,

"... both head and heart; Both active, both complete and both in earnest."

Our opportunities, then, are not something which lie to one side, to be especially thought of, but are the very heart of our business--of our profession.

I have been wondering if there is not an element of discouragement to the librarian of the small library, in such a conference as this, or even to us who fill subordinate places in large libraries. We get so many new ideas, we get so many plans which other libraries are putting into operation. We know we cannot put them into practice, we know well enough that we shall go home and do just what we have been doing, with small quarters, with cramped revenues, with possibly unsympathetic trustees who take unkindly to our new-born enthusiasm. There seems to be the possibility of so much, but the opportunity for doing so little, and then our limitations seem more apparent than our opportunities. The assistant in the larger library says, "I wish I could be the librarian of a small library, they have so much better an opportunity for coming into close contact with the people," and the librarian of the little library who does her own accessioning, cataloging, record keeping, charging, reference work, etc., with one brain and one pair of hands, says, "Oh, if we were only a little larger library, with more money, and with more help, I might do so many things that other libraries do."

Carlyle says, "Not what I have, but what I do, is my kingdom," and I take that to mean in library work that my opportunity is not what I could do if I held some other position in some other library, but what I can do under present conditions with present means. Success does not lie with those who continually wish for something they haven't got, but with those who do the best possible thing with the things they have. "It is not so much the ship as the skilful sailing that assures a prosperous voyage." It is not so much a great collection of books and a fine technical organization as the personal character of the man or woman who stands as a bridge between the books and the people. Your opportunity and mine does not lie in our circumstances, but in ourselves, and in our ability to see and to grasp the coveted opportunity. We are reminded of the pious darkey who prayed every night just before Christmas, "Dear Lord, send dis darkey a turkey." Christmas came dangerously near, and there was no prospect of a turkey. So the night before Christmas he grew desperate, and prayed, "Dear Lord, send dis darkey to a turkey." That night the turkey came. Even so it is with our opportunities.

There are three classes of people toward whom the library has a special mission: the children, the foreigner, and the working classes.

1. As to the children, we have been hearing considerably about them in this conference. Mr. Hutchins in the Wisconsin meeting said that a good book did more good in a country boy's home than in the city boy's. When the country boy takes a book home he and all his family devour it, but the town boy reads his book and exchanges it, and no one in the house perhaps even knows that he has read it. Well, that is a subject for thought. If his family or teachers do not watch his reading, it becomes a serious thing for the librarian who chooses and buys his books for him. Perhaps the library is not large enough to have a children's department or to send books into the schools, or to do any specialized children's work, but it can make judicious selection of books, and being small can know individual cases among the children. It is not so hard to find out the children one by one who need some care and interest, to learn their names and to find out something about their families. They say that letters cut lightly in the bark of a sapling show even more plainly in the grown tree. A boy whom no one has reached comes into your library. By a little watchful care he reads some wonderful life, learns some of the marvellous forces in God's creation, opens his eyes to the glowing sunsets or to the springing blades of grass; suddenly knows the dignity of human nature and his own growing self. His aspirations are born, his ambition is awakened, his life is changed. Library records have not one, but many such cases.

The home library is a method of reaching children which is not used enough by the smaller libraries. Branches and stations may not be practicable, but a group of 15 to 25 books taken into sections of a town by some friendly woman, on the plan of the home libraries, could be carried out in almost any town. The librarian might not have time, but she could find people who would do it, if she set the work to going.

2. As to the foreigners, Europe has used us for a dumping ground for considerable moral and political refuse. We have the problem of making good citizens out of much wretched material, and next to the children there is no greater opportunity for the library. Even the smallest library ought to study ways and means of getting at the foreign element. It would almost pay to make a canvass of the town, to see that these people are reached and that they know about the library. If books in their own language are necessary to draw them, then it is the best investment you can make.

3. But in reality the library does its great work among the mass of common working people. It is the quiet side which makes no showing, but it has always been the telling side. From the common people spring most of our readers. They do our work, they fight our battles, they need our inspiration. For them you make your libraries attractive, for them you make careful selections of books--the student does not need your pains--for their sake you identify yourself with every local interest. You fix your hours for opening and closing to accommodate these working people. You make your rules and regulations just as elastic as possible, that they may not be debarred from any privilege. They do not ask favors, but after all this great mass of common people whose lives are more or less barren and empty are the ones to which the library caters in a quiet, unadvertised way. It is the great opportunity which we scarcely think of as an opportunity at all. It is just the daily routine. Millions of people know little more than a mechanical life, what they shall eat, drink and wear. Many can touch their horizons all around with a sweep of their hands, so narrow is their circle. They live in the basements of their spiritual temples, and never rise to the level of their best ability. They have no joy of life, of abundant life. The library performs a great service to society when it has furnished information to the people, when it has been an educational factor, but it has performed a greater one when it has awakened a man and put him into possession of his own powers.

Well, this is not a very specific setting forth of the ways in which we can extend the work of a small library. The way must vary greatly with the conditions, but the spirit of the work runs through all conditions. If I should name the qualifications of a good librarian, I would give them in the following order, according to importance:

1. Genuine character, with broad natural sympathies.

2. Courteous, kindly manners.

3. Education, general and technical.

Any such librarian, with only a fairly equipped library, will find her opportunity at her hand.

SOME PRINCIPLES OF BOOK AND PICTURE SELECTION.

BY G. E. WIRE, M.D., LL.B., _Worcester County (Mass.) Law Library_.

1. _Books and pictures should be suited to the constituency._--This may seem so trite, so self-evident as to need no statement, much less any argument to support it. But on sober second thought, all will agree that it needs constant reiteration and appreciation. All of us are familiar with libraries--of course not our own--in which we detect glaring inconsistencies in book selection. The story used to be told of one library commission that in its first epoch it used to send the books on agriculture to the sea-coast, and books on fish curing to the hill country. This is now strenuously denied but there may be more truth than poetry in it after all.