Assisting the Executive
The business library is also a great service to executives because the heads of business organizations today are concerned not only with the particular business of their own office, but with many economic and public affairs for the betterment of the community and the nation. The work of the modern business man, as expressed by a recent technical periodical, "because of the constant multiplication of problems to be settled and the great number of regulating agencies, is steadily growing more important. The successful business man must be a thinker and a man of affairs; he appears before Congressional Committees and before state and federal commissions; he must know whereof he speaks, and he must know principles as well as facts, history as well as present conditions." In the midst of varied and large responsibilities, he knows he can not depend upon his own personal reading and study to keep all the important facts and figures which he needs at his finger tips, for the successful executive must not burden himself with too much detail.
He therefore turns to his librarian, who knows his personal point of view and his needs, and who is as necessary to him as his secretary. Sometimes the head of a business organization appeals to an assistant officer to give him the data he requires, and the assistant officer turns to another one, and he in turn goes to the library; the fact remains that sooner or later the request comes down the line to the librarian.