The Business Library: What it is and what it does

by Louise B. Krause

REFERENCES FOR ADDITIONAL READING

List of special libraries in United States and Canada (in American library annual 1916-17 p. 378-408).

Carr, B. E.

Formation of a financial library. Special libraries June 1919, p. 125-27.

Day, M. B.

Portland cement association library. Library journal Jan. 1919, p. 27-28.

Glenn, M. R.

Library of American bankers association. Library journal April 1917, p. 283-84.

Johnston, R. H.

Bureau of railway economics library. Special libraries June 1918, p. 129-31.

Krause, L. B.

The public utility library. Journal of electricity Dec. 15, 1918, p. 556-57.

Greenman, E. D.

The functions of the industrial library. Journal of industrial and engineering chemistry June 1919, p. 584.

Macfarlane, J. J.

Philadelphia commercial museum. Library journal April 1917, p. 278-79.

Nystrom, P. H.

The relation of the public library to the private business libraries. Special libraries Feb. 1918, p. 35-37.

Same article Library journal March 1918, p. 154-57.

Parmelee, J. H.

The utilization of statistics in business. American statistical association quarterly publication June 1917, p. 565-76.

Purinton, E. E.

Building an office library. Independent Dec. 16, 1918, p. 214.

Rife, R. S.

Functions of the library of a banking institution; pamphlet printed by Guaranty trust co., New York city, 1919.

Rose, A. L.

The service of a business library; pamphlet printed by National city bank, New York city, 1920.

Secrist, Horace

Statistics in business New York, McGraw-Hill 137 p. $1.75.

Spencer, Florence

Financial library of the National city bank of New York. Library journal April 1917, p. 282-83.

Spencer, Florence

What a public library cannot do for the business man. Special libraries Oct. 1917, p. 177-18.

---

CHAPTER II
THE SERVICE RENDERED BY THE
BUSINESS LIBRARY

The service rendered by the business library is intensive rather than extensive. The business man is not interested in making a good library showing in regard to the quantity of material on the shelves or in the files of his library, but he is vitally interested in the quality of the material; he has just two objects in view, he wants specific information and he wants quick, accurate, comprehensive service. The organized business library steps in to render this service by knowing what information to get, how to get it, how to keep it up to date, how to file it and how to apply it effectively to business problems.

If the subject which the business man is investigating has a scientific basis, the library puts him in touch with the best authorities on that science and the standard practices which it maintains. If the business man is investigating a new enterprise, or a banker is considering a loan, he must make a careful survey of all the factors which enter into it, in order to make a decision as to its stability and probable financial success. Such problems demand a large amount of information which can be furnished by the business library, as it is prepared to furnish data giving sources of different kinds of raw materials, manufactured products on the market and cost of manufacturing, the possible extent of the market for a competing product, cost of labor, coal and data on certain sections of the country as good business centers, based on a study of population, post office receipts, bank clearings and transportation facilities.

If shipping to foreign countries is contemplated the business library will furnish information on modes of packing, effects of climate on goods, transportation, customs duties, foreign credits, and similar items. Thus the business library is prepared to select, arrange and put into form for ready use, information ranging from methods of rock tunneling, to the consideration of the advisability of putting a new commercial fertilizer on the market.

"The Americas," published by the National City Bank, New York City, contains in its December 1917 issue, an article entitled, "One Feature of German Organization in Engineering and Foreign Business," the contents of which bear directly upon the importance of information as an indispensable asset in the prosecution of successful business.

The article states that industrial corporations in Germany before the war employed an officer called an Economic Director, who, "in the plan of organization of his company, is attached to the office of the President, or is an appendage of the Board of Directors. He has to organize complete information from various sources, and his authority is sufficient to organize this well. He obtains statistical information, foreign and domestic newspapers and periodicals, and the output of various bureaus of news is regularly received by him.

"His business is to keep his Executive informed on the instant of every development in many parts of the world that will mean a change of cost of production or a change in demand for the company's products. He must know what is going on in the regions where the company's manufacturing materials originate. He must keep his eye upon conditions affecting production, price and transportation. He must not miss any new source of supply, or any coming diminution of old sources. On the other hand, he must follow every development, political, social or economic that means an increase or a falling-off in the demand for particular kinds of machinery. If there is anything doing anywhere that is significant of a call for more sugar machinery, or a drop in the demand for textile machinery, in this particular man's business, he must judge its full value and advise his board of it.

"It is said of a man who was economic adviser to a German corporation that manufactured materials for railway construction and equipment that he had not only organized his supplies of information of what was going on over the world so that he reported to his board every tender for supplies from every part of the world, but he was expected to analyze general developments everywhere so thoroughly, as to predict in advance the regions where new railways would soon be built, or extensions made. His work, it is said, frequently resulted in his company's bringing about, in direct or indirect ways, the promotion of the new transportation enterprises he predicted. It is now believed that this idea of definite organization of economic information and intelligence has been carried out in order to apply to the after-war business situation by Germany."

The American Business Library is a step in the direction of helping to do for American business what this "German Economic Director" was doing for business in Germany and it is more than time that American business interests use the business library to its utmost capacity.