The Value of Periodicals
Periodicals are the most fruitful source of information for any business, and there is periodical literature of value being issued constantly on every conceivable subject. Every industry and profession has its journals and in them will be found the latest and best information.
The value of periodicals in a business organization was very ably stated some time ago by the secretary of an electrical association, and as this testimony is not from a librarian but from a practical business man, it seems worth while to quote as follows:
"The technical or trade journal of today is the livest and most 'up-to-now' assistant a business man has. It is carefully edited, well-printed, fully illustrated and thoroughly indexed both as to literary matter and advertisements. It is the 'always ready reference' of the minute, and the official, head of a department, or even workman, who does not use it to its fullest capacity, is neglecting one of his best friends. I have been surprised to find how many of the larger companies are actually stingy when it comes to paying out money for subscriptions to their trade and technical journals. They talk about one, two or three dollars per year as if it were that many hundreds; they look at the expenditure as if it were an expense instead of an investment, which, properly handled, will bring good returns.
"In no other way can any business man, no matter how high or low his position, keep so fully abreast of the times in his business as by early and careful perusal of his trade and technical periodical, from its front to its back cover, and from no other source can he obtain the 'immediately useful' so well as he can from a well filled and indexed present volume of those same publications."
"Printers' Ink" has also stated the case as follows:
"The manufacturer, desirous of keeping his finger on the pulse at Washington, who will spend ten dollars, or fifteen dollars, or twenty dollars a year for business papers and other periodicals that specialize with respect to business news from the national capital, can be pretty well assured that he has every tip that could come to him via the intelligence office, that asks a fee of fifty or one hundred dollars per annum. Indeed, it has happened, not once but dozens of times this past year or two that business journals, etc., carried information days and even weeks before it was sent out in the mimeographed 'letters' and 'bulletins' which the former bureaus distributed, marked 'confidential' and 'not for publication.'"