The modern library is democratic, not autocratic. It does not hand you down a volume from a very high shelf and tell you that is exactly what you want and you mustn’t ask for anything else. It says: we are the agents of a co-operative concern. For convenience sake, just as in the case of the public schools, you conclude to tax yourselves to maintain a public collection of books, instead of having to form private collections of your own, smaller and vastly more expensive. We are in communication with every one of you by telephone. The machine for which you have paid is all ready to work—stoked and cleaned and oiled. Why don’t you press the button? Those who don’t are just suffering from hysteresis—lag of apprehension. They think the library is what it was in 1850. They are behind the times.
Am I not afraid that if all the business men should press the button at once, the library would be swamped? There would be a little swearing at first, I fear. But ultimately there would be a realization that a library built and stocked and manned to serve perhaps 50 business men at once cannot serve 500 or 5000. There would be pressure on the legislature; we should have the necessary funds and in short order we should be serving our 5000 as smoothly as we served our 50.
Now let us get down to something concrete. Just what information are we prepared to give to business and industrial houses? Here are some actual questions asked lately and answered in our reference departments—many of them by telephone:
The uses of lye in baking powder. History and development of the plow.
Substitute for such commercial products as dyes, sealskin, fertilizers, etc.
Receipts for preparing in the wholesale manner mustard and salad-dressing, and for bottling olives.
Methods of installing a refrigerating plant.
Addresses of the manufacturers of toys in the United States.
How far from the curb may vehicles be parked in St. Louis.
Names of manufacturers of bottled buttermilk.