Government Documents
IN
Small Libraries
Government Documents
IN
Small Libraries
BY
CHARLES WELLS REEDER
Reprinted from Report of Board of Library Commissioners of Ohio
for the year ending November 15, 1909.
The Springfield Publishing Company,
State Printers.
Springfield, Ohio:
1910.
Government Documents in Small Libraries
By CHARLES WELLS REEDER,
Assistant Reference Librarian, Ohio State University.
[Substance of an address before a meeting of librarians held under the auspices of the Library Organizer of the Ohio Library Commission, Ohio State University, October 8, 1909.]
The problem of government publications in the small libraries has been discussed at much length by librarians, but it is still far from a definite solution. In fact, there can be no general settlement of many phases of this question, for each and every library must decide what its own policy and attitude shall be toward this class of publications.
It is generally admitted that some libraries ought to have all the publications that are made for distribution, and therefore a system of depository libraries is maintained by the government. The libraries which are not favored with this privilege are compelled to make a selection from the great number of documents and there is the essence of the problem for discussion here. The question of what to get involves the selection of certain publications which will be useful to present patrons of the library and the acquisition of those for which a demand can be created. For instance, if the library is located in a rural section, there will be a big demand for publications relating to agriculture, and a larger proportion of such documents will be secured than for other subjects. If the students of the high school are interested in debating present day questions, the publications of the government relating to the existing political and economic conditions will be in demand. In the final analysis, the librarian must feel the pulse of the community, as it were, and secure the classes of government material which correspond most nearly to the demand. At the same time, by making use of bibliographies, of department lists of publications and of the reference section in the Documents Office, the demand for this class of literature can be materially increased and documents secured which are not already in the library.