Manual of Library Economy / Third and Memorial Edition

by James Duff Brown; W. C. Berwick Sayers

174. General Principles.

174. General Principles.—Although a great number of articles and papers have been written upon the subject of book selection, there still seems room for some remarks upon the general question from a standpoint somewhat different from the ordinary. Most of the articles which have come under notice deal with the mere routine of book selection—how to systematize the ordering of books; the work connected with preparing them for public use; the bibliographical side; the question of duplicating popular books; and other more or less mechanical aspects of the matter. The philosophy of book selection and questions connected with the policy of building up libraries have rarely been considered.

175.

175. The first point which occurs is the connexion between a library’s income and its book-purchasing power. As, by law established, most British library incomes are strictly limited, it follows that a similar limitation must govern the supply of books, and that only a selection of new books can be procured, old and out-of-print books taking their chance. The very largest rate-supported libraries are bound by this limitation to buy only a selection from the immense mass of books annually published, and, even if such purchases amount to several thousands of volumes, they represent only a selection. The smaller libraries must of necessity make a selection within a selection, and it follows that, in all cases of libraries supported by small incomes or burdened by heavy charges for the repayment of loans or other purposes, the selection must be carefully made if it is to be representative of all that is best in ancient and modern literature. Another factor which enters into the matter need only be mentioned in order to be dismissed: that is the obvious unsuitability of a very large proportion of the books annually published because of their form (pamphlets and tracts), subject-matter (school-books, bibles, etc.), or special nature (local lists, reissues, directories, etc.).

176.

176. The fund available in most public libraries for the purchase of books can be made the basis for a rough calculation showing at what rate libraries of different sizes should grow. By reference to the tables in [Section 31] it will be found that the sum which can be annually expended on books is limited in libraries of all sizes, and that the annual additions must of necessity follow the same limitation.

177.

177. The annual production of new publications in the United Kingdom may be taken at about 10,620 volumes, including everything, and the number of new books in this total may be averaged at about 8300 volumes. It will thus be seen that the British municipal libraries must be selectors rather than collectors of books, because the income of no one of them is equal to buying more than a proportion of the 8300 new books published annually in Britain alone. Some English public libraries, because of their accumulations of old, useless and effete books, resemble gardens choked with weeds; and their efficiency is clogged by the necessity for storing and caring for books which are of no value or interest. The presence of such books in a modern library hinders effective use and administration, because they occupy space urgently wanted for more useful modern books; they add enormously to the cost of cataloguing and charging; and in other ways they use up the resources of the library without adding to its public utility.

178.

178. It may be taken as a somewhat strong statement, that there are not more than 50,000 books, excluding duplicates of popular works and those in more than one volume, worthy of preservation in any public municipal library. The truth is that, of real, living works of literary and human interest, there are perhaps not more than 20,000 in the English language, but the larger figure is preferred in order to cover the world’s literary output fully. Let anyone who doubts this try to compile a list of even 5000 books of permanent literary or other interest, in order to find what a difficult task it is. No doubt the difficulty of selection is the main reason why some public libraries grow up in a haphazard way, because it is a work which demands not only persevering industry, but an encyclopædic knowledge of literature and the contents of books. Nevertheless, this difficulty of selection, and the limitation of the field of selection, are powerful reasons why municipal libraries should abandon the museum or storage ideal, and go boldly for making the workshop or practical utility ideal the one most worthy of realization. In [Chapter VIII.] it has already been pointed out to what extent British libraries have fostered indiscriminate collecting, often at the expense of efficiency, while the workshop plan of library has been comparatively neglected. Even if municipal libraries had unlimited resources, the wisdom of indiscriminate collecting would be doubtful; especially as many special libraries are doing the work. Specialization should be the watchword of the future, owing to the enormous literary activity of recent times, and the branch of specialization which public libraries should adopt is careful selection of books and equally careful rejection of all which have outlived their day and purpose, or become “dull, stale and unprofitable.” Public library buildings should be erected, not on the principle of storing as many books as can possibly be collected in fifty years’ time, but of restricting the book accommodation to the reasonable limits which careful selection and cautious discarding will fix, and increasing the space available for readers, and giving them only the very best literature, imaginative or instructive, that the world has to offer.