399. It is impossible to lay down any rules for guidance as regards the financing of branches, beyond the general recommendation that they should never be developed at the expense of the central library. It is better to have one efficient library in a town than several inefficient ones, as is the case in some towns where this wholesome principle has been forgotten or ignored. Librarians are justified in taking a strong stand upon this point against the unreasonable demands of ward committee representatives, who are sometimes bent upon getting everything they can for their own particular district irrespective of the claims of the system as a whole. Separate account should be kept of all moneys expended upon each branch. Receipts should also be separately accounted for, and the central library should receive a daily or weekly statement of all cash intromissions, issues, occurrences, etc. Such statements can either be rendered upon specially ruled sheets or post-cards, or kept in books according to some such form as shown in [Fig. 150]. All forms, books, etc., at the branch should correspond with those of the central library, and everything affecting administration stated throughout this book applies, though in a modified degree, to branch work.
400.
400. In the selection of books for branches the same principles should be applied as previously advocated, namely, the endeavour to get a high average of quality and utility in the literature added and the determination to discard useless books when the time comes. But an effort should be made to vary the contents of branch libraries so as to obtain as catholic and representative a stock as possible. With Fiction, of course, this is not so easy, especially in the case of popular novels by well-known writers, but in other classes this can be done frequently. For instance, if the north branch has So-and-So’s Chemistry, there is no reason at all why, all things being equal, the south branch should not have Someotherbody’s Chemistry and the east branch Someone-else’s. Of course it is assumed that these are all text-books of fairly equal merit. As every library should possess a union catalogue showing the whereabouts of every book in the library system, and as borrowers’ tickets should be interchangeable all over the town and not limited to one particular library, this arrangement of different books on similar subjects widely enlarges the borrower’s field of choice. If the central and branch libraries are all interconnected by means of the telephone, as they ought to be, a borrower at the north branch can ascertain if Someotherbody’s Chemistry is available without going himself, and can easily arrange by waiting a day or shorter time to have the book delivered at the nearest branch. At Croydon a system of interchange effected by means of the municipal tramways, which carry parcels of books free, reduces the waiting for a book at another library to about thirty minutes. Such systems of interchange are a great convenience in many cases, and place the entire resources of the library at the command of readers, no matter where they may live.
| LIBERTON PUBLIC LIBRARIES. North Branch.—Report. | ||||||||||||||
| Date | ................................................................ | |||||||||||||
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | J | K | L | Total. | |||
| Lending Issues | ||||||||||||||
| Reference Issues | ||||||||||||||
| Receipts | from | Fines | ||||||||||||
| „ | „ | Catalogues, etc. | ||||||||||||
| Books asked for | ||||||||||||||
| Books wanted from Central | ||||||||||||||
| Supplies wanted | ||||||||||||||
| Callers and occurrences | ||||||||||||||
| Signed | ........................................ | |||||||||||||
Fig. 150.—Branch Library Return ([Section 399]).
401. Delivery Stations.
401. Delivery Stations.—A delivery station is a place which may or may not have a small deposit collection of books—generally not—and is meant to supply readers in thinly populated districts and to be the forerunner of an orthodox branch to be established when the district develops. Such stations are usually a post-office, school, police station, or shop, which may be induced to carry out the necessary charging, etc., sometimes at a small remuneration. At the very best a delivery station in a town is but a makeshift substitute for a branch, and, from the borrowers’ point of view, does not afford a very satisfactory or expeditious service. If books which are wanted are not in at the central library, considerable delay and trouble are caused. Borrowers are compelled to make out long lists of the books they desire to read, and as often as not these are all out at the central store. As delivery stations seldom carry a stock of books from which an alternative choice can be made, borrowers are driven to the task of making out new lists or taking anything the delivery attendant can get by telephone, if there is this kind of communication, which is not generally the case; and as delivery stations are frequently managed by any untrained person obtainable, the reader gets very little help in solving real difficulties. Apart from all this, a day must elapse, as a rule, before any book wanted can be obtained, even if it is available, and for these reasons the establishment of book-delivery stations is not advisable save in remote and inaccessible parts of a large town, when every other method of giving a local service has been found impracticable. A highly organized system of delivery stations with frequent motor deliveries might, however, be made effective in scattered suburbs, but although such a system has been suggested, we have no record of a successful British example.
402. Travelling Libraries.
402. Travelling Libraries.—Of much greater importance are travelling libraries, which can be made to serve every purpose of delivery stations, with the great additional advantage of furnishing, in part, the same alternative selection of books as a branch library affords. These libraries are much used in the United States, and take the form of boxes of books numbering from fifty upwards, which can be deposited at fixed points in towns and rural districts, where borrowers can attend and make a choice of reading matter. Boxes of books by this plan can be sent to the care of responsible persons in all parts of a town, and these persons can undertake the local delivery and collection of the books, either for a small fee or as voluntary sub-librarians. Various kinds of records are necessary to keep track of the boxes and their contents and where and to whom they travel. Until lately very little of this kind of work had been done either in the United Kingdom or America, although the Americans are gradually developing systems of rural travelling libraries and town “home” libraries. The travelling libraries of the States of New York and Wisconsin form a most interesting study, as also do the “home” libraries of the city of Boston. Lately this matter has been given a considerable impetus through the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, which has established experimental rural library schemes in various parts of the kingdom in connexion with County Councils and, more infrequently, suitable municipal centres. Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, the counties of Dorset, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Cumberland and Westmorland have all such schemes in operation or have undertaken them. These have a central deposit library and circulate boxes of books at frequent intervals to the villages and towns in the area, in which the clergy, teachers and others act as honorary sub-librarians. In this way the people who are not at present touched by the public libraries are being brought into the fold. The matter is in the experimental stage, and is jeopardized by the fact that, in England at least, the County Councils have no express powers to provide libraries; but results of the most promising kind have already been obtained, and the day is no doubt at hand when the traditional idea of the function of a public library as a store from which literature is doled out to the people, if they know what they want, will be superseded by a very pronounced missionary spirit, and an endeavour to make known in every possible way the value of all kinds of books to all kinds of people.