Manual of Library Economy / Third and Memorial Edition

by James Duff Brown; W. C. Berwick Sayers

418. Staff.

418. Staff.—It is fair to say that there are too few reference librarians in this country; that is to say, persons who, in addition to ordinary scholarship and library technique, have trained specially in bibliography, the drawing out of readers and information-hunting. Perhaps as a result of the library schools now in course of organization a race of such useful librarians will arise. The staffing of the reference library is perhaps the greatest difficulty a librarian has to overcome. In the larger libraries the department is in the control of experts, or at any rate of the most efficient workers on the staff, but in smaller towns it falls to the keeping of an assistant, often a different person every day or even shift, who can be spared from the general staff; indeed, in some libraries reference work is so small that this is all that can be afforded. In such circumstances the best work is out of the question. The reference reader demands skilled attention. Libraries catering for a learned or special clientele have their own special problems; but the ordinary civic library has, in addition to numbers of such clients, the average man and woman to deal with who are not only unskilled in the use of books, but have also some difficulty in making known their actual needs. It is obviously beyond the power of a boy or girl assistant to draw out of these readers the exact nature of their difficulties; that is a task requiring address, sympathy and tact, which experience alone gives. In small libraries the librarian himself may consider it a privilege to work at busy times in this department; it will be well worth his while. The qualifications a reference librarian should aim to possess are a complete library technique, an intimate knowledge of the sources of information and of his stock, and a certain missionary spirit which loves knowledge for its own sake. In addition he must have sympathy with all classes of inquirers and be able to suffer fools gladly. On the technical side he will find in certain little books a good elementary grounding; among them is Hopkins’s Reference Guides, Kroeger’s Guide to Reference Books, and so on. All juniors in a reference department should go through a course based upon these, and courses in practical book-selection and bibliography. No question should be regarded as trivial; it is no part of the librarian’s duty to assess the value of any information asked; and patience even beyond what may seem reasonable limits is an everyday requirement. For example, the question once asked, “On which side of Cromwell’s nose was there a wart?” seemed frivolous enough, and it involved the consulting of dozens of books; but it proved to be wanted for the identification of what is believed to be a unique death mask.

419. Records.

419. Records.—All information the sources of which were not obvious should be recorded on cards, together with the sources from which it was given, in order that similar search may not be necessary when it is required again. Carbon copies of all special lists of books compiled should be filed for future use. Failures of the library are most important as showing deficiencies in the collection, and questions which could not be answered should always be recorded. When a reference library cannot supply information from its own resources, it should endeavour to find what neighbouring library can supply it, and either direct the inquirer there, or, better, borrow the book required. Mutual co-operation of this kind between libraries is easy to arrange, and few librarians do not recognize its value. It should always be borne in mind that to turn a reader away empty is a loss of prestige to the library, while a reader well served and satisfied is a potential friend and probable patron afterwards.

420. Special Library Collections.

420. Special Library Collections.—In the average town it should be the endeavour to concentrate all the special libraries of institutions and societies in the reference library. It is obviously an uneconomy for special collections to be locked up for the greater part of the week in the private rooms of institutions and societies when they may be made available all day and every day to the members of these societies and to the general public in the municipal reference library. These bodies may often be induced to deposit their collection if some simple arrangement is made by which books may be lent as required to their members and may be available to everybody for reference purpose when not so lent out. By this means a useful reinforcement of the stock is made at the expense of shelf-room and administration only. It is usual to catalogue such collections exactly as other parts of the stock, but to add some individualizing symbol to the class-mark to show its ownership.

421. Information Bureaux.

421. Information Bureaux.—Among the many possibilities of the department we shall confine ourselves in this chapter to its use as an information bureau, leaving such important considerations as the Local Collection, and its auxiliaries Regional and Photographic Surveys, and Commercial Libraries for treatment in separate chapters. The information desk or bureau is the name given to the department of the work which lays itself out to answer inquiries for business and other people. It is primarily quick-reference work and is done in proximity to the quick-reference collection. But it goes further in the direction of supplying such current information as the present population of the town, its rates, etc., the addresses of burgesses, the latest Derby winner, the cable code used by this or that firm, the plays available at the theatres, the social or other events of this, next or last week, and indeed any useful or convenient information whatsoever. Much of the material needed is in the quick-reference collection, much must be clipped from the newspapers, and some—as, for example, the programmes of local societies—must be sought for at first-hand. It may be objected that this information may, to an extent, be found in newspapers by the inquirers themselves. Admitted; but they have not always the required newspaper at hand, and the information bureau is always there. Briefly indexed vertical files, within hand-reach of a public telephone, are the means of working such bureaux. The telephone is essential to real success, and inquiries by telephone should be invited. Where there are commercial libraries in connexion with the library system, much of this work may be done in them, but there is, as the examples given above show, a large amount of work that can be done outside their field; and a ready and efficient information bureau is a real asset to any town.

422. Indexes of Readers.

422. Indexes of Readers.—Another useful work that in large libraries may properly be relegated to the cataloguing department may be conducted in smaller ones by the reference staff. This is the supplying of firms and individuals with lists of books of use in connexion with their industry or study. Some libraries supply such people with a small card catalogue of the whole of their subject as it is represented in the libraries, and send cards regularly for entries of additions. Other forms of catalogues can be used, of course, for this purpose. In conjunction therewith, and as a useful adjunct to other work, it is a good plan to make card entries of the special subjects affected by individual readers under the names of the subjects, and to advise the readers by post-cards of all additions made in those subjects.