Other sources of supply may be dealt with briefly. Donations will account for many of the most curious and useful, and these are best induced by exhibitions of material from the collection, by references made to the collection in books in the lending library (a slip can be inserted in all topographical books, for example, calling attention to the existence and scope of the collection), and by paragraphs, articles, etc., built up from local material, which may appear in the public press, and which the local press is only too glad to publish.
433. Photographic Surveys.
433. Photographic Surveys.—The current pictorial records, the photographs, can usually be obtained, by the expense of much energy and little money, through a Photographic Survey Society. As this matter has just lately received systematic and authoritative treatment,[15] it is unnecessary here to enlarge upon it further than to say that a photographic survey society is usually a band of photographers, professional and (mainly) amateur, who make photographic records in a systematic manner of a particular district, its history, antiquities, natural features, architecture, industries, current activities, and, in fact, everything that presents or interprets its life. Such societies are increasing in number, and have a social side in the shape of photographic excursions, reunions, etc., which make them rather more than gatherings where the cacophanous jargon of the dark-room pervades everything; hence they band together many people who are interested in a district and the preservation of its memories. As a rule the whole of the work of the survey, except the cataloguing and classifying—which are the business of the librarian—is done by members of the survey. The library usually supplies mounts, storage and cataloguing requisites.
[15] Gower, H. D., Jast, L. S., and Topley, W. W. The Camera as Historian: A Handbook to Photographic Record Work. 1916. Sampson Low.
434. Regional Surveys.
434. Regional Surveys.—Similarly, but more recently, regional (or civic) survey societies have come into existence, which parcel out certain local areas, and study everything in them, from their geology to the last manifestations of the human intellect working in them, and record the results on maps.[16] Thus maps of the local strata, water-bearing beds, flora, rainfall, industries, old inns, milestones, boundary marks, and so on, have been made for the circle of twenty miles, centering in Croydon. This is a new form of work of the utmost value for providing data of current utility, and for preserving the record of local features. Such societies are already recognizing that the municipal reference library is the natural storing-place of such material.
[16] See Library World, vol. xix., pp. 32-34.
435. Cost.
435. Cost.—Naturally the most important factor in collecting is the price of the material collected. This, not remarkably, often gives us considerable pause, as the present-day cost of local literature does not seem to bear any relation to its original cost; and to appraise the value of manuscript material, deeds and similar matter, is almost impossible. Scarcity and competition are the two factors in creating prices. In local literature the demand can be controlled if librarians do not traverse other fields than their own district in making their collection. A little consultation with brother librarians should bring about a workable division of any given county, with the result that the individual collection would be satisfactory, and the duplication of effort and expense would be avoided. Only the very large towns should attempt county collections. Moreover, this avoidance of competition would lessen the demand for the same book, and so help to bring down its market value. The competitor who can completely out-distance the average library is the keen private collector with a generous purse and unlimited leisure. In his case the librarian can only hope that his will contains a clause in which his collection and the library are in happy juxtaposition. With relation to actual buying, it is a good axiom never to purchase anything except “on approval.” It is really wonderful how attractive a commonplace and almost valueless item can appear to be in an agent’s catalogue. In few cases this “sending on approval” is refused by booksellers, but the majority are only too glad to do it, especially if the prospective purchaser undertakes to pay postage both ways in the event of rejecting the material. By this means large bundles of stuff which have only a nucleus of useful matter can be weeded out, and the price arranged according to the result. This is particularly desirable when dealing with deeds, which often prove to be incomplete, or of far less interest than (say) the entry, “Forty Surrey Deeds, 1542-1816,” would imply. One does not suppose that dealers in these things are one whit less honest than other men, but their prices are often in the region of the absurd. If the collector has reason to think that this is so, he should make a reasonable offer for the books he wants, and it will generally be found that the bookseller is amenable to this sort of argument. Naturally we are speaking of the general items for the collection. In every district individual items have a definite high value which cannot be reduced, and it is the lot of most local collectors to be compelled regretfully to pass by, as beyond their means, many things that they would gladly possess.