Manual of Library Economy / Third and Memorial Edition

by James Duff Brown; W. C. Berwick Sayers

450. General.—The most recent development of library works which has justified itself in practice has for its aim the provision of information useful to commercial and business men. It is comparatively new to this country but has been in vogue in America for some years past, in particular in the Commercial Museum at Philadelphia, which is a separate, self-contained institution. In Great Britain commercial libraries have been established as part of the public library system at Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham, Leeds and elsewhere. The names of these towns indicate an important fact. Separate comprehensive commercial libraries are expensive institutions, and are only justified where a large demand for their services may be expected. Smaller libraries may indeed have commercial departments in connexion with their reference departments, but it is wiser to limit their stock and work to the definitely local trades than to attempt a general commercial service entirely beyond their means and probable needs.

451. The Commercial Department.

451. The Commercial Department.—As distinct from the general commercial library as established in the great towns we have named, the commercial section in an ordinary library is a development of the Information Desk. It specializes in local industries and trade, and on that subject collects every form of printed and graphic material, the standard text-books and works of reference, directories, year-books, codes, reports and periodicals. These are classified and indexed minutely, and are so disposed that ordinary questions which a business man may be expected to ask can be answered as rapidly as possible. It is what the Americans call “quick-fire reference work,” in which immediacy of need and of its satisfaction are the prime requisites. We do not wish to set limitations to any branch of library service, and if a librarian can, without loss or inconvenience in other directions, include further features from those described in the following sections, he should certainly consider himself at liberty to do so; but this will rarely be the case. The separate, highly-developed commercial library is distinctly a work for the some half-dozen British cities which are centres of great commercial and industrial populations.

452. The Commercial Library.

452. The Commercial Library.—The need has long been felt in this country for rapid access to current and standard commercial intelligence, although it has not always been realized, and the need has been accentuated by the Great War, which has made Great Britain more than ever a competitor in the world-struggle. The Board of Trade has established an intelligence department in London, and chambers of commerce exist in most towns which have intelligence-work as part of their reason for existence; but London is too far away for the provincial man of business who wants immediate information, and the chambers of commerce do not embrace in their membership more than a part of the business community. Hence the desirability of fully-equipped, skilfully-administered libraries.

At Glasgow, Liverpool and elsewhere the commercial library is housed in a commodious, appropriate department as near to the business centre of the city as possible. It is administered by the library authority, and is in the immediate charge of a librarian skilled in classification, filing and indexing, and the use of works of reference. The stock of the library has been defined by Mr S. A. Pitt, the chief librarian of Glasgow, as standard and current; the standard consisting of treatises, encyclopædic works, code books, Government reports, Parliamentary papers, and works on commercial law and business method; the current of all kinds of fugitive papers and material of great temporary, but probably very transient, interest, such as notices, reports, pamphlets, leaflets, news-cuttings, catalogues and price-lists. To the standard would be added directories of every trade, industry and profession, and of every country, county and important town; atlases, maps, charts and similar material would form an important part of the collection; and, perhaps most important of all, every financial journal, trade periodical, etc., in English, with a liberal supply of those in other languages. The consular reports, and other Government publications, including those of the Patent Office and other technical departments of the Crown, should be included. Some of these can be obtained as a free grant; many of them, strange to say, can only be obtained by purchase.

453.

453. The methodology of such a library resembles that of the ordinary reference library, with special emphasis on minute filing and indexing. As much of the current information as possible should be on cards or in vertical files in the most concise form; the business man has no time to read lengthy material, nor can he afford to wait for it while the commercial librarian slowly produces it—that is, as a rule; there are times when a question demands a reference to London or to some other place, which involves delay; but in the ordinary course, a quotation, address, character of a firm, route, code, or some such information, is wanted, and it should be forthcoming on the instant. The card index and vertical file, and experience in the needs of readers, should eventually lead to effective service. Much of the work is done by telephone, and a complete telephone equipment is an essential of the library. The whole resources of the general library system of the town are also at the disposal of the user of the commercial library. The library also keeps records of the specialities of the various manufacturers, traders, etc., of the town, of changes in their scope, management, and so forth; and an index of translators, typing firms and others required at times by business people. It must revise its material regularly and systematically so that it may always be the latest.

454.

454. To secure the best results co-operation with exchanges and chambers of commerce is desirable; and in many places this seems to have been forthcoming. At Glasgow, Bailie A. Campbell states that the commercial libraries, as projected by librarians, “are to meet the wants of the smaller commercial man, the tradesman, the man who pushes his way, the men who have risen from nothing”; the others, presumably, are provided for by the exchange and the chamber of commerce. At Manchester, however, the commercial library is actually in the Royal Exchange, and other cities have made their present progress through the co-operation of the representative organizations of commercial men. Unless this is forthcoming there seems not very much chance of success. It may be that the commercial library, as now initiated by librarians, will in course of time become the nucleus of a commercial institution or bureau in which the branches of the Board of Trade, the Chamber of Commerce, and the various Consuls may be housed, controlled in its operations by an expert paid a very high salary, who shall be for the district a sort of Minister of Commerce capable of guiding the commercial people. But that is in the region of speculation.