The Library and the Publicity Department
One of the important departments in modern business organizations served by the business library, is the publicity department which is the outcome of the recognition of the dependence of any business upon the public's understanding and appreciation of what it has to offer, in order to successfully carry on its work, whether that be a manufactured product or the service of a public utility. In this day of economic investigation and criticism, it is vital to success that industries exploit their work and products clearly and logically, not only as a means of advertising but also to win and hold that all-important asset known as public good-will.
The publicity department strives to make the public understand the organization and its work and has charge of preparing direct advertising, for daily papers and periodicals, and in many utility corporations prepares copy for the financing and marketing of securities.
A live publicity department cannot do its work without ample library resources as its needs are encyclopaedic, for it is constantly preparing copy which calls for the most accurate and comprehensive data and it must keep up to date on what is currently issued in the lines of business in which it is particularly interested. Library service is so indispensable in publicity work that in a number of cases the library has been organized in the business house as a part of the work of the publicity department.
Assisting the Executive
The business library is also a great service to executives because the heads of business organizations today are concerned not only with the particular business of their own office, but with many economic and public affairs for the betterment of the community and the nation. The work of the modern business man, as expressed by a recent technical periodical, "because of the constant multiplication of problems to be settled and the great number of regulating agencies, is steadily growing more important. The successful business man must be a thinker and a man of affairs; he appears before Congressional Committees and before state and federal commissions; he must know whereof he speaks, and he must know principles as well as facts, history as well as present conditions." In the midst of varied and large responsibilities, he knows he can not depend upon his own personal reading and study to keep all the important facts and figures which he needs at his finger tips, for the successful executive must not burden himself with too much detail.
He therefore turns to his librarian, who knows his personal point of view and his needs, and who is as necessary to him as his secretary. Sometimes the head of a business organization appeals to an assistant officer to give him the data he requires, and the assistant officer turns to another one, and he in turn goes to the library; the fact remains that sooner or later the request comes down the line to the librarian.
Making the Best Use of the Library
There are several types of men with whom the business librarian has to deal in doing research on business problems. One type of man who uses the business library is the one who comes in occasionally and browses among the books without communicating to the librarian in charge what subject matter he is looking for. This type of man does not purposely mean to be secretive, but he does not know how to use the service of the library and the librarian which are at his disposal. Often he turns away from his perusal of an encyclopedia with a disappointed look, and in one case when the librarian asked what he was looking for, replied that he was trying to find the address of Mills College but that it did not seem to be in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Had he told the librarian at the start what he wanted the address could have been given him from another reference book in about one minute's time.
Another type of man with whom the business librarian has to deal, is the one who conceals his specific object when he asks for information, and does not therefore make it possible for the librarian to procure the information desired in its most simple and direct form. For example, an engineer once asked for descriptive periodical articles dealing with the construction and equipment of some large hotels. The librarian, of course, thought that what he had in mind was to make a study of the equipment, whereas all he wanted to get out of these articles was the names of firms who had installed certain mechanical devices. This information could have been collected much more quickly than in the time it took for the librarian to make a complete list of satisfactory descriptions of the kinds of buildings for which he asked.