The welfare and education of employees has also become a prominent feature in the work of many large business corporations, and the library is expected to be a prominent factor in this work, as it is the logical educational center of the organization. Some of our business libraries have recently been drawn rather deeply into welfare work with the result that certain phases of practical library service are being neglected. It does not seem advisable, however, that the business librarian should annex any line of welfare work which does not legitimately center in the library; for the librarian is best fitted to serve the interests of the organization by maintaining high standards of efficient library service rather than by annexing other kinds of work belonging solely to the sphere of a social worker. This is particularly important at the present stage of business library development, as the business world in many sections has not yet learned what professional library service really is, and how to utilize it most effectively.
In view of the fact that the business world except for comparatively few organizations is not utilizing the undoubtedly valuable service which professional librarians are able to render, and that the American Library Association has always endeavored to extend the use of books and their widest application, it might not be amiss to suggest that it would be legitimate work for the American Library Association with its library prestige and well known motives of personal disinterestedness, to undertake a campaign of education to bring before business men the subject of what library work really is, and the character of service it is prepared to render; for in these days of the over-emphasized and often superficial cry for more efficiency, there is no line of work that is more genuinely efficient than that of the trained librarian. The information, to be put before business men, should be free from library technicalities and details, and its arguments should be framed, not to enlighten librarians, but to convince busy men of affairs possessed of shrewd judgment and large foresight, as to the practical worth of the matter as a business proposition. For library work in business organizations is no longer a theory or a tentative experiment, but has proved itself in the firms adopting it to be an integral part of the successful work of the corporation. This fact is well illustrated by a bulletin recently issued by a large business firm, in which it endeavored to put before the public, in a pamphlet entitled "Why it is qualified" the value of the consulting services of one of its departments, and among the prominent reasons given under "Why it is qualified" is the fact of the commercial library maintained by the company, with the library's particular resources under competent supervision.
Because printed information has proved to be an integral factor in the successful prosecution of business and because it can be most effectively utilized by means of professional library methods, therefore, the business library hopes to take its place in the ranks of the American Library Association as one in purpose with all libraries in the realization of a common ideal, namely, the largest possible use of books in the practical service of mankind.
The PRESIDENT: I have just received a message that Mr. McAneny will be here in a very short time. In the few moments intervening it might be well perhaps to discuss some of the trenchant papers which we have had this morning.
Miss AHERN: Mr. President, I would like to take exception to one thing Mr. Ranck said in his paper. I do not believe that the idea that the contents of books are useful to men in the business world is of recent date. I think, perhaps, the second statement that these things have only come recently into the arrangement of resources of the library is the truer one. We certainly have had knowledge of chemistry and of geology and technical knowledge in manufacture for many, many years, only many librarians have been more interested in the purely educational or inspirational part of the library and have neglected that large field of usefulness and that large company of people who contribute to the welfare of work and of the world, as Miss Krause has pointed out. The best chemists in the country are being sought by the business houses; the best knowledge of soils, of minerals, of woods, of lumber, of stone has long been sought by the men who are making a commercial use of these things. And their information is not held in reserve: it is all in printed form and only the scope of the librarian's knowledge of where things may be obtained in the world of print places the limit on this material for the library shelves. And so I hope that librarians will not say that books on these subjects, that material on these subjects is a recent product. It is our knowledge of them, a knowledge that this is a part of the province of library work, that makes for recent activity.
The PRESIDENT: Mr. Ranck is here to answer for himself. The statement has been challenged and he can answer it.
Mr. RANCK: I think there is not so much difference between the view I take and the view taken by Miss Ahern. I do not know that I followed my manuscript very closely at that point, but what I had in mind was the business man rather than the professional, technical man. I fully grant what Miss Ahern says with reference to technical subjects, scientific subjects, and so on. As I said, I think there is no radical disagreement between Miss Ahern's and my position. There may be a misunderstanding.
Miss AHERN: I was not questioning what Mr. Ranck had said, but, rather, removing any excuse that the library folk may put to themselves for a lack of interest or a lack of activity along this line by saying that the material was scant or hard to command.
Dr. ANDREWS: There is the other side, that Miss Krause's paper emphasized and which Miss Ahern seems to neglect. Miss Krause's paper states that American industry is becoming intellectualized, and that this is a great factor in the development of business life. It ought also to be an extra incentive to the public library to meet the demands. I think that much of this development in the technical side of library work has come from the increasing study by business men of their own world and that we ought to remember that while the public libraries have neglected in the past to furnish business men with what they wanted, yet the latter did not want it then as much as they do now.
The PRESIDENT: Those of us—and I assume that that means every librarian—who read the June number of the World's Work were impressed by one strong article therein concerning the growing magnitude of municipal administration and the great problems that confront those who are charged with such administration. Without repeating to you the very striking comparisons which the author made with some of the governmental functions of states and even some of the kingdoms of Europe, showing the tremendous problems confronting the municipal officials, problems of tremendous budgets, of great public works, and so on, it will be sufficient for me to say that it is a happy omen that we are now getting into the public service men of high civic ideals and constructive ability and who are replacing men whose self-seeking interests or vanity led them to seek the votes of their fellow citizens. I am glad that we have with us today a man of this high type. I need not say further concerning him because we took advantage of his absence to get from Mr. Bowker a pretty good who's-who bearing upon himself, and I shall simply introduce to you at this time to speak to us upon the subject of "The municipal reference library as an aid in city administration," the Honorable GEORGE McANENY, president of the borough of Manhattan, New York.