The agricultural or land-grant colleges authorized by the Morrill act of 1862 were the direct outcome of a persistent demand for an education better suited to the needs of an age of progress than the classical form then in exclusive use. Interest in experimental work grew rapidly and culminated in the passage by Congress and signing by President Cleveland in 1887 of the bill introduced by Wm. H. Hatch, of Missouri, which provided for the establishment of an agricultural experiment station at each of the agricultural colleges, as a department of the college. This act provided the sum of $15,000 annually for the establishment and maintenance of the experiment station. It was later supplemented by the Adams act passed in 1906, which provided for an increased annual appropriation, bringing the sum total of federal appropriation for each station up to $30,000.
In the Hatch act establishing the experiment stations the wording of the law clearly sets forth the fact that the station is a department of the college.
It would seem obvious, therefore, that, since the station is a department of the college, the station library should be considered a part of the college library and thus come under the general direction and control of the college librarian. This involves the presumption that the college authorities appreciate the importance of a well managed library and therefore employ a well-trained and efficient librarian, and have a good library organization.
The work of the experiment station may be broadly grouped under the two heads research and the dissemination of the results of that research. A necessary preliminary to all successful research work is the examination of the records of similar or allied work. These records are contained in books and periodicals, and a moment's thought reveals the fact that the station library lies at the very heart of the station's work and is second to nothing in importance. Even the records of hypotheses tested and found untenable are valuable, as they may save much useless effort and consequent loss of time. The equipment of the station library should, therefore, be one of the first considerations in the organization of the station, and not merely a desirable adjunct if better advocated activities permit.
The function of the agricultural college library is primarily to serve the interests of the professors and students who compose the college, whereas the mission of the experiment station library is to serve the investigators and scientific workers who constitute the station staff. For the college library to accomplish the best results there should be direct and constant intercourse between the professors and the librarian. The latter should be cognizant of the broad outlines of the courses being given and should be specifically informed of theme work about to be assigned and theses subjects when chosen. If the librarian does not know these things before the call for material comes, it may be very difficult to supply just what is wanted. Even with every care there will sometimes be a conflict of interests, but a system of co-operation between the teaching force and the librarian should reduce these conflicts to a minimum, should work for the benefit of all concerned, and make the library a constantly increasing aid in the process of education.
The experiment station library, being designed for the use of scientific investigators, is really a reference collection. It should consist of the records of agricultural investigations the world over and such books of reference in each branch of the station's work as the investigator in charge of that work thinks necessary.
The co-ordination of the interests of the two constituencies,—the investigator on the one hand and the teaching force and student body on the other, is one of the most important problems of the librarian of the agricultural library. It is a task which will require his best ability as an administrator, and will be accomplished only by the exercise of boundless patience and unlimited tact, combined with an impartial sense of justice to everybody. Only when the investigator, professor and student each realizes fully that the librarian's chief concern is to be of service to him, will the ideals of the library be realized.
The vital concern of experiment station workers and the officers of the agricultural colleges in the library and its activities was evinced by the fact that a session of the Association of American agricultural colleges and experiment stations which met in Columbus, Ohio, November, 1911, was devoted to this subject. Nobody knows better than the workers themselves how useful the library may be to them, and their discussion of different phases of its problems was full of suggestions for the improvement of the service.
In the development of the libraries of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations in the various states there have grown up three distinct types of libraries.
The first type is the experiment station library which is kept separate from the college library but under its control and which is devoted somewhat exclusively to the use of the station workers. An example of this type of library is found at the State college of Washington.