There is much to be said in favor of the third type of agricultural library,—namely, where the agricultural collections are incorporated with the college or university collections. When the topography of the campus and the location of the buildings are such as to make it feasible for the station workers and the agricultural professors to use the college or university library, the balance of the arguments seems to be in favor of this arrangement, both as regards economy of funds and efficiency of service, if the special needs of the station workers can be and are given proper consideration by providing the really necessary duplicates and an assistant especially qualified to aid in the bibliographical research connected with the investigations of the experiment station. There is a decided tendency toward unity in modern science. This is especially true in the sciences relating to agriculture. The entomologist needs to use botanical books, the botanist must use chemical books, etc., etc. This has an important bearing on library problems and as far as agricultural libraries are concerned, is an argument for centralized collections.
As it is probable that it will be a long time in the future, if ever, before the experiment stations will have sufficient funds to build up complete collections for their special use, independent of the colleges, and since it is a question whether, if funds were actually available, it would be wise to expend them in duplicating to such an extent the college library collections, it seems evident that some compromise arrangement is inevitable. In attempting to work out a satisfactory library plan, every institution should make a careful survey of local conditions, such as the size of the collections, the size of the library staff, funds available, location and architecture of the college and experiment station buildings, and then attempt to work out the best possible policy under its peculiar conditions. In working out such a policy, there are three important points to consider,—the question of administration, the question of convenience and the economy of funds.
As regards administration, attention has already been called to the fact that the station is by law a department of the college and under its control. If fully lived up to, this fact would seem to decide many vexed questions of administration. Sooner or later, it is believed, the colleges and experiment stations will find that there is less to be gained by standing alone than they had supposed and they will realize the advantages of a unified library administration for the institution as a whole.
In considering the question of convenience, distance is the most important factor. This difficulty can, however, to a great extent be minimized by an adequate telephone and messenger service between the library and the various departments of the college. Even for the sake of convenience, it is a question whether any institution is justified in separating its agricultural collections from the college or university library, unless it is prepared to provide an efficient assistant to look after the collection. Because books are near at hand does not mean that they are more accessible.
If an institution is limited in funds and if its total resources in books do not exceed 30,000 volumes, there seems little doubt but that the interests of the station and college can best be served by combining forces and resources in one strong library with adequate service, unless the topographical conditions make this plan impossible. Such a combination certainly husbands the finances, since separate libraries involving a duplication of catalogs and reference books necessitates a considerable outlay of funds.
But whatever the details of the library arrangement for the institution may be, the station should by all means have if possible the services of some person, call him what you will,—librarian, bibliographer, or reference assistant, who may give his time and energy quite fully to the special requirements of the station,—for example, in keeping the official literature complete and up to date, in looking up references, making excerpts, making and taking care of indexes, preparing bibliographical lists, and in doing bibliographical work of a miscellaneous character. There is unquestionably need for librarians trained along agricultural lines. It would seem as though the library training schools of the universities of Wisconsin and Illinois were peculiarly well situated to make a specialty of training librarians for agricultural work.
One of the important duties of such an assistant, regardless of whether the agricultural collections are maintained as a separate library or incorporated with the general library, should be the care and collection of agricultural publications obtainable by gift or exchange. There is now a great accumulation of public and miscellaneous documents, American and foreign, which may be obtained at little or no expense as regards purchase, but the collection, safeguarding and general care of this material is a very considerable task. Too many of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations have not sufficiently regarded the importance of collecting this material and of keeping their files complete and in a readily available form. A large portion of this material is never noted in the bibliographies of the book trade. It must be sought for in catalogs and book lists, in reviews, second-hand catalogs, and in many less obvious places. Much of the material is not for sale and is only obtainable by gift or exchange. It is therefore an important matter that there should be close co-operation between the experiment station and the library in arranging such exchanges. The station bulletins and reports, published by each state, should be the means of obtaining for the station or college library many valuable exchanges from this country and abroad.
In regard to the accessions to the library, whether obtained by purchase or gift, there are certain definite principles which should be followed: first, it is most desirable that all the purchases of books and periodicals for all the collections included in the university and experiment station should be made by the central general library, even the books purchased from the Adams fund, in connection with some definite project; second that all the records in regard to the resources of the library be kept in the general library. Furthermore, all the collections, whether obtained by gift or purchase, should be regarded as the unquestioned property of the institution at large, and under the custody of the librarian.
In regard to the purchase of books from the Adams fund, the fact that the experiment station worker needs in connection with an investigation certain books not already in the library, which books he is allowed to purchase from the Adams fund, is not, in the opinion of the office of experiment stations, reason for assuming that the books should not be purchased through the library or that they shall not be regarded as the property of the library. Therefore, in a library efficiently administered, there would be no inflexible rules which would make it impossible for any experiment station worker to retain in his laboratory for an indefinite period while he is carrying on his investigations, the books which he especially needs to have at hand, regardless of the fact that they were purchased through the library. As far as the office of experiment stations is concerned in the supervision of the accounts of the purchases made by the state experiment stations from the Adams fund, it has interpreted the law to mean that the funds can be used in part for the purchase of books needed to carry on a special experiment in progress but it does not hold that books so purchased must be held as the property of the department. On the contrary, it is inclined to believe that the funds will be safeguarded fully as well if not better, by the purchase of books through the library.
As regards the assignment of funds for the library, there is lacking in many of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations any well matured policy. A hard and fast allotment of funds to departments is of doubtful wisdom. It would be better to be guided more by the use likely to be made of the books by the various departments than to attempt any impartial division among them. In all but a few of the state agricultural colleges and experiment stations the funds available for books are pitiably small. They need to be greatly increased. In some instances the purchase of scientific books seems unduly restricted as compared with expensive apparatus. As long as the funds are meagre, there is the more need for a well equipped, progressive librarian, with a knowledge of the resources of other libraries, who will co-operate with other libraries, and by exchanges and inter-library loans be able to supplement the resources of his own library. The library of the U. S. Department of Agriculture has been glad to lend its books to state agricultural colleges and experiment stations as freely as possible without interfering with the work of the department. The borrowing of a book needed for the special use of an investigator will often avoid the necessity of purchasing it and leave the funds available for the purchase of books of more general use.