AN EMPLOYEES' LIBRARY—ITS SCOPE AND ITS POSSIBILITIES
I have been advised that there is only one thing more ruinous to one's reputation than an absent debut to the American Library Association conference, and that is to inflict a maiden paper upon someone else to read. But after absorbing some of Mr. Legler's courage and optimism, I cannot refrain from treading upon this dangerous ground and setting forth a few pet theories. I do not know that Sears, Roebuck & Company needs an introduction or an explanation, but as the character, combined with the magnitude of the house, is quite unique, and is such a vital part of the library work, the foundation of this paper, as well as of the work itself, must of necessity be predicated upon some knowledge of the house machinery.
We are dealing with a mail order retail house, and this paper will be based upon the central plant only. The existence of the outlying factories, not only in Chicago but throughout the country, all under the control of one corporation, opens up a new field in commercial library work, which to my knowledge has never been touched.
The house handles everything—that does not mean the usual stock of a department store, but everything that can be bought and sold. New opportunities arise as your eye wanders down the list of the various departments. Our house directory lists over 200 departments, including jewelry, baby clothes, and farm implements. In fact, a home can be furnished complete from parlor to stables.
Besides the merchandise, we have the various administration and utility departments, which include press rooms, bindery, machine shops, shipping rooms, employment department, restaurant, green house, hospital, barber shop, chemical laboratory, etc. With this cosmopolitan center, condensed under one management, there is no limit to library possibilities. My experience so far has been that everything in print can find a congenial resting place somewhere in the house.
The central plant occupies three square blocks, including five buildings and a sixth in the process of construction. The largest of these, the merchandise building, is nine stories high and two blocks long, and is a condensed village in population and activity. The library is located next to one of the most popular sections in this building, the employees' and house sales department. In this section employees are obliged to call for their personal purchases. This is an added convenience and a time saving arrangement. The printing building, administration building, power house and paint factory complete the group of this seething little city, and make one wish that a branch library might be established in every corner.
Our library is primarily a deposit branch of the Chicago public library. We have about 1600 books on deposit, which give us a circulation of about 4000 a month. In addition to that, our daily express service gives us the resources of the main library stock, and makes it possible to send individual cards with specific requests through the station department. This is a great help in making out lists on special topics, as 25 or 30 books on a subject may be listed and drawn one after the other without further reference. Our circulation for these books runs from between 75 to 100 a day.
In addition to our public library books, we have about a thousand of our own. About 75 per cent. of this collection is light fiction and juvenile books; that is, stories for both boys and girls of the intermediate age. Books of this character are, of course, in the greatest demand, and it is for the right kind of this material that we are constantly searching. This supplementary collection of our own does not in any way detract from our public library books, but rather serves as added bait and leads to the better books of the public library, upon whose resources we depend for our existence.
We subscribe for about 40 monthly and weekly periodicals, both technical and popular. In addition to these, we have several shelves of miscellaneous magazines, composed of month-old copies sent out from the main library, as well as our own old copies, and donations from the employees. All of these magazines we circulate. In fact, we are in no sense a reading room, as the very nature of a busy 8-hour day and 45-minute lunch period will prove. Our charging tray and a few pieces of furniture are the only things we refuse to let go to the homes or departments.
In taking charge of the library last fall, I realized that there were two distinct phases of the work: the commercial or economic, and the social—the first to be established, the second to be developed—both sides equally interesting and offering equal possibilities.