Therefore, if a reference librarian, who would be termed a general profit sharer, fails to study, position by position, just how he or she can contribute to the needs of the men and women connected with the organization, the library will not be recognized and felt as a money making investment. It is, therefore, along these lines that the Filene reference library will be operated.
In all the initial steps and preparatory work of organizing, the methods of the legislative reference libraries are as far as possible being applied.
The work of some of the successful legislative reference libraries is divided into three main divisions—comparative, critical and constructive, and in analyzing the store material on hand, it is found that pretty nearly all of these main divisions of reference work have in the past been practically ignored. In isolated cases, comparative work has been attempted, as for instance, furnishing specific information from some other store on some store policy for some one manager, but it has not been disseminated and placed at the service of all. The need of having this work done has been recognized and in the future will be done through the library.
Retail distribution has its laws and policies, but the laws and policies are, to a large degree, empirical. They are the result of years of effort and experience, and what was good five years ago, may not be good today. All policies are constantly changing.
Therefore, the first work, and at present in hand, before the library can start on its aggressive mission is to tabulate, classify, index and fit for use the present valuable information scattered throughout the offices of the management, destroying everything obsolete or whatever has become a permanent part of the store organization.
For it is imperative in a fast growing business employing an increasing number of executives, that new employees should profit to the fullest extent by the experience of past years and how other people have handled problems new to us, and the library can assist very definitely by placing in their hands brief summaries on important subjects connected with the business, revised copies of duties of various positions, bibliographies on important subjects related to the business, and any other material that will help them absorb in the shortest possible time the fundamentals of the business.
Perhaps it may be of interest to mention briefly what special subjects, both general and technical, the library must watch out for. The best way is, with apologies, to give you an idea of the personnel of the management. The Filene brothers and their partners are public spirited citizens; one brother, Mr. Edward A. Filene, with a few other men, organized the present successful Boston City Club and was largely responsible for the amalgamation of the numerous commercial organizations of the city into the present Boston Chamber of Commerce, and was chairman of the recent Metropolitan Plan Commission of Massachusetts. The other brother, Mr. A. Lincoln Filene, served for three years on the State Commission for Industrial Education and is now a member of the Executive Board of the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, and also contributed largely in time and money to the Boston Vocational Bureau. The other partners are also serving on special committees of various organizations and are all, with the Filenes, very keenly interested in labor problems, the relations of employers to employees, and each has on his desk the best books on scientific management, as Taylor's, Gantt's, Emerson's and Brandeis'.
Therefore, first of all the business reference library will have on its shelves six or seven of the best books on scientific management, also books on organization and finance. Then will be added special books on bookkeeping, auditing, insurance, statistics, advertising, decorating, buying, selling, materials, and subjects of interest to the Filene Co-operative Association (an organization consisting of all employees and members of the corporation, each member having a single vote) such as pensions, arbitration, compulsory insurance, co-operative housing, etc.
Perhaps it might also be well to add that this association has maintained a library of all the popular fiction for the past twelve years, and no fiction will be placed in the new business reference library.
The librarian is also custodian of all the private contracts, leases and corporation records, and is expected to prepare digests of any important papers at any time.