It has seemed to your committee that the general feeling, shared by the educational and industrial worlds, that methods are not always efficiently adjusted to aims should find some place also in the library. We are spending large sums of public money, and investigations by "economy committees," "efficiency bureaus" and the like are taking place all around us. It will be well for us to take a step in advance of these and get for ourselves some sort of a birds-eye view of our work, from the standpoint of its possible lack of complete efficiency—adaptation of end to aim. In order to do this we must first have a survey, which we conceive to involve in this case a statement of just what libraries are trying to do and just how, in some minuteness of detail, they are trying to do it. Comparison and discussion of methods will naturally follow later.

The method of taking up this matter was suggested by some very preliminary work done in the St. Louis public library. The head of each of the various branches and departments was asked to make a detailed written list of the various operations performed by the assistants in that particular department, dividing them into purely mechanical acts and those involving some thought or judgment. This in itself proved to be an interesting task and both information and stimulation resulted from it. Certain operations, common to the largest number of kinds of work, were then selected and tests were made, involving both speed of performance and efficiency of result. From a large number of such tests it is expected that some standardization of operations may result, or at any rate the cutting out of useless details and the saving of time for needed extensions of work. The object of an investigation of this kind is of course not to discover ways of making assistants work harder and faster but to find out whether the same amount of work, or more of it, may not be done with less effort.

To extend this bit of experimental work, which has not progressed beyond its first steps, to all the libraries of the United States is of course impossible without modification. Your committee has not the machinery to handle detailed lists of operations from thousands of different libraries. Fortunately it is easy to select operations that are common to very large numbers of libraries of divers sizes and kinds and in all parts of the country. As examples of such operations, and as a small beginning, we selected those of accessioning, charging and discharging, and counting issue. Even with a narrowing of the field to two operations, however, it was impossible to investigate these in all our libraries, or even in a large number. After a discussion by correspondence, revealing some difference of opinion, we decided to select about twenty-five libraries, as representative as possible of different sizes, different institutions and different localities. The list as finally made up was as follows:—

To the librarians of each of these libraries was then sent the following letter:—

To the Librarian:—

The Committee on Library Administration of the A. L. A. is beginning a survey of simple operations common to all sorts of libraries, especially with a view to finding out whether there is much diversity of detail in them, and ultimately of noting particular methods that seem likely to result in time-saving or in better results. For the moment, however, a mere survey, involving a detailed description of the method of performing certain kinds of work is all that is aimed at. The Committee has selected 26 libraries of very different sizes and types, and yours is one of these. If you are willing to co-operate, will you kindly send at once to the chairman a description, in as minute detail as possible, of the following operations:

Please describe each step of these operations seriatim and in detail, not omitting such as are purely mechanical, and noting points where different assistants would be apt to act in different ways. A description of the operation of accessioning in the New York public library (Reference department) is enclosed as a sample.

If you can not do this, please notify us immediately, that another library may be put on the list in your place.

Yours truly,

ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, Chairman,
HARRY M. LYDENBERG,
ETHEL F. McCOLLOUGH,

A. L. A. Com. on Administration.